Anyone just started, or about to start, BLW? Care to join me?

[Jojay]

DS2 is 27 weeks and from last week, is now joining us a mealtimes.

I tried spoonfeeding for a few days but he didn't seem keen, so I tried him with some roasted veg and he was well away. So BLW it is for us.

But I did purees for DS1 2 years ago, so BLW is new to me.

So far he's had roasted sweet potato, carrot, aubergine, courgette, sweet pepper, some lightly steamed apple and pear, banana, mango, and a chip.

When I say 'had' I mean I've offered it to him. Some probably went straight on the floor, but I've found some lumps in his nappy, so some is definitely going in.

The mango was the biggest hit - he loved it!

So tell me what you're doing and how it's going...........

Belle the only BF we have dropped is the 5pm one which was a really short one anyway - this is when he has dinner instead. I have the GF weaning book as I am a GF CLBB follower (I was wondering if any other BLW-ers are GF-ers too, or is this too wierd ??) but its far too boring and prescriptive for me (I needed prescriptive when it comes to naps though ). I think some of her advice is good but when I tried dropping a milk feed already DS woke up in the night so we ignored that!

So are any BLW babies sleeping 12 hours yet (I mean that weren't sleeping 12 hours before you started weaning?) DS sleeps 7-7 with a dream feed at 11 - although 2/3 nights a week he still likes a 4 or 5am feed . I'm just wondering if anyone has managed to cut out any night feeds since weaning?

Still no swallowing today. The big favourites so far are rice cakes and breadsticks. Tried mango for breakfast but she wouldn't hold on to it (too wet and slippery!)
Can someone make some reassuring noises that I am doing the right thing?
I keep thinking perhaps I am doing this for my own entertainment, rather than all the good reasons discussed here and in Gill Rapley's book!

pookamoo lots of swallowing here but thats cause DS has regressed and prefers me feeding him . He does still like feeding himself with the spoon sometimes though! He's a temperamental little bugger darling.

Pea soup (with peas from the local farmers market lovingly shelled by me!) and philly on toast for dinner. I enjoyed it a lot

Hi all - we've been away camping for a few days. Lots of alfresco eating, so not too much clearing up for me!

DS2 was happy being mostly spoonfed while we were away but today he was in an very independent mood. I made DS1 a cheese sandwich which he turned his nose up at so I gave it to Ds2 - he loved it! it was quite chunky bread maker bread, but I cut it into manageable pieces and he had a whale of a time. He then had some fusilli pasta with veggie sauce and he definitely ate proper bits of pasta, not loads but a bit went in - I was so chuffed.

Some must have gone in as he went from 1.30 pm till bedtime with no breast feed (though he did have 2 oz of formula from a cup after his food)- another first for us.

As for sleeping 12 hours Chocorange I'd be pleased with half that! He did 'sleep through' one day last week - that's from 10.30 pm dreamfeed till 6.15 am - and that was our best night ever, sadly not to be repeated though. Still, it gives me hope that it is possible, and one day, one day, it might be a regular occurrence

Sympathies pookamoo - it can be hard to keep the faith sometimes. How old is your lo now? Have you tried giving her some really soft food that's easier to eat? Like mashed potato or risotto? It gets VERY messy but I was suprised how much Ds managed to shovel in and he definitely found it easier to eat and swallow than 'finger food'

Glad your man is doing so well Rachie

She's 6 months + 2 weeks. We tried with the baby food from the dreaded Bounty pack, as well as mashed banana... she doesn't seem to like the texture on her hands, but then refuses the spoon if I try to spoon feed her. I suppose it will just take time.

She's still very young then. Mine is 7 months and a week and I'd say today was the first time he'd actually taken a bite and swallowed, though he doesn manage to eat mushier food.

DD is 6.5 months and she enjoys cold porridge. I make it as usual but without salt and a few raisins in then put it in one of those plastic boxes in the fridge to cool and slice it into chunks -(yesterday I split a vanilla pod and put that in too cos I always end up eating some and it's usually pretty boring ) Because it sets reasonably hard she can pick it up but it also falls apart easily when she sucks on it so she can swallow it. Mind you, DD has no trouble swallowing, she makes half a bagel disappear without too much effort (an awful lot of mess though!!) As long as she likes the food some of it goes down. It must fill her up too cos she's pretty much dropped her 10am feed, she barely tries now (I'd far rather she dropped her 2am, argh!!)
I found DD couldn't handle mashed potato, she enjoyed squidging it through her fingers but I ended up with a spoon to try and get some in. She's not the biggest fan of pasta either. I think you have to keep trying things, she'll find something she loves and it'll get hoovered up with lots of giggling and arm waving!!

Hello all!

DS had his first curry for lunch today - leftover lamb massamum curry (its a Thai one) with sticky rice - sticky rice was great for moulding into rice fingers. The lamb was really tough as I reheated it in the microwave but that didn't stop him chewing away on a huge chunk for about half an hour while baby corn, rice, brocolli and then mango yoghurt were also eaten around the chunk of lamb - which he finally swallowed!!

The mango yoghurt was the Rachels Organic make - baby firsts or something and twas yummy, its the first thing DS has really gone wild for.

