We started down this road a long long time ago - the Dustbin (as he has been rechristened by anybody who has seen him eat) is now 21 months. At first, he hardly ate a thing - refused nothing, but swallowed very little. This went on until he was 9 months. Then he had days when he'd eat quite a bit, followed by days when he'd eat next to nothing. Still not sleeping through. At 11 months, he had mostly good days - 3 meals, 2 snacks, still not really sleeping through (can you see the theme here? OK, I'll let you in on the secret - food and sleep are not linked.)

We had no problems with poo, burps, farts, strange grumbly noises. But the DB gets occasional tummy ache now when he has eaten vast quantities too quickly, and his huge intake of fruit and veg means that his nappies are generally toxic. Gagging was a feature at each meal for a good 2 weeks. We also found that the concentration involved in eating meant that he needed to nap more frequently than before being weaned. The mess and dropped food remains a feature to this day, although it is much much better than when we started and I don't really think he eats any less tidily than the average toddler.

His only food quirk is that he does not like his grub to be all mixed up. This is very inconvenient since it rules out such yumminesses as shepherd's pie or stew. But I have learned not to whinge out loud about this, since I am much envied by other mothers whose toddlers eschew all green stuff.

Would we do it again? In a heartbeat. In fact, by Christmas, I hope the DB will be pointing and squealing 'choking, mummy, choking' as his little brother or sister endures the same gagging outrage that the DB went through at Christmas 2005. Such fun!!!!

thanks, corrie. that's exactly what i was hoping for. and [blush] at having forgotten the gagging... it all seems so long ago.

Know what you mean about not wanting food mixed up. We've managed to persuade IzzyMouse to do (veggie) shepherds pie etc by making the constituent parts easy to fish out, ie classic BLW chip shape. Makes for odd looking meals sometimes, but if it means a carrot gets to her lips rather than her ear, I'll try anything.

We had a lot of fun with Babylulu learning to chew the cud !! She would chew, if she could be bothered , then if the lump was to big, she would bring it back into her mouth for another chew !! We found that a lot of food was torn into pieces, examined minutely, then fed to the dogs! Tiny amounts went in at first , if at all, and getting over the way we felt about that was key ! Food is for fun until you are one ! and if you are babylulu, it still is just for fun ! some babies / tpoddlers do not eat a lot ! as long as your baby is happy, healthy and meeting their milestones, then no need to obsess about how much (or not!!) they are eating....BLW was great for us as it took off the pressure.....DD was not a great eater, she was not a great drinker of milk, and giving control as it were, over to her,allowed us to step back and enjoy weaning, rather than worrying about how many ice cubes of puree we could get into her ! LOL ! seeing her with a big floret of broccoli in her chubby little fist , munching away, while we all ate as a family , was just lovely !

We waited till 6 months plus a bit so I could go and do my Baby First Aid course (highly recommended!) then we got the video camera out and presented the Weeble with a peeled and sliced ripe pear. Which of course was far too slippery for him, and the bits he could grab, he rubbed in his hair!

So in the first few weeks, we started off with pear, sweet potato, broccoli "trees" (TM), parsnips etc. All gently steamed. Then we moved onto toast, cheese, bits of chicken ... by ten months he was eating pretty much what we do (with pauses during teethng and colds where he reverted to milk only. Oh and bananas, of course. A meal is not complete for the Weeble without a banana).

Poos were, er, interesting. They got firmer very quickly; some days they are like rabbit droppings (yeuk), sometimes a bit sloppier, but they were always STINKY! Golly, that took some getting used to. Oh and the farting.... how can a baby produce something so loud and so revolting! And you'll never forget your first sight of unchanged carrot pieces showing up bright orange in your child's nappy!

He did quite a bit of the gagging thing - still does sometimes (he's almost one now) - but I remained calm (and pinned my mum to the kitchen counter when she lunged for him). He always spits something out after gagging, so I guess he was clearing his throat.

I bought an all in one painting suit for £4 from HippyChick, and it is FANTASTIC, he gets as messy as he likes but doesn't ruin his clothes. He loves pasta with tomato sauce (and has finally stopped sucking the sauce off and spitting the pasta out), especially with meatballs; I dump it onto the tray and he goes for it. He looks like he's been tangoed afterwards though!

All in all, it's been a great experience for us, he is pretty fearless with food, eats well, and is so easy to take to restaurants and other peoples' houses.

And Aitch and this blog have been a godsend!

