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.

Welcome Flee Missorinoco and Vezzie! Missorinoco yup, it's messy! I haven't resorted to a housecoat yet but what a good idea! I have been wearing the same pair of jeans for about 2 weeks now. Every time I think about putting a fresh pair on I decide it's not worth it as they'll be covered in lentils and roasted tomato skins by the end of the day.

Flee I think I've been very lucky as DD has taken to BLW pretty well but it still took a couple of weeks before we really got anywhere. I don't think DD would have been quite ready at 24 weeks - we started at 26. So don't despair.

Housecoats? Orinoco, can you link? Are they.... retro and stylish?

I am feeding dd in a common or garden apron. Not stylish at all. She has to sit on my knee as she can't seem to get to grips with things in the high chair, I think the tray is too high. She wears a bib with sleeves - or she will now I have one for her. In the bath tonight we were washing bobbles off broccoli out from under her chin.#

Thank you for all the information about rice cakes - I will get some tomorrow.

DrCosyTiger I like your lentil and roasted tomato style .

Hi We've been doing the old purees but i'm intriged by what i'm hearing about BLW. We have given dd (6.5mths) some finger foods but with not a graet deal of sucess. She manages brocoli fine but gags alot with other food and has been sick a couple of times. This has scared dh who talked me into going back to purees.

I'm also a bit worried about the salt content of foods. I know exactly what goes into a pureed dinner, so i'm a bit torn. DD loves her dinners but if i give her finger foods she gets fustrated if she misses her mouth or with fruit/veg - they slide out of her grasp.

So i'm not sure which way to go now.

Oh I have bought some Boots organic apple rice cakes which has no added salt only naturally occuring sodium.

Another newbie, would like to join for friendship and support.

My DS is 6mths and is quite a big boy - as I am constantly told . He loves playing with food and particularly embraces the messiness of tipping his food onto his lap.

I give him steamed veg, bits of fruit(not much seems to go in of that - am going to try hourglass shape), toast and ricecakes.

I'm really scared about givng him mince, chicken and pasta as he does seem to gag a lot- do you just put that in front of them and let them go for it?? I've read Gill Rapleys book but need hand holding at the moment I think.

Am also nervous about putting cheese on the toast is that mad?

Hi

I haven't een able to read this whole thread yet, as I have got 30 minutes of morning nap to do all manner of things. I am trying BLW, although have also been trying to do some traditional feeding as I have the imagination of a tadpole a the moment when it comes to food. Kind of struggling with being tired, over emotional etc.

However, Hayden (just coming up to 7 months now) surprises me with the food that I have given him. Yesterday he grabbed a sandwich from me, and although it was full of food he shouldn't have (philly, processed ham) had a whale of a time doing his damndest to have fun with it including smearing philly all over his feet. He seems to love family roast dinners, and has given roast chicken and ham a good go, as well as steamed and roasted vegetables. My trouble with the process is eating on my own at home and giving him enough time to explore foods, as it is a very different atmosphere from a family dinner.

However, I am hoping to find some ideas on here, and the BLW blog that I discovered through an older thread on mumsnet, as I am desperate to get somewhere with weaning. Not that I am slightly concerned about going to my work christmas party in december when my Hayden won't take milk from anything other than my boobs...

So I shall try and read as much as I can of this and the other threads, and then I'll start asking questions.

mrsfossil and scotlass Hello!

mrsfossil - have you read the Gill Rapley book, as it explains about the gag reflex and might help your DH to read it?

The salt content issue - it's no harder to make a non-pureed dinner than a pureed one, is it? I have adapted a number of our usual recipes so that they are as salt free as possible, and then DS just has some of what we're having. You also become a bit of an obsessive label reader, but I figure as new mums we're going to obsess about something, so why not this ? Boots do some very low salt stock cubes, although personally I've been using the Kallo very low salt ones.

I think they all get frustrated to begin with, btw. Fwiw, my personal take is that you should do whatever you find easiest and not be too dogmatic about anything. I prefer cooking a family meal, being able to eat it all together, and doing a bit of extra cleaning rather than cooking something special for DS and then spooning it into him. But this is a very subjective thing - others hate the mess and worry about how much is going in more. There isn't a right or wrong way imho.

scotlass - mince and pasta are my DSs favourites, although it was probably a few weeks before I dared try him on it. He seems to find fusili easy to grip. Bolognese is definitely his favourite. I give him the sauce, fusili and grated cheese on top. I make the sauce including garlic and herbs, and he seems perfectly happy with that (I even add a little red wine and cook off the alcohol for extra flavour for us). Shepherd's pie also quite successful - I do a very thick layer of mash with cheese on top so it comes off in clumps for him to gnaw on.

