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...........

I got the 'My first signs' by Annie Kubler off ebay for next to nothing. It's a board book with the basic signs in it. We've been doing them for about 8 weeks and she's only just started doing them back. Apparently you can start as late as you like, 9 months is the best time but we were a bit keen. Even if your LO is 18 mths you can still start, they'll learn quicker!! (you can invent your own signs tho)
Nectarine season is great, DD polishes them off, I often have to get the skin out of her mouth cos it gets stuck in there (and I get bored of waiting for her to work out how to swallow it! )

great, i'm going to give the signing a go then.
I've got nectarines in my fruit and veg box this week so am looking forward to giving dd a go with them. Just waiting for them to get a little riper for her

belle I don't remove the outer part of the broadbean - far too lazy for that! And if you are liquidizing them for a soup then they wouldn't pose a choking risk IMO.

I have done some signing with DS but I always forget to do it - so far just doing "milk" and "food" - I need to do it properly I guess?

DS loves apricots and they are a great size for breakfast with some yoghurt.

DH and I went shopping with DS this afternoon and were still out at 5pm so we went to Carluccio's for DS's dinner - I ordered their vegetable soup which had pasta shells and beans in, and with some focaccia bread. He loved it. I think there was salt in it but I think if we eat out like that once in a while then its ok??

I have made beef stew for dinner - lots going in the freezer for DS. I'm finally starting to feel like a proper mum!

DD has taken to entertaining herself at dinner time and I don't like to stop her from doing that. It means she's missed a few meals, but hopefully it won't matter.

greensnail am with you. I kind of miss those sweet smelling buttery poos but once the first semi solid poo arrived, kind of look forward to seeing what the day's offering is.... I never thought I'd discuss with people the content of my DD'd nappy. One of the weird aspects of being a mother!

Hi everyone - I haven't been on for a bit ( isn't it a pain when reall life gets in the way of MNing ) but I'm glad to see it's going so well for everyone.

Greensnail - My Ds gets skin rashes from certain foods too. Raw tomato and eggs seem to be the main culprit. There doesn't seem to be any other symptoms though and they fade within half an hour or so, so I still give him those foods, but not every day.

Ds's dexterity seems to be really improving. He hasn't got his pincer grip yet but he's able to pick up fairly small chunks of soft food and he finds this much easier to chew and swallow than biting chunks of finger food off.

We've just had bread spread with Philly for lunch, cut into little squares about 1.5 cms (?) and he ate and swallowed loads! I then chopped a banana up into similar sized chunks and he ate lots of that too.

He manages to pick things up in his fist then uses the other hand to sort of shove them into his mouth - it's surprisingly effective.

No sleeping through the night here though - very jealous of those of you who get 12 hrs Ds won't take a bottle despite much perseverance, but he will take a bit from a weird cup / bottle thing that I got from the pound shop!

So my sleeping strategy has been to give him his usual breast feed at 10.30 pm, then if he wakes in the night, offer him formula in his cup instead of a breast feed.

The last couple of nights he's woken around 5 am and has only taken an ounce or so from the cup. But he doesn't go back to sleep straight away so there's been lots of to-ing and fro-ing from me trying to settle him back to sleep. This morning he finally went back to sleep at about 6.15 am, then slept till 8.30am! He wasn't starving when he woke and only took an ounce at 5 am so he's onviously not truly hungry and I think the waking is more habit than anything else.

I'm hoping that soon he'll realize it's not worth waking just for an ounce of formula, nad sleep through

He's eating plenty now and his poos are proper poos, so I don't feel bad about encouraging him to drop this feed, and hopefully we'll have it cracked soon

I was convinced dd would sleep better last night after polishing off a whole banana, (not a baby sized one either, a big one!) and a slice of peanut butter toast...but no, she still woke up 5 times. I'm convinced that sleep/waking has nothing to do with hunger or amount of food eaten.
Anyway, she's woken up so I'd better think of something to give her for lunch - I'm having a coffee and chocolate moment so deffo not sharing that
Anyone had any luck with risotto type food for little ones?

I also thought dd would sleep through last night as she'd eaten huge amounts at tea time(she sleeps through sometimes, but mostly is up once for a feed). However, she was awake at 3 and had a bf. I think it might have been my fault though as i'd checked on her about 5 times between midnight and then, as i was worrying she might be too hot. I get more sleep when she wakes up than if she sleeps through though, as when she's sleeping i often lie awake worrying whether she's ok. I need to try and get over this paranoia as i'm sure its affecting her sleeping. Really need to get her sleeping through soon too as i'm hoping to work nights when i go back to work, and that won't work if she still needs my boobs in the night!

