***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 - hello!

i was trying to think where i recognised yoru name from and realised it was the due Jan 2010 thread.

i remember some of your messages when you were pregnant and now we're onto weaning - mad how time flies!

thanks for your tortilla pizza idea - sounds fab. going to give that a go, how do you make your sauce?

the mess! i knew this was going to be messy business but not this messy!!!

i put messy mat down, water proof bib, then plastic bib on top and still the food manages to find its way down her neck and into all teh chubby creases so i have to change her clothes and struggle to clean her neck - she refuses to look up, tried all distraction techniques. and all this and not knowing if any went in?

then the water!!! she loves her doidy cup but every two out of three mouthfuls comes straight out like a little fountain.

but saying all that, she is having a great time and has fun. plus i feel relaxed and not worried about how much she eats.

i just hope by 8 mths she is actually eating though.

londonlottie - Tortilla pizza sounds great - thanks for the idea. Agree about tomato sauce - we had lasagna for lunch. Carnage and then avocado for tea - more carnage! Hope you see teeth soon. Have found cold melon / cucumber / mango good for teething.

Had no success with porridge pancake with microwave. Have given up. Now make it pretty thick, shape it into balls and DS manages to pick it up but its pretty messy.

Devotion - poo frequency changed here too. Used to be daily / every other day. Now it's every 2-4 days and more than one per day too. It seems to alternate between roll-off-the-nappy ones and wetter bf-type ones with bits of solids in. I found a piece of sweet potato skin an inch long in today's nappy!

I have the same mess problem - DS has a normal fabric bib which ties rather than poppers/velcros around his neck, so I put that on as tight as I dare to soak up the liquid which gets under the waterproof bib. But it's definitely not foolproof. Fortunately DS likes pushing up on his stomach, which is a good opportunity to get his neck clean.

Raspberries for breakfast were pretty messy... but a bit of Vanish seemed to get the stains out.

LovingKent, glad the sleep stuff was helpful. DS seems to be improving hugely on the nap front as well as nighttime, so it's all good!

Yesterday I discovered DS had a big bit of chicken still in his mouth quite a bit after dinner. I usually check at the end of meals but must have got distracted.

I made savoury flapjacks at the weekend - rather yummy.

Poos changed here too. DS still gets constipated quite easily, if we've had a day of not much fruit and veg and too much bread, which often happens if I'm out and about and not at home for meal times.

We're about to head off on our holidays - ten days cruising in a sailing boat, although DS and I will be cruising from port to port in the car, while DH, BIL and a few others will be sailing. The thought of DS eating in a confined space in the boat, with the other passengers who are all a bit anal about mess and crumbs is stressing me out a bit already. Plus no easy washing facilities. I just hope the weather is good so we can eat up on deck and then sluice the whole thing down with a bucket of water. I've bought a few jars of food to spoon feed as well, because cooking is not that easy on board and there are only so many times I feel we can feed him ham and cheese. So wish me luck . At least during the day while they are sailing DS and I can have messy picnics in the park or whatever, as long as it's not raining.

Those savoury flapjacks look great, I'm going to make some up today to take with us.

another question from a beginner

i gave my other girls eggs from about 10 mths onwards, with blw you just give them from the word go? 6mths?

hello hello

LovingKent glad it was helpful. DS is only napping once a day now although he does seem tired in the morning. I am convinced he needs two naps but if he naps in the morning he doesn't sleep all afternoon so it is 8 hours from wake up from nap to bedtime which is frankly ridiculous! So anyway, we are going for an early lunch and a big long nap after. We shall see.

Had prawns last night for tea and he woke up at 2:30am. My mum reckons its because prawn are too low in fat. The boy needs chicken, lamb and beef to get him through. It makes sense as we had lamb the other night and he slept till 5am!

Devotion My DS has had an egg many mornings for breakfast since we started. He used to eat a little bit of it but now he eats the lot! Particularly likes the yolk . Really nothing wrong with him either so egg has the ok here.

great thanks... one more question can you give runny egg or does it need to be hard boiled

love eggs

i guess i could give
scrambled, poached and egg bread?

yes to scrambled, poached etc. its supposed to be hard boiled but sometimes i can't get the timing right so the yolk is soft. not totally runny though.

We've been away for about a month over in Ireland and busy with weddings when back, so it feels like an age since I've been on MN. Back to work again in a couple of weeks too, so things are hectic.

DD2 (8 months) is still going great guns with her BLW. She is a total carnivore (in direct contrast to her big sister) and will hoover up chicken, steak, mince, mackerel fillets, you name it. In fact, she eats a lot more than her big sister does ATM. Last night she flatly refused to pick up a fork, so she's been a teary nightmare today, but that's for another thread.