I started my son at bang on 6 months (6 months ago now) and I remember being worried alot! His first foods were boiled to near soft carrot sticks and other boiled vegetables. My main concern was choking, and was on red alert for a week or so until I realised he wasn't going to choke! He only gagged a very few times, bringing whatever he hadn't chewed properly right back up again, then grabbed it and bit it in half and tried again. He wasn't overly windy, but obviously his nappy load increased! We moved onto lumps of steak and roast beef within weeks. Brocolli was a good starting food as he enjoyed grabbing the stalk and ripping off some of the head. Larger fruit I cut until he was about 10 months and he would just throw pears and plums off the highchair, but, now at 12 months he is a master! Do expect mess, but it's all part of the process! My main advice would be - relax. If you are worried, get a list of foods you KNOW are going to be ok and work through those. Try things that you wouldn't normally try. Go for weird cheeses and exotic friuts - they really do love them! And anything you can possibly eat with your hands, they can do! My son is a master with mash potato, porridge and even couscous by hand.

haha! i remember you being worried A Lot as well, Miss Sarah. good to have you back, haven't seen you in a while.

gosh it feels like it was years ago and dd is only 10 months this week!

i was amazed at just how quickly dd took to food. her first food was a banana. her technique was to hold it against her mouth with one hand (she didn't know about holding things with two hands at that point!) and just sort of squeezing it against her gums and nibbling it. then she'd drop it, over and over, and just kept grabbing it again and squeezing it against her mouth.

her poos became proper roll off the nappy poos alarmingly quickly, very little undigested food other than fruit and vegetable skin. lots of trumping, particularly as weaning happened around the same time she was experimenting with being on all fours, so lots of bending, bottom in air....and biiiiiig trumps. bless her. she doesn't trump very much now though.

i remember going on about blw when dd was maybe 4 months old, telling all the family it'd be the way we'd do things. and everyone, including dh to a certain extent, kind of shrugged it off...i guess thinking ok yes humour her, it's a phase, she'll spoon feed along with the rest of us. well that was all put to bed when dd was tucking into full christmas dinner, lamb, turkey, yorkshire puds, sprouts, the lot, at 7 months old. all the family sat round the table in complete shock at how much she ate and how she happily laughed her way through her dinner. now the funniest thing is going out to eat with PIL. how they want dd seated so the WHOLE cafe can see her, talking very loudly about how YOUNG she is, and how NICELY she eats.....oh the shame.....

that was me by the way, don't know why it came up anonymous!

i thought it was you... it was the solid jobbies that gave it away.

we've only been at it for about six weeks, so hardly off the starting blocks... but it has been a lot of fun in general. Very good not to have the pressure about how much I'm "getting into" her. Great to see her enjoying feeding herself and experiencing loads of different tastes and textures and watching how her hand and mouth skills are developing. Gratifying to see people's faces when they watch this little baby feeding herself, while their own meals are going cold as they spoonfeed their babes ... (smug alert, sorry!)

But ohh the trumping... no, I wasn't prepared for the trumping!

I remember being very excited when 6m came around...I couldn't wait for lunch time! I lovingly positioned Angelcake on my lap, scraped a banana with a teaspoon, and offered it to her. Nothing. She clamped her mouth shut. Panic stations! I didn't expect that, and didn't know what to do next. So I checked Mumsnet and found this blog, which was a godsend.

The biggest help was reading various accounts of Mums whose babies and toddlers were just not that bothered about food, but were perfectly healthy. Angelcake enjoys mealtimes, especially when we all sit together, and has been known to patiently graze her way through ridiculously long birthday dinners in restaurants, but she has never been a big eater and has been through long periods of only eating a few things she likes best, causing much consternation about her nutritional intake and whether in fact she will still be breastfeeding 7 times a day when she is 16!! It is immensely reassuring to know that she is actually a normal, healthy one year old, and enjoying normal meals.

When she first started with baby led weaning, my worries were...
* if she doesn't like something, should I try something else or just leave it for next time?
* will my husband ever trust me again if she does choke?!
(he panicked a lot about meat in particular)
* why is everything still coming through undigested? (it went on for a few months)
* I worried too because how could I show people that what i was doing was a good idea if the baby blatantly refused everything in front of them?

The key to all those things is to have the courage of your convictions and quietly get on with it, by trial and error. Not all babies are ready to start at bang-on 6 months...and that's fine. They won't be taught to play with food, or to have bad table manners, as some people suggest - they will learn that food is good, fun and social, and to make their own decisions about how much to eat. And which things would be best secreted in the creases of their highchair or applied as a hair conditioner.

