Can I pick up on the Tommee Tippee spoon mention in the long to load thread?
They have some horrendous advice on the back of their boxes. I bought the self feeding spoons for Jenson. Read the back and to my horror there was all kind of nonsense about 4 months, purees and that about 12 months you can think about starting on chunks of family foods!
I rang to complain but I just got someone saying "my 3 month old niece is on solids and she's fine..." plus the gem of "6 months is new advice.." yep so new that it was the official advice even when my school aged middle son was a baby. No concept of the idea a baby could actually self feed from day one.
If they can't give out appropriate advice on their packaging they should just say nothing at all!
/rant

I've just been deleting old emails and found a reply form Baby Organix regarding a question I posed on their wwebsite in October. I sent the email on the 30th October and didn't get a response until 5th December. I was querying why their moon biscuits are stated to be suitable from 9 months, yet their ginger biscuits from 12 months. As far as I can see the only dubious ingredient in them is the palm oil, but that is an environmental issue, and in both of the products anyway. I also threw in the question, why do they have baby food labelled from 4 months at all seeing as all government advice is from 6 months. The reply on Dec 5th said they would get back to me in a few days and they still haven't.....I will let you know when they do. Maybe a few other people could email them with the same question and they might be forced to respond.

Hello,

I did notice yesterday that the new tommee tipee bibs and spoons packaging says suitable from six months - maybe they've finally started to worrry about directly going against government advice.

Totally love this blog btw

Claire

that is interesting, you two. keep up the good investigative work. is there an email address for Organix, and should I be paranoid about palm oil?

By the way, remember to change the title of your post so that lazy people like myself can easily see what they're about.

Widget stopped eating for a couple of weeks, but she was projectile vomitting and had a stinking cold, so I'll let her off - poor little love - although she did manage some turkey and veggies on Christmas Day.

She's kind of interested again now and has just eaten a whole adult sized organic yogurt for breakfast, and she devoured half a fishcake yesterday, but I wonder if I'm doing this BLW malarky properly. Anything solid - such as toast, carrot, fish cake etc that she can reasonably pick up and munch I leave her to it and clean it off the walls and floor later. BUT .... and this is where I think I'm screwing up .... stuff like Oatibix and yoghurt (which she loves) I do spoon feed her. At seven and a half months she is great at using her spoon to empty her mouth but not so hot at getting it in there. I do try to make a concious effort to only put a spoonful in when she opens her mouth for it or tries to climb out of her highchair to get at it, but am I going against all that is BLW?

well, it's not like there are rules, exactly... and if she likes it she likes it so my opinion would be 'who cares?'

I'm not overly familiar with Oatibix, but if you wanted to stop spoonfeeding her you could just give her the bitesized ones softened in a bit of milk, couldn't you?

I'm not Gill Rapley, obviously, but in my opinion the idea of BLW is designed to help mothers to wean their babies onto solids, and help the baby to build a good relationship with eating and food (which are kinda two different things). So as far as I'm concerned you should do what works for you both, and just try and stick to the principle of not chasing after the baby with the spoon. To be honest I've got nothing against purees or anything done in a non-pushy manner, it's just that I personally can't be bothered with the faff.

Leave some of the spoons lying around, though, as I'm sure she'll get the picture soon. She sounds like she's doing brilliantly for a seven-and-a-half month old with a stinking cold. Babybear loves using spoons for yoghurt, although she's very hit (the walls) and miss (the yoghurt pot) when it comes to loading them up herself.

Thanks Aitch, feeling a bit better now. I'm definitely not doing the chasing with a spoon thingy - can't think of anything worse really - I'd hate being force fed, why would a baby like it? I honestly do only put it in her mouth if it is open and she's grabbing at my hand to "help"!

Glad you brought up a bit of spooning LRWG. My babs is 2 months into BLW and I just spoon feed her fromage frais. She insists on having the spoon fed through her own hand and then she shoves the spoon in herself. Man if you try and put that spoon in without her help - lets just say you have no chance!! Like Aitch says, do what you and baby are happiest with. Have fun!

i've changed the main page in your honour LWRG... it now says 'no spooning' rather than 'no spoons'.

LOL - thank you!

Thanks for raising this one. I was worried because I do the same thing. Feed Pumpkin stuff off a spoon which she really can't eat with her hands and let her feed other stuff herself. I never force her though, that would be awful. She also tries to feed herself with a spoon and boy is it messy.

Tracy

Mr T is oh so keen on his fruit only 4 weeks into BLW (demolished a good three quarters of massive pear this morning!) but can't seem to swallow veggies. Being the paranoid person I am I've been doing the intro one thing at a time so poor lad has sat down to tray of plain steamed carrot, or cauli etc. He picks it up, bites and chews (as much as you can with 1 tooth!!) but then can't seem to swallow the million tiny pieces in his mouth. He then makes a very stroppy noise (a bit like hes straining at the other end iykwim) and then gags. I don't really mind any of that, just want to know whether anyone else has found the same, and if it improves. Hubby says that we don't really eat "dry" cooked veg, always have sauce/gravy/in veg stews etc (we are big veg eaters, jsu not on its own) so I wondered whether it'll improve when I'm brave enough to just give him full meals of ours!

Alice

Hi Alice/Sparky. The only thing I can think of is that you might want to steam the veg until it's a bit more revoltingly overcooked, so that it smushes up a bit more in his mouth. It may be that his tongue thrust is still pretty active, so he's chewing but then his tongue is pushing the food back out. Which is fine, tongue thrust is lost at different ages. Has there been nothing in his nappies to indicate that he has swallowed anything?

