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.

Hey guys. Have been a bit bleary-eyed through lack of teeth due to DD's continuing experiments into the effect of sleep deprivation on parents. I'm thinking of buying her a white coat and clipboard for her 1st birthday.

Anyhoo, we like lentils in the Pandahousehold, being vegetarian too and quite keen on the little things. DD is still loving eating things that involve fully exploiting the pincer grip so it's peas, sweetcorn, individual lentils (yes, really. our meals are VERY long) and vegetables as long as they are cut up small. If I close my eyes, everything seems diced...

Oh, we have been using our breadmaker lots recently too. I found a nice recipe for italian style bread with pesto, polenta and onions in the breadmaker booklet which DD LOVED. Not as much as she loved carrot cake round my friends this afternoon though

ps Hulla your pancakes are now know as "Hulla's pancakes" in the Pandahouse. DH said the other day "why don't you make some of Hulla's things for brekkie"

You are famous

dawntigga the only thing that's ever really been rejected here is grapefruit.

Lol at babyPanda with her white coat and clipboard.

Hulla I think we're probably weaned here too but don't tell anyone or I might have to leave this thread

Hi all.
. I've opened a jar of baby rice porridge. well, at least it was an organic one .

really, I just had a blank mind this morning. DH had to go into work so I had to get dd1&2 breakfast quickly (wheatabix) and couldn't think of what to give dd3. should have given her some of my porridge but opened the jar instead. what a glutinous, sugary gloppy white mess. yuk. I will not use jars again in a hurry.

dd3 (six months old exactly) seems to like mainly toast and sucking bananas. we made pizza for lunch so I'll try that on her when she wakes up from her nap.

her BFs are all over the place as well when she had been fairly routine. is this normal?

Hope all are well.

oh, and I really must get her a high chair. it's so messy without one. we'd gone down the expensive route for dd1&2 by getting them tripp trapps which they still use.

i feel like getting her an IKEA one as £100ish quid is a lot to drop at the moment. but, if dd1&2 have a lovely chair, surely dd3 deserves one .

meanwhile, it's mummy's lap for now.

Monstermomi DD loves weetabix (mixed with yoghurt to soften it a bit, or even a splash of water) so you could always give them ALL that?

We have the Ikea chair. One day DD will get a Tripp Trapp too, but not yet!

Fame! At last! Thanks KiwiFamily . Im glad the pancakes are working out. I made some with sweetcorn too, blitzed some sweetcorn to flavour the batter and left some pieces in for, er, decoration. I preferred them to dd.

We're thinking of getting the ikea. The Chicco Polly is so so difficult to keep clean. I aspire to tripp tripps but I thought it would be handy to have a high chair that reclined when dd was 5 months and easy to fold down for travel. Sill reasons to choose a high chair really.

I tried a lovely Tana Ramsey recipe with mango the other day. It's here.

I know what you mean GS, I don't want to leave the thread, sometimes I feel like all I do is come on here and list what I've eaten all day. Its like a weird, online food diary.

Monster I think its normal for BFs to be all over the place when you start solids. For example my dd (and I know she's a bit older but you get the idea) got up at 6.30am today (with daddy ) and had breakfast. We then went out and she had some water and breadsticks at about 1pm (we were out) and then we had lunch at 1.30pm. She wasn't interested in bf until 4.30-6pm when we all went to bed and watched tv while dd swung off the headboard and had about 3 feeds (not whilst swinging).

Ok, I'm just waffling now. Hope you've all had a lovely weekend.

I have the Antilop and it's fab

But then don't take my word for it's fabbyness as I am a bad mother, tonight I fed my child fish fingers - and not the home made kind.

I'll be giving him fruit shoots next

IsReallyGoingToMissTheWitchyEmoticonsTiggaxx

We have the Chicco polly at my parent's house (it came from freecycle) and it drives me mad trying to get it clean, DD constantly slides down in it too. Couldn't stand doing that every day!

dawntigga I'm worse - DD had chicken kiev tonight

Hulla the pancakes are a big hit here too! Made them again this morning and BB ate as many as I did.

He is such a slow eater though lol. Tonight I made a cheesy bubble and squeak for us, using leftovers from the Sunday roast he wouldn't eat because he was too excited to be having lunch with his grandparents. I thought he'd finished as he'd started playing, so I have the last little bit to the dog. Then he starts scraping the tiniest crumbs off his highchair and bib and ate every last scrap. Felt a bit guilty!

KiwiPanda sorry to hear about your nights. We have the opposite problem here - blank refusal to nap in the day until he's exhausted, leading to much grumpiness and tantrums (me not him )

lol @ fish fingers and chicken kiev....I walked into the living room earlier to find BB lying on his back on his daddy's knee and sucking a lollipop that was leftover from Halloween!!! When he took it away, BB had this kind of crazed/drugged look in his eye and started making his 'more' face. Oh dear

OK, I have a question for you all.
What has surprised you the most so far about BLW?

