Planning first week of BLW...

[Redling]

And I want to go at it fairly confidantly! 5 month DS has never had anything but milk and I am not planning to give him anything until 6 months and go straight to soft foods as the BLW book says. My plan was to start with
Stick of steamed carrot
Steamed broccoli floret
Small pieces of chicken breast

Does this sound ok? In people's experiences should you offer food once a day to start or can you offer two meals if the baby is over 6 months? I was then planning on some breakfast of cut up crumpets, cucumber, and some cheese through the first week. Maybe thick porridge and scrambled egg or omlette cut into strips. I'll be having it too. Then a taste of some casserole like pork or beef in the evening?

I am excited to begin but it is hard to shake off the feeling that i should be pureeing something :) what were your BLW first meals and how did they go? I hope to have him mainly on what we eat quickly (although as husband gets in late he's going to have to have his own dinner on week nights) but want to give him a range of bits to start with.

www.unicef.org.uk/BabyFriendly/News-and-Research/News/UNICEF-UK-Baby-Friendly-Initiative-Statement-on-vitamin-D-supplementation-for-breastfed-babies/

UK Unicef guildlines (same as NICE advice too) on Vitamin D supplementation advise that pregnant and lactating women take a vitamin D supplement of 10 micrograms (or 400 units) daily.

Healthy breastfed babies born to mothers who have followed this recommendation should receive a vitamin D supplement from six months of age (as part of a multivitamin supplement). However, if the mother’s vitamin D status in pregnancy is uncertain, or if she falls into one of the risk groups, vitamin D supplements for mother and baby should be started soon after birth.

That article says "Not breastfeeding contributes to infant mortality..." which I'm sure is a really nice thing for those who can't breastfeed to read.

The article is written by Unicef. I am not prepared to debate evidence based literature. They are the facts.

The NHS advice on vitamins is here.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/vitamins-for-children.aspx

Basically, vitamin supplements are advised for babies from 6 months unless they're having at least 500ml of formula per day. So breastfed babies are automatically included in those advised to supplement.

Cornish yes that's what my bf counsellor said. ?

Auntie in countries without clean water and modern kitchens poorly made formula may well be risky in a way that doesn't apply in the UK?

I gave up on trying to protect clothes and just stripped him to nappy every meal time. And I used a clean plastic tablecloth under the chair and a bib with a lip to catch stuff and then could just keep recycling everything back into the table / tray throughout the meal without tonnes of waste.

My other tip is that banana is very slippy for little fingers to hold so I rolled it in weetabix dust!!

For meat, Chicken thigh meat is brilliant as it is much easier to chew than breast meat.

If you can get hold of a crinkle cut chopper, it's great for making chips of stuff which are really easy to hold and gum. I got good at popping a few sticks of anything (Apple, carrot, pear, squash, sweet potato) in the microwave and steaming. Or roast big trays of mixed veg sticks with some herbs etc for extra flavour, freeze on baking tray then decant into freezer bags.

You sound like you have exactly the right enthusiasm and excitement for BLW so good luck and enjoy!

I'm not asking anyone to debate anything it's just a shit thing to write and if they meant it in the way squitza said they should've written that.

It's just strange I've seen several hcps in the past month and not one of them mentioned it and when me and another mother were taking to hv about weaning and asked about vitamins the HV said we didn't need to give them and there were two other hvs in the room listening. There may be a specific reason she said that so I'll check but having had unexplained severe anaemia requiring 4 transfusions after giving birth if anyone's milk would be deficient it would be mine.

JustTryEverything thanks for the crinkle cut tip :)

DS has had banana and some of my croissant this morning and spag bol last night though I recommend giving it just before bath time! He chewed the meat til the sauce was gone spat it out and opened his mouth for more!

I'm also rediscovering how some of these veg tastes raw like courgette and will give him stuff like this both raw and cooked. Though he did such a good job on the Apple the other day I don't think I need to cook it!

Thanks for all the tips, it's very helpful!

redling I don't recommend giving your ds some of your baguette crust... ds had some yesterday and enjoyed chewing it to mush but today he ended up with some of it stuck to the roof of his mouth which wasn't fun trying to get it out!

AuntieMaggie I'll keep that in mind :) he only wants me putting my fingers in his mouth if he decides he wants to munch them, so I'm not looking forward to checking his mouth for random food! I was so tempted to give him a bit of broccoli at Sunday lunch today but he's only 5 months tomorrow so noooooo. His 7 month cousin was munching on carrots in the highchair next to him, we were all eating and he was just looking around at us all kind of thinking 'but what do I do?!'

My DD did blw with our DGS - always a selection of the food we had laid out on his high chair tray. Favourite is still bolognese - we use penne - at first we pushed the sauce down the tube, and he sucked it out :) other big hits - stalks of broccoli and carrot , pear slices, cherry tomatoes , mozzarella, strawberries ( we have to limit those) , halved grapes -really anything he could hold easily in his hand. Its a joy to see him - now he's older (2.4) he sits at the table with a spoon and fork and eats everything just about!

JustTry thanks for the banana in Weetabix dust tip - have been pondering how I can make banana chunks less slippery for DS!