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.

Can I add figs to the list of things to get baby bowels moving? In season too now so lots around.

Cara - my DS was also off food for about 2 weeks or more. A few days after he started being funny, he got ill, so your baby could be feeling a bit off? (lots of colds around at the mo) Or just taking full advantage of on tap boob?

Kiwi - does your DD not yet eat off fine china with a knife and fork yet then? DS does of course

Am going shopping today to get ingredients for that lentil recipe - thanks Dr Cosy

DrCosyTiger - I too have stashed away that lentil recipe to make at some point. Unfortunately, DH is a bit about lentils, so I'll have to spring it on him along with something full of meat. Or make it for DS and I to have for lunch I suppose. I'm so used to the old 'sandwich and a piece of cake fruit lunch' it's hard to get into the habit of actually cooking for lunch!

Hi Cara! My LO is 28 weeks. Before we started food he only pooed every 4 days or so, and I didn't worry at all. But his stools firmed up pretty quickly after he started eating, and I'd never heard anybody mention whether less frequent poos were normal at this stage. It's amazing how solid everything gets with only a small amount of food on top of mostly bm! at your MIL and laxatives! Although I think the older generation have a bit of a thing about 'being regular'! I'm quite conscious about the whole idea of constipation in young children; I work in pharmacy, and see so many young children who are having to take huge amounts of lactulose, senna etc - I've always thought that it must be a dietary issue on the whole, so the thought of having a constipated baby so early made me very ]
Anyway, enough about poo! How goes the food strike?

Thanks for fig tip Sospan - DS did try some figs when we first started, but wasn't too bothered at the time. I'll definitely try them again!

Hi all,
Welcome back bunnybunyip I think if i were you I would start offering food a bit more freqently to get a bit more practice in.

KiwiPanda We use this when eating out with DD. Its great as it saves having to put her food on the table for her and has a little scoop to catch some of the spillage.

Hi all
drcosy thanks for that delicious lentil recipe! BB gobbled it up tonight (bye bye food strike). It was really tasty! I was missing a few ingredients - curry leaves, fresh chilli, used coriander from a jar instead of fresh - but it was still good.

sospan thanks for that. I think he does like the whole boob on tap thing. And there's me ditching my nursing bras

Food strike has improved - big bowl of porridge for brekkie, loads of rice and lentils for dinner - nothing but booby milk in between! I think he's teething.

Gui I spoke to the HV today about the whole pooing thing, and she said absolutely no laxatives! She has written it in the red book so I can show MIL, as she won't take it from me. I agree about the older generation - the PILs are obsessed with the idea that BB (despite being breastfed) should poo daily, and they've been on about giving him medicine for months. It really really annoys me! HV said it is probably the formula causing it, as he doesn't have the same problems on fully BF days, and that we need to give pureed fruit to help the poos. Although I hate spoonfeeding, I agree in this case that some simple pureed apple or pear mixed in with cereal/yoghurt etc would help. I am going to try and explain this to MIL on Thursday...although most things I say go in one ear and out the other! To me, if a baby is having problems pooing, then you have to look at what they're eating - but the PILs approach is to give laxatives.....grrr...

That said, I am happy with pretty much every other aspect of MIL's care of BB, and he is always so happy when I pick him up.

Cara that's great, really pleased it went down well. We had it tonight too and DD wolfed it down. We often leave out some of the ingredients too. Oh and DH says he uses tinned tomatoes instead of fresh and only half a chilli.

Cara - sounds like you have a very nice HV! I usually mix some fruit smush into DS's morning porridge for him to then eat from loaded spoons. Do you think your MIL would ever give your DS laxative without asking/ telling you? It sounds like she is a good egg on the whole, so hopefully not!

Oh yeah, I used tinned toms as well! Loved the recipe so much I'm making it again tomotrrow when my friend comes for lunch.
Gui I really hope not. I don't think she would. It's just hard when they make me feel I'm neglecting him because I didn't want to give him laxatives!

Toppoptart If DD isn't asking for water, she prob doesn't need it. As long as you're offering it DO you have to 'avoid' the HV grilling at all? Can you tell her that DD is loving a variety of food (cheese & apple = great variety )and even managing finger food now!! Won't that keep her at bay?

