BLW info

[pepa]

Hi Everybody,

My DD will be 6 months next week and we are planning to BLW

its exciting!

But I am in a bit of a panic Im not to sure how to introduce it and what can of food we should start, slice it, cook it, cut it?
I mean can you give them a raw apple or pear... like it is said on Gil Rapley - what about meat?

How long it takes for them to eat if they eat at all? how many times a day,

Do you do milk first and right away food or you wait an hour


All Your comments and experience are much appreciated!

Thanks

[tiapam]

Are you giving cow's milk? I think that is not recommended until 1 year of age. Sorry, I don't know much about baby led weaning. Usually it's better to give them food first as if they have "milk" first they won't be hungry. But then a lot of people think early foods are just for learning and getting used to texture.

[srhs]

I mean can you give them a raw apple or pear... like it is said on Gil Rapley - what about meat?


What worked for me with DS2 was combining all the recommendations on www.wholesomebabyfood.com (for WHAT to introduce WHEN; she has awesome charts) with the concept of BLW.
Raw apple would make me pretty nervous at 6 mos. Is that recommended? I would steam it, but that's just me.
Raw pear was great as long as you wait until it is super ripe and mushy.

hth

eta: I didn't read that much on BLW, so forgive if I am blowing the concept, but I would be pretty nervous starting with chunks or anything uncooked. Mashed up ripe banana, applesauce, mashed up superripe pear--these are good first foods IMO.

[Katigre]

Are you giving cow's milk? I think that is not recommended until 1 year of age. Sorry, I don't know much about baby led weaning. Usually it's better to give them food first as if they have "milk" first they won't be hungry. But then a lot of people think early foods are just for learning and getting used to texture.
The term "Baby Led Weaning" is a British term and in the UK 'weaning' refers to starting solid food, not stopping breastfeeding. It's a method that skips purees and moves straight to finger foods.

OP: There are a lot of good threads in the forum about it if you search - i think most of them were about 1 year ago.

[boolady]

The term "Baby Led Weaning" is a British term and in the UK 'weaning' refers to starting solid food, not stopping breastfeeding. It's a method that skips purees and moves straight to finger foods.

OP: There are a lot of good threads in the forum about it if you search - i think most of them were about 1 year ago.

I think she only said that because the OP mentioned starting with milk. I took it that she was also asking about introducing cow's milk as well.

[Katigre]

I think she only said that because the OP mentioned starting with milk. I took it that she was also asking about introducing cow's milk as well.
Ah, I took that to mean 'breastmilk/formula' and not cow's milk. I know moms who refer to those things as just 'milk' for their babies.

[pepa]

Ah, I took that to mean 'breastmilk/formula' and not cow's milk. I know moms who refer to those things as just 'milk' for their babies.

Hi and thanks to everybody, sorry for the confusion, I give formula to DD, its just that I call it milk.

I will try to go to the older post about BLW, if anybody can recommend books or dvds, even better- Im trying to get as much info as possible in my tiny inexistant spare time:):)

[pepa]

What worked for me with DS2 was combining all the recommendations on www.wholesomebabyfood.com (for WHAT to introduce WHEN; she has awesome charts) with the concept of BLW.
Raw apple would make me pretty nervous at 6 mos. Is that recommended? I would steam it, but that's just me.
Raw pear was great as long as you wait until it is super ripe and mushy.

hth

eta: I didn't read that much on BLW, so forgive if I am blowing the concept, but I would be pretty nervous starting with chunks or anything uncooked. Mashed up ripe banana, applesauce, mashed up superripe pear--these are good first foods IMO.

Yes raw apple makes me nervous too, they said to steam the apple, I just saw in one of the BLW websites a six months eating and peeled apple, and that surprised me, because I would think that you have to steam the apple and then mashed up. But the concept of BLW its giving little chunks, but then Im nervous about choking, thats why Im researching peoples experiences when BLW, its a different concept that we might like to introduce.
But we are not sure yet

[srhs]

I read the basic info on the BLW site before DS2 started solids, and DS2 was done with purees within a month, which was much faster than other babies I know IRL. So maybe we weren't full-BLW, but it worked for us. Basically, we followed DS2's lead, encouraged self-feeding with soft foods, and followed the www.wholesomebabyfood.com age-of-introduction charts.

gl

[Katigre]

Yes raw apple makes me nervous too, they said to steam the apple, I just saw in one of the BLW websites a six months eating and peeled apple, and that surprised me, because I would think that you have to steam the apple and then mashed up. But the concept of BLW its giving little chunks, but then Im nervous about choking, thats why Im researching peoples experiences when BLW, its a different concept that we might like to introduce.
But we are not sure yet
You wouldn't give little chunks of food - you would give large pieces (french fry sized) so that the baby can take their own bites and learn what size of food to have in their mouth. Raw apple doesn't mush up in the mouth and some babies do fine with that and others don't - DD did great with raw apples to suck on when she didn't know how to bite yet, but once she had top teeth it made her gag (the skin specifically) so we skipped it until she was older.