She doesn't seem to have eaten much today, but i'm going to make shepherds pie for tea, so will see how she gets on with that. Could be very messy - wish we had a room that isn't carpeted!

Chulita - risotto goes down very well here. He has a go with his hands and I do spoon a bit in if he gets frustrated and hungry. But it's very easy for them to chew and swallow so I'm sure it'll go down well.

Greensnail - it's returning to work that's spurring me on too to get the nights cracked. I have to get up at 5.15 am to get to work so I won't have time for a morning feed and I could really do without night feeds. Ideally I want him to drop the dream feed too as if I have to stay up for this I'm not going to get enough sleep, but we'll see how it goes.

It's so hard isn't it!

Well the shepherds pie didn't go down too well here this evening. She was very happily munching on a little bit of mince while we waited for the rest to cool down, but once i put the rest on her high chair she grabbed one handful and managed a bit i think and then started getting really stressed. Thought she might be a bit frustrated that she couldn't easily get it into her mouth so tried loading a spoon for her (she won't let me spoon-feed her but is happy to take a loaded spoon to investigate herself). This worked a little better but still not a huge success. I think maybe she was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of food in front of her and the fact that it was all mixed up, not in seperate lumps of meat, veg etc. Will try giving her little bits of food at a time tomorrow and see how we go.

Jojay, luckily DD never got the concept of a dream feed so we don't have that one to get rid of, just the night feed, and then persuade her to take a bottle first thing in the morning before i get home (or wait until about 8.45 for her first feed). Luckily have a few months left to get this sorted, but really have to start working on it seriously

Does anyone elses DC not want to feed themselves anymore? My DS just looks at the food I put in front of him until I hold it to his mouth, then he lunges forward and chews. Usually towards the end of the meal he starts to pick things up or hold the spoon himself but its like he knows I am more efficient at getting it to him IYSWIM. So we are mainly spoon feeding now, although I try and hold the spoon to his mouth and let him eat off it rather than shove food in.

[Hmm], think I may have to be sacked from this thread??

Snap choco, if you're sacked we're sacked together. DD just holds her toast, drops it and looks at me, then when I pick it up she goes for my fingers rather than reach out for it like she used to. She's been eating a lot of porridge and not fighting for the spoon. I give her the spoon at the end so she can push porridge up her nose and flick it around the room but she's happy to be fed. IMO if they're as good as asking to be handfed it's still BLW [hopeful]

oh and the risotto question was a bit academic really, DH liked it so much he finished it off so I couldn't save any for DD!! I'll hide the leftovers next time...

I feel I have a BLL at the moment - Baby Led LIFE!!!

No-one gets sacked from this thread!

I admit to a bit of spoonfeeding from time to time but generally Ds2 is fiercely independent and much prefers to have a go on his own. Once he's had a good go for 10 mins or so, chucked most of it on the floor etc, he'll sometimes let me help him a bit but he makes it very clear if he doesn't want my help or has had enough.

I think we should invent our own 'brand' of weaning - 'BLWWSS' Baby led weaning with spoons sometimes We could write a book and everything...........

It's funny how Ds2 is so independent whereas Ds1 (2.6) will sit there in front of his food saying 'Mummy do it,' lazy monkey!

I wonder who the baby is sometimes LOL

Ds2 (and ds1 for that matter)had an omelette for lunch, cut up into little squares. He loved it and ate loads!

Forget what I said - we had screaming at dinner time which means he does NOT want to be spoon fed, typical as I had made soup!! So I got an emergency rice cracker out of the cupboard and he happily chomped away on it picking up quite small pieces. He still doesn't know how to get food out of the middle of his fist but he is almost there on the pincer grip.

Do you think you can tell what handed-ness your LO is from how they eat? Its just DS seems to prefer the left hand??

Hey guys, can I join? DD is 6 months tomorrow and we're starting BLW, though she's not very keen on sitting up at the mo (won't stay in high chair for long and is nowhere near sitting up by herself!) so I don't know how it'll go! Any top tips for someone about to start??

Oh, and can I ask - do they need water???? I seem to remember reading something about this but no idea what it referred to. She's fully BF if that makes any difference.

Chocorange - ain't that typical! You think you have 'em sussed then they change the rules!!

