***Just about to start Baby-led Weaning*** Join Me to share experiences !!

[FluffyFrog]

I have a 20 week old and am planning on starting BLW around the end of May ish. Have been reading the Gill Rapley Book but would be great to get some ideas from others and share a few experiences. We will probably start in the next 4-6 weeks. Is there anyone else around starting at the same time that wants to join me on this thread ?

londonlottie what a nightmare - you must have been at him!

londonlottie, I can't believe how rude those relations are

It sounds as if you're doing a great job - I have nothing but admiration for mothers of twins who can manage to get to 6 months with everyone still alive.

We had the first 'roll off the nappy' poo yesterday - actually much less unpleasant than more of a bf-solids mix.

DS enjoyed a whole nectarine today: I find it funny when he ends up holding it like a rugby ball, and he can feel it but not quite pick it up. The slurping noises are loud beyond belief. It is amazing how fast his co-ordination has improved already.

londonlottie and for you. Glad you are feeling better today though.

We have a family BBQ this weekend and will the first time most of them will have seen DD eat so am expecting some negativity too. Am hoping when they see that she can manage and how much she enjoys it, they will be less .

Samosas went down very well earlier this week btw. They were very fiddly to make though and created sooooooo much mess

lottie! (The slippy fruit handle is a great idea!)

Angeldog the nectarine munching sounds hilarious!

Good luck for the bbq pdog!

Ds is having a right old time sucking, gumming and slurping away on carrot, courgette, bread. Including the sauces etc and any bits of couscous, yoghurt, raspberry etc that he can sweep up. He is loving it so much. I'm so glad he's taken to it, now i know i did the right thing a) deciding to do blw and b) following my instinct to start rather than the calendar.

We learned several valuable lessons today.

1. Water is okay, but it becomes wildly entertaining if you blow raspberries with it in your mouth

1. a determined 6 month old can easily take the tray off a bumbo and suck it

1. tuna in brine has salt in it. Obviously.

Thanks for the slippy fruit handle idea - why didn't I think of that?! Just in case anyone esle had tried to peel a butternut squash with a knife, I can confirm that a veggie peeler is the better option...

Sounds like you're FIL is nightmare
londonlottie. Hope things are better now you're home.

Can't make any suggestions re cous cous - not tried it yet. Carb wise have found japanese sushi rice to be better than others as its sticky and can be rolled into finger shapes balls which can be picked up. Tried penne and sauce but too slippery for DS to pick up. Might try it dry.

Bobby99 hehe love the water blowing story.

Angeldog - first solid poo here today too (closely followed by enormous non solid hehe).

DS eating like a horse. Lots of BF today and lots of solids. Think he is having a growth spurt.

Great rant londonlottie I think the saying goes something like - "you can't pick your family"!

We've tried couscous with a fishy tomato stew type of thing and yes, it was very messy! Don't think there is any way round that one really.

I made salmon and ginger fishcakes tonight which were OK, but mini crikey just kept handing pieces to me. Had an awful night with him last night - whatever I did, he just wouldn't settle. Guess it's that 9 month developmental stage that's keeping him up. Re. pasta, I found that lasagne was a bit easier to handle as it could be cut in to squares for them to eat.

Sorry londonlottie but I can't help laughing at your FIL's antics - cutting the cloths etc, not his behaviour your twins.

Haven't tried anything too small yet. Only puy lentils, mixed with spinach and yoghurt. I dolloped it on the tray and DD used both hands to scoop it up. Very messy though. Am waiting for her pincer grip before I try anything smaller. Not much success with pasta here either. DD loves the sauce but finds the tubes really hard to hold as they are so slippery - might have to try twists to give her something to hold onto.

Bobby99 at the water. DD poured hers all over the tray and then splashed her hands in it at lunch time.

crikeybadger hope you have a better night tonight. Must try lasagne. Planning on making a similar Greek dish with macaroni and lamb mince tomorrow - was thinking it would stick together better so she could eat it. Were the salmon fishcakes easy to make? I was looking at that recipe but I don't like salmon so didn't want to faff on just for DD if they are fiddly.

I've been lurking on this thread for ages, and found it very inspiring when making plans for the weaning of DS, who started BLW 3 weeks ago, aged 28 weeks. However, the gagging thing is causing real problems, and wondered if anyone had any idea what we can do. We're not just talking occasional gagging here - we're talking every other bite of food. The gagging gets so extreme that it ends in vomiting at pretty much every other meal. It happens with soft foods (today's big problem was baked butternut squash - it adhered to the roof of his mouth at the back) as well as harder ones. Fortunately, DS doesn't seem to mind the vomiting too much, but it does mean he loses the food he's already swallowed, the pre-meal milk, and whatever items got caught in the deluge.