[crl]

We are doing BLW. We started with avocado, banana, very ripe pear and well steamed carrots. I cut all of them into spears. DD did fine with those soft things at 6 months. It took a couple of weeks for her to really start swallowing. Once that happened, I started expanding the food textures. I still haven't done raw apple type textures, but at 8 months, dd can handle bread and toast, cheddar cheese, freeze dried peaches, cooked chicken, etc.

Hope that helps,
Catherine

[BabbyO]

I've BTDT. My DS is 17 mo and BLW worked really well for us. We started with avocado spread on toast fingers, steamed veggies (broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, green beans, etc). DS didn't like fruit at first, but I'd say either steamed wedges/strips or pealed wedges of apples and pears would work. If you can find melon and are willing to buy it out of season, that was a good way to start for us (cantalope, honeydew, watermelon). Banana was also a big hit. I think we started introducing strips of chicken, beef and pork at about 6.5 - 7 mo. DS would suck on it until it was just a mashed, soft semblence of the meat it originally was, but he loved it. As he got older he worked out how to tear off pieces. Pasta was also something that DS liked quite a bit. We gave him penne type pasta, but I've heard the bow ties work well too.

I pretty much followed Gill Rapley's suggestions/recommendations mixed with observing what my DS did and we did very well. I can't stress enough, follow your LO's lead. They will let you know what they are ready for.

CRL had great suggestions, too.

Good luck...and enjoy watching your LO explore and learn about food...its so much fun!

[pepa]

Great Thanks Everyone, I feel more relax about it, I think that I do some purees and some slice just to see how DD reacts and likes it.
I am so excited this is a huge milestone
Wish me luck

:thumbsup:

[Uno-Mom]

Great Thanks Everyone, I feel more relax about it, I think that I do some purees and some slice just to see how DD reacts and likes it.
I am so excited this is a huge milestone
Wish me luck

:thumbsup:

Yay - have fun! Do check out the wholesomebabyfood.com. It's a great website.

Honestly, all the prep for BLW was too much for us. Making our own baby food has been easy and relaxed, but that's because using an emersion blender is way quicker than slicing. Some foods are just as easy to slice, like banana, but I really don't have time to matchstick carrots. So rather than deprive her of carrots, we bake a huge batch and blend them coursely. Now, of course, she's doing chunks and sticks, since she's one. But it's harder when the sticks have to be super-soft.

[lizzywednesday]

Yes raw apple makes me nervous too, they said to steam the apple, I just saw in one of the BLW websites a six months eating and peeled apple, and that surprised me, because I would think that you have to steam the apple and then mashed up. But the concept of BLW its giving little chunks, but then Im nervous about choking, thats why Im researching peoples experiences when BLW, its a different concept that we might like to introduce.
But we are not sure yet

Don't worry.

Part of BLW is about trusting your baby and establishing that Baby can trust something you give to him/her.

My DD lunged for a ripe peach at 5 months. I held it while she mouthed it. It terrified my MIL and SIL, but I rolled my eyes and DD was fine. The worst thing to happen was that her poo turned bright orange.

We did apples the other day ... I half-peeled eighths of an organic Honeycrisp and ate them with my DD. She mouthed them and stared daggers at me when I ate the ones I'd cut for myself.

She's had

She has also had plain grilled chicken, roast turkey, Spanish style chorizo and bits of steak. I think i introduced the chicken when she was 7 months, but that was more of a lack of opportunity than a worry she'd not handle it well. The chorizo shocked my stepmother, but DD couldn't get enough of it!

So far, no adverse reactions (not even to strawberries) and a willingness to try all kinds of foods. Even banana, which she was distinctly unimpressed with at first.

[sunshine873]

Sorry, I just came across this post. We did BLW and I can't say enough positive things about it. I'd recommend visiting the website www.babyledweaning.com & read up on the forums. That's where I got a lot of my info early on and a lot of reassurance that the things we were experiencing were normal. :)

The idea is to not feed with a spoon - it's truly baby-led. They pick up the food & put it in their mouths themselves. That's why french-fry shapes are recommended. Early on a lot of things just get sucked on, but that's fine. It's a learning process as they grow and you'll keep giving formula/breastmilk which is where they'll be getting the nutrition. Some kids take off & start running at 6 months and some don't really get it until 9-10 months along.

We started with steamed carrots, sweet potatoes and brocolli. DD loved them all. Banana was an easy one early on too. Good luck, have fun & make sure to have your camera close by!

[BabbyO]

Sorry, I just came across this post. We did BLW and I can't say enough positive things about it. I'd recommend visiting the website www.babyledweaning.com & read up on the forums. That's where I got a lot of my info early on and a lot of reassurance that the things we were experiencing were normal. :)

:yeahthat:

Thats where most of my "crazy" questions got answered, too.


The idea is to not feed with a spoon - it's truly baby-led. They pick up the food & put it in their mouths themselves.

This just made me laugh because my 17 mo DS didn't have enough patience for his spoon yesterday (which we encourage that he use, though we don't make it mandatory). We were eating chicken noodle soup....he scooped up the noodles, chicken and veggies...and ate them, then grabbed the bowl and drank the broth.

Have fun, and do keep the camera in the kitchen!