And to be honest I'm not in love with your husband's dry veg thesis... the baby doesn't know that we conventionally slather our veg in dleicious fatty and salty liquids, he's just going 'blimey, what's this orange thing she's given me?' Plus a lot of people, myself among them, love a bit of plain broccoli. Talking of which, has he tried broccoli? Or sweet potato chips?

Apart from that he sounds like he's doing well, though, really, three-quarters of a pear is an enormous and impressive amount. Given that he really can't be expected to know the difference between fruit and veg it might just be that he prefers the texture of soft fruit. I do hope so, cos that would make your life much easier if you just have to overcook things for a while.

Thanks for advice Aitch. He has swallowed some veggies, just seems to struggle! He has tried broccoli and liked it in that kept puting it in but mouth just full of green flowers then gagging. Some goes down but have put that down to fluke (and occasional slurp of water from sippy cup). Will try the over cooking, I had been doing his longer than ours as we like crunchy but will try and cook them til the resemble ones you get served at Grandmas houses!!!

Hmmm I eat 'dry' veg all the time (but then I think I quite like soft veg too...! Am obv a freak. I steam vegetables for a LONG time for Aphra and so they are pretty soft and easy. Sweet potato is a good un.

I am sure your baby just needs more practice. I know this might not be strictly BLW but you could try putting a little bit of soft veg on your finger in his mouth (obviously not forcefed). I did lots of feeding Aphra this way (never heard of BLW at this point) and I think it might have helped her learn the swallow thing (or it may have been a coincidence) but I never really heard her gag much or have a prob with swallowing... mind you she didn't have any teeth then either...

hhhhm, i'm forced to disagree... but i'm not sure why... i suppose i'd say that if a baby is gagging a lot then the last thing you should do would be to bring food up to their mouths, even if it is in a non-force feedy sort of a way...
i think it's because i'd be worried that the baby would suck it off your finger and it would go too far into their throat and maybe cause a choking fit? or am i being too cautious?

I think I have to agree with Aitch, Boomer also has continually chewed food and then just let it drop out her mouth. It does make you think that they are not eating anything but I do think they are. Maybe its similar to meat - i.e. chewing and getting the juices and then spitting it out?

In the words of Catherine Tate, I DUNNO! Just sharing what I did - remember I never knew nuffink about BLW so just sharing what worked for us. Aph never sucked food, always ate it. Maybe she was just a Born to Chew baby. IMO food/weaning should be fun so if sharing it on your finger works then why not? (obv not holding their nose and shoving it down their gob).

that's okay, sarah, i think because it's nominally our website then Morv and I have to cautiously advise against feeding babies from your finger if you're doing BLW and the baby is already gagging a lot. of course, what people do in actual fact and what works for them is another matter. but when it comes to the research it's regarded as not a good idea, tbh.

Well I cooked the broccoli until it virtually collapsed into mush on its own with no help fromMr T's fist and low and behold, he picked it up keenly (which is a first for broccoli, normally pulls this disgusted face just seeing it on his tray!!) sucked it vigorously and then chewed and swallowed!! You were right, I must have been under cooking it!! He also ate some of my veggie stew, another first as anything savoury like that normally got one taste, the poison face and then become vegetable playdough!

that's brilliant news, congratulations sparky and sparky jr.

Am transferring here - as instructed!

With pork and apple burgers, I froze them raw. Then defrost and grill until cooked (ob-viously). Onion bhajis I just defrost at room temperature and she eats them cold. I am mean.

Sorry for posting in the wrong place - you'd think I'd learn to read before doing anything. Thanks for advice, can't believe I didn't fully think through the whole veg being different to meat. Poor boy is also used to cold food. I too am mean.

Don't worry, you weren't in the wrong place really. The other place just got too big, so all is moving here...

Aitch here, I've copied and pasted from the 'Welcome to BLW Main Page' thing as it too is taking sodding ages to load...

have a look. I've also rather self-regardingly copied across my own answer, but lord knows it's probably All Wrong.
h x





by Drea on Thu 04 Jan 2007 20:10 GMT | Profile | Permanent Link
HELP - I have a thirty week old that I am struggling with! Due to several admissions to hospital (eight for me) since the birth my daughter started to lose weight at twenty four weeks (she has been exclusively breast fed) so we began introducing a yoghurt everyday while I got my milk supply up, at twenty six weeks I began to offer finger foods and as others have commented it can be hit and miss, I do spoon feed her cereal in the morning and a yoghurt at night. She initially happily ate banana, toast, bread sticks and melon however she has become increasingly frustrated when I won't feed her food myself and when I do get her to hold food as soon as she gags on it she won't touch any more ( mainly fruit and veg). She is beginning to strain and when having bowel movements and I am worried about her non existent iron intake. I really want to follow this method but have resorted to mashing fruit and veg in the last two days just to help her go to the loo - can you help me to get back on track?







Reply
Re: Re: Welcome to Baby Led Weaning - two friends, two babies, no spooning...
by Aitch on Thu 04 Jan 2007 21:21 GMT | Profile | Permanent Link
hhhmmmmmm...
bearing in mind that i am not an expert, just someone who is actually doing this, i'll do my best to help. there is also a yahoo group (i'd give you the address but i changed computers and haven't been able to find it again, maybe someone will answer and help out?). also you could try a website called Mumsnet as well, their weaning section has quite a few mums doing BLW. So i'd post on there too if i were you.

