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...........

DD made me laugh at marks and spencers today. I'd given her a banana to hold while we were queuing to pay for our sandwiches in the cafe and next thing i knew she had managed to bite through the banana skin and was sucking the fruit out through the hole she had made!

I think i would struggle to do that with my full set of teeth, its amazing what she can do when she's determined

Well dd actually ate a good amount of lunch today! I was beginning to think that maybe i was starving her but she wolfed an omelette.

Also, very excitingly, I noticed she was picking stuff up between her thumb and first finger so i gave her one of ds's cheerios and voila we have a pincer grip, which will hopefully make thing easier

Oh and i have a new 'invention'. We have a highchair that pulls up to the table and dd was just pushing loads of things off the edge. Now i stick a baking tray to the table with one of those tommee tippee things. The lip of thetray seems to help loads

Hi, can I join? Have been avidly reading all your posts and really want to give BLW a try, but am finding it bit stressful - am terrified of choking and have already had to whack dd2's back a couple of times, sending chunk of steamed carrot/cheese/parsnip shooting across the floor. Gratifying that it made it in there, I suppose, but pretty scary nevertheless... She can't quite sit up in her chair yet, so I've got her on my lap but that means I can't quite see what she's doing in her mouth properly, which freaks me out too. Am I being too uptight? Have I started too early? I notice lots of you mention 26 weeks. Also, she's not yet able to pick stuff and ferry it to her mouth so I've been handing it to her and even hovering it temptingly in front of her mouth - is this verboten? She seems to find it all a bit baffling and hasn't attacked anything with gusto. As you will guess from all of the above, I've been trying to wing it and been too stingy to buy the sainted Gill Rapley's book. Finally, as she's bf do I def need to give her vitamin drops? I know I sound like a grade A neurotic, but any soothing advice much appreciated...

Hi Merindol,

How old is DD? The guidelines are to start around 26 weeks, so if she's not there yet, and isn't able to sit up, pick up food and take it to her mouth its probably too early.

Handing food to her is ok, but you must never actually put food in her mouth for her - this is a choking risk. DD goes through phases where she doesn't want to pick things up and holds her hand out towards me for food instead. But really they need to be able to pick it up themselves, as this is one of the signs of readyness.

DD rarely eats on my lap (too messy ) but when she does I have her sitting sort of sideways, so i can see her face, and see what she's doing.

Even if she is ready, it takes some time for most babies to understand what food is about and start attacking with gusto! Try and relax, stop waving food at her, and trust her that she'll start eating when she's ready.

Oh and I've never given DD vitamin drops and she's fine (she's bf too).

Thanks so much greensnail - I've clearly been a bit previous and feel much soothed. Will try to relax, leave it for a couple of weeks and see how we get on with new improved attitude.

That's ok merindol, hope you both enjoy it once she's ready!

Forgot to say: she's 24 wks. Just in case you think I'm a complete loon trying to wean a 3 month old or something...

I was wondering! My dd was starting to eat at 24 weeks, but they're all different and 26 weeks is the official guidelines. No harm in continuing to offer her some food if you like, but don't worry if she's not interested.

Hey all.

Well, I thought DD was eating a phenomenal amount now, I took her to be weighed and apparently she weighs less than she did a couple of weeks ago. Can electronic scales just be wrong?! I weighed her the other day by the extremely unscientific method of getting on scales in bathroom with her, then without her and I thought she'd put on a good 1/2 lb, but not according to HV.

Could they be wrong? I wish I hadn't taken her now as now I'm fretting. She eats SO much now - this morning for breakfast she ate 1/2 a banana and 1/2 a weetabix. Considering she's only 9th centile little thing that seems like quite a lot to me but am I wrong?

hi kiwipanda,

that sounds like loads of breakfast to me - prob about the same as my 98th centile dd is having on a good day.

Is she suddenly getting more active? she may be burning off more calories this way. Has she lost much weight according to hv scales? I think most babies slow down their weight gain at this age.

I know its much easier said than done but if she's fine in herself then try not to worry, probably just a blip or maybe dodgy scales??

Hi greensnail - No it was only an ounce or something so nothing really to worry about even if it was right, but I'm pretty sure that it was inaccurate, or at least that's what I've decided to tell myself .

She's not got any more active but frankly short of learning to walk I'm not sure she COULD - she doesn't crawl yet either but she can, and does, roll the length of the room and back over and over again, and is utterly incapable of sitting or lying still for longer than about 2 seconds. I think she has her father's metabolism and inability to keep still - constantly moving, eats like a pig and doesn't gain weight... when she's a teenager she'll be happy with that!

there you go then, nothing to worry about. I would love her metabolism though!

me too!!