We are still struggling with our restricted (no dairy, soy, gluten, egg, nut) diet, especially when out and about. Last week DD2 and I had plain baked potato for lunch 4 days on the trot. She doesn't like salad much, and I'm still not sure about peppers with her so she really is restricted. I've lost all my baby weight and more, which I suppose is one benefit. Apart from baked potato, we are pretty restricted to rice cakes for lunch and she seems to have gone off them so I'm really struggling. And also, a lot of things I think of seem to be high in salt so I don't really know whether to give them to her or not, e.g. ham, chorizo, GF sausages, etc. We were staying in a hotel this weekend that served chips already salted which really put the kybosh on DD2, when the only thing she could eat on the menu was steak and chips!

hey hobnob, isn't it funny that they are so different. i don't know why i find it so weird - i suppose i expect them all to be clones !

Well things are back on track this week. DD is eating again and has packed loads away today.

Must be difficult for you hobnob. I wouldn't worry too much about the salt - as long as she doesn't have them everyday it should be fine. My DN1 is very fussy and won't try anything new, whereas her younger sister will eat anything and often finishes her dinner.

Thanks for the link AngelDog, they sound delicious so will def make some at the weekend.

Agree with the tomato sauce carnage but it is one of DD's favourites. Didn't realise you could have so many versions of meatballs with tomato sauce until we started BLW .

Hello Everyone, so good to hear about you and your lo's! Have been away so catching up!

DS has been doing really well, and is really demanding his share when we eat now, making it quite clear that he wants some (we tried to cheat him a few times in the rush to get packed and away, and then as we had no highchair on hols, he was not havin it!). Demolished some melon at my folks house, mightily impressing them (and toast and croissent - demolished them, not impressed them that is), actuallly eating quite a bit. Polenta has also been a hit...thank you to whoever suggested that one! I can't recall.

There have been bits in poo I believe but we do ec and ds's poo goes straight down the loo so close inspection is difficult! However he hasn't pooed for four days now, was guessing this was ok as he's basically bf (esp while we've been away)...glad to hear others have had similar experiences!

Pdog glad to hear things are better for you

hobnob I have given ds chips that I have licked the salt off (mmm, nice) when there's nothing else. I figure they don't have to completely exclude salt so little bits won't matter. We are more carefull at home

cies re your holiday!

Londonlottie (glad you sound cheerier) we use a doidy and hold it for him. He now gets swallowing the water. We just put a wee bit in and guide from the bottom while he grabs it by the handles. It works for us so far. I figure you'd have to pass and guide any cup to begin with, though a doidy has more potential for mess, but doing blw I'm already set up to cope with that! Plus I feel like I'd have to train him twice if he got used to a lidded cup, and I am lazy don't want to. I have been encouraged by older people telling me of the time before lidded cups!

Got an antilop and tray from carboot for £5.50. Spent the saving on demijohns (an invstment I promise!)!

Anyone having sleep problems? (dodges the barage of abuse for asking such a stupid question...). Well, I don't want to count any chickens, but I think we're on to something here. DD went from waking 10+ times a night to sleeping through overnight. Then we had a night with 4 wakings, then last night she slept from 7.45pm to 4.40am and didn't even wake for her last feed. Then a quick 2 minute cuddle, and back to sleep until 6.15am. Amazing!

And what did I do different? Well, after resisting the advice of my mum for ages I gave DD some porridge with her evening feed. She usually grabs the spoon and shoves it in her own mouth, but sometimes she just opens her mouth and expects me to put the spoon in. Not exactly BLW, but she's so happy and well rested (and so am I!!! Yippee!!!) and all of her meals are BLW. So we are now doing BWL+porridge!

It may just be that she was ready to sleep better and that small change was enough to make all the difference, I don't know, but I'd definitely encourage anyone to give it a go.

Oh, and she's 2 hours into a nap now (most unusual) and while she's been asleep I've made some banana bread which is cooking and smells fantastic .

Oh, I forgot, here's the link to the banana bread recipe. Wonder if there will be any of it left by the time the wee one wakes up?!

www.babyledweaning.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=415

Yes, we have sleep problems here. I'm glad your LO is sleeping better but I'm not sure that lack of solids is the culprit in my DD's case. Yesterday she ate a really good lunch and must have eaten a whole lamb meatball and at least 3 pieces of pasta (whole it looked like) plus brocoli and yoghurt with blackberries for tea. She then had her usual massive bf before bed and still woke up 4 times .

I'm not convinced it is hunger though as I was so shattered that I ignored her the third time and she went back to sleep (after rolling round her cot like a maniac for 10 mins). I think it might be her digestive system getting used to dealing with solids rather than milk; especially as is eating more this week.

That is what I keep telling myself anyway as I am desperate to prove my dad wrong. He has been telling me since DD was 3mo that she doesn't sleep through because I don't feed her 'proper' food.

She doesn't sleep much during the day either so am very of your 2 hour nap.

Thanks for the link for the banana bread - must get some cooking done this weekend.

FWIW DD's sleep got worse for a while before it got better when we started BLW. She seemed to have lots of tummy pains and I wondered if I was doing the right thing: she ate so much!