He's meeting all the criteria for BLW (over 26 weeks at start, sitting upright, pincer grip, putting things in his mouth), so it's a bit disconcerting that the food is causing these problems.

Does anyone have any ideas, experience of this, or even just some encouraging words!?

Cous Cous - really hard one to give without loads of mess. We ended up mixing in a bit of yoghurt, which helped with picking up but still messy. Pre-load the spoon.
Pasta - have found that tagliatelle is the easiest to handle for DD, although it does look pretty ridiculous. Without any sauce, just for clarity.
Mummagumma - well done for keeping going with BLW, sorry i can only offer encouragement. Have not had huge experience of gagging, sorry.

Thanks Pdog, I've got my fingers crossed for some sleep tonight. Fishcakes were easy peasy but they didn't stick together too well. Think I should have cut the salmon up more finely than I did.

Welcome Mummagamma! sorry haven't really had much experience of gagging but someone here will surely be able offer some help. Are you offering water at the same time? Hopefully, it will just be something that he will outgrow over time.

Bobby - I laughed a lot at the things you have learned today!!!! Also at LondonLottie's FIL stories.

After the massive gag and vomit incident last week, we've been giving purees at the evening meal alongside finger foods. It might not be related, but it seems she has got much better at swallowing and we have had less gagging on the finger foods at other times of the day as a result - although more likely just a massive coincedence!!!

Mummagumma - we have had loads of gagging here, to the point where I seriously doubted what we were doing last week! I am happy to report that now all of a sudden it seems to have improved again. Not sure of the reason why, but I stayed away from sticky foods for a while so actually avoided roasting veg for a bit. We had a lot of apple rice cakes, plain toast, brocoli spears, pear (without skin), banana (both chunks and mashed with fork on spoons). Her top teeth were coming through and I think that seemed to cause her problems and I would also second lots of water to help wash things down. My Mum was very reassuring and reminded me that the actual volume of sick is often far, far less than it sometimes looks and she is probably keeping much more of her milk down then perhaps you imagine. No idea if that is correct, but it certainly helped calm me!!!

ps we have pincer grip here as demonstrated by DD being able to pick up the smallest bits of stuff of the floor and put it in her mouth!!! Must let her try some smaller bits of food now rather than just foraging for it under the sofa (not that my house isn't completely spotless you understand ).

Mummagumma- just wanted to reassure you you're not alone. We've had a bit of spectacular gagging here also followed by vomiting.

I found its either caused by DS putting far too much food in his mouth of different types (so the other day when he had a piece of pork, some cucumber and then tried to add something else) or things with skin like peach yesterday. Going to get round it by trying to de-skin things a bit more (need some skin or too slippery to pick some stuff up). As for him stuffing his mouth have tried to ensure not too much on his tray at once but also trying to sit back and let him learn not to overload otherwise he never will. Maybe avoid soft foods for a while?

Thank you all for the tips & reassurance. There was no vomiting yesterday! Lots of gagging, though. One gag in particular got pretty scary when he went silent and his eyes started watering - fortunately then a huge lump of melon shot out, so no baby Heimlich was required. Hopefully he'll recover his eating mojo soon. It's odd: the first week was almost problem free, and then all this started. He just can't always propel food forward on his tongue.

When we peer in during the gags, we usually see bits sat at the back of his tongue, and have to decide whether it's small enough to be washed down with water, or whether we have to keep fingers crossed that he'll get it shifted before the sick comes. Fortunately, he seems to love water.

Has anyone got anything interesting on the menu for this weekend? I need inspiration.

Tried chicken casserole last night - very satisfying nappy this morning, the courgette and carrots seem to have been the best bits! Just had cheese and tomato on toast for lunch followed by a peach. More seems to be going down recently, although most of the food ends up plastered on DD, bumbo (antilop highchair arrived yesterday, must get it out of the box..), table, me etc. Its so much fun though, and DD is over the moon with the whole thing! She adores kiwi fruit, although it does look like there has been an explosion of frogspawn the nappy afterwards!

Having choked and gagged on all kids of carbs at the start, she now loves toast and rice cakes with pretty much any kind of topping. Fab. Have met some other mums who took the blw route and nobody has anything bad to say about it, so hurrah for blw!!