:o)

How I got into BLW
Well I hadn't really heard about BLW and as my dd was such a terrible sleeper (up 6 times a night was a good night for us!)the HV recommended i started to wean at 5 months. I started off giving my dd the favourite food of all hv's-baby rice which actually she did eat, but only if i loaded the spoon and handed it to her. Next up was pureed apple and mashed banana, again only if she did it herself (she was amazingly good at getting the spoon straight to her mouth for a 5 month old really). At this time she was still bf but soon started to refuse the breast so we moved onto ff which she took to really easily. About 2 weeks down the line though she would purse her mouth up at the sight of a spoon and if handed it would throw it straight on the floor. Getting overly stressed about her not eating, I decided to give it a few weeks break and try again when she was 6 months. In the meantime I found out more about BLW, and having been living in Botswana(where babies are often weaned a lot later and go straight onto 'real' foods), it actually made a lot more sense to me than the whole puree route i'd been following. At 6 months i started again, although I must confess I kept on giving her puree because i was feeling the pressure from all the mums around me who were smugly talking about how many cubes or how much of a jar their dc were eating. Anyway, it didnt work and i kept on getting frustrated with her refusing food-at 7 months she went on a complete hunger strike, refusing all solids and milk for over a week. At that point i thought enough is enough, chucked some leftovers on her tray and left her to get on with it. So that is how I got in to BLW at the third attempt(although i realise technically i'm not a blw er as i did try to wean her on the puree route first)
What Happened
It has been very slow going. By 9 months she was actually eating some of the foods i gave her instead of just mushing it up or throwing it on floor and now at 10 months she still doesnt eat a huge amount but is willing to try everything i give her. As I usually cook from fresh I find it very easy to just do a bit extra for her and she usually ends up with leftovers from the previous night for her lunch! I don't think she is a very hungry baby really and I'm trying to destress myself about how little she eats (which is the whole key to blw for me really).
Poo
Most of the time her poo is still runny with bits of food in. We've had some interesting whole peas, sweetcorn, and rehydrated raisons recently(anyone else noticed this?!)-the pincer grip has led to her putting such foods in her mouth faster than she can chew! It has seemed a little firmer recently though which is great-much less messy at nappy changes. Havent noticed any farting really, nor any really bad smells (well what can be worse than formula for smell anyway?!). Maybe thats still to come, perhaps once she starts eating more.
Choking
We havent really had any choking or retching incidences, only one or two where she has sicked up whatever got stuck (in a mucusy covering-lovely) but she generally seems able to get her food into swallowable pieces-despite still having no teeth.
The best bits
BLW has enabled me to relax about mealtimes and to stop counting how much she eats. I can get on and eat my food while leaving her to get on with hers. She is properly a part of family mealtimes. We can go out or to stay with friends etc and not have to worry about what dd is going to eat. LO has experienced a far wider range of foods than she would have done through traditional weaning. I'm now having the last laugh at all those mums who were smugly advising me on how well their babies ate at 6 months but who now refuse to eat lumps or finger foods (some of them were nice but others when i was talking about the probs i was having with weaning just went on and on about how good theirs were, how they ate everything they were given etc!).

that was great, thell. and anonymous... who are you? thanks for you input, i'm really grateful.

That was me!

Dammit! I'll try again-this computer obviously doesn't want me to reveal my identity. It's claireybee (in case it still doesn't work!)

PMSL. thanks claireybee.

My wee lass is now almost a year, and the last 6 months of eating together have been fantastic. All the same experiences as the other posts, with slowness to get started, the odd panic about starving her, hiccups with teeth and viral infections and constipation...

But now, although I wouldn't say she's the world's biggest eater, she has a go at almost anything and we're all enjoying the process.

I think, as so many of you have said, it's about trusting your instincts rather than some program or "expert", and believing that the little critters will lead the way. I'm so glad we've gone down this route with her, and so thankful for this blog, Aitch and all of the other contributers.

we're now nearly two months in & Bubs is loving it, and I love it as it feels such a natural way to feed. We were lucky on not having too much gagging, although the swallowing of a whole orange segment on Saturday did cause some eye-popping (by both Bubs, me & the PIL - gulp! Thankfully all was okay). The mess is quite incredible sometimes, especially when she uses the highchair tray to catapult yogurt off the sppon onto the oven, but that's always going to be the case isn't it? The poo's are certainly interesting but haven't noticed increased farting....though that could just be high tolerance of my husband means i block it out?!

