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...........

Afternoon all! Hi Greensnail, funny how they all like broccoli isn't it? Only wish my 5 yo would eat it too..

Well, nice surprise at the clinic today - I told the HV we were doing BLW and she didn't bat an eyelid! I asked what she thought about it and she said it was a good idea and that it's lovely how people are more relaxed with baby no. 2! (mind you, our town is known for being a bit 'alternative' so she's probably used to it .

Regarding iron/vits, she did recommend vitamin A C & D drops as he is breastfed, but said he doesn't need extra iron as the Vit C would help him absorb more iron from the food/milk anyway. (Apparently this is the current DoH guidelines). I will have to pick some up tomorrow!

DS not eaten much today as has the snuffles and just wants milk and sleep, but I am going to try him with pizza and couscous later when we eat our dinner.

Bye for now

Hiya Greensnail - welcome aboard!

That's great that your HV was supportive Kirsty - mine was too. I think we hear so much bad press about them, especially on here, it's good to know there are some open minded ones about too.

Let me know if you find any nice tasting vitamin drops - I bought Abidec ones - they taste horrid and DS hates 'em!

Ds was really hard work today - we went swimming yesterday and it aggravated his eczema, so he was scratching like mad and SO grumpy. But amazingly he really enjoyed his tea of steamed veggies, butternut squash and baby corn going dowm particularly well.

He did get a blotchy rash round his mouth immediately after lunch though - he had crumpets with butter followed by apple and blueberry puree ( I load the spoon, he swipes it off me and tries to get a bit in his mouth with varying success....)

It had faded after an hour or so but I think I'm going to have to watch him for allergies. It was after the crumpet that it appeared, though he hardly had it near his mouth, just flung it around mostly, so I don't know what caused it. He hasn't had a crumpet before but he's had bread, etc, and butter, so who knows. It may have been nothing to do with the food as his skin has been sore today anyway.

Can I join in please?

DS2 is 23 weeks and I am planning on doing BLW.

I'm not really sure what I should try him on first so any suggestions would be fabulous help. I was planning on cooking some carrot sticks for him to try.

broccoli and carrots sticks, always a winner it seems and welcome to the group!! DD was full on giggling while she ate her carrots today and they were seriously overcooked but she didn't seem to notice...

Thanks, really looking forward to not making mush!!

Hi all - my DS (6.5mo) has demanded I join this group as he won't let me feed him mush from a spoon and just wants finger foods. Ahh, the stubborness of me and DH mixed together is truly a force to be reckoned with!

So far he has had (since Monday).. toast & butter, sweet potato chips, nan bread, banana and rice cakes.

So hello from me!

Hi to Kayzr and Chocorange - this group just gets bigger and bigger!!

Kayzr, roasted veg seems a good place to start. Carrot and broccoli go down well as Chulita said, but also butternut squash and sweet potatp have a very soft texture when well cooked, which is easy for babies to have a go at.

Do have a look at babyledweaning.com for more inspiration too.

Chocorange - I think a few of us are doing BLW for that reason! My DS will take yoghurt etc from a spoon............as long as he can do it himself . I load up the spoons and then hand them over. If I try to feed him, he just grabs the spoon out of my hands. So BLW it is for us too

He had some yoghurt nad fruit puree for breakfast this morning. the mess was indescribable........

I'm a bit confused how the puree route works, DD just won't eat more than 2 or 3 mouthfuls of porridge or yoghurt and then she refuses to open up but she'll slobber on biscuits for ages. Mind you I suppose if I'd given her puree from the start she might be happier with it.
Anyone got any good baby biscuit recipes? The ones I've found seem to have quite a bit of sugar in them.

Morning everyone, DD had a great time at breakfast chewing on a banana, she made quite a big dent in it and I didn't see any of it being spat out, so maybe she actually swallowed it!

She seems to forget to use her hands when there's interesting food in front of her and just try to get her mouth to it directly which is quite funny to watch

She enjoyed squidging some mashed potato last night too, but i don't think any of it reached her mouth.

We're out and about today, so she may get to try her first pub lunch if she's awake while we're eating!

Hello all. DS demolished a piece of pizza earlier, dipped in baby rice - I am trying to use up the jars of puree I got before we changed to BLW. I thought it was an odd combination but he loved it!

The only problem with BLW is that trying to give him vitamins on a spoon is practically impossible! He keeps trying to grab the spoon to feed himself, like he normally does if I give him something runny. This may work well for porridge but it's not so good for vitamins[ .

Jojay - I got the haliborange bottle vitamins and he seemed to like them OK - they allegedly taste of orange, but I tried a bit and they're not like any orange I've ever had?!?!.

