Few more 'in anticipation of BLW' questions I'm afraid...

[you]

DD is only 16 weeks so I'm getting a bit ahead of myself! But am halfway through Gill Rapely's book and have a couple of questions;

1. Whenever I mention BLW to friends who have children they say that their babies were swiping food off their plates before 26 weeks. I know all the signs that a baby's ready to begin, and my plan is to wait till 6 months at least but what happens if she grabs food before then? Do I let her have a gum/suck and aussume she's not ready to swallow yet (and if she does then she's ready?) or take it away from her?

1. I'm demand FF my daughter. Allergies run in both our families and because of that I'm gutted I wasn't able to bf . Therefore i'm especially determined to wait to wean, especially for dairy/ wheat etc. My plan was to wait till 1 year to introduce these foods, but is this pointless if she's on formula? Which is dairy anyway.

Have forgotten my third question so will be back later

DD's allergy consultant did say that most important to EBF until 17 weeks then solids (only veg, fruit & rice) or formula. Evidence of EBF protecting aagainst allergies is only 17 weeks. Evidence that waiting to give wheat beyond 7 months actually increases the risk of coeliac disease.

Personally I would not the baby eat anything that isn't fruit, veg & rice even if grab it before 26 weeks.

If I was formula feeding I would wait until 26 weeks unless very obvious signs like sitting up on his own - just give more milk there is no need for food.

Babies are meant to naturally want to avoid allergic food - although that must of meant my BLW DD must of been allergic to everything as she was not interested in solids until nearly 2! I'm doing purees in a month or two with DS as signs he is highly allergic getting hives despite EBF.

I let DD gum on anything she managed to grab. She didn't manage to swallow anything until just before 26 weeks, though.

DD started gumming things here, about 22 weeks I think and she was swallowing quite a lot by the time she was 24 weeks. We just took this to mean that she was ready, but I tried to keep her away from wheat until she was 26 weeks.