Like a couple of other people I like that it has allowed me to relax and enjoy weaning and not getting into competitions on how much they've eaten. Some of my friends, who are very sceptical about the whole thing, keep saying that they don't really understand the difference between BLW & traditional weaning which I find a little strange when they spend their lunches feeding their LO with their food going cold. And my favourite comment so far was 'but how will they learn to use cutlery???'

Gone off on a slight tangent I think but am just loving the whole thing so far & love this site for giving so much support and so many laughs!

thanks emmysmum and dizzy. (i would do a smiley face but, well, they're a bit naff).

Not much to add to the other stories, but I'm definitely a fan and it's been great to compare notes with others - thanks aitch!

For me, the big eye-opener was seeing how well dd2 went from milk to broccoli floret in one easy step. I'd assumed (before weaning dd1) that babies had to progress in stages from just liquid - to mush - to more solid mush - to little lumps - to big lumps. All the books and info you read make the same assumption.

But dd2 didn't turn a hair at eating a big lump straight off - interesting, that an outwardly sensible assumption can just be plain wrong.

i remember having the same conversation with my friend who had already weaned her second child a couple of months earlier. she was interested in BLW, she's a bright and inquisitive woman but she just kept saying 'but your dd won't be able to handle lumps unless she's had smooth food first'. and i, having not yet started BLW, kept on saying 'no, she will...' with my fingers crossed hopefully... i'm not sure either of us believed it.

The smiler and I are due to step into the wonderful world of BLW in the next few weeks, and I just wanted to say how great it is to hear everyone's positive experiences of starting out.

It's also good to be forewarned about such things as banana nappies ...

I am due to start BLW with Roo in the next few weeks. I have been reading this blog for a couple of months now, and each time I read it I get excited about weaning her. Although I'm not looking forward to the nappies that much...lol

This post is a great idea, Aitch. Thanks to you and all the contributors so far. It is really reassuring to hear the range of experiences as there is more likely to be someone with a similar dc – it constantly amazes me how different babies are from one another!

So what happened when we started weaning?
(She is now 7 ½ months so we’re not far in at all!) We started a bit early (ie before 26 weeks) after she managed to eat part of a chip while I was having a pub lunch. Initially I was really impressed with her ability to get food into her mouth and eat small bits. Once we got to 26 weeks I started to try to be more consistent and offer food 3 times a day. She does gag/cough quite often, but not badly and she seems to be able to deal with it without getting distressed at all. So I have never really worried about choking, but I have looked up the baby first aid - I’m not complacent about it!
My initial feelings of being impressed with how well she could manage food faded as we got towards 7 months and I started to have doubts! There have been a few days where *everything* except food would go into her mouth – how does she know!? I worried that she might need help to get what she needs. I decided to try spoon-feeding to see what it was like. She ate more. I was less confident about blw. Then, my dh was feeding her some yoghurt and she got in a bit of a state banging her head on the chair. It really seemed like she was unhappy yet she kept opening her mouth for the spoon…
This week I am mostly not worrying and feeling quite confident in blw. I think my change in mindset has come about from realising that:
1) Weaning is an art not a science. There is little research into blw, but the same is true for traditional weaning and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that blw works and is safe.
2) Dd will not fade away over a matter of days. I can monitor her weight and general well-being and change approach if necessary (although there are no guarantees she will eat more if I do!)
3) She was teething last week and had a cold, not really surprising that she was eating less
4) She is definitely improving. She is chewing more (rather than sucking on) food and can now bite bits off quite hard things like cucumber. I think she is swallowing a bit more, but it is hard to tell. She can now pick up small things like raisins.

The poo is really something. Courgette sticks look alarmingly like slugs. Orange pieces make it smell really acrid…no signs of it changing from milk poo to roll-off-the-nappy poo yet.

Her sleep has been both better and worse since we started – I really don’t think it’s anything to do with solid food in her case.

Sometimes I feel a bit guilty about doing blw, as if it’s just being lazy and taking the easiest route for me. If I was a good mum I would be spending hours in the kitchen concocting and blending fabulous nutritionally balanced delicacies…I suppose it is just a fact of motherhood that being totally responsible for another person can be overwhelming at times.

Sorry this was so long!

I am not weaning for a few weeks yet, but really enjoy everyone's experiences and this thread has been great, DH will be reading it later (he's still a wee bit unsure). With regards to post above, I am really looking forward to being lazy!! Did the purees with DD1, they are just time consuming, stressful and b****y annoying when LO refuses them!! Can't wait to just chuck food at DD2, poor neglected baby she is!!!!

