What is Baby Led Weaning?

what foods do you feed with?
Zacharia has always been a fussy drinker. would barely drink milk, and has lapped up real food (tho he wont eat bought babyfood, or anything else bland...i have taken to adding herbs and spices to my food instead of the salt i would for an adult, as he just wont eat things taste of nothing!)
we are at the weaning stage of some purrees. some lumpy foods, and some finger foods, but as i weaned Taneli on purrees (and he wouldnt do lumps or real food for ages) i have no idea what real food to give him.
my mum keeps telling me to give him tiny peices of things, but then he gets them in his hand, but cant get them back out! he is ok with cheerios, tho, and rusks which he can slobber all over till they dissove, but now at suppertime he is refusing to be fed (is fine at brekky or luch still) so what can i feed him!!??
can i really just give himn a carrot!! and then do you mean cooked or raw!? (he only has 2 teeth at the bottom front!) or a peice of toast?
he did enjoy a peanut butter sandwhich last week, and slices af bamnana, but that was all cut up tiny and half eaten alone and half fed.

help me!!

shevi

ps. i realise that its too late for BLW, but he has to learn the skills sometime!
pps. he has been formula fed since 3 days old...but i have yet to understand how someone who make a child who didn't want to eat of drink!!

How old is he?

A lot of babies cope fine with BLW with NO teeth at all. Babies gums are very hard and they tend to gum, slobber and dribble on things until it breaks up in their mouths.

Personally I would avoid raw carrot unitl he has more teeth. I started roasting veggies as they taste nice and stay together in a stick form better, yet still nice and soft for babies!

One thing that helps with what to feed them is throwing out the window the idea that there are certain finger foods! There aren't... EVERYTHING is finger food!!

We literally give Erin whatever we have (unless it's takeaway!) It did mean we started having chip shaped veg ourselves but that's ok. To start with she would just have the veg but after the first month (so around 7 months old) we just gave her proper meals.

Pasta is definitely her favourite/.easiest to eat. but she loves a roast too with all the different veg, roast potatos and meat.

Have a look at my website for more ideas http://www.babybanana.biz if you go into the post history that's where we started

he is 10 months old, and this morning he had a great time with a mini bagel (scrapping it down with his teeth and gum) after refusing most of his breakfast, but last night at supper (after he refused mush) i gave him what Taneli was eating (pasta, boiled mini carrots, broccoli and peas) without the sauce and he made a terrible mess and i'm not sure he ate much either!! i did chop everything into tiny anti choking sized peices tho...so perhaps he would have had an easier time with a proper tree of broccoli. the pasta went in and out his mouth a few tmes, and may have been eaten a bit...the peas were a real success, except for the probs of getting them from his fist, into his mouth!!!
also, how long do you leave a child sat in the highchair? he would sit there all day noshing i think if i just left him to it...so how will i know when to take him out and say 'enough!' (it never looks like enouigh!!)
this is all topped with the fact that he's a scrawny little thing, so really dont want to spend too long testing the waters, as he really needs some proper food!
Thank you for your reasurance and advice
Shevi

Hello Hannah,

I have been looking into BLW and only realised that you are the expert on this and even have a website dedicated to this.

I have read all that but I am still confused wondered if you could help me.
My LO will be 6months on the 14th november, I have just about started him on babyrice but I don't really think he is too keen on this at all.
To make things worse he has dropped the milk intake too(F feed).
He has never been a good feeder and I have gone through a lot of stress with this and still do.

What is in your opinion the best solution to this. Do I leave him on the ff at the moment and start offering some finger food when we eat or should I actively encourage him to eat finger foods.

What I mean is what happens at the 6month mark, do you just start giving them solids?? How do you start?? and what do you give first.

I am sure you have answered this million times and probably will go here we go again, but I am really confused.

Thanks a million in advance.

Also do you think nurseries would be OK with this as my LO starts nursery in januray. presuming th BLW works for us.
Thanks
xxxxxx

Hello Hannah,
Just postin this incase you missed my post.
????????????????
xxxxx

Hi hun sorry yes i did miss it!!

I would continue with the same amount of milk pre-baby rice. Any form of weaning to start off is simply and introduction for solids and milk is still their main source of calories and nutrition.

So feed milk as normal and yes you are right start offering food when you are eating. We started by giving Erin bits of veg from whatever we were eating (don't cook with salt) so it was really simple and easy.

Let him play with it and squish it about, try not to fret or worry about how much he is eating. If you think of it as more of an "introduction" like i mention you can relax about it. If he doesn't want to eat or gets unhappy just leave it til the next meal. If you thinkk about it, it's quite a fine art eating efficiently for a little person that has had nothing more thsan milk, with practice he'll be great.

Eventually you will notice some bits are going in from the nappies! You may find you become a tad like Gillian McKeith

Sorry if I've not helped much I'm just a bit tired today lol!!!

i did blw with dd2 without realising it. she grabbed a potato of my plate when she was about five months old and started to suck it. Dd2 didn't have any teeth until she was 11mths and she managed fine with most foods. I just used to cut everything into strips and she would just suck or mash it up and eat it. It was great to see her enjoying her food and it is amazing because she eats mosts things and always has a clear plate. i wish i had done blw with dd1. We have always eaten together as a family for alll our meals even breakfast. It can be messy but worth it. DD2 is now 14mths and eats what we eat using her fingers.

Likewise, we kind of came to the idea of BLW by chance - so maybe that suggests that it is an instinctive, natural way to go? I was so busy when I came to wean Liv at 6 months. Hubby had just moved away to start a new job, leaving me with baby and two older kids and a house to deep clean and pack. I used to give Liv whatever we were eating (obviously all salt free) and plonk it down. I remember her chomping on a cold sausage quite early on - not sure if that is recommended or not! It was such a stress free experience, far from the anxieties of popping things out of ice cube trays and studiously following gourmet toddler cookbooks - hats off to anyone who has managed to follow one of those! At 22 months, Liv tucks in to any food whatsoever and eats independently. We can eat at friends houses or in restaurants with no forward planning. It may be that she was always that way inclined (we're definitely a foodie family), but we have never had to face a battle over food and she finds eating a pleasure, so I would definitely recommend the approach to others.

Hi

I read you blog on BC when Popppy was little and thought it sounded great but we were encouraged to wean early because Poppys milk intake was so low due to having medicated milk which tastes and smell rank!! This meant against my better judgement we started with purees....

After about 4 weeks on purees she went on food strike and refused everything apart from rusks....which she sucked to death........after a week or so of battling over mealtimes I decided to back off and try BLW as she was about 5.5 months old....

Best decision I ever made....she took to it like a duck to water and has eaten everything she is offered since day 1, she literally went from refusing purees to eating full meals like her brother.....I have always given her exactly what we are haing and let her attempt it....these days most of it goes in and she doesnt seem hungry so we must be doing something right

I never have to think in advance about meals anymore as she will have a go at anything.....tonight she had veg stirfry with cous cous!!! Messy but she finished loads of it....squished it into balls and shovelled it in lol

So thanks Hannah for being my inspiration to give it a go............