Mine would be how quickly he became able to chew and to pick up small foods. The rate of development is amazing - from not being able to hold anything at 6 months, to picking up crumbs at 10 months.

Quick post as just back from a lovely weekend at a hotel and really have to unpack but mumsnet is much more fun

Carried on with the BLW but did spend a lot of time cleaning the lovely hotels floors with their napkins and think we may get sent a bill in due course for said napkins.

Hello again everybody .

Just back from visiting parents. DS slept atrociously last night, so we decided to try popping him into carseat instead of travel cot at bedtime and drive home rather than coming in the morning. It took 45mins for him to drop off, and had to feed him to sleep on transfer from car seat to cot at home, but suffice to say that we are already significantly ahead on last night's performance .

Not sure what parents and sister made of BLW. I was a bit taken aback at quite how much my mum offered DS, and made me wonder if I have been starving the poor lad. He ate a whole one of her Rachel's Organic baby yoghurts after his usual breakfast of shredded wheat and fruit this morning.

We have the IKEA Antilop and it is fab. Honestly not sure why anybody would ever buy anything else. Easy to clean. Legs come off for easy travelling. Cheap. What more could you ask for?

Hi, I'm new and I'm hoping for some advice if possible.....

I've been spoonfeeding my 7 month old and letting him try to eat whatever is on the go. My (Evil) MIL is adamant that he's missing out on essential nutrients by not eating baby food as it's balanced. Is she (still) a bullying control freak with no idea what she's talking about or is she a concerned Granny with a fair point? I'm breastfeeding and she's made awful comments in the past about something she's no idea about which I ignored but now she's got me so worried.

She still insists on filling him up with chocolate and junk everytime we see her. She's obsessed with giving him juice too, I didn't think a breastfed baby would need juice?

Advice from folks in the know would be great, thanks!

Hello Sarah. How lovely that MIL is so concerned - does she consider chocolate part of baby's balanced diet then??. We are all concerned that our LOs are getting a balanced diet. Family meals should be fairly balanced to start with, you just take it one step further by offering a range of foods, they then select what they want for that meal. Being the sad control freak I am (difficult when giving over control to baby), I am keeping a food diary of what is offered and actually eaten. Over time, I am finding a fairly balanced diet is emerging even if one day she'll only go for carbs, and the next only protein. It's a case of trusting him to take what his growing body needs. ('The book' helps to reassure interfering caring relatives )

Juice is about as much of a sweet treat that DD gets - 100% juice types, and watered down considerably. And she LOVES it. But mostly she'll bf a bit before a meal and have a sip of water during, just to help the stickier things like cream cheese and hummus go down.

Hey Tigga and belated seasons greetings to you . May DS continue to enjoy all his food.

No time, rl calls. Will read later. Hope the babies are all happy this morning.

morning all. just on MN early because all 3 dd's are still asleep! guess it means that dd3 has been suitably fed, right?

laughing about the fishfingers and chicken Kiev. I must confess to always have a package of ff in the freezer for the many rare 'emergency' dinner moments.

kiwi, i will try the weetabix this morning with dd3. i guess I still feel that she's too tiny for it but am willing to experiment. yesterday she had her usual toast sticks and some mashed b/nut squash with mixed spice, banana... and the many BFs. I'd like to have given her the pork casserole we had but not confident (or brave) yet.

morning!

Monstermomi It took me a while to work up to giving DS shares in our "proper" meals too, so just go with what you're confident with. Pork casserole sounds delicious, and I would definitely give DS a go at that if I knew how to make casseroles, but he's nearly 8mo now so a big difference.

Sarah I'd query the nutritional competence of anybody who thinks you should give a 7mo chocolate . DS's granny is very indulgent to her many DGCs, but she only offers DS baby organix snacks and seemed a bit shocked when I asked if babies would be allowed chocolate/sweet things when they were a year old. As she put it, no child she's ever met needed to acquire a taste for sweet things . So my short answer is "she's interfering".

Any baby, BF or otherwise, only needs their usual milk and water until they are one. If you are offering regular BFs, then I would just make sure DD has access to water alongside any food she has.

The official advice is here. Although I'm sure MIL will know better....

Hi!
A couple of people have mentioned this thread as being great for support so thought I'd put my head round the corner!
DS will be 6 months on 9th Nov and I plan to start BLW next weekend. Planning on cooked carrot sticks and brocolli as a first try.

Momi - hello! Good to see a fellow May 09er on here

highchairs - We've bought the BeaBea from JoJoMaman Bebe. DS has sat in it a few times for a max of 5 minutes so far. I gave him a weaning spoon to play with the other day whilst he was sat in it and he found his mouth but I can see this could get v messy!

Ses hello! BLW goes really well with BFing past 6 months I've found.

Sarah as far as I'm aware, baby food in jars has to be heated to such a high temparature to give it a long life, that it destroys many of the nutrients. I think I heard that at our health centre's weaning talk. Freshly cooked fruit, veg, meat and fish are much more healthy IMO.

