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.

Hello minnie - ds is very well provided for with beakers, as he has two doidys, two tommee tippees and even an AK one (PFB much?). I have never dared let him have the doidy without me also gripping tight onto it, and he is just coming up to 8mo. For unsupervised drinking he gets the tommee tippee one, and is very competent with it. But after a few TT only days, I got the doidy out yesterday and he greeted it like an old friend (and promptly washed his hands and big chunk of mashed potato in it ).

Sorry, rambling. But I would try a doidy and the TT one and see how dd gets on with them - they're pretty cheap from Amazon.

leftangle welcome! yes, sounds totally normal

SES good luck for tomorrow

Well we've just shared an indian takeaway with DD very successfully. She had mixed kebab, peshwari naan, chicken biriani and popadoms and seemed to love it all, although she was drinking a lot with it!

So we tried bananas today but it was too slippery for er to pick up I think. Nothing got in at all.She was more interested in hewing her bib and in her cup. Did take some water when I helped tip the cup. Think we'll try parsnip again tomorrow.
Thanks for support and at indian takeaway.

leftangle try leaving some skin on the banana - just peel an inch or two at the top and cut this skin off so it doesn't get in the way - then she can hold the bit at the bottom with the skin on so its less slippery.

Hi Leftangle - greensnail gave me the same banana tip when we started almost 2 months ago now and it worked a treat. Worth leaving skin on soft fruit too and even squashing it a bit in the middle to try and make a natural handle iyswim. I'd also say don't feel you have to be a total purist. I helped DD a bit in the early days to guide slippery things to her mouth - as long as she was showing an interest in them in the first place. Now 2 months on she's much better at picking them up - she even managed a single blueberry this morning. Oh and raspberries were a big early hit with us - they fit nicely in a baby hand - although less seasonal now unfortunately.

Ses how did it go?

oh, congratulations on the blueberry BabyCosyTiger! Quite a milestone I also used to help DD hold slippery things in the early days.

Oh and Greensnail we are a couple of months behind you so I'm not sure about the cutlery thing. Had sister and bil staying with us this weekend and bil's first comment when he saw DD feeding herself by shovelling in handfuls of scrambled egg was "you're going to regret that a few months down the line when you want her to use a knife and fork". Hmmm

Oooh we cross posted Baby cosy tiger says thank you!

Well tell BIL that if babySnail is anything to go by she'll be desperate to use cutlery. I don't think it'll be a problem because basically they want to copy what the grownups are doing. I suppose i'll just keep letting her practice with her cutlery when she wants to.

DD has just hoovered up ricecakes and philadephia for her tea. Her face was a picture when she realised the rice cakes actually tasted of something - they haven't been too popular up until now!

Yes - I've read that they often start enthusiastically but then have a bit of a lull. So I'm prepared (but will probably still be stressed so please remind me in a few weeks time

Well we tried carrot and broccoli and a sippy beaker of water. DS didn't seem v sure of any of it and I'm not sure much (if any) of it went down. He seemed to think the beaker was just a teething toy for chewing on.
However DH and I had fun! He dsidn't last much more than 10 mins in his highchair as he still doesn't sit up brilliantly so DH and I both sat with him in turn on our laps.
Day one, we'll try again tomorrow!

Sounds like everyone else is doing v well - v inspiring!

Okay, so lentils. I've bought a packet of red lentils, which are dry and say they don't need soaking but must be cooked before eating. Please can anybody let me know how I cook them before including them in e.g. a soup recipe? Thank you!

Red lentils normally take about 20 mins so just simmer them in with your stock until they're soft.

Evening all! Greensnail I wish I could get DD interested in cutlery, she views spoons as the Devil's work and won't have anything to do with them (honestly, you'd think I'd force fed her like a foie gras goose or something, not that she's been BLW since the day she turned 6 months!) I've bought her a spoon and fork set from boots that's got angled heads, which I think makes it easier for them to get stuff into their mouths. I just put it on her tray in teh hope she'll start seeing it as something more benign.. Oh and we use a doidy cup but I've found she will drink more from a sippy cup. She doesn't mind the doidy but she rarely has more than one sip from it.