Have you read this http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/iron.html
about the iron stuff? From what I understand it's often overplayed by medics.

Is your BFing back up to speed? And is her weight behaving 'normally' again? (whatever that is... I'm sure Babybear's weight goes up and down weekly but have been fortunate enough to be in a position to avoid hospitals where they measure everything).
Would it feel completely weird to back off from the solids for a while, because as you know there are more calories in milk than in banana or broccoli. And I'm wondering if you did that for a few days if she might forget about the spooning thing and start picking up solids again?

Also, if you've been mashing banana that might be making her constipation worse rather than better, but you probably knew that already... on the odd occasion that Babybear has been constipated I've found a prune or some raisins has helped her. But I wonder how you administer a prune to a baby who doesn't want to pick up food? Prune juice, perhaps?

I suppose my instinct would be that she isn't ready for solids if she's not into picking them up, but that because she's lost weight her body wants calories where it can get them, hence the willing co-operation with spoon-feeding. Following that line of thinking i'd wonder about upping the BFing if you can manage it, but I'm not a BFer and lord knows i'm not a medic so you'd have to take that advice with a pinch of salt...

I'm going to copy your query across the the Random Thoughts section, because we've had so many comments that things are taking too long to load on here. Hope you don't mind, and I hope that i've been of some assistance...

The Yahoo link is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/B-LW/

The Weeble (my bubba) had some prune juice to cope with a bit of constipation; it was very, er, effective. And he loved it as well - not surprising, I had a taste, it was very sweet.

Drea, you said she won't touch anything once she gags... has she had a choking incident that scared her, maybe? I am purely guessing that maybe that could put a baby off.

Weeble does have days where he just plays with his carrots etc and happily gulps down a yoghurt. Is it possible that she just can't be @rsed?! I don't mean to be flippant here, it's just that I have friends whose children are very very mellow and who are content just to sit there with mouth agape; although you said she did the finger food thing initially. Argh, I'm not being much help, sorry.

My view is that if she wants you to feed her, feed her. You're obviously not forcing that spoon into her mouth. All babies are different - maybe BLW isn't for her, or maybe she will take to it later on - she's still very little after all!

just bumping this problem as i think it's really interesting but i'm only allowed to have 5 recent comments so i don't want it to get lost.
oh, and thanks for the yahoo address, bunny. i've already posted there tonight...

josh has never been constipated so i cant help in that respect but i would think (and im definitely no expert) that maybe dropping the spoonfeeding and upping the bfing for a while would help. u will probably find that ur feeding constantly again tho! when josh used to gag on his food (weve not had any for a while now, just realised)sometimes he would not want to eat any more, he would vomit when he gagged. also, josh is 8 months old now and doesnt eat that much, definitely not enough to cover cereal in the morning and a yoghurt at night so maybe its too much food too soon thats causing the constipation?
as for the iron thing, there might not be much in breastmilk but what little there is is much more easily absorbed by the body than anything else so i wouldnt worry on that respect.

Hi, thank to you all for the tips. I tried the mini shreddies with her the last two mornings and she was keen to eat these with her fingers and carried on to suck on some melon, she also ate half a potato cake for dinner and some tea cake - still refusing any type of veg (I've tried almost all types) but I'm starting to relax a little, mainly thanks to reading comments here and relaxing on the iron intake thing. Thanks again, will keep loging in p.s. the recipes are great - more please!!!

oh that is good news, drea. i hear you on the recipes front, i have a bit of a backlog again but will sort that out when i get some free time on Monday evening. back to work for me now...

Re: constipation, if you can't get prune juice, a bit of orange juice and water works a treat, also vitamin C helps the iron absorption..
I too got worried about iron early on as my lo did not really eat many veg either. I found a 'superfoods' range, sold in Sainsbury's and probably in the other stores, basically its ready pureed veg combinations, there's a spinach and parsnip one which he loved, I just used to add it to the meals he liked, e.g. risotto, or feed it directly by dipping bread in and handing over bite sized pieces.
Also, and perhaps slightly embarrassed to admit this, we fed our lo take away curry - particularly Sag paneer (that's spinach with cheese) and he loved it - so as long as he was eating spinach that reduced my worries about iron a lot. (I know take away probably way too much salt/grease etc but once in a while can't hurt surely...?) Anyway, now he's 15 months and he can actually come out for a curry with us and eat, which is great!

Thanks again. I have found two ways of slipping in the veg between the 'I love everything toasted' meals, she will eat veg if I make it into a pattie and wolfed down an aubergine, courgette and pepper ratatouille - the latter requires a wet room as it pretty much also ended up in a five mile radius! Things are improving, although the gagging thing still fills me with dread. Loving the site!

the gagging will stop soon, drea, i promise (she says pointlessly...)
glad things are going better.

Aitch, just thought you might be amused to hear that Caroline Phillips, she of "I screamed with grief in the loo" fame, has made it into Pseuds Corner in Private Eye this week ;-)

(for you ladies who don't know what I'm babbling on about, see Aitch's post here. I've posted on Mumsnet about this new development.

Incidentally Mumsnet is evil ;-) I'm going to have to ban myself once I start back at uni, cos I'll never get any work done otherwise!

are you littlelapin? <>
i was CarolinePhillips briefly. i may have to make an appearance to admonish you in person. now go and help Drea with her problem please...

Je suis littlelapin, oui. My husband used to call me Petit Lapin de Bang Bang <pause to consider the wisdom of oversharing on a public blog> - it's a long story ;-)

I did try to help Drea {feels admonished} I just was posting under random thoughts... I'll get back in my box now...