Not much success here with chicken yet, although he enjoys separating the meat off a thigh bone (I am nervous so take the skin and any gristly bits off first]. As I say, not sure much goes in, but he really seems to enjoy sucking on it, and looks like a real cave-baby waving his bone about .

DS is almost 8mo now, and we tentatively gave him some bits of roast lamb the other day. He had a good suck on them and played with a massive bit in his mouth for a long time, before it came out again much to our relief.

I gave DS cheese on toast quite early on and he had no problem with it.

Have to say, DS hasn't really been much of a gagger though. Frustration has been more his "thing".

My approach has been to try him on different things and watch him carefully while trying desperately to hide my anxiety .

Mmm, housecoat ... Do you mean like a tabard?No, think that would be a slippery slope for me, would be tempted to pop to the shops in that and my slippers . I somehow manage to remain remarkably unscathed (have got v good at dodging food missiles and sticky grasping fingers). DH sometimes wears an apron though.

Housecoat - I was imagining something like this. Now that pattern would hide a lot of stains/smears .

We prefer nudity to housecoats in this house

ooh, I think my grandma used to have one like that IsItMeOr

Sadly no, I haven't found one worthy of a link. Have gone slightly into shock at the one in the IsItMeOr's link, does the Mirror really think it's readers would wear one?
Even 2 weeks old lentil stains would look better! With my body, nudity may be comparable to the coat......

Like the towel idea. Had been thinking of buying a couple of cheap tablecloths - thanks!

Blimey greensnail doesn't it get a bit nippy, or does your dc eat a bit faster than mine (hour long marathons)?

Well our early BLW days were in the summer! She doesn't drop much now, she doesn't want to risk not getting it back! Still insists on watering the floor with her cup though

Oh that's disappointing missorinoco. How about one like Mrs Overall used to wear in Acorn Antiques?

Hi again all. - I'm the one who asked about honey in the bread. well,I didn't take the risk and have made bread without honey to give dd3 (1 week shy of 6 mos).

anyway, dd hasn't been too interested in butternut squash puree or babyrice and pushes the spoon away. she's been quite happy with toast but I need to be careful as I was about to put her down for a nap about 15 min after said toast. I happened to notice a gummed wad of toast at the roof of her mouth and took it carefully out

Monter she will, I promise! Just offer little bits each time you eat and don't worry if she ignores it for a while - milk is still her main source of nutrition until about 1 year old so there is plenty of time for her to build up to it.

Its hard I know but once you know the milk thing I think its a bit easier to go with the flow (and I am not a go-with-the-flow person at all).

Early faves here were things like plum, mango, apricots & nectarines. Oh and put cheese on something and my dd will wolf it down (cauliflower cheese for lunch today!). Keep posting, we'll answer anything we can.

GS In the spirit of chilling out about food, DD spotted me (not very discretely) eating a snickers bar today and waddled over for a bit so I let her have some chocolate! I know, perhaps a bit too relaxed given the peanut thing but she didn't get any actual peanuts.

Have enjoyed the tabard/overall/housecoat debate. We just wing it here, dd gets a flanning down before I get her out of her high chairs. Sometimes I get a bit of mess on me but, tbh, I look quite rough since having a baby anyway so doubt anyone would notice.

Monster iirc Gill Rapley suggests that you teach dc to check for food in their mouth at the end of a meal to avoid that. If I remember/DS looks a bit suspicious (can't think of a better word for the expression he has when he still has something stowed away), I will run the gauntlet of his teeth and have a quick check with my finger after I've wiped him down and changed him.