My MIL was obsessed with jars from when BB was about 4 mths (grrr) and constantly went on about how her boys ate half a jar for x months, then a full jar. Boy, she has a good memory - her sons are both in their late 30s! Anyway, BB occasionally had jars with MIL but very quickly she realised he was more interested in real food and didn't want to be spoon fed, so from about 7mths she did BLW too.
I buy Organix biccies for their house (saying they shouldn't have to spend the money is my excuse) in an effort to stop MIL giving him sugary crap.

I made some great fishcakes tonight (the first time I've ever made edible ones):

I call them Sunday Dinner Fishcakes!

I mixed together the mashed potato and various veggies left over from yesterday's roast (green beans, leeks, brocolli, swede) with beaten egg, cheese, tinned tuna, a little philly cheese, a grind of black pepper and some paprika. I rolled them in plain flour and breadcrumbs and fried over a highish heat for about 8-10 minutes, flipping a couple of times. They were very very wet so needed careful handling to stop them falling apart while cooking, but they were lovely! I BB ate loads. I he had a cute little fat belly afterwards!

Hi everyone, I started back with DD2 after taking a small break. And I'm afraid I'm rubbish with this! I'm getting quite freaked out with this and yet keep reading how easy it is and how simple it makes life!! I'm obviously doing something wrong.

Sat both DC in high chairs and put some rice cakes with hummus on DD2's tray. She didn't really want to know, so encouraged her to try and pick one up. Is this wrong? She licked and sucked a bit of it then it fell, she couldn't get it so I picked it up and put it back in her hand. She didn't want to know then and started crying so I took her out and put her on my knee facing the tray but still didn't want to know.

So all she's had to day is a quarter of a rice cake with a tiny bit of hummus.

My mother arrive tomorrow for a few days and she's already threatening purees and spoons! What am I doing wrong or does my DD just not want to eat anything??!!!!!!

Aarrgggh head hurts!!!

Hi everyone, I'm back after a bit of a break too.

IsItMe glad you survived your trip although about your sleep problems. (And yes it does seem to be the same people on the bf/BLW/no sleep threads, doesn't it?) My MIL spoonfed my DD when my back was turned she came to visit (she thought I couldn't see her but I could!) DD swallowed everything put in her mouth too though

Scotlass about your trip to the hotel. I had a similar experience with my friend's white carpet. We've not been invited back!

Monstermomi weetabix gets another vote here or alternatively the little bite size shreddies. I can't stand them (urrgh) but DD (7.5m) is a big fan. And like IsItMe it's only really been in the last couple of weeks I have tried to feed DD the same(ish) as what we are eating. It has gone better than expected so far though.

Ses welcome! Do let us know how you get on. From our very early days I can highly recommend roast veg (tomato, squash, sweet pot, aubergine) and soft fruit (nectarines, pears, raspberries, although less seasonal now than when we started so more expensive). And broccoli. My DD was never wild about carrots. Oh and porridge.

Cara your fishcakes sound fab, even though I am veggie. I am going to give them a go but leave out the fish (so not really fishcakes). My DD loves mashed potato so I am quietly confident.

Fleebee really sorry you're finding it hard. I was very very lucky as DD took to it quite quickly but I don't think it was because of anything I did, I think she just likes her food. I don't think there's any harm at all in helping them in the early days, I certainly did esp with things like slippery fruit (have you tried soft fruit - it was the thing DD liked best in the early days?) Don't beat yourself up if you do end up trying purees and spoons but it may just be that your DD isn't hungry. If you want to keep the BLW aspect you could always try putting the spoon in her hand and "helping" her to put it in her mouth. But you must do what you're most comfortable with. I struggled terribly with bf in the early days and I remember getting very cross and frustrated with people who kept telling me how easy and convenient it was (although I am now sooo glad I persisted).

Thanks for the welcome!

I'd always envisaged boiled veg but I guess roasted may work well. I suppose you just use minimum oil?

Interesting that BLW/BF/sleep threads are attracting people all at once. I've got huge sleep issues with DS. I find every evening really stressful. Only started a bedtime routine about a month ago and he likes it but rarely sleeps longer than 2hrs at a time. AAaaarrrggh!
I sit downstairs stressing and staring at the monitor and by the 1am wake up, I've had enough and bring him into bed.

FleeBee I started off holding things for BB and letting him suck (e.g. pears, toast, banana, broccoli). I found it helped if I focused on BFing mainly, and then just used food as an extra playtime if he happened to be awake at mealtimes. I had my mum take over and feed BB purees for 1 week at 4.5 mths old and it was horrible. It was what made me want to do BLW. No tips on how to stop her I'm afraid, other than trying to stick to your guns (hard I know when up against grandmas).

drcosy I reckon beans would work instead of the fish - a couple of different types.

Ses I don't think you have to worry about fat content for babies, as long as it's olive oil or whatever. You only need a desertspoonful or two for a tray of roasted veggies.
I share your pain with the sleeping issues I don't think I slept for more than 3 hours in a row until BB was 8.5 months.