Jumbs Used to be meat-free for 13 years, but DH isn't, so I lapsed . But our brekkie and lunches are almost invariably veggie, as that's what I'm most comfortable preparing. Are you giving supplements, or just keeping tabs on vits, iron etc?

DrCosy at eating at friends'. They'll learn!

Monstermomi Hi. Intersting qu. about the honey bread. Not going to risk it now (and my dad is a beekeeper!) - thanks.

Spiced things up last night - nooooooooo, not like that !!! Delicious homemade butter chicken a la Tana Ramsay. Well since i I can't go to her hubby's restaurants any more, the next best thing is for my baby to eat as hers

Hi have been pointed over here by Hulla - Hi Hulla!

My DD is 24 weeks today but is concerning me as she isn't putting on weight and have been advised to try weaning. I did the AK purees for DD1 - didn't know anything else!! But want to try BLW for DD2.

However, yesterday was a bit of a disaster with DD2 so might give it a rest and try again next week. Feel a bit down about it and need to start back feeling more positive.

Will continue to read and lurk before trying aagain. Hi to everyone

Hey Flee, good to see you here! Don't stress, thats the joy of BLW! If you want to have a break then do. It took my dd ages before "got" food and even now she days where she isnt fussed. What foods have you offered?

Feel free to keep posting, we're a friendly bunch!

JJ your posts make me laugh!

We have drastically cut our salt & sugar intake since weaning. Its really nice actually.

Loving the dhal recipe. My dh also has a bit of a where's-the-meat? attitude to lentils so I might have to carnivore it up for him!

Peanut Allergy question contains a good link

Hi all, and welcome FleeBee. What food did you try DD2 with? Don't stress, she'll get it when she's ready.

We were eating much more healthily with BLW until recently. Today I went shopping and all the lovely fresh foods were making me feel sick, so I ended up coming out with a trolley full of junk. Then got really upset when I told DH all about it, luckily he saved the day and managed to cook a decent meal for us all tonight! I think he's quite pleased to find all sorts of foods we haven't eaten since we were students in our cupboards. Think DD will be eating a lot of pasta this week

Hi FleeBee is she very active? Could that be why she isn't gaining weight?

I ate a lot more healthily to start with...but now I end up eating loads, as invariably if I make extra for BB, he decides he's not hungry. I definitely do more home cooking though and am also quite frugal now. Mainly because of the huge electricty and water bills we get now we have a baby. Grrr.... Anyone else found their bills are massive now?

Hulla loving your pancakes! Thanks for that. Added a splash of milk and some cinnamon and they were great, soooo simple.

gs I had morning sickness with BB and survived for about 3 months on nothing but jacket potatoes. I couldn't bear to cook until I was about 6 months pregnant.

oh i just remembered what i wanted to ask! Those of you with babies on the move - how strict are you about sitting upright for snacks? DD gets around by rolling and likes to take her snacks with her, which is a bit of a nightmare when she ends up lying on her back eating an apple! Any tips for getting her to sit still - apart from putting her in her highchair i suppose.

Hi greensnail I've tried breadsticks, cucumber sticks, toast fingers, bananana and even a bowl of baby rice!!! (not all in one sitting I should add).

Cara2244 DD2 is a very active baby, has been rolling over since 4 months and doesn't ever ever keep still, very unlike DD1.

I'm really struggling as I really like the ethos of BLW but she just doesn't seem interested, yet when I tried out of desperation with baby rice she went crazy and started screaming and spitting it out. Am I the only person to be stressed out with what should be a simple unstressy process. Not helped with my worry about her weight and my mother accusing me of starving the poor child! I have increased her BFs but is that filling her so she won't be interested in food??? So confused

Hey FleeBee - DS took a while to get it too. He's PFB, so the novelty was okay for about a week for both of us. Then he didn't seem to be enjoying it for a little while and I worried he wasn't eating much. Then we both chilled a bit, and after about a month he began to noticeably eat stuff. These days (almost 2 months in) sometimes he seems to eat loads, other times he picks and fusses (may be teething related?). But I suspect that's similar if you do purees.

Am anxious about going to my mum's this weekend as it will be the first time she has seen BLW in progress. Think she will worry that we don't know how much he's actually eating and that dad will think it is very messy.

Actually, not sure I've been very reassuring there !