And why, oh why, aren't you allowed more than 5 recent comments?! So unfair. Oh well, since I'm taking up one, ^^^^^LOOK UP EVERYONE^^^^^ and help Drea ;-)

Hi,

LOVE this blog by the way! My little man aka - the Minx - will be 6 months old in a couple of weeks so i'm getting ready for BLW but i'm scared! That probably sounds silly but i'm worried about where to start with it all? What if he doesn't eat anything at all? What if I get lots of pressure from family to 'feed him properly' - ie. with a spoon? What if I give him salt or sugar by mistake?!

And finally - there's a lot of talk about hummus but on all the cartons i've bought it says it contains salt so is it still ok to give him hummus????? Can anyone help??

BLW just makes such total sense - I hope the Minx agrees!!!
x

Hi - I was just plucking up courage to post a similar thing - Piglet is nearly 5 months and already watching my plate with what looks a lot like pure greed... I agree, BLW just seems like good sense so I can't see why we shouldn't give it a go. I'll be reading this blog with interest (got here via the Wikipedia article and after reading the thing on the Dutch website). Looking forward to sharing the thrills and spills.

Baby Girl is 18 weeks and I'm embarking on yet another learning curve - BLW! I've got 8 weeks but there's nothing to read! well...sort off. Found you through the dutch website and I've just joined the yahoo group. So excited! will watch this post with interest. I need a beginners guide to get me started and help my confidence, luckily no family 'interference' expected only skepticism about my loopy child rearing ways (e.g exclusive breast feeding and co-sleeping!). so excited!

hello newbies! my baby is coming up for 8 months and we are well into BLW. tonight she has just polished off noodle stirfry with courgette and broccoli yum yum. there are some pics of her when she just turned 6 months in the photo section (dizziebaby)

you won't find much info out there on BLW, just a few blogs, stuff on parenting forums etc. just read what you can and go with it!

hello there newbies,
welcome to the site, ask as many questions as you like and we'll hopefully be able to help. with regards to the hummous thing, well... you could make it yourself if you want to be super-sure but i personally just keep an eye on everything and try to make sure it doesn't add up during the day.
so if my daughter was eating plenty of veg (which contain lots of water) and drinking cups of water (if FF) and milk then i allowed her some salt in prepared things like hummous or cream cheese. Everyone finds their own level that they're happy with, but you certainly shouldn't add any salt. and there's nothing inherently wrong with sugar, just that you might as well not give it as it's a bad habit to get into... Everything in moderation, I say.
good luck all.

Thanks for your reply! I'VE STARTED!! The Minx had his first solids today - steamed carrot sticks! He loved playing with them and tried eating them too. (His nappy proved that he HAD eaten some too - sorry if tmi but I was sooo excited!). We're planning to try cucumber or banana tomorrow but I think my husband is already worrying about how little he ate but i'm trying to make sure he doesn't stress about this!!

Thanks again
Fiona
x

just remind him that 'until they're one it's just for fun' and then ignore any moans thereafter. actually, i think in the allergies essay there's a really good chart that talks about how many teaspoons you'd expect your spoon-fed baby to be eating at various stages. hardly any, basically, which helps one to calm down about amounts.
congratulations on the carroty nappies.

Hey all,

Just to let you know that at the grand old age of 21wks Bubs is taking her first tentative steps into the world of solid foods. It's so exciting!!!

I first tried a bit of lentil soup at 20wks as i got stared at whilst eating and it was starting to make me feel uncomfortable but was a bit too early - she shuddered and gave me the 'you've poisoned me' look, which was quite amusing! But in the last few days she's taken to holding, and dare i say even chomping on carrot, pear & banana. Swede and courgette not been such a hit.

I'm so sad that i got really excited when i found the first bit of carrot in her nappy (although not happy that it was at 6.30am!) - she'd actually eaten something! I think i need to get out more....

Anyway, enjoying it so far and will keep you updated/be asking you lots of questions!

I still get that "Argh, I'm being poisoned" look almost every day. Bear in mind that this is when he is feeding himself, and even happens with banana, his favourite thing in the whole world. I reckon he does it for effect now because it makes me laugh ;-)

It was even funnier when his dad made the same face when I gave him some stew last night. OK, so I meant to add coriander, not cinnamon... they're next to each other in the spice drawer, easy mistake!

good to meet you , dizzy. you know that 21 weeks is a bit earlier than the WHO guidelines suggest, so i'm sure that you are keeping things gluten-free until the six-month mark. give us a shout if you need anything.

Hi,
Where can you find the alleries essay? My mother in-law is driving me nuts amount the fact my little one isn't eating enough. Would like to know roughly how much in teaspoons so have something to reassure her. Me, baby and hubby are loving BLW but am feeling the pressure from others. The little one is now 6.5 months and is so happy with the BLW and will try anything, although very little does go in.

Hello all, any thoughts on low acid food to feed Grizzles? She had reflux quite badly until recently, seemed to have got over it but now looks like she is getting heartburn a bit again. Obviously tomatoes and fruit aren't great but any other thoughts for things that might actually help?

if you can bear to scroll past the hippy-dippy text there's a list of high alkaline foods at the bottom of this website, is that the sort of thing that might help?

I think that might be quite dubious information, just because it says tomatoes and lemons are good for acid stomachs and they give me heartburn, let alone the baba. Plus, I find the writer of this site rather sinister, he looks like one of the those people you turn upside down and hey presto, another face, plus he says he wants to help me travel the path to enlightenment.