Good luck with the pub lunch greensnail - when I tried that he tried to snaffle my entire steak!!

DS2 ate some banana earlier and a couple of pieces of carrot!! I have been trying him with baby rice and he has just spat it all out so very happy that this seems to be working.

Kirsty - can you give the vitamins with a syringe? Ds has been teething so I've been giving baby ibuprofen this way - much easier

Hi all - chulita I wonder if I gave DS a taste of the good stuff, by allowing him to suck on dried apricots and rice cakes from a young age (20 weeks as he was grabbing at it) so that when I tried puree's he was not interested at all and wanted to do it himself.

I have a great photo of DS chomping on a whole banana yesterday - I held the bottom while he had his hands clamped round the whole thing.

Lunch today was toast fingers and cheddar cheese fingers - its the first venture into dairy for us (apart from milk) so I hope it goes down ok! He bit off (with his gums!) a chunk of cheese and I was so tempted to go in and fish it out as swallowed whole he would have choked on it, but I stayed strong and a minute later he opened his mouth wide and there it was all mushed up. I was so proud.

Kirsty I agree with jojay, syringes are the best, my DS sucks calpol out like its milk, or you can squeeze it in bit by bit and then they swallow it.

BTW - when did you move onto 2 meals a day? DS has been having lunch for a week now - when should I start another meal and should I do breakfast or tea?

Hi all, really enjoying reading how everyone's coming along.

chocorange we've been offering DD food everytime we eat if she's been awake. Maybe it would be better if we just focused on one meal at a time, but this seems to be working for us. Breakfast seems to be her most successful time at the moment because that's when she's always alert and happy.

Pub lunch yesterday didn't go down too well, she stared at my plate for a bit and then decided to try and suck her way through my top to get to the milk - obviously too hungry for eating!

She's really enjoying exploring fruit, especially melon and bananas but vegetables aren't so popular at the moment. Do you think it would be ok to try her with things other than fruit and veg, or wait until she's 26 weeks (she's only 21 weeks at the moment).

Hi All,

KirstyJC very kindly invited me to join your thread. I haven't had a chance to read everything but I hope you won't mind if I ask a couple of questions before I catch up.

I'm on my third day of BLW with my son who turned 6 months on Wednesday. So far he has seemed to enjoy it but has gagged and vomited so much that I am not really enjoying it at all! He has had banana, steamed carrot, steamed broccoli and cucumber. I didn't think he had kept anything down but today there was broccoli in his nappy. I was so proud!

My questions are: firstly, I have read that mango and melon are good and I have some peaches that I'd like to try but I'm not sure how to prepare them. Are you leaving the skin on fruits and what sort of size/shape pieces are you doing?

Secondly, I gave ds cucumber today cut in to batons with the skin still on and he stuck a piece really quite far in to his mouth and using his gums he almost managed to bite off quite a big piece. At this point I freaked out and took the cucumber away because I'm really scared that he will bite off a big piece and it will choke him. Can anyone reassure me on this? Also do you leave the skin on cucumber??

TIA for any help, I'm going to start reading the thread now.

Checking in to say hello. Kayzr - steamed asparagus is a winner and in season... tonight I made sort of mezze - homemade humus, beetroot & yoghurt dip, avocado dip, meatballs, rice cakes. Was delicious...although I hope I get the beetroot stains out of his vest.

pixsix I am a bit scared of cucumber too - although Gill Rapley is very keen on it in the book - and I think there was a skin discussion earlier on this thread IIRC. I would have thought that because cucumber is so watery it should be easily sucked/gummed and dissolve but I am not expert. Gagging is normal and they eventually learn to chew thoroughly - DS has only been BLW for 2 weeks and he hardly gags at all now (unless I am holding his doidy cup to his mouth and pour in too much water ) after gulping back some quite scarily large segments in the first few days. I prefer to steam or roast veg at the moment though - it depends on your comfort zone.

Well we've just had quite a successful breakfast. I gave him a whole peach with about a third of the skin cut off and he spent ages licking and sucking and gnawing at it. I handed it to him and he took it in both hands, I think the skin made it less slippy to hold on to. He only vomited a tiny bit and didn't gag at all.

BelleWatling thanks for the reminder about the Doidy, I must give mine a go later.

Enjoy the sunshine everyone!

Doidy's are a funny one, DD likes to lick the water like a cat rather than drink it. Carrots are still her fave at the mo although strawberries go down pretty well. She tends to suck the whole thing in and suck on it for ages. I do have mini panics but I'm quite lucky [touches everything wooden in the house], she hasn't thrown up or severely gagged yet. All good fun but sooooooo messy!!
I take it no one has any biscuit ideas then?

chulita I don't have any biscuit recipes for you but I don't see why you can't just make a normal recipe and reduce the amount of sugar, or even leave it out altogether?

