BLW support - welcome weaners old and new and mind the lentils on the floor

[JumeirahJane]

Fellow weaners,

Hope you find this, our second thread. Haven't we been chatty! The title was borrowed from the kind words with which I was welcomed onto the thread by KiwiPanda. Hope you like...

On the topic of highchairs, I also have the ubiquitous Antilop from I**A, against my better judgement, damn them. It is awfully practical, even I will admit. Just shove a folded towel under her bum before feeds, saves on cushion washing

Felt brave today and administered both avocado AND blueberry muffins in the same meal. It was worth the mess to see her grinning little face at the end.

Yes, I think so

Thanks greensnail we like here.

Mrsjuan I had a similar experience with MIL this week, when she insisted on remocing and peeling the piece of apple I'd just given BB, despite me explaining that he's eaten apple with skin pretty much every day for the past 4 months!!

Tonight's food of choice was chickpeas. Every single one picked out of the dinner and chomped with great satisfaction. BB sat in his highchair eating, and I am not exaggerating here, for ONE full hour. He is a slower eater than my granddad; perhaps it's the lack of teeth?!? Went to a baby group today where they do snacks (it was for 1 to 2 year olds, we snuck in) and all the other babies had scarpered and were singing....while BB was still gumming banana slices.

Talking of teeth, BB also has 3 teeth - no sign of number 4.

Morning cara2244 - any chance of sharing your OH's recipe for casserole made with braising steak which you mentioned a couple of weeks back?

DS is getting a bit less keen on his food the past few days and while common sense suggests it is probably just one of those things, paranoia makes me think I need to try him on a bit more variety. Would be good for me no doubt too!

Oh, and here's a for you and another for your OH for your trouble .

Well the indisputable hit of the day has been red pepper!

I put some strips in the microwave for about 15 seconds as it had got a bit frosty in the fridge and within minutes she gumming it to death and covered in red juice

Broccoli is still met with an expression of bemusement but she keeps going back to try it again. I think it is the texture of the bobbly bit that she's not sure about - I prefer the stalk myself too though so maybe she's the same!

I'm looking forward to trying some meat, pasta & dairy etc. with her next week as she'll be officially 6 months then.

I can honestly say that I am loving BLW weaning so far - we're only a week in I know but it makes her so happy (and keeps her busy for ages ) and I think it's far better for my sanity than stressing over how much she's eating.

Our dog is finally coming round to the idea that DD might actually be worth having around too - luckily he loves fruit and vegetables!

Sounds good mrsjuan peppers are a big hit with ds too.

ds has been fuellling my he-doesn't-like-mummy's-cooking paranpoia by tucking into (shop bought) fishfingers with gusto this lunchtime. At least it's fish!

Oops - paranoia. paranpoia sounds like an exotic fruit I think.

Hellooooooo! DD is 9 months tomorrow and seems to not be a fan of puree! My other 2 dcs were weaned the AK way but it seems BLW is the way to go this time. Can you start me off? Point me in the right direction?

I'm so proud of DD, she's started saying "nana" every time she sees a banana. So cute. Can't wait for her to learn some more food words, it would save me having to think too much if i could just ask her what she fancies for lunch. I find it such a responsibility trying to work out what she might like to eat each day.

She seems a bit more curious about all the clapping I keep doing, so hope she might start applauding her food soon

Welcome Mcdreamy, its dead easy, hope you and DD enjoy it. Just give her a bit of whatever the family are eating (ensuring its not too high in salt), stick it on her highchair tray and let her get on with it. Its a good idea to stick something on the floor under the highchair to catch what gets dropped, then you can easily pass food back to DD to try again, and makes cleaning up easier at the end. We use cheap plastic tablecloths, but towels work well too.

Oh Greensnail that's sooo cute!

Welcome Mcdreamy! If your LO is 9 months it really is that simple. Just put on a long sleeved bib, put something under the high chair to catch the mess and put down a big dollup of whatever you're having on the tray. You could if you wanted start with easy to pick up finger food like roast veg, avacado, veg sticks. But at 9m not sure there's much point as your LO should be able to scoop and hold without too much trouble.

Oh and MrsJuan so pleased it's going well! It'll be even better I'm sure when you add in dairy and all the other stuff - DD loves porridge made with milk, mashed potato and cheesy topping on top of shepherds pie, lentil dhal, philly cheese on breadsticks.

And like everyone else my DD takes forever to eat - we can easily be sat there for over an hour. Sometimes I think she's finished and try to take the food away but out comes the little hand to grab it back! But as she's my only DC it is great - I can potter around the kitchen getting stuff done or have a bit of downtime.

cosytiger How do you make the lentil dhal? I make quite a nice one for me and husband but I use a curry paste and it's fairly spicy. Could I just substitute for a tamer paste or use less or do you make it completely from scratch?

