How EXACTLY do you do BLW?

[Liz79]

Its a bit early for us yet but I want to be prepared. How do you do it? Have looked at BLw blog but I need instructions, can I get a book? What do I start DD on? I imagine sitting her in high chair with selection of chip shaped things such as boiled potato, half cooked carrot stick, pepper, cucumber, pear, melon, cheese. What about pasta? Any particular shape to use/avoid? What do I put on the pasta? Could her first food really be toast? What do you put on the toast?

What should you not give them? when can you give sloppy food such as yogurt, do you do the spoon or do they?

Some people describe it as table scraps! It's kind of what you described - to start with just fairly softish steamed or roasted veg, say carrot, sweet potato, squash, broccoli - which they muck about with, rub into hair, etc. And then some goes in, and they may gag a bit - dd puked when gagging on banana. Which was pretty. After a bit they get the hang of it, and you just really give them bits of what you're having, minus salt where possible.

Pasta - good shapes for holding are spirali and fusilli. Yoghurt - well, you can load a spoon and let her grab it, or put a bowl in front of her and let her stick her hands in. Messy, but fun.

Toast - butter, hummus, philly, mashed roasted veg.

Have you registered on the BLW forum on the blog?

Oh - don't give nuts, whole grapes, whole cherry tomatoes. Useful rule of thumb is to only let them have what they can pick up, so no raisins, etc until they've developed a pincer grip.

No I haven't registered on the forum, just had a look on the blog but found it a bit "chatty" and not very clear, thats why I would like a book - with nice instructions. Was going to do it using Anabel Karmel planner, which states explicitly what to do at each meal time, but like the idea of BLW. How many meals/day at first? Plan to start the day she is 6 months. Would fusilli not be too small to bite but too big to be swallowed? Can you put pesto on it or just normal ragu type stuff (homemade)? Bigger pasta rather than small?

Thanks!

Hi Liz
DS has finger foods - the same sorts of things as we are eating - and loves them. His faves are fingers of philly cheese on toast and eggy bread, also yorkshire pudding, and veggies, raw or cooked. I feed him yoghurt as we only have space to eat in our living room, and I'm not prepared to have yoghurt over all the furniture at the moment! He seems very happy with this arrangement.... We also got a mesh feeder, which really helps with slippery fruit like bananas and melon - they kept slipping out of his hands, and he was getting frustrated.
I love BLW, as it means we can all eat together, and I don't have to faff making purees.
Hope you get on ok!

I offer DS2 (9mo) bits of whatever we are eating (not honey, nuts, raisins, whole grapes etc). Just remember to keep an eye on the salt content.

For example, last night he ate Jubilee chicken curry with rice, and tonight he had salmon stir fry with noodles (fish and veggies were eaten, noodles quickly deposited on the floor).

If we are eating something that isn't suitable for him, I roast him some veggies instead (he loves roast carrots and parsnips).

I do offer some foods on a spoon.

Just try to keep in mind (as you watch all the food offered go on the floor/face/walls etc that it is about new flavours and textures at the moment - quantity doesn't matter as milk should be the main source of nutrition.

I find the BLW pages a bit of a muddle too - but it is worth spending time having a good look, and the recipe suggestions are very helpful too.

If you must refer to AK about food, have a look at her Family Recipe book. Be warned she does suggest using lots of ingredients and pots and pans in some recipes (I avoid those ones ). I use a few of her recipes regularly.

Although it's chatty they will turn to serious threads too, so feel free to ask anything.

It's supposed to be fairly relaxed, watching your LO and following what they're doing.

Start with stick shaped (ish) foods that can be held in a fist and stick out as baby won't open her fist to start with. You can give anything, if you want to start it plain or if you want to dive straight in with more normal foods. There is a picture of one LOs first meal of spagbol!

I'm very into the idea that they should only eat what they can do for themself, I believe (what I was told by the HV and MW) that it protects them from eating something they're not ready for. I don't think there's anything that if it can't be adapted for little fingers can't wait till later. Remember this is about fun and experience so there's no need to push foods they're not ready for.

Offer one meal the first day, if that goes down well then offer something at the other meals OR you can give something at each meal so that she's distracted while you eat. Only thing you really need to watch for and that's that you milk feed about an hour before solids. It means she's not so hungry she gets fed up and not so full that she doesn't want to try.

I am a huge fan of BLW. Life is so much easier when you don't faff around with mashing things and I think babies find it pretty exciting.

It is surprising what babies can chew, even with no teeth. Mine managed chunks of chicken without any trouble at about 8m - the gums at the back are quite hard before the teeth come through

A key thing is I think to recognise the difference between gagging and choking. There will inevitably be times when a baby gags on a piece of food but they seem remarkably adept at bringing it back up and seem completely unfazed by it. The BLW experts believe that children fed chunks of food from the start are less likely to choke than babies fed normal baby food

the whole thing with blw is there is no need for a book (though there is one coming out in november) because there are no timtables or big rules as such. this can seem strange if you were expecting to wean AK style. you have to think that AK and the others make a living from making weaning seem complex and requiring books, merchandise, special foods etc. blw makes it simple. maybe it seems too simple. but like the others said, think of it as table scraps. and no one's going to make money from table scraps

thanks everyone, I have bought a doidy cup today and one of those mesh feeders (mostly as we're away from home and I saw it in a shop and haven't seen them at home, only online). Will ponder on what to give as first meal!