IzzyMouse is now 9 months, and we started at around 6 months, although Christmas got in the way so for the first few weeks she just had bits off our plates at lunchtime. Still only on two meals a day, plus an evening snack as of today, as she charges around the house like a child possessed after her afternoon nap and absolutely will not be confined in a highchair.

Like PPs LOs she's not a big eater, but is clearly not fading away and is currently a bit ahead of herself developmentally so that's my big reassurance. I decided to stop seeing my clearly barking mad HV at around 4 months, so I've no idea how heavy she is, which means I can't stress about it!

Everyone else has pretty much described our experience (taking a while to get going, poo not changing for a while, whole chunks turning up in the nappy unaffected by the digestive process) although - ah yes, that was interesting - you know when your pureeing friends say 'she's watching you eat, she's probably hungry' accompanied by a pointed look? Well, I let her get at the 'food she's clearly wanting to eat' and guess what? She took the piece of pepper I handed her, looked at in carefully, stared at me as if I'd just landed, dumped it on the floor and lunged for the plate. She had (still has, in fact) a crockery/cutlery fettish and was barely interested in the food. That was a particularly smug lunchtime...

Well, I was in two minds about BLW to begin with, so the first few weeks were attempts at spoon feeding. I say attemps as he never took more than a couple of spoonfuls and then started spitting out and clamping the mouth shut. So I started finger food. He certainly seemed to enjoy it - picking it up waving it around, putting it in his mouth....spitting it out again....

I thought he would quickly get by that stage and start swallowing more, but it has been slow going. He is good with mashed potato with cheese it it, and he quite likes stripping the flesh off a tomato, but it really is still tiny amounts. So I was encouraged by the post earlier in this thread which talked about their baby not swallowing much until he was 9 months (Euan is 9 1/2 months now) and now eats loads. I'm hoping the same sudden transformation will happen ...soon please!

Katy

Hi everyone - I'm new to this and hopefully posting in the right place!

My LO is 5 1/2 months and I really like the idea of BLW and plan to start in a couple of weeks. My question is about stopping breastfeeding. Fidget will be 6 months in mid June and I have to sadly start him with a child minder in mid August so I can go back to work at the beginning of Sept. Fidget is currently solely breast fed and I plan to continue this for the moment but wondered at what point with BLW are babies getting enough food to reduce b/feeding and/or introduce a bottle or cup. I may still continue morning and evening feeds but my work is not suitable for expressing during the day etc and would like to be down to minimum feeds by the time he is 8months.

Thanks in advance for your help
Quokka

I think the recommendations are that milk is more important than solid food up until around a year so you should be offering milk on demand. I introduced a cup before I started BLW and around 7 months I started offering water with every meal. LittleE refused to take a bottle so I decided to give up on that battle and introduce a cup! She is now coming up for 1 and I would say that in the last month she has definitely been reducing the amount of milk she wants. I BF morning and night, and sometimes once in the day, otherwise I have started giving her cows milk or water to drink. I would just say that with BLW for the first few months babies don't seem to actually eat a whole lot and there is no way I could have dropped the milk feeds down much before 10 months without forcing her to eat more in the 'traditional ' manner!! Don't know if that helps - I knwo every child is different so you may well find you can drop feeds sooner. I would say to get started on introducing a cup now - not sure there is any point introducing a bottle now if you haven't already as you will only have to wean him off it again soon!!!

Alison & LittleE

Well I have just started BLW today after only finding out about it yesterday!!! The Samster is 6 months old today (happy half birthday!) and I have been trying to spoon feed him with puree for around 10 days or so. We haven't had much success with this at all, so when I found out about BLW I thought worth a shot!

I gave him a stick of rusk this morning and was very pleased to see him take it and suck it half to death and even gum a few bits down. For tea I gave him broccoli florets and carrot sticks. He did try to eat the carrot and took little bites but ended up gagging a bit and they came up BUT I think he did actually eat a smidgeon!! The good thing was he would keep trying. However, he did also think it great fun to drop the food onto the floor so got a new game going on.

So very early days but it is very interesting to see other people's comments on how they got on. All seems like an eminently sensible idea to my mind!!

Ali & The Samster

Hey Cornish Smiler - my LO is 6 months today too (and I'm also Ali)! Good luck with the BLW - you are at the same stage as us - look forward to comparing notes as we go.