Londonlottie - my DD loves anything with Philadelpia on rice cakes - little bits of cheese, tuna, haddock, anything you fancy really. She wasn't bothered with them without toppings at all, in fact we had our only proper choking incident with a dry rice cake.

I'm reading for inspiration, and will offer up our recent menus to inspire anyone else, although to me they seem very boring...

DS has enjoyed:
sticky rice mixed up with mashed tinned sardines and some mayo
chicken casserole with peppers, courgettes and capers
breadsticks
banana pancakes
plums
bread soaked in vichysoisse
strips of omelette

He was totally uninterested in:
carrot sticks in any shape or form (steamed, boiled, roasted)
sticks of cheese

Well we survived the weekend BBQ with only a few comments. My aunt (only my marriage) was very rude and made comment after comment after how 'un-natural' it was. I almost offered to puree her food for her .

DD did me proud this morning. We were staying at my dad's and his wife was very when we told her about BLW. This was the first time she had seen DD eat though. DD scoffed toast with banana and a kiwi fruit this morning. Dad's wife said she had some strawberries and would DD like one. Yes, she loves strawberries said I. But she cut it up for her into little bits so I explained I usually just give her them whole and she picks them up. Dad's wife then attempted to feed DD the bits of strawberry but DD just spat them out and proceeded to try her hardest to get them off the tray and feed herself .

She is really starting to pack it away now.

londonlottie DD has had the following on rice cakes:

avocado
banana
philly
philly & mackeral
philly & tuna
tinned mixed bean salad whizzed with sour cream
lentils and spinach whizzed with philly

She loves it all but just sucks off the topping and discards the rice cakes.

Thanks Cies was looking for inspiration for this weeks shopping list.

This week we're mostly 'aving...

tuna and cheese toasted pittas
lentil dal, spinach and paneer
mini quiches (yum)
broccoli /cauliflower in cheese sauce
corn on the cob
courgette and red pepper frittata
pancakes as a treat
lasagne
soft fruit by the bucket load...

getting thrown over the edge of the highchair is...

broccoli spears

good on your dd pdog!

Hendo congrats on the pincer grip. I'll be very glad when my ds manages to remove dog hair from things before picking them up off the floor and putting them in his mouth.

Does everyone do rice cakes? I hate don't normally buy them. Should i so ds can try them? I like oat cakes. Anyone tried their dcs with them? I'm really lazy trying to give him what we have.

Ds is really loving the food. I'm amazed to be finding bits in his poo already!
He's been having cauli and potato curry, stirfried broccoli and noodles (with lemon and garlic), chargrilled courgette, pizza, banana, nectarine, toast, and mezze including beetroot dip... He looked like this... (stripped him off before he went in the high chair, then straight in the bath)! All home made so just leaving out /massivly cutting down on the salt (and chilli! Normally a major food group in our house). Does this sound ok? I make our bread so less salt there...i do love cheese so that does go in quite a lot. I'm hoping that less salt in other things will make up for cheese...

We did couscous the other day londonlottie but tbh it was just for ds to play with while the tagine cooled. But mixed with yoghurt some did stick to the bits he was picking up, but it definatly was more of a texture than a carb iyswim.

Does anyone use a doidy? We.ve just got one so are offering ds some water from it. It first it would just flow back out of his open mouth but i think he's starting to get that it's for swallowing. I was wondering about putting some ebm in it? He's never had a bottle so guess drinking out of any cup would be wierd for him. If i can avoid a lidded one i'd like to as i'm lazy [hopelessly optimistic pfb emoticon]

So really, a week in it's all going well...a bit too well maybe? We haven't even had a proper choking incident... am waiting for that one...esp after reading your story mumma (really hope you manage to sort it out soon )

Sorry for the huge post. Thread takes an age to load on my phone so thought i'd better get it all out at once!

Wow, sounds like a fab start MfM. Beetroot dip must have looked like there'd been a murder!

I think many people use cardboard rice cakes because they are low in salt and something other than wheat. If you make your own bread anyway, then I guess the salt is not so much of an issue.

I am obsessive about rice cakes now - we have the apple flavoured ones and I always have a packet on the go. I find they don't go stale as quickly as bread (and I am very disorganised with shopping so this is a Good Thing for me). I also have some with me whenever I go out, so worse case scenario is that DD always can have something to eat if necessary and they work a treat if she's getting a bit whingey in the pushchair!

I have to say though, I usually put toppings on toast rather than rice cakes, but keep meaning to get some plain ones to do toppings on at home!