BLW advice for a total newbie

[Littlefoxy]

My LO is 5 months and we've started to look into weaning options and we're completely confused by it all. We like the sound of BLW but not sure how it all works. We've read that you should only give vegetables to begin with, no dairy, meat etc. But we've read on BLW websites that they'd given baby whatever they were eating so do some people dispute the veg only advice? Do you start on certain foods? We'd like to avoid giving LO anything sweet until she's eating her greens so avoiding fruit & veg like sweet potato. Is that possible with BLW or will I have excluded most of the common first foods? Also can I give her mashed potato, hummous, Dahl etc (home made no salt) or is runny consistency food going against BLW? So many questions!

Anyway, she's now 6, in fabulous health and has a fabulous love of flavour and good food, so.......

Thank you fat a voice of reason! I think different people use the term BLW differently which just makes it confusing. According to baby led weaning website it just means that baby self feeds, no directive to offer baby everything you're eating yourself, as you've said. Although where that's possible I can see it would be easier & nicer for LO. Actually we don't eat meat or nuts so LO will be better off not restricted to only what her parents eat. I've asked to speak with health visitor for advice on foods to moderate/exclude.

I didn't give absolutely everything I ate to DS as there were definitely some things I didn't feel were suitable. But there's a big difference between avoiding takeaways/junk food etc and avoiding fruit and sweeter veg initially. The latter does seem excessive to me. Eating a rainbow of fruit and veg is a good idea nutritionally and the red/orange end of that spectrum are nearly always fruits and sweeter veg.

I don't eat meat either, but the rest of my family does. I did wonder whether DD would take to it at all given she had none whilst inside me, but she does like white meat - she's not that fond of dark meats. Her most favourite thing is broccoli though, so maybe some of that did matter.

Olives are always high in salt because they aren't edible unless fermented in brine. It doesn't matter if the ice cream was organic or not, it is still a food that is high in sugar. And even award winning pubs don't make everything from scratch, sauces, gravy, desserts are often ready-made and contain additives etc. They also use more salt than you would at home.
Of course you aren't going to cause lasting harm if your 8 month old has an olive or some ice cream. But I don't see why they should be fed foods like this when there are many other things that adults also eat which are much more suitable.
I am insisting on this point because I don't think it's very responsible to tell a blw newbie they can give their baby literally anything. That's just not true.

Thanks fat this is the sort of advice I'm looking for. We've looked up NHS guidelines on salt and it looks very easy to exceed accidentally. Is supermarket bread okay or do people tend to make their own/buy low sodium? I had an questionable diet as a child and it's hugely important to us to give DD a healthy and fun diet. We won't be banning sweet veg & fruits just that I want her to get to know more savoury tastes first and that might only take a couple of weeks.

I generally followed the advice in the BLW cookbook re salt: Some foods are just too salty for under 1s and should be avoided really - takeaways, shop bought bakery items like pasties etc. Others are fairly high in salt - bread, cheese, ham, sausages etc - so just be aware and give in moderation. So a small cheese and ham sandwich plus some veg is better than a large sandwich. Balance a saltier meal/day out with a lower salt meal/day. So I wouldn't worry about giving supermarket bread as long as you're aware of the salt content.

I found this comment useful which I read somewhere: " If you're worrying about salt content, you don't need to." That's not to say it doesn't matter, but if you're reading labels, aware of what's salty, making most food so you know what's in it and can avoid adding salt to baby's portion, you've almost certainly got it covered!