Instead, I found an alternative source of dubious information on this site, which is posted by a lady who looks like she knows the pain of acid heartburn and has chomped her way through a fair amount of food in order to tell us exactly which is good/bad.

Sorry all, know this is a bit niche, but other parents of refluxy babies may find it helpful.

i'd noticed that about the lemons, thought 'hhhmmm, that's strange'. but hoped the other stuff might be of help. the internet is a marvellous home for all sorts of odd-bods and their nutty ideas. (hang on...)

Hello all - have been lurking for a while. I'm LindsD, based in Harrow, with 2 kids and 2 stepkids. DS is 5.5 months and has been showing interest in food for about 4 weeks now. She can't sit up unaided yet, but can sit up pretty well on my lap. She is now so interested in food that she swipes my food from me when I am eating, and can bring food to her mouth and gum it. So far she has had banana, bread (v good), melon, pear and bread sticks. My dilemma is, though, she can only hold the food for a few seconds before she drops it, and then she cries bitterly until I give her some more. If I hold it to her mouth she is happy, and if I take it away she cries again until she gets it back. I know that holding it to her mouth is against the baby-led ethos, but she really seems to want it. What to do? It feels like her readiness for the food is ahead of her motor skills, but that again seems against BLW principles. Should I just keep putting it in her hand, or is even that too much help for her? Any advice gratefully received. She is fully bf btw and feeds often, but I am going back to work this week so will probably have to introduce some formula then. Thanks.

i can't see any problem with you picking the food up and putting it in her hand at all, so long as she's feeding herself. when we started off we used to hold an apricot half in our hands with Babybear sitting on our knees, and she would grab them and eat them. so that's the same thing, isn't it, i suppose?
i really wouldn't hold the food up to her mouth, though, it's a choking hazard and as you say against one of the very few BLW principles.
all i'd say is that showing an interest in food is not the same as being ready to eat it (in the same way as showing an interest in you driving is not a reason to apply for her provisional), so there would be no harm in you hanging back and waiting for her motor skills to catch up if you want to.
have a look on mumsnet.com, there are a couple of women there whose babies have started self-weaning earlier than 26 weeks (much to their surprise) but they are both reporting that the babies are holding food fine. if you post there i'm sure they can help you too. good luck, and welcome to the blog.

Boomer did start having bits of fruit before the offical 6mth start. I helped her pick up her food, i.e handing it back to her and she did occasional suck on a peice of friuit that I held but she always grabbed it.

Thanks a lot - that's sort of what I had thought.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this with their little one... notsotall has recently taken to popping stuff in her mouth, chewing on it for a few seconds and then opening her mouth wide and letting the food fall out of her mouth. Quite often this is followed immediately by grabbing the half-chewed item and popping it straight back in, which makes me think that it doesn't have anything to do with her not liking the food. She can repeat this several times with each thing (some of which have previously been her favourites - cherry tomatoes, grapes etc.), although most of the time the food doesn't end up being swallowed.

All very strange, and a bit of a mystery. This has coincided with her being ill, teething, losing interest in food generally, and sleeping badly at night, so I'm really totally confused as to what is connected to which...

hhhmmmm... is it possible she's just enjoying being an idiot?

actually, dd now does this with food and drink occasionally. it's like something out of Little Britain. Sometimes i think it coincides with her teething and then she gets a feel for acting the goat and so continues it. but then Babybear is an idiot, bless her socks.

Do you think maybe she has/had a sore throat or earache? Maybe it has been painful for her to swallow and although she is hungry she might associate swallowing with pain? Just a thought.

hhmm, clever thought, Alison. i wonder if that's what's been happening to Babybear? she's definitely been rubbing her ear but i thought that was to do with teething... but then it's all linked, i suppose. <>

Yeah, that is a thought Alison - I did wonder if it was something like that, as she doesn't seem to mind the chewing itself, nor does she have a preference for soft/hard foods. She's also been pulling on her ears. I guess I thought it would just pass on, whereas she's been doing it for a good two weeks now.

If that IS the case, then what do I do? Give her some calpol first? I hate giving her drugs if it's not really dire, but then I also hate seeing her not getting any food inside her either. Maybe I should speak to her health visitor, if it's an ear infection that isn't clearing up I guess she might need something stronger. Oh, the quandries we go through.

Or then again perhaps she is just behaving like an idiot for fun... she certainly does get some laughs out of us.

So I bought I nice piece of cod today from our rather fabulous newly opened fishmongers as I thought LittleE might like to try fish. The thing is now I have it at home I'm not sure what to do with it - well, obviously cook it, but how? Most ways it will fall apart then she won't be able to pick it up (her pincer grip is non-existent so far). Any ideas? Fishfingers? Fishcakes?
Alison
PS Following on from above - it might be worth getting GP/HV/practice nurse (whoever does such things at your local surgery) just to have a look in her ears - they could then easily tell if she has an infection so you would know whether or not to give Calpol/ ibuprofen.

Fishcakes would be good, I'd have thought. One of our favourite meals is haddock poached in a bit of milk, dotted with butter and jam a couple of bay leaves into the milk as well. cover the shallow dish with foil and stick it in the oven at 180 degrees for about 20 or so minutes and it's delicious with spinach or broccoli and a baked potato. it's the ultimate comfort food, as far as i'm concerned, and i'm sure it'd be lovel with cod too, especially as the flakes are so big she shouldn't have any trouble picking them up.