Red pepper and broccoli in nappy tonight - I can't believe how much she seems to be swallowing!

DD seems much happier at meal times. She had fish cakes, little roast potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli for tea tonight. Need to go and clear up after her yet (much invest in an under the high chair mat) but she really enjoyed herself!

Great, glad she's happier

Hi. it's monstermomi but I've changed my name to reflect the festivities .

Mrsjuan/Isitme, you've inspired me to try pepper slices so I tried dd3 with yellow pepper and she loved it. I gave it to her straight from the fridge which I think helped her teething gums.

cara or anyone - about chickpeas, I'm so afraid she'll choke on one. would I need to mash them or just let her get on with it?

Yes chickpeas make me a bit nervous too and we eat quite a lot of them as we are veggie - at the moment they are one of only a few exceptions to us giving DD the same as we eat.

Mrsjuan I do make the dhal from scratch, which makes me sound like much more of a domestic goddess than I actually am. We make a big batch on the weekend and it lasts for a few days. The recipe came from The Guardian - it's less complicated than it sounds as you can use tinned tomatoes and just leave out any of the spices you don't have.

lentil dhal recipe link

I can also highly recommend that lentil recipe, it is gorgeous. And I never have all the ingredients either!

The casserole recipe is, I'm afraid, an OH special. He uses a casserole mix packet for the sauce...I know, it's bad, salt content/processed food and all that....apart from the sauce he uses a pack of fresh braising steak, a pack of sausages, chopped carrot/onion, mixes it all up and cooks on a lowish heat for 2.5 hours. I am veggie so BB doesn't get much meat, so I have to kind of lay aside my salt/processed food principles now and then.

mrsjuan glad to hear you're enjoying it. It is a fab way to wean IMO. At 10.5 months, BB learnt last night how to chew and swallow whole chunks of satsuma, instead of sucking all the juice and then spitting out the skin. Was so proud! He ate a whole satsuma today. Beware, though, most BLW babies lose interest in food at some point, and it can be quite disheartening when they're started so well. For BB, it was from about 7.5 months to about 10 - up and down with food, somedays eating loads somedays nothing at all. It can be hard to keep the faith, but I just kept thinking that as long as he's having milk, he won't starve.

momi I used to give them as houmous. I reckon that once the pincer grip is in place and they can pick them up, they should be fine, as long as they are properly upright and the chickpeas aren't too oily. I was terrified about raisins, but since BB got his pincer grip, he's been fine with them.

Does anyone have any thoughts about introducing cutlery? DD is cutlery obsessed and spends a lot of time trying to grab my cutlery when we're eating. I'd quite like to make the most of her enthusiasm but not sure she's ready to be using cutlery yet. If I give her a spoon or a fork she generally chews it or hits it on the table, but occasionally looks like she might be trying to get some food onto it.

I'd like to encourage her to try using cutlery, but am worried she'll get too distracted by it and eat less. Anyone got any thoughts?

hi all, can i come join? i am on day 2 of blwing, the first day we tried some brocooli which was mucho gagged on, my heart was in my throat! much more success with pear and banana. one question, when did you guys start to introduce water? dd is ex bf

welcome minnietheminx we started offering a cup of water with meals fairly early on (as soon as i remembered to go and get a cup really). DD got the idea of the cup fairly quickly but it was a long time before she took more than a few sips. In the early days i think its much more to do with getting them used to drinking from a cup, than them actually needing water.

Hi greensnail, did you use any kind of cup or just a beaker, im not too sure what babies are capable of at this age!

We use this cup
I think a lot of people on the thread use the doidy cup though, which is good for getting babies used to using an open cup straight away. I intended to try a doidy cup but never quite got around to buying one. Now i'm a bit afraid to as DD makes enough mess with a closed cup!

Can I join your thread - even though I haven't read it all.
DD is 6 months and a week and has been ebf until today when we tried her with some well cooked parsnip as finger food.
She stuffed the first bit straight in her mouth and gagged it out again fairly fast. She then spend some time squishing the rest in her fingers and putting small bits in her mouth which again came out almost at once. A bit more gagging and then she threw up - which she hardly ever does.
She seemed fairly happy throughout so I guess we'll try again tomorrow.
Is this normal for the first taste??

Hello again!

Well tomorrow is our start day I have carrot and broccoli at the ready!

leftangle - I think your experience is fairly normal and I'm not expecting a whole load to actually get eaten tomorrow. I'm hoping to be able to have the attitude of play rather than this food must get eaten IYKWIM.