Ds2 manages to get things out of his fist, with a 2 handed effort. He picks something up in one hand, then opens his hand a bit and pushes the food up with the other hand, and into his mouth. It's cute to see and pretty efficient really. He's waaaay off getting his pincer grip though.

as to what hand he uses most, I'm not sure really. i remember this with DS1 - he's use one hand for everything for a while, then swap over for a bit, still does really, so I'm not sure you can tell at this age.

Welcome Kiwipanda, and good luck for tomorrow - it's so much fun, but don't be disappointed if tomorrow is a complete anticlimax. Often they're not that interested to start with but keep going and she'll get there. Lots of tips on this thread and at babyledweaning.com.

If you're bfing on demand, she doesn't need water yet but it's good to offer it at every meal so she gets used to drinking out of a cup.

DS1 was about 9 mths IIRC before he drank any sort of quantity from a cup, and Ds2 doesn't yet and he's 7.5 mths.

welcome kiwipanda I BF my DS but I still offer him a little sip of water at each meal as I wanted him to learn to drink from a cup, also I find sometimes he gets really ratty when eating and a sip of water calms him down - I think he probably has a dry mouth as I know I like to drink whilst eating but as jojay said, they don't need water.

Choco - DD was doing quite well, was spoon feeding cereal in the morning and a little yoghurt after dinner and at the weekend had to buy some jars of food as was away and no other facility. Last couple of days hardly eaten a thing, was getting quite desponent and thought maybe I had confused her. One thing she will give in to is rice cakes.

Still offering water to get her used to it, she takes it quite happily, think she must need it in this hot weather and reduced BF. Plus, as jojay, says I need to get her used to a cup as have BF exclusively, no bottles and I need a break!!

Saw Boots do baby organic stock cubbes, yeh!
Tried mince, tomato paste and mashed potato made into finger rissoles. She did not eat them so have frozen them until can get her back into the swing of things. Mash home made unless its Mr Mash (no salt added) and can't find it anywhere, think Waitrose might do it.

All I seem to think about is what to feed, shopping for it, thinking when to feed and fit in naps, other stuff, then I'm feeding and it takes ages, fitting in BFs as well and clearing up. Only 18 years to go......

spagbol, I feel your pain I was trying to get DH to find DD something to eat yesterday cos I had no enthusiasm for it whatsoever. I ended up giving her Ready Brek cos DH kept saying 'what can I give her?' in a slow musing tone while staring fixedly at the computer screen...DD wasn't going to wait!
Do people do set mealtimes? I get confused - one day DD will eat piles of stuff and the next she hardly touches anything.

We follow GF so I fit DS's mealtimes in around that routine so breakfast is at 8am, lunch at about 11.30 and dinner at 5pm.

My DS is pretty consistent with what amount he eats but his attention span does seem to go quickly sometimes and he doesn't want to stay in the highchair

Hello, thanks for all the advice re water/ drinking from cup.

Well, this morning DD was given apple and banana. She didn't really know what to do with it all at first but after a few attempts at sweeping everything onto the floor she picked up a bit of a banana and sucked it off the skin with relish. She seemed to find it a bit hard to pick up slippery fruit off a plastic surface so I handed her some more bits - not to feed her but just to make it easier for her to grasp and that went down well. After about 10 minutes she wanted out of the high chair but she did very well I think!

I don't plan to follow really a set routine re mealtimes - I don't really myself - but will aim for three meals/ sitting in high chair with food a day and see how it goes!

We do set mealtimes, but they tie in with the rest of us. Dh, kids and I all have breakfast together at sbout 7.30 am, the kids and I have lunch at 12 noon ish and I do the kids tea at 5-5.30 ish - I eat later with DH.

The amount he eats varies from day to day though, and he's never that bothered about breakfast.

Saying that, at the beginning I don't think it really matters if you don't have set mealtimes, especially when they're just having little tastes rather than eating IYSWIM.

Well done Kiwi - sounds as if it went well. Just watch the apple if it's raw - it's one of the few fruits that can break off into a chunk that is hard enough to be a choking hazard.

I used to steam it for a few minutes to soften it up. Otherwise ripe pear, peach, mango, melon, apricots, plums etc minus the stone are all good to start with, though they can be slippery.

Bits of veg are often easier to hold - broccoli, baby corn, green beans, cooked carrot, and roasted or steamed slices of butternut squash, sweet potato, parsnip etc often go down well.

Enjoy