We do fishfingers; strips of cod/haddock/sole fillet, dipped in flour then beaten egg, then coated in breadcrumbs; fry or bake as is your wont. We've tried both, and this is about the only way that the Weeble will countenance fish. Although tomorrow he's getting chunks of baked tuna steak; and if he doesn't like that, I'm eating it ;-)

Hi Chloe,
That sounds exactly like Angelcake - she has been teething, ill, not eating etc. She's 10.5 mths now. For several weeks it got to the point where I gave up with meals altogether because she was so disinterested in food. Now that she's regaining her appetite she often spits food out then pops it back in again...and the longer she's been doing it, the more she's actually beginning to eat again. I think it's been a combination of not feeling well,etc and the developmental growth spurt she's been going through - her sleep has been dire for weeks. I'm seeing the slow improvement as heartening that it's all getting better!!

I've moved over here rather than monopolise "Boomer turns 1".

We went to see the dietician yesterday and I now know that a one year old requires 350mg of calcium a day.

100ml cow's milk = 120mg
100g sardines = 460mg

The only reason to have milk is for the calcium. I asked why milk was recommended and was told it was because it always has been. I guess it's easier to suggest a pint of milk rather than one fig, a handful of seeds, a portion of kale etc etc...

The dietician suggested I use fortified rice, oat or soy milk in cooking and recommended soy or hydrolysed formula for drinking.

I'm happy that I can drop the morning breastfeed and replace it with fortified rice milk in her porridge. However, the night feed is a bit more difficult.

On reflection, I don't want to give her soy formula. At least not in the volumes that are being suggested. There's no daily maximum allowance for soy. I was told that if she has 500ml she should be okay. Not comfortable with that. I guess we can try hydrolysed formula if the GP will agree to prescribe it.

She's been off dairy for five days now and her skin has nearly cleared up. I think she could probably cope with some dairy. Her eczema is currently restricted to the back of her knees, if she was ravaged with it, I would take her off dairy completely. I can't even be sure it is the dairy that causes it to flare up. There's illness, teething, weather, full moon...

So, we are part way there. The quest to raise my child whilst making not a single mistake continues...ahem.

I've been panicking thinking I couldn't NOT give the Weeble milk, it seems way more odd than this BLW lark, but then my mum pointed out to me that I refused point blank to drink milk until I was about 15, and my grandmother never ate any dairy products at all for her entire life, and it doesn't seem to harm either of us (well, Nanna's gone now, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't for a lack of milkshakes and cheese sandwiches!)

But, oh god, sardines... even the word makes me want to hurl. Might have to get his father to feed him those!

Moomin, I really glad that you got some good advice from your dietician and its sounds like the wee ones skin is doing good. After reading squirrels entry about trying not to depend to much on dairy I have beeen giving Boomer less milk - as it was alarming how much she was drinking. She didn't get a drink of milk when she woke and she had yoghurt apple and flakes. Sardines on toast though - there's a blast from the past - I think thats dinner!

Very, very interesting news, particularly as Babybear is rebelling over the cow's milk thing.

Like Bunny, I am informed that I drank virtually no milk. I used to have tea!

I would feel slightly uneasy about giving her a pint of cow's milk a day, it seems an awful lot of one food group. If they have a good, varied diet, they should be fine.

Sardines are fab. Especially in tomato sauce.

We had sardines on toast for tea last night and it was a huge hit with Boomer. She picked the chunks of fish off and shoved them in her mouth and then ate the toast. She was eating for about 40 mins by far the longest ever

Well stick them in as a blimmin' recipe then, Morv. Did you get the ones in oil or tomato sauce or what?

Minks had this yesterday! First time for fish and she didn't spontaneously combust. Yay. The first mouthful she went "Ack". The gagging noise was so high pitched I think only dogs could hear it. Then she gorged herself on it. (Sardines in sunflower oil, Aitch.)

Today was tuna. Took a few more tastes to decide she would eat it but then scarfed the lot.

Hooray for fish!

Has anyone seen an allergic reaction with aubergine? I can't see anyone mentioning it on here but thought I'd ask.

We gave Bruno some aubergine while we had dinner last night. He really liked it as its mushy & can be sucked up easily. However, he had a few red blotches around his face afterward which seem to be caused by the aubergine. They've since gone but wondering if anyone else has had this with aubergine?

oh yes, i think it's not uncommon. i remember esther on here saying that her Madelief had a reaction every time, as you can see from the photo.
have a peek aat the allergies section. Babybear used to have a similar reaction to tomatoes but it has passed now. we just stopped offering them for a while.

Thanks Aitch. Knew there'd be something on here already!

We're still going through the fruit & veg stall so no need to offer for a while. Hopefully it will settle after he turns 6 months.

Have to say, this weaning lark is really getting me back into my fruit & veg!! I love most fruit but as DH doesn't eat fruit unless REALLY forced we never stocked the fridge with much but now Bruno gets to try all these wonderful new foods. It's great!

They don't always have to be dairy alternatives. It can be as simple as COW alternatives. I had to stop breastfeeding our severely dairy allergic baby at 8 months, and she has been on fortified goat's milk formula since then. We plan to switch her to whole goats milk soon (she still fails the dairy challenge.) Goat's milk doesn't work for everyone, but in our case it was a blessing. She wouldn't tolerate non-dairy formulas. Also, we don't have to worry that she isn't getting her calcium!

