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...........

Evening all.

Tea this evening was veggie risotto (DD1's absolute favourite) with fruit to follow.

Started off a bit manic as DP announced at 5.15 that he was going to be late coming home so it was just three 3 of us - and DD1 is such an attention-holic at meal times!

Anyway, kind of let DD2 play with risotto whilst I sorted DD1 and then was able to focus on DD2 - who was not too keen on the risotto but did grab the spoon I loaded for her. A few bots went in and I am sure they all came back out.

However, nectarine and banana were real hits. She gummed bits of both for quite a while and would probably have kept going if I had cut up some more. I am pretty sure bits of both were swallowed. She is so cute when she discovers a bit of something in her mouth!

Very cute pictures HM2J.

Morning all - Ds2 has dragged me out of bed far too early this morning, so I might as well put the time to good use

I went to clinic yesterday and spoke to my HV about the egg thing. She told me to goto the GP and get it logged on his records, and that they might give him his next lot of jabs at the hospital under controlled conditions, just in case he reacts to that too. So we're off there today. And obviously she said to avoid giving egg, though to try it as an ingredient and see how he gets on. So I might make a cake - any excuse eh!

DH was off yesterday so we went for a picnic in a park near us where there's a toddler paddling pool for Ds1. We had lunch on a picnic rug under a tree and Ds2 thought it was fab! I spread some bread with philly and chopped it up into little cubes and he ate a fair bit of that, then he had some chunks of strawberry followed by spoon fed custard - yum!

He's still rubbish at drinking out of a cup though and won't take a bottle so I'm a bit worried about getting fluid into him in this hot weather. He had his usual bfeeds yesterday but woke last night at 2 after sleeping though for a few days, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and fed him. It's a tough one really.

Anyway, hope everyone has good days today.

And Kiwi - can you try holding your LO on your knee while she eats for the time being? DS2 hated his highchair to start with too, 'cos he couldn't sit up properly, so I had him on my knee a lot. Be warned though, you will get very messy too - I used to wear an apron! He can sit up properly now and he's perfectly happy in there these days, so it's only a short term thing.

HI Ladies

Am new to the thread and not quite got through all of it so apols if this has been covered!

Am BLW DD who is 6 months. SHe was a pro on teh purees at 5 months but I didnt like it, so now she has some broc, some carrot etc.

One thing tho, she seems to be being sick more? And quite a lot at times. Not usually after the meals - could this be related?

Thanks so much

xxx

Yea, I still hold DD on my knee sometimes. She can sit up fine but sometimes I want a cuddle
jojay - I love picnics! This weather's perfect for eating outside too I was just thinking that I might give DD her lunch in the garden. Leftover pasta and tomato sauce will be a mission to get out of the carpet anyway.
I might crack out the birth pool that got inflated and never properly used and we can rinse off in that afterwards

Hi SOE! That wasn't a deliberate complete ignoring session, I started typing about an hour ago, got distracted by DD, shower, washing up and a phone call and then finally got back to finishing.
When we first started DD was sick more often - she's not a sicky baby but we did have some random projectile stuff . She very rarely throws up at meals (in fact she hasn't at all so far). I think the solids are quite a shock to the system even if they don't swallow very much. We're battling constipation now...
Speaking of which, any tips on flushing out clogged up LOs?
jojay - DD isn't much good at drinking from a cup either, she gets all excited about it but not much goes in. Yesterday she barely bf at all, I was sooo uncomfortable and I was worried cos it was pretty warm. I think I'm just going to keep dribbling water down her and hope that some goes in the right place. She just doesn't want to bf during the day at the mo and it's driving me bonkers!

Chulita Prune porridge!! Make some porridge and get some dried prunes and chop them into little bits and add to the porridge. Waitrose do an organic bag which are already really soft but otherwise you can soak them. 4 poos in one day was the result of DS's prune porridge!

Hi SOE My dd also seems to get quite sick sometimes, I think she sometimes doesn't realise she doesn't need so much milk to fill her up when she's eating too, so ends up taking too much and then bringing the excess back!

Hope it goes ok with the doctor Jojay

We've just had soup, bread and yoghurt for lunch - i've never seen so much mess in my life

Prune porridge it is then, not sure I want 4 poos but I'll give it a go, thanks choc!
DD had a go with spiralli pasta for lunch, it was so funny watching her trying to get them in her mouth while they bounced all over her face! poor little girly!

Hello everybody! My DD is 25 weeks old and i have a questino re BLW. Am very keen to do this from the start, and have been holding out for 26 weeks BUT DD taking so much milk at the moment (BF) that i am permanently knackered and feel really run down. I know it sounds really daft but can i start already? purlease? or should i hold out another week? I'm not a panicky rule type person but my brain feels like mush and all the advice i can find (bar mumsnet & Aitch's blog) is only on spoony weaning. Any help anybody?

unbuffy BLW says let your LO decide - has your DD shown any interest in food, has she picked anything up, put it in her mouth? That is the sign to start BLW.

unbuffy yes I would start if you both think you're ready. If she's not ready she won't eat anything - that's the beauty of BLW. She will probably just be exploring and tasting food for a bit anyway, so will prob be 26 weeks by the time she actually eats if you start now. My dd is 6 months today but she's been having food for a few weeks - since she grabbed a piece of broccoli from my plate and started eating it. We took that as a sign she was ready to start eating!