Re: food in mouths, I had an interesting one today when BB decided to chomp on a piece of kitchen foil! There's me, terrified he was going to swallow it (imagine the discomfort when it comes out the other end), not wanting to fish it out in case I push it further in, on the phone to OH; he suggested holding him belly down and then fishing it out of his mouth, which I managed to do successfully. And yes, it was me who gave him tin foil to play with

Hulla remember how sanctimonious I am with MIL about sugar and processed foods? Well, every time I eat crisps anywhere near BB he literally grabs one out of my hand and crams them into his mouth. Yesterday OH gave him a choccie cookie (every scrap picked up) and I also gave him a chunk of e-number-ridden cocobolls from Ikea! I kind of figure that if we make these sorts of foods forbidden, he will want them more.

monster yes, just pop things on the tray and see what she does!

isitmeor BB has had chunks of steak for a while now and used to suck the juices out - although he has recently progressed to chewing bits off. The same with casserole meat.

kezzabell welcome. I was worried about pasta and gave it at around 7.5 months I think. He used to suck the sauce off and will now occasionally chomp, although he prefers rice. Philly I give regularly as it is lower salt than most other cheeses.

Anyone doing anything interesting with pumpkins this weekend? (now there's a dodgy question if ever I heard one!!!) I have one in my veg box and am imagining beautifully carved lanterns and a pumpkin soup on Sunday...although it'll probably end up pumpkin mush and me with a sliced finger

We tried noodles today, was so funny watching DS suck them up! It was extremely messy though, bits of noodle everywhere. Although not as messy as when I dropped a full bowl of yoghurt on the floor which exploded all over the kitchen I had spent the morning cleaning

frustration Seems a lot of us suffer with this. We are probably 4 weeks in now and its still happening, although his grip is getting much better. I have to take him out of his highchair and give him boob after most meals to calm him down again.

ricecakes I'm a big fan of Sainsburys own brand be good to yourself salt free ones. But DS has gone off rice cakes now sadly.

poo one of my favourite topics, I have lots of conversations with DS1 about poo (encouraging him to start potty training). DS2 is not constipated as he poos about 3 times a day but they are very hard, rabbit poos OH calls them. DS2 grunts when doing them, should I be offering him more water do you think? I offer him water with every meal but he doesn't always want to drink a lot.

Hi all and welcome Mrs Fossil, Scotlass and Kezza!

I'm loving the great housecoat debate (although slightly by the image of Greensnail and Baby Snail sitting in the kitchen with no clothes on - my kitchen looks out onto a shared garden area, hmmm)

Mrs F if your LO is getting frustrated, you can always help her a bit. I did this quite a lot in the early days. Also making things into hourglass shapes seemed to help.

Scotlass if you're worried about gagging you could always start off with fairly mushy stuff, well roasted veg (my DD loves roasted tomatoes), baked potato/sweet potato, scrambled egg, porridge etc (I know that's not quite purist BLW but hey). But yes, I just put stuff down in front of DD and see what happens and just try lots of different things. Pasta has been fine - I use the bow shapes with tomato sauce and grated cheese. Tbh I don't think much of the pasta itself goes in yet, DD just licks the sauce and cheese off. And I tried cheese on toast quite early on, although DD wasn't very keen.

Kezza I would say just go for it! Love the image of your DS with cheesy feet! Just post when you have questions.

((waves at)) kezzabell sorry I didn't see you arrive there. I know exactly what you mean about tadpole brain. I really struggled for weeks to get my head around what to feed DS and still wish from time to time I could EBF him to be honest. The 30min naps sound a bit like my DS used to be too - fortunately he tends to go a bit longer now (when he goes at all, that is).

lol at the housecoat conversation.

thanks for your advice everyone. I will check DD's mouth for anything left behind.

well tonight she had some cheese on toast and seemed to like it. she dropped a few slices though to the delight of our dog who sat strategically beside her chair.

I also tried again to give her the mashed squash but she got frustrated when I tried to spoonfeed her and tried to grab the spoon from me. So I let her then try to spoon feed herself which was a bit messy and most of it didn't make it to her mouth but she was happy.

Jumbs, i want to try noodles tomorrow. sounds fun .

Pumpkin? will probably do some soup or curry. need to find a recipe for the latter though

Argghhh. Think DS may have caught the norovirus going around, if what his other little playmates have is anything to go on.

So I think we will not be doing anything very interesting with pumpkin as I don't fancy wearing it...

Waves to all.

Have started blw with my lo and he loves everything. I seem to be bringing up a terribly middle class baby as he loves pesto

Don'tMindMeIHaveAWarpedSenseOfHumourTiggaxx