She just devoured a chickpea and quinoa pilaf, peas and green beans and pomegranate for pudding. She's obsessed with pomegranate, she eats a tonne of the stuff at the moment.

Cutlery - BB tried tonight, for the first time, to scoop up mashed fruit (poo cure again) with a spoon! He used both ends of the spoon and also played about with the scoopy but. I usually have a plastic spoon knocking around somewhere at mealtimes as I use it to attempt to feed him yoghurt/porridge/chilli/curry type meals - although he usually prefers to grab the spoon, use it as a toy and eat with his fingers. But tonight was a definite attempt to eat like the grown ups.

I also have a set of kids' cutlery a friend bought me - metal with plastic handles - and I'll often let him play with the fork at mealtimes.

Ses We used a Bumbo for the first few weeks, either stuck to the table or the worktop (you're not supposed to do that though in case they fall off!).

Drcosytiger that's a common reaction - my mum said that too. But I think the urge to imitate is strong. Also, when other toddlers are playing with their food, ours hopefully won't as they've already done it...Hmm...maybe!

Ah, well maybe I'm lucky with her cutlery obsession then. I'll just have to hope that one day she'll actually use it for eating with

cara that sounds like promising use of cutlery!

I've got a Bumbo but he tends to lean forward to play with his toes! Haven't tried it in the last week so will give it a go again.

cara - sounds v impressive with the cutlery!

I may get some bread sticks and rice cakes this week but will try carrot and broccoli again tomorrow. I'm thinking giving the same thing for the first few days might help him get the idea.

I was wondering about cutlery too. Have been giving DS a plastic spoon and fork for a bit now and he likes to chew them and generally chuck them around a bit.

Have been getting into the breadmaker we've borrowed and think we may buy one. Felt very earth-motherish on the weekend when DS was tucking into home made soup with home made bread. Have just made some brioche too.

DS had chilli con carne tonight and liked it but was very windy before bed so don't have high hopes for tonight's sleep performance.

(bugger, brioche was burnt )

god, reading your posts i realised i hadnt even thought about cutlery, when did you give dc them to play with? yesterday was quite a success, dd ate about a quarter of a roast potato and a bit of carrot, i cant believe she did it after gagging so much on the first attempt i was sure it was going to be a while before she actually swallowed anything. yey!amazing how proud you feel isnt it!

Morning!

Definite small bits of evidence in DS's nappy this morning
Have posted a piccie from yesterday on my profile.

Sorry my posts seem to be about me but I'm feeling so new at this, don't really think I can offer any advice (yet!)

Ok - I have a bit of a tmi question -

What should I be expecting in terms of poo? Since offering her solids we seem to be having a huge variation from some quite small but quite formed (still soft) offerings to enormous fairly watery affairs.

DD is mixed fed (tbh pretty much ff now ) so since we stopped EBF at 3 months I have never really been sure what is normal for poo!

Day 3 - Why won't she put the parsnip in her mouth?? She will chew everything that isn't food, spends many happy hours munching on my coat or bits of her bouncy chair or books - whatever but no, not parsnip. She sang to it, squished it, threw it around quite happily but her attitude seemed to be "nice toy mummy but I've got more exciting ones" Attempt ended when I got the giggles and she got hicups (from general excitment, not from parsnip).
Oh well, maybe carrot tomorrow for more colour and excitment.

SES I thought you meant you'd posted a photo of his nappy I remembering considering sending DH a photo of DD's first brocolli poo! Thankfully I thought better of it. We used to use the Bumbo play tray when DD was eating in it which used to work really well and would prevent him playing with his toes!

minnietheminx DD always used to play with a spoon at meal times before she was old enough to start on food. Since she's started on food she's always seemed interested in our cutlery when we're eating with her, so we've given her her own to save her grabbing ours and stabbing herself with it! I wouldn't worry about introducing it yet if she's not interested, much more important to get her used to food at the moment.

leftangle try not to get frustrated, she will eat when she's ready. Sounds like you're doing great at making mealtimes fun. Are you eating with her?

mrsjuan not sure about mixed fed poos but DD's went from bf poo to bf poo with lumps of food in, to solid proper poo. Can't remember how long the process took though - sorry that's probably not any help at all!