Hi Ali, nice that we're at the same stage and we can go through it together! What did you give your lo today and was it received well?

that would be really great if you would compare notes on here, ladies, thanks. welcome to the site, both of you Alis.

Hi Ali
We did baby rusk for breakfast (just a quarter of a Boots organic rusk) about half was consumed and the rest mushed over face, bib, floor, table etc! Then just a couple of disks of cucumber to suck on at lunchtime while me and hubby ate. Was going to do some pear this afternoon but Fidget slept for 2 hours - wasn't going to interupt that!
How about you?
Ali

Just done sone sunrise banana baby cereal for him but made it pretty thick. I gave him a few spponfuls to start him off and then gave the spoon to him. In the blink of an eye his hands were in the cereal and he was having a whale of a time!!! I loaded his spoon and left it in the bowl for him to help himself and, bless him, he managed to and he did eat about half of the cereal. Of course a lot ended up on his face/bib/highchair/floor/table/arms and on his sister's teddy too for some bizarre reason!!!

All in all a good start I'd say though. Thought I'd be adventurous (sp?) and get some baby rice cakes and mush up some avocado for him to try later on and I think I have a hankering for some sweet potato for lunch!!!

Ali

i've got to say that Babybear found avocado really slippery to hold onto when she was wee but sweet potato was great for her. there's a recipe on here for making oven-baked chips with them that she loved when she was tiny. (still does). you know that you really don't need to do mushing and cereals, don't you, if you don't want to? chip-shaped bits of steamed veg are really the easiest things to get started with. good luck alis.

Thanks for that Aitch, might hold fire on the avocado then!

I have a question - I'm feeding The Samster roughly 2 hours after he finishes his bottle (7oz) otherwise it will impact on his napping routine which I have worked very hard to build. However, he doesn't seem desperately hungry for his solids - should I go down to 6oz formula or just leave it as it is til he gets the message?

At lunchtime I did sweet potato with cream cheese then pear chips. One of us (not naming names!) thought it was great fun just to squish it all around, smear it over everything and then throw it onto the floor. Is this what they do to start with? He did try both foods but gagged a couple of times but he did get a tiny bit down him. He sort of shivers when he has the different foods; fair enough as all he's ever had is milk isn't it apart from a few odd purees before I found out about this. I'm not doing purees (he just doesn't like them) so is it OK he is taking so little food (apart from milk).

TIA

Ali

god yeah, that's The Whole Point of BLW, you just let them take it at their own pace and never cut back on the milk until they start dropping it themselves. at this stage, the food he's getting isn't more calorific than milk, so if it's calories he wants he can get it from the milk. the food is for fun until he's one. as his appetite for food grows, so will his ability to pick it up and get it in his mouth. it's fascinating in that respect.

gagging is fine, by the way, he's just getting used to the sensation of food in his mouth. if you just let him get on with it and give him food that he can pick up and easily control for himself (which is why chip-shaped is good) then the gagging will stop soon. i don't remember doing it much after the first fortnight.

also, the shiver... look up a post i wrote called The 'you've poisoned me' Face, i think they all do it. it definitely didn't put her off, i can assure you.

Thanks for that Aitch, it's just when it's so new to me I was just wanting to make sure that we're doing what we should be!!! Just going to look at the 'you've poisoned me face' now whilst The Samster happily bounces up and down on his door bouncer working out those chubby little legs of his!

Hi other BLW newbies - Baby Tess and I just started BLW last week - Tess is 28 weeks old now but we were on holiday for her 6 month birthday- and it's been great! We started with some steamed broccoli and carrot, and since then she's also gamely attempted banana, peach, pear, pitta with cream cheese, toast, sticks of cheese, red and yellow pepper, green beans, cucumber...some of it she's found hard to pick up but to date hasn't refused anything...although I did find her eating my Shell petrol receipt this afternoon, so not sure that means anything...!

I felt completely vindicated (and also rather smug!) with our decision to BLW at lunch today with a reunion of antenatal group mums - they were all fiddling around with pots of mashed avocado while Tess sat there happily feeding herself sticks of cheddar and green beans, much to their amazement! Some of them had seen the BLW articles over the last few days and were a bit scathing (backlash like Spingle suggested?) so was secretly relieved that Tess didn't choose that moment to have her first choking fit - touch wood only a few minor gags and coughs to date, and you can see that it's just the baby's way of learning how to eat.

Thanks Aitch and co for all the invaluable advice and reassurance - this site has become our BLW bible!