Read 'Plant-Based Health and Nutrition' or 'Optimum Nutrition' : fruit, pulses and vegetables plus sunlight and weight-bearing exercise on all joints is the only formula you need for bone health. Supplementation shouldn't be required.
Veg, fruits and pulses (lentils, beans) contain calcium.
Fruit and veg arehigh in potassium.
Sunlight provides vitamin D (anytime outside in the day is good, no matter what the weather: go out every day)
Exercise prevents your bones from losing calcium, making them denser.
Also, cutting out animal products and caffeine could stop your baby from losing calcium as they make you excrete calcium through your urine.
Undocumented: I sometimes drink Evian as it contains a good balance of calcium and magnesium, but is more natural. Supplements or added calcium could gather as calcium deposits in the body?

Proof? I eat a mainly vegan diet and my babe's very strong. She's medically small - thin - but this is normal for an optimum nutrition baby (see Healthy Mother Better Breastfeeding, am excellent book) and she's more advanced than other babies her age. Cow's milk prob has more growth hormone but fewer essential fats (less brain food)

Try bathing her in Rooibos (redbush) tea. Just add a tea bag to her bath, it is very good for calming angry and irritated skin and has worked wonders for both my daughter and son's eczema.

On a lighter note, Minky has started floating her food in her cup.

She has a doidy cup and has always enjoyed splashing around in it, but recently she has taken to dropping food in, then fishing it out and eating it. I was amazed how much water my (slightly) dry cakes absorbed!

She also tried to eat the water with her spoon. Cute.

Moomin! Babybear has been doing exactly the same thing, the little freakazoid. she loves collecting all her bits and bobs (peas, egg, cheesy muffin, fish, whatever) in her cup and then tipping it up and drinking whatever has yet to be absorbed. it must be a development thing, give my daughter two items at the moment and she becomes obsessed by finding out whether one might possibly fit inside the other.

Am I a bad mummy?

We're fairly new to BLW although have weaned 4 in the shove it down their throat manner and we're discovering what the munchkin likes/dislikes etc.Loves veg and fruit but not meat but at this moment she's gleefully shoving a hotdog sausage down her throat.Lip slapping the lot.Probably not the best thing for her to have but just occasionally would itbe that bad?

well if u r i am too lol.

we had sunday dinner left overs theother night, my mum used to make us chicken and chips with the gravy that was left from sunday too and i had a craving for it so thats what we all had, even josh! chips! they were home made ones from real potato i hasten to add lol. oh, and i did peas and sweetcorn too, does that make it seem a bit more healthy???

well that night, josh came up in a lovely rash, when hes had an allergic reaction to something the rash has come up straight away but this 1 took a few hours. it was round his mouth, on his fingers where he had held the food and on his knees, head and anywhere else he had rubbed while eating. i dont have a clue what caused it either :( am hoping its not chips or peas else my 'cba so were having a quick tea nights' are a no-no.

Urm, i suppose it depends what's in the hot dog. if it's all salt and piggy lips then it's not that great but you're her mum and you've not broken the other four so i'm quite sure you know what you're doing.
Of course, there is a theory that the babies will pick up the foods that best serve their nutritional needs, so who knows, maybe her body just craves unmentionable piggy parts every so often? It's probably not hugely advisable, though, but you knew that already...
Good that she's enjoying her fruit and veg, how big are the pieces of meat you're giving her. when we started off my daughter wouldn't bother picking up anything smaller than her fist...

About fist sized but she just isn't interested.She's now got a piece of the cob the others had and is shovelling that in too.She will try pretty much anything and she had homemade chips last night and ate about 6 which amazed me cos I thought she'd only have 1-2.I'm running out of ideas on what to give her as the others do admittedly eat a lot of processed foods but I do generally watch what she's eating.Luckily I've got some really good ideas off this site

why thankyou...
I've heard other people say that doing BLW has been a good opportunity for the whole family to improve what they're eating, but Babybear's getting something I've frozen tonight and I'm ringing for a curry, so I don't know what they're talking about...

she loved it.Ok she only really ate the lumps of potato and the dumpling but she had really great fun trying it and it's ideal to cook if you have a slow cooker.Told my kids they'll be getting this every fortnight now if not every week.Also with it being stew you can add carrots,parsnips,leeks etc mine were frozen this time admittedly(except the potatoes) but will be fresh next time.

well then recipe me up, my friend Jacky, so that we may all share the joy. click on my name above and you'll see the email address.

Dear Everyone,
just found this site. Finally, some reassurance. My 2nd baby is 6.5 months, completely breastfed. He refuses anything on a spoon unless he is holding it. He got worse after we had to force antibiotics down him recently. He plays with everything and puts it in his mouth but seems totally uninterested in actually consuming anything, just sucks broccli or carrot steamed baton but doesn't eat any solids as such. Am worried that my child will just stick with breastfeeding for months. With my older son, he took to purees so it was easier to slowly head towards weaning from breatfeeds by 13months.... Feel very concerned he isn't interested in solids.... my hv said there was a window until 7months and then I've missed it! Any thoughts or reassurance very welcome!

the hv has it wrong on this 1. im sure ive read somewhere that this 'window of opportunity' study was based on tube fed babies in the seventies.

josh was the same at that age, he is almost 9 months old and even now doesnt eat loads altho we do see evidence in his nappies. enjoy ur non-too-smelly bf nappies while u can cos it wont be long til ur lo starts eating some solid food lol!

oh those were the days the sweet smell of bfd milk pooo .....

that's HILARIOUS! what was your HV's suggestion then, given that you've missed his window of opportunity? What an incredibly daft thing to say to someone (although my own HV said the same thing, of course).
it is grim trying to get them to take medicine, isn't it? and i'm sure that because the baby has been sick you feel all the more keen to feed him up? but i'm sure that Jeni's right about the window of opportunity stuff, i'm sure i read somewhere that it was completely discredited. let's hope so, cos it'll be embarrassing if your child's main source of sustenance is still breastmilk when he's 15.
it is difficult if they're ill, but if you can try to remember the BLW mantra of 'it's just for fun until they're one' then it takes some of the pressure off. (personally I think if he's holding onto food, though, then you're already a lot further ahead than some people...)