Yes, she picks everything up and it all goes straight in there! Not food though (basically as she hasn't has the chance) except raw carrot for teething purposes and she can't really 'eat' that. So you reckon i should break out the banana and cooked carrot then?

unbuffy if she can/wants to do it then go for it. Whilst 26 weeks is the recommendation all babies are different so BLW believes that if a baby can pick up food, direct it to their mouth, chew and swallow then they are ready. Although as greensnail said the first two parts are easy but it may be a while before she actually manages to eat anything. You will become worryingly excited by dirty nappies soon!

I read in a book that banana wasn't a great first food (as it fills them up too much) - I started DS on ripe pear which was good, also rice cakes and toast fingers were good (although you may want to wait for the official 26 weeks before introducing gluten)

steamed apple and broccoli were hits with DD, I must confess to starting pretty early. She was interested in food from about 15 weeks and we held off for ages, I ended up not eating around her cos there was no way I was giving finger food to a baby that age and we had proper strop sessions when she saw us eating!! We gave in at 23 weeks and gave her broccoli which is still one of her favourites. She's big style into philly at the mo, broccoli dipped in cream cheese anyone?

DD1 also used to drink diluted prune juice when she was a baby.

Dilute 30ml of prune juice to 90ml of water. Used to get her 'moving.'

DD2's consultant says grating apples and then squeezing out the juice and giving them the juice is the way to go...

Haven't needed to use anything with DD2 yet but today's nappy offerings did seem more solid! (didn't splat up her back as it has done in the past anyway!

Around here we find banana is fun but terribly squishy so hard for DD2 to get a hold of and keep in a big enough piece to get it to her mouth. If she does, she seems quite keen on it.

Today we skipped breakfast and she had homemade carrot cake and rice cakes for lunch. The edge of the carrot cake was best as it was more solid - she gave it a good gumming.

Tea was cauliflower cheese - she liked the handles on the florets but we stuck to giving her plain ones rather than those with cheese sauce.At one stage she seemed to have several pieces of cauli between her gums/lips and looked like dracula

I've been holding DD back - I usually give her half a Weetabix with some banana/apple/whatever fruit needs to be eaten mixed in but today I thought I'd try her with a whole one and it all went down followed by a yoghurt and a (very healthy) Heinz chocolate biscotti... I didn't think her stomach was that big. She'd had a late lunch too of pasta, banana, and philly on toast.
I will give apple juice a go then, I don't currently have any prunes in stock but was going to buy some tomorrow. She did a huge poo at lunch so we might have cleared that particular blockage! [soz, tmi ]

oh and she had yoghurt for lunch too - my mum arrived to see her and her bib covered in the stuff but she had had a great time...

Not sure how mum feels - she has both girls all day next Wednesday.

Chulita how old is your lo?

Hi all, and a special Hi to SOE - nice to have you here

Went ok with the doctor today. She said to steer clear of egg completely for a few momths then re-introduce it as an ingredient 9 like cake or something) and see how it goes. She also prescribed some Piriton type stuff to have in case he reacts to anything else.

I gave Ds2 halved grapes for the first time today and he loved them. It was so cool watching trying to get his pincer grip right - he still can't do it but he was really trying. In the end he used his two handed, grab-it-in-the-fist technique but he ate lots.

He had salmon and veg in a cheese sauce for his main course and enjoyed scooping it off his tray out in the garden. There's now a thrush that keeps flying in and taking away his leftovers - one less job for me!

Hey guys, sounds like a good day for the BLW babies all round! We had such fun today - DH was off work so we went shopping, DD was an angel all day, and had so much fun eating hummus on pitta bread (well, smearing hummus around her face and gumming pitta bread) in the cafe at lunchtime. The waiters all thought it was brilliant, bless. She loved it so much we bought some to take home, and she went mad for it at tea as well, along with some yoghurt, rice cakes (as dippers - she likes sucking stuff off them) and banana.

Dysgu do you cut banana bits with the peel on? that's what I've been doing so she has something more to hold on to that doesn't dissolve instantly in sticky warm baby paws. I was it thoroughly first.

Hey Chulita; I gave DS a fresh fig yesterday and that has ,er, worked it's way through very effectively! He absolutely adored it and was doing his best to have mine as well but I knew that would have been disastrous!

He banged his chin today and cut his top gum with his v sharp bottom teeth , result being complete refusal to chew anything at all this evening. I had nothing soft in the house at all - no bananas or other very ripe fruit - and I needed something super fast as it was getting late and he was hungry so I opened a free jar from the Bounty pack! And he had it from a spoon!

And the little sod darling loved it. It was the filthiest thing I've ever tasted and he yummed up about two thirds of the stinky horrible stuff. A Taste of Autumn Vegetables indeed. I am so disappointed in him.

Dysgu DD is 7 months as of yesterday.

Lol feral I mixed the fruit jar into weetabix for DD and she liked it. We did try her with the Autumn veg too on a spoon and she was eating it fine til I said to DH that I never give her anything I wouldn't eat myself, had a scoop and threw the rest away...even if she liked it, that stuff is vile!
No need for the prune juice, she's having a good pushing session now, I reckon yesterday's tomatoes will be making an appearance soon [sigh]

How does everyone find time to make things like carrot cake and pasta and whatnot?? I never seem to manage anything other than salady things or sandwichy things for lunch. What do you do with the little ones while you prepare stuff? DD was very grumpy today and got bored with everything/ everywhere I put her very quickly so I couldn't even have a quick shower, let alone cook.

I suppose I could do stuff in her nap times but i generally spend them on MN - got to get my priorities right, eh?

lunch is definitely sandwichy or salady here too - unless its leftoversy Today, i offered DD a bit torn off my cheese sandwich, but she decided to drop that and grab my whole sandwich off me instead - and she ate all of it. I was a bit also a bit hungry as that was the last slice of bread in the house!