FleeBee You're not starving her! If she was starving she wouldn't be so active, as she'd be trying to conserve energy. Sounds like a healthy, happy, active baby to me. Try to ignore your mum, continue to bf as much as she wants, as this will give her far more calories than a few spoons of baby rice. Sounds like she's not quite ready so I would take a week out as you said and try again next week.

She needs to have her BF before trying a BLW meal, as she doesn't know yet that the food is going to fill her up, so will just get frustrated and not want to try if she's hungry.

IsItMeOr try not to worry about your parents, they may surprise you! Mine were sceptical about BLW to start with, but DD has definitely won them around, and now they go on about how impressive her eating skills are

Thanks greensnail - I know they'll want to be supportive, so I suspect I'm just stressing. Will also be seeing my (lovely) sister and her (lovely) dcs, so I think I'm just conscious that all (kind) eyes will be on ds. What if he gets stage fright ?

Hello! Can we join? My 6 mo dd and I have been having adventures with BLW for, erm, 2 days now.

So far she has not apparently eaten much but she has enjoyed mashing around parsnip, carrot, pear and broccoli.

I have a question about rice cakes: which ones do the expert BLW-ers use? I looked at some in a shop and they all had salt in. Does this matter? Presumably, they shouldn't be wholegrain?

I am not sure how long I will be able to hold out on BLW exclusively because I have to go back to work in January and I don't think I can find BLW friendly childcare, or necessarily express enough milk to keep her going while she flings vegetables merrily onto the floor instead of eating them. But I am going to try and keep it going alongside whatever else she has to have.

Hi.
I'm about to start in the next few weeks. I gather it's messy. I'm thinking a housecoat, (the shame! ) Not a dressing gown type, more a smock.

Do you guys wear these or are your DC tidier than mine? (Not hard, I suspect.) If so, where did you find them?

TIA
(and sadly, no, am not trolling!)

vezzie Hello! Not sure I qualify as an expert BLWer, as I've only been going about 7 weeks and still learning about salt. But we have been using the Kallo organic no added salt ricecakes - they seem to have two sorts here and here, but I haven't worked out the difference yet, as I've only opened the first packet! I break them in half and spread something on them - mashed sardines, mashed avocado, fruit spread (the no added sugar one from st dalfour), nut butter, and they went down well dipped in yoghurt and casserole juices.

The Baby Organix ones also have no added salt, and I think they make apple flavoured ones, but I haven't really tried those yet (DS just got to try a couple of somebody elses yesterday evening, and seemed okay with them).

HTH!

Oh, and they all seem to be wholegrain, even the Baby Organix ones, so I decided that it couldn't be that big a deal...the issue, according to the Gill Rapley book, is that wholegrains make them feel fuller so they might not eat as much of other things, but she says it's okay so long as you offer them with a range of healthy alternatives.

missorinoco Hello and . Strangely I had the same thought yesterday, but no, I don't have one (yet).

[Waits to see what others say]

fleebee I used to BF before and often during meals in the early days of BLW! Even today, I ended up with biscuit on my boob.

(whispers) you could try not getting her weighed for a few weeks as then you don't worry/get hassled by relatives. I didn't get BB weighed from 4 months old until 9 months - I knew he was growing as his clothes were too small...

gs my mum goes on and on about BB's impressive chewing action, though mystified by how he'll ever learn to use a spoon, and sickened by the mess (despite the fact that she lets her cats on the kitchen worktop and gives her dogs her plate to lick - gross! - each to their own mess I guess)

isitmeor if your LO is anything like mine, he will show off and eat loads when in company.

missor a towel on the floor under the highchair is our approach. If he was on my knee, I used to spread a muslin over my legs! I say used to, as at 10 months there is a lot less mess. Nothing gets dropped if it's something he likes. Until he's had enough that is - then we get hands slapped into the food on the highchair.

ricecakes, the Kallo ones are good and I have even started eating them myself! feel most virtuous and think that all my dieting friends would approve - althoguh I wonder how many calories are added by a big slather of philly or peanut butter?!? The Boots or Organix flavoured ones are good - they only have fruit juice added and are a good alternative to a biscuit, if you have biscuit obsessed grandmas like I do. I swear, every time I turned my back yesterday, my mum had given BB another biscuit...