I decided to start with BLW after reading about it here, although naughtily did it early at 5 1/2 months (she's now 7 months). Puppy didn't seem too interested, but did devour a bit of toast I gave her..... After a few days (and well-meaning questions from hubby re choking etc) I gave in a tried purees for a week. Puppy would (and will still) only accept a spoon if I give it to her loaded and she gets it to her mouth as soon as possible! After reading the articles in NCT mag and then in the Telegraph (at parents house!) I decided to give it another go. This time I gave her more 'interesting food', i.e. not just steamed veg. She went bonkers for marmite on toast, spag bol, loved the fishcake and kidney bean kiev recipes on this blog. Gave her chicken for the first time yesterday and she did superman arms (which I generally take to be a good sign) practically all the way through her meal!

Haven't noticed too much gagging/choking, although she does have a tendency to store food in her capacious cheeks for me to find later! Puppy seems to love food so much that she is taking less milk already. Sadly though as I am doing both breast and bottle, she has decided to take less breast. Still am really glad I started on the BLW and big thanks to all who contribute to this blog for keeping me on the road. I already tell other mummies with glee about what puppy ate for dinner yesterday and see them green with envy that their little one is still on mashed carrot followed by mashed banana!

Day 3 of BLW - I think we've done well today and for tea The Samster had a little chew on a piece of fishfinger, carrot, broccoli and pear. OK, only tiny bits and he does gag a bit (although already not as much as he was) but I think that's progress. DH was unsure about the pear due to it being sweet, but as I said he'd eaten the savoury stuff fine so I thought it would be OK. He's a lazy little piggy though and wants me to hold the food to his mouth. I don't - I'm happy to pass it to him but then it's over to him. Aren't I a meanie!!!

Just reporting in at the start of day 4 - can anyone tell me if it's OK that I put porridge on The Samster's spoon, passed it to him and he fed himself? He was tucking into it big style. Needless to say it went everywhere, including in my hair (I forgot I had it all over my fingers and scratched my head!) but it was all good fun. He gagged a couple of times but soon got the hang of it and even cried when I took the bowl away bless him. He's sound asleep upstairs now, worn out after his BLW exploits no doubt!!!!!

Hi Cornish smiler,

I think lots of us do that with porridge, to be honest, and the point of BLW is that anything 'led' by your baby is ok. My own daughter is, frustratingly, opening her little beak like a proper puree-fed baby for porridge - launching her head towards it, but refusing to hold it herself. I think she's just realised she has staff! Will have to start varying breakfasts a lot...

Well, it's been a couple of days but just thought I'd let you know how it's going. I think I said the other day he had fishfingers (yum!) and is definitely 'going for it' more. Stuff is getting through for sure judging by the contents of his nappy!!!

Was at my friend's house today for lunch and I was just finishing off a gingerbread man that my daughter hadn't finished. Next thing I knew, The Samster's pudgy little hand wrapped around the gingerbread man and he was off!!! He demolished a fair bit of it; my friend couldn't believe it!!!!!!

My only concern is it states in GR's article that the los MUST pick the food up themselves. He doesn't do this and will ignore what is on his tray unless something really takes his fancy (eg gingerbread man!) so I tend to pick it up and pass it to him. Is this OK as I don't want to be doing it wrong from the start. If passed to him he'll really try to eat it and Aitch he loves the Organix Moon Biscuits too!! His strategy is to suck as much as he can until it goes mushy then eat that - clever little man!

All in all though a good start I think!

Ali

I think that's a good question (Cornish smiler, possibly below. Don't know where this is going to land...) - is it "ok" to pass things to the baby? I think the reason GR says not is simply because things they are able to pick up, they're able to eat. So, for example, raisins are out until they've got a good enough grip to pick them up for themselves. And this is a good rule of thumb. But, that said, sometimes it's fun to share a meal by handing stuff to your baby (that you know they can handle themselves), and also sometimes the high chair tray gets so slippy that it's like trying to pick up a banana from a wet ice rink, so again, I'd say be led by your baby. As long as they're doing a fair amount of self feeding, then a bit of sociable passing over is fine, I'd say. The Nome has just started offering me her toast today (8 1/2 months), so I reckon it's part way to teaching her to share (hah. If only).