I'd be careful using a mesh feeder as they can make the pieces too small which is a choking risk.

On the day that you do the first meal just give something of what you're having, as simple as that.

TinkerbellesMum - my ds has a mesh feeder - it's very small mesh so he can gum it and get juice/mash out (for melon/banana), but I don't think it would let small pieces thru. perhaps it depends on the type of feeder you have? Mine is a munchkin. It's so useful as DS can't get frustrated when the slippery fruit slips out of his hands (of course, he now just gets frustrated when he drops it on the floor....)

I never tried any of them because I wasn't that keen on them and don't think they fit in with the idea of they're not ready if they can't do it. There was a discussion on the Yahoo Group about them and on the whole everyone agreed that they don't like them.

I think a mesh feeder takes away from the whole point of BLW - as the baby should be able to FEEL the texture of the food (and play with it) as well as tasting it.

Using a mesh feeder means the baby will be eating puree by the time they've sucked it through the mesh, so there's no difference between using one of those and a jar of baby slop surely?

My ds (now 2.10)followed the 'traditional' weaning stuff but dd (now 13 months) was having none of it. We basically gave her what we were eating and she has honestly only gagged twice in 7 months on food. Forget the mesh feeder IMO. She had all types of fruit and vegetable roasted, boiled or steamed, cut into handy sizes (if needed). As she got a bit bigger I bought the book 'Finger Food for Babies and Toddlers' by Jennie Maizels from Amazon. It is great for ideas for BLW. The in-laws were quite shocked I was letting her munch on broccoli stems at the age of 7 months but she now eats so well, I know I was right to follow her lead. Enjoy!

Oh and its SO much easier than having to mash/process food and freeze it in ice cube trays!!!!!!

nah, a mesh feeder misses the point of BLW entirely. tbh looking for a method other than 'give 'em chip-shaped stuff/let 'em have a shot on your dinner' also kinda misses the point... it's just food.

if you do register on the forum you'll see that everyone does slightly different things, following their baby's cues rather than a plan on a book. that's the whole point of BLW it seems to me.

I've done blw with 2 or my 3 children

my ds2 can eat a pear fine without mesh feeder, but with it I don't have to keep catching pear as it slips away.

I think maybe using one all the time might detract from the blw ethos but there are some situations where for me it's been a godsend.how many people dissing them have actually used one?

so long as they get varied food for tastes textures etc is it such a bad thing to use something to help once in a while?
he gets to use it as a teether too.

wrt pasta - I find tubes stuffed with bits like philly cheese, mince etc great - like mini canneloni for beginners!

I also around 6/7 months sat dd & ds2 on my lap while I ate - then just let them grab what they wanted to eat off my plate -

& I love an idea I saw on another thread by james&thegiantbanana I think, of baby led cleaning - giving a warm damp flannel for LO to chew on & then face hands etc get cleaned with minimal fuss!

I did BLW with DS3 and it has been so much easier than the traditional way I did with DS1 and 2. I honestly hardly ever thought about it - the first things he had were cucmber and a bit of baguette - just because that's what was on the table at the time.

I think the good thing about BLW is that there aren't any rules - I just give him whatever the others are having.

no, bogwoppit, i don't think it's a bad thing as a tool iykwim, but it's not something to start off with. actually i did have one (bought before i heard of blw) and it melted in the dishwasher before i got a chance to try it.

how do you get pear stains out, btw, i stopped giving dd pear until she was more proficient as we lost a fair few items of clothing. how can pear go black??!!

actually, teh one place i thought i might use it was in the car as although dd didn't choke i did think that if she did, in the car, there'd be nothing i could do about it. as it was, however, i soon realised the folly of Any Food in the car and soon stopped it.

dd2 has been blw-ing for two weeks now. Tonight she had Sunday lunch blw style -

1. Throw a bit of everything on her high chair tray, lots of nice big chunky bits plus smaller things like peas and sweetcorn for her to play pincer gripping with.
2. Enjoy family meal
3. Occasionally throw more bits onto her tray
4. Take lots of photos cos it looks so funny
5. Remove dd2 from chair and send in the labra-dustbins.

Fantastic system

wriggle, are you the person whose dd1 had the pic of the corn on the cob? that is still my favourite photo EVER.

Ds just started this week, gave him some peas and he was appalled and threw them plate and all!. cut some grapes into quarters, loved them, sticks of cucumber, half a banana he gummed to death (what a mess) carrot sticks and roast potatos.

thats the word I needed Aitch - a tool.

it's a tool that can be used if you feel apprpriate to your needs -
we found a need when ds2 got frustrated by food slipping from his hand, not because he couldn't cope with it, but just because of the nature of the fruit. - my dd(3yrs) still finds pears slip from her if they are very juicy.(never had a prob with stains or maybe we just have a grubby look that I hadn't noticed!))
much the same as some people will want to use a sippy cup to save on spills, but others will just go for a normal cup/doidy cup & not care about a bit of spilt water.

I'm all for an easy life - hence the blw - much less faff then the pureeing & spoon feeding I did with ds1. & he's the worst & fussiest eater out of them all!