Can someone help?enlighten me

Hi ladies,

just wondering if someone can help me out a little. I have just been looking at the baby led weaning website, and unless im blind theres not really any suggestions on what to start on or anything like that?...

Ds is 7 months and i want to start doing this as his kinda difficult to feed mash stuff. Doesnt open his mouth wide enough, doesnt open at all, fart arses around all over the joint etc. So i figure this is probably the way to go, seeing as anything that comes in contact with his hands ends up in his mouth!

So basically what are some good foods that i can give? With the likes of cucumber and zucchini do i have to take the skin off? What are some foods that i should stay away from or give ocassionaly? Can i give him toast? Should it be white or wholemeal?

What did you do for your children?

Thanks

I didn't BLW but my little girl has been on finger foods for a few months now and eats everything we eat. I started her on small diced cooked soft vegies ( pumpkin zucchini sweat potatoe potatoe and carrot then moved to broccoli.) avocado and bananna is also good food to start on. Then try toast which some babies do have trouble with. I did try to give her long finger foods (strips of toast etc) but she would try and put the whole thing in her mouth so everything I give her I cut into small pieces. I wouldn't give cucumber yet. But with cucumber I would take the skin off but I didn't with cooked zucchini just cut it small.

We are doing BLW with our 8.5 month old, started around 6.5 months. We give her just about everything we eat

Think of things that are in a finger shape. So toast/sandwhich soldiers, vege sticks, french toast, pasta, cheese. Leave skins on things, you will find bub will suck the flesh off it. You can even give strips of meat and baby will get nutrients through sucking the fat and juices out of it. As you start to see evidence of baby chewing, showing more interest and greater motor control you can make the pieces different shapes, smaller or try more challenging foods to chew. For lunch today, I gave DD a toasted pita bread pocket with tomato, mushroom and cheese, she loved it!

The thing with BLW is that because we are told to do purees, many parents fear choking. Babies have an excellent gag reflex that prevents them choking and gives them a second chance at chewing and digesting foods. Always stay with your bub when giving him food and make sure he is sitting upright. If he swallows a whole chunk, don't interfere let the natural gag reflex take over. When you try to assist (back patting etc) that is when a full choke is more likely to occur. Of course, if baby is actually choking you need to intervene but in my experience, DD has swallowed huge chunks of things and has gone a bit red bringing stuff back up but is always ok and very unphased by the whole event.

Also, something we struggled with was obsessing about if she is actually eating enough. At first, it was questionable if anything ended up in her tummy at all! Even now, there are nights when dinner is more of a finger painting exercise than a meal. When you spoon feed it is easy to see how much they have eaten, but up until the age of about 2 kids are very good at self regulating their dietary intake and up to the age of 12 months milk is the MOST important part of their diet. So what I am trying to say is relax about how much he is actually eating... he will not starve! We chose to still spoon feed rice cereal in the morning for the iron but other than that everything that has gone in DD belly she has put there.

For us it has made meal time a lot less stressful and very enjoyable. It has made our daughter more 'portable' because when we go out for meals we just give her food off our plate or order her a bowl of steamed veges, so no fussing over making purees and finding somewhere to store or heat them!

Hope this helps smile

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Thank you for all that info, it has helped!

Tutu & Lulu - I just went fruit and veg shopping today and got a bunch of stuff, so not really worried about the sauces etc just yet. Ds was having a munch on some grapes whilst getting some f&v.

Skubala - That pita bread pocket sounds delish! And just sounds so crazy that an 8 month old is eating it! lol I actually seen some pics on the BLW site and there were like 6 month olds eating a plate of spag bol!

So i was just thinking, with things like sandwiches, do i need to put butter on them? And for fillings obviously i can just do plain vegemite. Could i mix avo and tuna or something of the sort together and spread that on? And what type of cheese would you give? I gave ds a small chunk of cheese the other night, just normal tasty cheddar or whatever it is and it broke up into pieces very easily and he was gagging on it. Is there any particular type of cheese that isnt so easily crumbly?

Well now im really excited to do this. No more fighting with him to get his mouth open to put the bloody spoon in! He really doesnt seem interested in been spoon fed at all.

Oh just one more question for the moment, obviously with the veggies im going to steam them until soft, with the fruit, mainly apples and pears should i steam them till soft as well? or just give them as is?

I've been researching this too to try with my bub soon and found this site really helpful with food ideas. Good luck i'm really excited to start BLW this time. <span class="emoticon smile">smile</span>

We just gave normal chedder cheese and the little miss has handled it fine. When you steam the veg don't make them too soft or they will just crumble in his hands and he won't be able to get them in! If the fruit is fairly soft just give it as is but I'd soften apple at this stage.

If something is not quite manageable when you try it, just wait another week or two and try again. They soon learn how to chew and what they can and can't manage. Tuna and avo on s/which sounds great. We have also made DD a tuna mornay which she enjoyed.

I'm totally sold on BLW. Allowing the baby to decide when and how much to eat instead of being spoon fed is supposed to reduce toddler fussiness over food. There is a book you can buy about BLW that is available on the Mothers Direct website (through the Australian Breastfeeding Association). I personally haven't read it but I have heard good things about it. There are quite a few BLW support websites with lots of meal ideas and answers to common questions, as well as blogs from other parents

i think Skubala has pretty much covered it all! we have done BLW, my little girl is now 10 months old. you could try grating the cheese if you wanted but he will learn to move it around in his mouth and chew it, it is amazing how well they handle eating what we eat, i still steam carrots and i peel apple, but she is really good at chewing then spitting out anything that is to hard. she has only gagged 2 or 3 times since introducing solids at 4 months, she gave a little cough and was fine :-)i don't give her anything too hot or spicy just yet, just slowly building up her taste and tollerance for that. good luck, its lots of fun smile and it is so good to be able to go out and not have to worry about "baby food" she just eats what we are eating smile (unless we are having take away or junk, but it is easy to find healthier options for her)