Well on saturday we start BLW: feedback please

[oldnewmummy]

DS is 6 months tomorrow, so planning to start BLW on Saturday.

He's adopted so we have no way of knowing about genetic food allergies, so want to be a bit careful but not paranoid. The "give 'em the same puree 3 days running to see if there's a reaction" stuff is not appealing.

How does the following look for the first week? Please feel free to be critical. Weds and Thu dinners will be prepared by Daddy, so need to be quite simple.

Saturday

Lunch: banana

Dinner: broccoli, melon

Sunday:

Lunch: toast with cream cheese

Dinner: carrots, papaya

Monday:

Lunch: toast with tuna

Dinner: mange tout, pear

Tuesday:

Lunch: baked potato with cheese

Dinner: salmon pie (i.e. salmon and mashed potato formed into balls for him)

Wednesday:

Lunch: banana, yogurt

Dinner: cheese on toast

Thursday:

Lunch: Sardines on toast

Dinner: baked potato with cheese

Friday:

Lunch: Toast fingers with cream cheese

Dinner: carrots and cucumber with dips

I read the guidelines on Aitch's blog re when to introduce e.g. meat, eggs, pasta, tomato, but a lot of you seem to have introduced earlier. Since we eat a lot of pasta, it would be good to get him onto that and tomatoes fairly quickly (being a fearless/reckless mummy it will be ADULT pasta . And when can I introduce shreddies, weetabix etc?

I think some of you give fruit with skin. Should I wait till he's a bit older for that in case of choking?

Do I feed him his usual milk or cut down?

Very exciting, but if he chokes to death or his internal organs are damaged, my mum will say "I told you so"

Hi ONM

How exciting!

I haven't much time, but just wanted to add a few comments, based on my own experience:

• you've included quite a lot of dairy stuff and bananas in your menu - I would go a bit easy on that just in case of allergies (my dd1 has allergies to both and that's quite common).
• be prepared for him not to eat very much at all. Both of mine were happy to try things, but didn't really eat in any great quantities until they were 8 or 9 months old. Milk is the most important thing right now.

Bearing in mind the above, when we weaned dd2 we kept it very low-key. We offered her bits of what we were eating anyway (so no food was wasted if she wasn't hungry) and for the first month or so she ate mainly fruit and veg, very plain stuff, but quite a variety of that. She did have a gnaw of a lamb bone though, which she loved.

It was all very easy. Don't go to too much trouble preparing food in the early days - it's heartbreaking when they chuck it on the floor!

Right, must run, will write more when I can!

This is just my opinion, so feel free (of course!) to ignore me! Remembering that you are listening to a woman who's Neglected Second Born's first solid food was a roast potato dipped in red wine gravy
Milk should be thier main source of nourishment til 12 months or so, so don't cut down. He may take a bt less if he's eating lots, but leave that to him.
He will probably eat very little at the beginning, so only prepare tiny amounts - you can always make more, and I found it soul destroying to have to throw away lots of good food if I got it wrong! Or cook yourself something you like and share it with him. Most of your meals look as if you could do this. Good for him to eat with someone too - they get the idea much quicker then. Beware being a left-over-hoover-upper though -I put on weight at thise stage both times!

Mine had pasta shapes very early - easy to eat, cheap and, like you we eat a lot of it , so it suited us.

2 other thoughts. Might it be a bit early for raw carrots? Might he need to know more about chewing first?

And I wonder whether in terms of allery awareness, there might be a bit too much variety? Somebody who knows more than me will I'm sure be along soon!.
Have Fun!

Thanks for the comments so far.

Was going to cook the carrots for him (but not us - bizarrely I love raw carrots but can't stand them cooked.

As you say, not sure about the allergies and variety. Didn't know that about bananas.

HOw early is early re pasta?

i would bear in mind that he may well just play with it all for the first couple of weeks even, i wouldn't bother too much making anything special tbh.
not sure, i haven't weaned yet but mange tout might be a bit difficult?

i think pasta is fine straight away?

As welliemum said don't go to too much trouble prearing food, as it is true that they wont eat much & it will end up all over the floor.
To save time I steamed a load of broccoli & carrot sticks & then put them in mixed small batches in the freezer. when needed I just took a bag out opened it, put broc & carrots in a bowl,& then poured boiling water over to defrost them. I also had small pots of pasta in sauce in the freezer too.

I'm not an expert but I think you almost have too much variety going on for week one.

Once you find a food he likes, he might want it next time - it's good to have some established favourites rather than constant variety so early on.

Also agree with the dairy - maybe too much cheese in there for week one?

Have fun - big fans of BLW here, having done 'traditional' weaning once and BLW this time round, we're enjoying this far more and having a fair bit of success.

wouldn't bother with the dips yet either - let he get used to the tastes of the carrot etc first.

Have fun! Let us know how it goes

Thanks everyone so far, and feel free to be frank.

Those of you who've said too much variety are probably right - I've been worrying about him getting bored but he's had nothing but milk for 6 months!

I've obviously misunderstood what BLW is. I thought it was about allowing the baby to eat suitable for his/her age food from family meals.

i think LL did much the same as we did, by the sounds of things. we kept it pretty fruit and veg for the first fortnight or so, then gave her some crusts of bread and then later on meat and fish. it did mean that her father and i were eating rather more steamed carrot than we'd been accustomed to, that's for sure.

It's lovely that you're thinking of going to so much effort, but tbh some babies take a while to get the hang of it so you might be doing it all for it to be mushed into his hair. which is fine, by the way, because it's exploratory play and getting used to food.

obviously if you're having tuna and baked potato, then cut him a bit of potato and see how he likes it, but other than that the only 'meals' i created expecially for dd were some bits of veg that i froze like twyla.

Peaches are in season at the mo, as are apricots etc, i'd go for seasonal fruit and veg first and take it from there. i wasn't cautious about allergies myself but i can see why you would need to be, so take it slowly. even if he only eats carrots and milk every day for the next month you'll still have doubled the variety of food he's eating.

Aitch, of course I did the same as you, I bloody copied you woman!

oops

LOL! right enough.

I'd agree with everyone else really, just keep it simple. Until she was 11 months or so dd mostly just had a bit off my plate. she didn't really eat so i didn't bother to cook stuff seperately for her.
Um, i'd just say to avoid conversations about "my dc eats so many cubes/x amount of a jar" like the plague, at least in the beginning as they have a tendancy to make you feel like shite and think "but my dc hardly eats anything!"
Once your LO starts tucking in it's good to seek out those same conversations as you get to feel good while other mums are having problems introducing lumps or a variety of foods
Don't get disheartened either, it can take aaaages for some babies to start to eat. My dd has only just started at 13 months, and still has a small appetite. Thankfully i have an understanding family and also (miracles!) HV who have never pushed me to feed dd the puree way (i think that is partly because they saw she refused to eat from a spoon anyway but you still seem to get some people telling you to cut out their milk "they'll eat if they are hungry enough")

i did it by passing dd some fruit while i ate my lunch or tea. then i gradually progressed to passing her bits of what i was having ie piece of toast, sunday roast bits, piece of fish out of a fish pie. i did it that way rather than specifically planning what she'd have day to day.