Looking for a bit of guidance on starting times. Am very keen to follow blw with my daughter who turned 5 months yesterday. Am happy to wait till 6 months, but she seems very ready to try now! She's able to sit completely unaided and has been able to for a couple of weeks. She positively drools every time we eat and has enjoyed sucking/gumming bits of raw celery, pepper and cucumber. Any thoughts? Thanks. Annax

well, the 6 month guideline is a good one as it protects all babies, but obviously some are ready beforehand. the BLW line on this is that if they're ready to eat, they eat...
so if you want to continue with the celery and cucumber etc i would do. steamed veggies as well, if you wish. but i'd stick to no gluten until 6 months, definitely.

Pudding is now 22 1/2 weeks and taking an interest in food. The high chair is ready and waiting, but she hasn't sat in it yet.

Problem is, I'm in the habit of eating when she's asleep as it's just been easier to prepare and scoff when she's not needing attention. I have 2 dogs and a tiny galley kitchen, so I'm restricted as to where to leave her if she's awake and I need to be in another room. (My dogs are both great, but they are still animals and babies have pinchy pokey fingers so I can't leave them together in the living room easily unless she's off the floor, hence the still napping in moses basket me cooking / eating whilst she sleeps)

What do other people do to cope with baby wrangling and cooking? Am I being paranoid re the pups?

I want to get started soon on BLW, but I guess I'm just a bit nervous about the logistics of it all!

Me too. Breakfast & lunch are at some very odd hours there days! He is often still up when I have dinner with my husband though so we may have to start in the evening when we get there.

Hi Bigpud - life here has been changed by the purchse of an activity centre which Fidget will play in for 20 or so minutes whilst I cook. He loves it as it allows him to stand up to play - he hates lying on the floor these dats! http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Product.aspx/BruHome/BruBabyToys/BruBabyToysBabyEinstein/711977
May also keep your little one away from the dogs.

Hi bigpud, I have 2 dogs too. I use stairgates around the house so I can make sure they are separated when necessary. Usually the dogs are watching and salivating on the other side of a gate into the hallway while the Pupster eats his lunch, mostly because he doesn't need any more encouragement to drop food on the floor... The toy that they can be stood up in sounds like a good idea. He likes to crawl around under my feet, which is obviously not a great idea while I've got pans on the hob, so I often attach his favourite toy (a buggy driver) to his highchair and he'll sit in it and play with that till his food's ready. Otherwise he goes in his playpen with some toys in the living room (not yet confident the room is really baby-proof yet!).

Thanks for your quick response Aitch. I'll start preparing cooked veggies that she can take from my plate. I'd already decided to go carefully on gluten/wheat, as I have a wheat intolerance. Thought I'd probably leave it a year if I can. Bye for now, Ax

Thanks for the ideas girls. Off to Toys r us after playgroup as it happens, so I'll have a shufty there!

Of course, I can put high chair in entrance to tiny kitchen 'cos it can be moved!!! Eureka! 12 months ago I was semi intelligent but darned c-section doc appears to have removed my brain. Didn't know it was in my reproductive area, maybe I'm more of a bloke than I realised har har.

Had intended to wait until 6 calendar months, but Pudding had other ideas!

Out for lunch, having watch Annabel Karmelised 8 1/2 month old spooned gunk, I put the Pudding on my lap as I had dessert. She grabbed the fork and shoved it into her chops and started gnawing away! I took the morsel off the fork as I thought her enthusiasm was going to lead to a serious prong-based injury, and she grabbed my hand and shoved the food back towards her beak! Thank goodness it was melon chunks and not the boozy chocolate trifle my friend often provides!

She chomped her way through 2 big hunks of galia and honeydew (sorry Aitch incidentally my dear daddy eats honeydew with at least 2 dessert spoons of sugar on it!) and seemed very pleased with herself.

I know she's meant to put the food in her mouth herself, but she couldn't get a grip on the melon. However, it was definately baby led.

DH was gutted to miss this, so repeated with banana at tea time. She chomped off a huge chunk and he panicked and fished it out. Shame, as she did the same with the melon but just spat it straight back out. If he would read this blog as requested he may not have been so quick to react.

Anyway, a proud moment captured in many pics. Off camping today, so goodness only knows what she'll end up ingesting in the cafes and pubs of Wensleydale.

Mealtimes became a fun even where we all sat together and ate off the same plate, and Daddy had to start sharing his marmite on toast.
I remember very vividly how she snatched her daddys bread (cheese topped roll i think) proceeded to to suck, swallow, gag, remove from mouth and try again, from that moment on all food we had she wanted to try, so we shared, why dirty 3 plate when you can put it all on one big plate and tuck in, we also began to leave a little for her instead of fighting over who got the last portion.