She's eaten an entire banana today. Literally every last bit of it, plus a tonne of kidney bean casserole type thing that DH made for us, broccoli galore, carrot, weetabix.. Actually I think she may well have eaten more than me today!

Also had a bit of a "doh!" moment - she's been really grumpy when I put her down for her afternoon nap recently, so today I didn't bother.. and she's absolutely fine. Clearly she didn't need it any more, specially as she's now napping for longer in the morning. On the other hand... that's the end of my afternoon break..

DS2 turns 26 weeks on Monday so will be starting soon, but slowly. I think he needs a little bit more practice at sitting up, particularly (so far he's more interested in crawling and rolling than sitting).

Welcome elkiedee.

We had people over for a bbq today (but ended up indoors ) dd had a fab time and would have happily sat and ate all afternoon if we'd left her to it. So proud of her sitting and feeding herself when some of the older babies were still being spoonfed

Welcome elkiedee - DD was (and is) the same - absolutely rubbish at sitting up. At first, she would only tolerate being in the high chair for fairly short periods but they have got longer and longer. I've come to the conclusion now that she's perfectly capable of sitting but is just bored by it and like yours would much rather be rolling around or attempting to crawl. I was worried at first that it wouldn't work at all with her sitting being so rubbish, but I think in a well supported high chair and with the distraction of food, they seem to cope!

Hi elkiedee! My dd went from being rubbish at sitting up to great in about the space of a week. I was amazed at how fast she picked it up.

Well we ate out with my parents last night which was lovely. We ordered dd some steamed veg - happily chewed on a carrot stick, wasn't into broccoli but my mum offered her some of her fish (checked for bones etc) and she loved it! It was too flaky for her to hold herself so she grabbed my hand and brought it to her mouth and just sucked on the fish. She chewed some but didn't seem to enjoy the texture. When it had all gone (disintergrated) she started sucking the fish bits up off the table! My parents were captivated!

On the downside, she had fish breath all night!!

Kiwi How does your dd get on eating kidney beans? I wanted to give dd some chickpea curry but I don't think she'll be able to get hold of them and I was worried about choking.

Hulla we sort of mush them a little with a fork (and DH cooks them in a sort of stew too, which makes them very soft I guess) - and then give them to her either on loaded spoon or spread on ricecake/toast/bread etc. I think that well cooked they would probably be softer and more chewable than chickpeas though? DD LOVES chickpeas but in hummus form!

Aah I hadn't thought of that, thats a good idea. Squashed and loaded on a spoon! How old was she when you started doing that?

Maybe I'll dip some bread in the sauce so she can taste it rather than try and eat it....

I can't cope with another meat-or-fish-and-steamed-veg type dinner again tonight!

Well, I think it was day 3 of BLW! We weren't planning to but we went to a branch of Wahaca for lunch and DD grabbed a bit of DH's burrito and some black bean frijole and stuffed them down her throat! We went again the other day and she choffed down a huge amount of guacamole, then ate a chilli and went a bit mental for a while (oops!) but still wouldn't stop eating..

I think for the first week or so we did mostly steamed stuff but since then we've made sure we always have one "dish" in the fridge to go with steamed veggies and fruit. DH makes it all but usually it's a spinach/pea mix or red lentil dahl or something. The consistency is somewhere between soup and pate genereally so good for spoons or spreading...

Oh and on the few occasions where I do any of the cooking, potato cakes have gone down really well with DD. I made them round for us and finger shaped for her.

Doh sorry having a shocker with my posting! I mean to add that I think you could make something similar with pulses added for more protein? Chickpea patties for example. Less dry than felafel, I reckon.

Thanks Kiwi I'll give it a try. She seems to be having a problem being a bit constipated at the moment. Did anyone else have this?

Its only the second week (the start of) so I didnt think that much was going in. Plus, we're still bf so I thought she would be fine. Silly, I know.

I am going to cut back on the bread & bananas. Everything else is fruit and veg really, I am wracking my brains to think what it might be.

She is so upset though its horrible.

Oh early days then Hulla, DD didn't really "eat" for around 3 weeks as I recall. She's never been constipated but a friend's baby who was exclusively BF was often, so it must be another one of those things that's less likely, but not impossible with BF. Like eczema, which DD has...