PDog - I know what you mean about your Dad. I was obviously ecstatic that DD slept much better, but was a bit annoyed that it seemed to prove my mom right! It could still be hunger though with your little one. Even with the 10 wakings a night I didn't give mine any feeds in the night, and she would always settle again (usually very quickly, the longest it takes is 25 mins), but then wake again in an hour or two. Sounds like yours might be the same? Might be worth giving the porridge a go? Sorry, I know how annoying it is when people try to tell you what to do... I'll try to stop going on about porridge .

DD stuffs herself with fruit and veg, but still struggles to actually eat much meat or carbs by herself despite enthusiatic sucking and gumming, so I think she's getting heaps of nutrients from BLW but just not enough bulky carbs to keep her tummy happy at night.

Having said that, she woke about 5 times last night but I realised at 3am that she was a bit cold so I put her in something a little warmer and she slept until 6.30am for her first feed. Oh, and she had scrambled egg on toast for the first time for tea, and she was rather more fragrant than your average bear, so I think she was not enjoying that assault on her digestion!

She's having a good nap now, having been cuddled for 20 mins to undo the handiwork of my darling husband who crashed around the house, trod on all the creaky floorboards and slammed the front door while 'trying to be quiet' .

Well, I think I may have been inadvertantly holding DD back - I'd got into the habit of giving DD her solid meals half way through a milk feed, but for one reason and another that didn't happen yesterday so she had her tea on an empty stomach. And wolfed it down! Most of the food ended up on the floor, but she ate quite a bit more than normal (chicken casserole, she especially loves courgette - strange girl!). So she did have less milk than normal.

What do you guys do? Milk then solids, or straight to the solids first? DD (7.5mo) has already dropped her last bottle (she's just not interested in it) and takes much less milk at lunchtime. Are your little ones dropping milk feeds? She drinks a lot of water - maybe 100ml at lunchtime and 100ml at tea time.

Bobby99 tried the porridge idea on Saturday night, would try anything to get some better sleep. Unfortunately no change to the normal getting up 1 hour after she is put to bed. Although she did produce another top tooth on Sunday (now has 3 teeth).

Meant to try the banana bread at the weekend, but just never got around to cooking...must do some soon.

Milk feeds - DD is BF but i have noticed in the last 2 weeks (since 8 months old) she has been reducing number of daytime feeds. We usually just do normal mealtimes and fit milk feeds around it. Not sure she understands that food satisfies her hunger yet?
Anyone got any ideas for meals this week? I am lacking in inspiration.

Bobby, I do milk before and after nap (I feed to sleep). Lunch & dinner are before pre-nap milk, whereas breakfast is after morning milk. It doesn't seem to affect the amount he eats, though.

He's not dropping any feeds, although I kind of feed on demand so I don't really count, but I'm pretty confident he's taking less than he was. I only give him one or two sips of water with meals, though - just enough to wash down any remaining bits of food. But I think ff babies need more water than bf ones.

My DS loves courgette too - round slices are squished in the middle, bitten at one side and then the long ribbon of the skin is sucked in and out for ages.

yUMMYmUMMYb, DS does the waking after an hour thing (only it's after 45 mins), and 1.5 hours later...and 1.5 hours later. It's blimmin' annoying - I'd like an evening off one day.

I made courgette & pine nut / carrot, spinach & cumin muffins the other day. Both very yummy, although more effort than some recipes (I class anything that needs more than one bowl as 'effort'. )

DS had sardines on toast (mashed up with Philadelphia) for lunch, followed by a ripe & juicy mango. Result: lots of mess and a yellow-coloured, fish-smelling baby for the rest of the afternoon.

Bobby DD is bf on demand. When we first started it was always milk first then solids but in the last week she has been going for longer between feeds so it has worked out solids then milk. She is eating more but think this is more that she has 'got it' now.

Having major sleep issues here, day and night so not really sure if she is reducing milk as she will only sleep on the boob so if anything she has increased feeds. Not sure how much she is actually drinking though.

I made spinach and cheese muffins from the hummingbird bakery cookbook last week, which DD loved. Resulted in interesting poo though . Made carrot fritters today - yummy, although DD not so keen. She was very tired though.

PDog, the sleep thing just goes on, doesn't it? Could be the 9 month regression, of course (not that I'm obsessed with these regressions, of course... )

DS's sleep is gradually improving after waking every 1.5 hours for a couple of weeks. He now spends 2 x 30 mins of his naps in his cot too, which is better than it was.

We had spinach come out in the poo too!

Hi all,
yep we've had the 9 month sleep regression... now we're on the 10 month sleep regression .

Actually, I've given up expecting to get a good night sleep because it all seems so random. Even if he's had three good meals, decent naps, he still wakes up quite regularly. But hey ho, I just keep telling myself we'll get there.

On the food front this week, I thought we might try some courgette and cheese muffins (got a glut of corgis), lentil fritters, fish stew, spinach and feta pie. Wondered about doing this at some point.

Off to a wedding at the weekend so he'll be having hog roast!