signs of readiness?

[noolia]

I'm getting quite keen on the idea of blw but i'm really anxious about dd choking. I know it's been done before but any advice?

Secondly what counts as sitting as a readiness sign? DD can sit briefly but topples over as soon as she tries to look around. I was determined to wait till 26 weeks but dd is very interested in food - grabbing it and getting cross when we eat. I'm sure she just feels left out rather than hungry, but is 24 weeks too early to let her have a bit of brocoli to play with?

Choking is very rare but you are right to be concerned and not want it to happen. It's a good idea to familiarise yourself with what to do with a choking baby - see NHS Direct website probably? However, most babies gag which is completely different (they are still breathing) - which you need to recognise as different to choking: this should help. All the time I've read about people discussing experiences of BLW, I've never read about any baby they know actually choking. Plus there's every chance babies could choke whilst eating purees too.

Readiness sign is sitting up unaided, loss of tongue thrust (but I could never really work out what that meant), and then the biggest sign is that they can pick something up, put it in their mouth, chew and swallow. 24 weeks is probably fine to let her have a bit of broccoli - she'll show you when she's ready to take a bit herself - and 'playing' with it is the best way she can learn about food - it's all about fun with food. My DS didn't seem that interested in food so I waited until 6 months (26 weeks) to start but if your daughter is showing interest then there's no harm in starting.

DD is very interested in my car keys, but I'm not planning to let her drive any time soon...

Seriously, so long as you don't put anything in her mouth for her it won't hurt to let her have some broccoli to play with at 24 weeks. It's likely to be a while before she manages to swallow anything, and if she does manage it then chances are she's ready anyway.

DS is 22 weeks old and in the last week, I've had him sitting on my lap twice during supper when we've had broccoli, and have put a floret on the table which he (eventually!) picked up and put to his mouth, sort of licked it, looked at it, and generally just repeated that and enjoyed fiddling with it until he dropped about 2 minutes later. Certainly nothing was eaten. (I just put it in front of him as was curious as to what he would do).

I'm sure I read somewhere that Gill Rapley said that in theory you can start BLW at any age seeing as it's up to the baby to pick the food up and bring it to their mouth, so a 4 month-old, for example, probably wouldn't be able to put the food in their mouth (if that makes sense, am simultaneously cooking supper and mnetting ). But I may just have dreamed that and it could be wrong.

(I still haven't worked out the tongue thrust thing either - am going on the theory that if they can then they are ready).