I just found this on google too:

www.sugarfreerecipes.co.uk/quick-sugar-free-cookies-for-kids.html

Thanks for the idea, I am going to get baking soon!

Afternoon ladies...hoping to join the BLW devotees! However do have a few queries...

My twins are 6 months and we have started the traditional weaning but I am worried that it is impacting on their milk intake. They struggle to take anywhere near what the experts reckon they should be taking and as they are still really little (not yet 11lb) I am worried about them not gaining weight.
So I am really leaning towards BLW.
But, they can't sit up yet and are so small in the highchairs that they can't actually reach the trays with their arms! They do have good head control and do like some of the food they have been given. They are definitely interested in food as they watch you eating and are very good at shoving their hands in their mouths.

Should I start it, or wait for a while?
Also (stupid question alert here) what was the first thing you gave them? And did you just pop them in their highchairs and plonk the food on the tray?

Evenin' all! (Sorry in advance for long post )

Well, today started in a promising way - turns out DS loves croissants as much as I do ! (Healthy eating? What's that!!). Lunch saw him eating loads of breadsticks dipped in cream cheese, followed by half a mini pot of yoghurt, which he managed very well by taking a pre-loaded spoon. It was really impressive watching him concentrate on making sure he puts the right end of the spoon in his mouth!

However - shortly after lunch he hurled big time - and it all came back up again, poor little thing . (Was impressive to see how much had gone down in the first place though, now just need to figure out how to keep it there).

Dinner was spaghetti, meatballs and garlic bread, followed by strawberries. He LOVED the garlic bread - was sucking it for ages! He had a bit of the meatball and just played with the spaghetti - he didn't even try to put it in his mouth, just spent ages winding it around his hands/fingers.

Regarding skin, he just sucked cucumber but he had a slice of apple with the skin on, mainly sucked the apple flesh but he did eat some of the skin I think because a bit was missing and we couldn't find it anywhere! He was using the side with the skin to hold on to and really seemed to enjoy it.

Poorbuthappy - if you are milk feeding on demand, then you should keep this up when you do BLW as this will still be their main food. Not too sure how this works if you have started traditional weaning, suppose it depends how long you have done it and how much they depend on solids for nourishment. At the moment my DS hasn't dropped any milk feeds but I am wondering if he is eating less as he is a bit quicker (can't tell with breastmilk!). If you decide to do BLW then maybe it would be best to go back to full milk feeds and then just plonk them in the highchairs and give them food when you eat? My DS has milk when hungry, and just food with us to play with - he just happens to play with it in his mouth and then eats some!! If you are worried about low weight then I suggest talking to your hv - some are really positive about BLW and could be very helpful. The Gill Rapley book is excellent also. Regarding sitting, they do need to be able to sit upright with only a bit of support (I occasionally have to push DS back up when he slips to side), and if they have good enough hand/mouth control then they will be able to start BLW themselves - just put food on the tray and see what happens! If not then they will just sit there and watch you - still valuable to introduce them to mealtimes with family.

I am gutted that I have fallen off the BLW wagon and surcumbed to the spoon. I still dutifully offer finger food but DS is so not interested (cue waving carrot around head, dump on floor and no where within the gob area) but scoffed away at whatever is on offer on the end of a spoon - maybe I just have a lazy little boy or maybe at 26/27 weeks he is just not getting it! Will continue to pop the lovingly prepared veg infront and see what happens...

I don't think you have a lazy boy dd's a moody eater (just like her dad). Sometimes she proper chows down on finger food but the other day she just waved it all around and pushed it onto the floor so DH mashed a strawberry into some porridge and she loved it! The next day she was happy with banana mashed in porridge but yesterday she had a bit of parsnip and pepper. She's 26wks too but I think sometimes they just want to try something different!

God I love BLW. I went for lunch with a friend whose DD is the same age as DS (six mo next week). My friend sat there spooning mushed banana to her DD while her (the friend's) food went cold. Meanwhile DS and I munched away together and enjoyed watching eachother eat. Fabulous, dunno why anyone does it different.

DS has yummed down every fruit we can think of this week and is lurrving veggies with hummous. I've made him some breadsticks - with my own fair hands - and I think we'll give them a go soon. Especially popular are orange segments with the pithy skin peeled off. He's figured how to hold them in his fist and suck the juice from between his fingers; clearly the boy's a genius!

Simmo re highchairs, we were given a Graco one which seems to be OK and we've just bought a second-hand Hauck for at the grandparent's which is lush - very comfy, and has straps which enable him to lean forward and stick his face in whatever's on the tray rather than the type that tether them to the chair and stop them from moving their shoulders.