BLW, do I need a book?

[SleepyAlpaca]

I have a 4 and a half month old and am planning to do baby led weaning. My question is, do I need a book/ would a book be useful and if so any recommendations?

I'd get the recipe book - it's for most of the theory in it and also loads of good/basic recipes.

No. Cook healthy food for everyone in the family, and plonk some in front of the baby when you eat. Accept they will eat what they want. Don't think of things as children and adult food, and you'll do great.

If you really want to read something this web site has everything you need to know

www.babyledweaning.com

Otherwise save the money.

I mean to say buy another cookbook you fancy instead of a weaning one. They are a waste of money.

If you want to get the book get the recipe book - it's got all the theory you need!

I kind of disagree - but then I like a good book to leaf through and I felt bolstered by the theory when everyone else around me thought I was mental!

You do realise that a 4 month a baby is too young to be weaned. I'm assuming that you are thinking ahead? There are plenty on amazon with their own reviews.... have a look.

Pinterest ... boards with all the theory for both types of weaning, all the recipes/adapting adult foods to remove salt/honey/nuts etc. All free.
Brilliant time filler when sitting rocking/feeding etc.

Not so much a book, but consider a first aid course so you're confident in dealing with a choking incident?

(And yes, I KNOW babies doing BLW gag rather than choke, but anyone I know who's had a choking scare has been with fruit and veg, so I'd say it's worth doing if you're not pureeing stuff into oblivion)

No. I know babies like to eat books but to be honest, food is better for them.

I liked the book. Like littlesupersparks it was good for me to be able to talk about the theory to the sceptical DM and MIL Also, the BLW cookbook has some great family recipes in it. Two of my pureeing NCT friends have borrowed it once they moved on to texture.

I found the BLW cookbook great just for the introductory sections about gagging etc. We have coked some of the recipes too!

*COOKED some of the recipes

yes, planning ahead- aiming to get to 6 months before letting him loose! Had a look at amazon but think for the moment will try just winging it- fortunately family not that fussed so don't need too much theory to throw at people.
At the moment still struggling with sleep deprivation too much to be able to really think about cooking normal food- hope that improves in the next few weeks!

I'm a few weeks into BLW and found the book very helpful to get it clear in my head what I wanted to do, although when it comes down to it, it is just slinging food on his tray and seeing if he eats it! I found the section on first foods helpful so I knew I was giving him foods he could eat, little gums are hard but a couple of things such as melon have been sucked rather than chewed. We haven't managed to share many meals with him yet due to when DH gets in, when he wants breakfast etc but I've made some stews, meatballs etc and pasta dishes without salt and froze tiny bits for him before salting ours, then he gets it for lunch. Just gone to two meals a day. Massive hit with crumpets, easy to eat as they kind of flake into his mouth and I use them as s way of getting messier, wetter stuff into his mouth such as hoummous, cream cheese, butter and even banana. He sucks it all down! Also he loves spoon feeding himself so I can give him those pureed fruit pots and still call it BLW :)

Our local library had both the Gill Rapley BLW book and the associated BLW recipe book in stock when we were weaning DS1.

It may be worth checking to see if you can order them from your local library, then you can have a read and decide for yourself whether you want to pay for your own copy.