DD had cheese for the first time, hadn't thought of trying it but she seemed to like it. Just changed a nappy full of chunks of carrot, green beans, courgette, banana 'worms' and raisins - it's a proud moment!

chocorange05 DD BLW for a month now and she has just recently started to sleep through more often than not, we get a good 11 hours. Still takes a while to get her to sleep though but that is a separate battle to do with me BF her to sleep and general reluntance to do CC till desperate! We also have an issue with daytime naps.... Anyway, also had first solid poo, so amidst the mess, she is swallowing something! I am well impressed with the curry!
pookamoo I've found BLW takes a while to get into but its fun! Babies go onto finger food at some point anyway, this way we miss out the purees and mashing. Its real food, tastes and textures. Me and DP love our food and we want DD to have that same love, not follwing a presription of purees dictated by somebody else. I'm surprised more people don't do it. I love watching DD pick up food and happily munch or pull faces and drop it over the side of her chair. Somebody suggested keeping skin on slippery fruit as they manage to work out which bits to eat but I have not tried it yet. Keep it up, its worth it!

DS's poos are semi hard now - and lots of them, he used to do one every 3-4 days, yesterday he did 3 in a day!!

Well - we have a mini mexican wave due to baby Choco today - drumroll..... he slept from 7pm - 7am without so much as a peep!!!!! We decided (after he refused his dreamfeed on tuesday night although still woke up shouting between 3-4am, but again didn't feed) to drop the dreamfeed and try not to feed him in the night. But he didn't even wake up!! It might only be a one off, as he's always been inconsistent, but its a celebrated 7 month birthday present from him to me.

I don't know if yoghurt has made the difference at all as he has been having one rachels organic pot a day (split between breakfast and lunch) and I think that's the equivalent to 4oz milk??

[hooray for baby Choco!!] Awesome sleep, am a bit ...in fact am very !! I really hope he makes this a habit!

I really hope so too!! Although I'm not sure he will, he's always been inconsistent with his sleep but tonight we'll see!

I made DS a potato, cauliflower and broadbean soup for dinner with toast dippers - went down quite well despite the initial face.

Does anyone have a recipe for cauliflower cheese? I've never made it but thought it might make a nice lunch - tastier than cauliflower on its own!!

Well done on the sleep chocOrange05 long may it continue! I think protein dinners make a difference, fills them up! cauliflower cheese:
I make an easy cheese sauce by mixing some cornflour, say a tablespoon, with a little milk, add to a quantity of milk, depending on how mucy suace you want to make, say half pint, bring to the heat and simmer till thickens. Add grated cheese, white pepper and some butter and mustard, all to your taste, (small amounts of mustard at first!) You can thicken the suace with more of the cornflour / milk mixture or thin it out with more milk. Poor onto the cooked cauliflower and top with grated cheese/breadcrumbs and pop under the grill until golden and bubbling!
I guess you could just top a cooked cauli with grated cheese and pop under the grill, then it would be a gratin?
Had not thought of soup with dippers but will have a go at that too, cheers!

Thanks spagbol I am going to get cooking this weekend, i've been really lazy and just giving DS easy stuff to make on the day, leftovers or eggs and toast - I want to actually do some cooking for him. I also want to make macaroni cheese this weekend as I like it and I'm sure DS will.

Hi all

Been away for a couple of weeks hope people remember me

A has been great, but am struggling for healthy BLW ideas.

Just bookmarking will catch up and be back on shortly!

I made DS potato, cauliflower and broad bean soup for dinner and fried some french bread in olive oil to make home made croutons - he seemed to like it as he polished it all off!

He also like my Fab ice lolly this afternoon .

Hi all, been away from the computer for a bit. Great to catch up on how everyone's getting on with blw - all's going very well here.

DD's just demolished a whole strawberry including stalk and a rice cake with philadelphia. She's had all these things before but now has come out in a rash on her face, chest and tummy. Thinking it might be the strawberry. Should i avoid offering her any for a while? Would be a shame as they seem to be her favourite.

Have been inspired by chocorange's soup, might have to try making some for dd and dh (i'm a soup hater myself, but am keen for her to enjoy it!) Bit nervous about giving her cauliflower as she seemed to get very windy when i had some a while back so have been avoiding it myself. Suppose i'll just have to try and see.

no posts for ages then i do two within an hour! Just had to share my excitement with someone - DD's just done her first semi-solid poo (they've been breastfed poos with lumps of food for a little while now). It even smelt like poo! I'm sure once my excitement wears off i will start missing those sweet-smelling poos though!

Ok so this doesn't have much to do with BLW but DD just looked up at my dad and did the 'eat' sign She did the milk sign last week, hee hee, sorry to completely hijack, I'm sooo excited (she might never do it again mind you!!) [quickly tries to make it weaning related..ah yes] I gave her a biscuit (does that count?)

what is the eat sign Chulita?

oh that is exciting. I really wish we'd done baby signing. Is it too late to start, or would it be worth looking into it do you think?

Off topic yet on top question. ChocOrange do you remove the pods from the Broad Beans before liquidising or can they stay on?

[hate removing pods from Broad Beans]

We've been away for a few days and DD has been trying lots of things at my mum's.
Strawberries still a firm favourite and she is handling them herself properly now. Found a few seeds in her nappy hurrah ! So she must be swallowing things.