I gave the Weeble some baby corn today. He tried some fearless flavour combos (corn with asparagus, corn with banana, corn dipped in fromage frais) but with his newly acquired front teeth, he has taken to biting big chunks off, and trying to swallow them. Baby corn, of course, isn't as soft as banana and asparagus and we had some impressive gagging. All OK now, but enough to freak Mummy out.

I'm thinking big cobs are a better option (plus, and am I alone in this? Baby corn tastes HORRIBLE).

nope, u r correct in the thinking that babycorn is truly revolting

I don't like it much either, but LittleE is particularly partial to it at the moment so always have some in the house. I steam it till its bendy and she seems to manage it ok. Out of interest how old were yours when you started giving them grown-up corn?

Minky wouldn't touch baby corn. Well, she would, but only to throw it across the room. Big corn was looked at distainfully until I sliced the kernels off. Sweetcorn is actually her tip-top number one food, but on her terms!

I think Boomer was about 9 1/2 mths before she had grown up corn , but this was more because I had never really thought of it before. I have given corn to her wee pal who is about 1 mth younger so that would be about 81/2mths. I wasn't going to give him any due to lack of teeth (although as a blwer I do know this doesn't really matter) but her stole it from Boomer and held onto it all afternoon, into the double buggy and still had it when we met his mummy in the evening.

God, you gave me the fright of my life! I thought something terrible had happened... less of the sad faces in future, d'you think?
Babybear turned her nose up at baby corn, I must admit, so we never got to explore the manner in which she might consume it.

Boomer also has waved baby corn about but not really given it the chomp of approval .

Munch likes to scrape the babycorn along her wickedly vicous sharp front teeth and then spits out the teeny tiny corn kernels before picking them up and eating them.

The middle bit then gets casually dropped over the side of the highcair....

Big smilies! Sorry, didn't to freak you out, it was more "bugger, I didn't think my perfect child would ever choke on anything :-( "

Actually, it was more of a gag than a choke, so he's still perfect!

God its been the only thing Aph will eat during her teething/ill madness episodes. She ADORES baby corn - and its all thanks to this site. Do find it funny my baby having mange tout andbaby corn ooh la la - I was weaned on waffles and fishfingers I think...

Lately Munch has been oh-so-casually picking up every morsel on her tray and dropping it over the right hand side of her highchair (never the left for some reason) to signal that she has had enough.

She is so precise that for a laugh I put a bucket on that side of the chair and caught every single bit of food! no sweeping, no mopping, and only a little wipe over the tray and we were done!

She never watched what she is doing either, she does the 'look mummy, the Goodyear Blimp' while dropping it and then looks down in astonishment 'now how did that get on the floor?!'

Rowan, I think you may possibly be a genius, I am developing a hump from the amount of sweeping and wirping I do. Boomer also does the right handed drop although its a bit more of a toss to one side but always the right - must try the bucket. Dear god why didn't I think of that!

As I am such a bad housekeeper her nappy bucket is kept on the kitchen floor and she used to drop everything on the lid of that...!

I have to say my longhandled dustpan and brush from Tesco is possibly a BLW essential though!

Long-handled dustpan and brush... bucket... Rowan you are a GENIUS!

Genius? or just lazy......hmmm!

thanks! Betterware do an identical one here http://www.betterware.co.uk/productdetails.aspx?pid=034618&language=en-GB

Meatballs, to be precise, Waitrose Organic ;-)

These are ready made, 100% organic beef, baby sized meatballs. 20 mins in the oven = one very happy baby (and mummy, they are scrumptious). Perfect for the lazy mummy, and even better, on a price per kg comparison, they are cheaper than the normal mince! (No, I don't know why either).

Of course, if you don't have a Waitrose near you, you could always spend about 30 seconds making them yourself!

Damn, I have just done my Waitrose shop (we are posh, too!). These shall have to wait until next time.

We bought 2 lots (they were 2 lots of 20 for £4, BARGAIN) with the intention of freezing them all for the Weeble. Shamefully, DH and I have just had one lot for dinner.

They were yummy though ;-)

that is a bargain... no waitrose up here, though... bummer.

As the title suggests, this is what I want to do. I'm hoping the doctor will prescribe some formula for Minky so that she can have it morning and night. But how do I make it up? Do I sterilise the beaker (surely not)? Can I make it the night before and leave it in the fridge so it's there quickly for her in the morning? Help...

I make my formula up mid-morning for the next 24hrs - when morning feed is needed I just put in the microwave, zap (about 55secs for 9oz) and then give a good shake so no hot-spots to burn Bubs.

Not sure what to say about sterilising....think HV's recommend until baby's are 1yr (which i think means you'll be okay?) but we're off to France in April when Bubs is going to be 9mths and not sure i'm going to bother with a steriliser - takes up lots of space and just everything goes in her mouth at the moment, so not that sure that she's completely germ free! Besides....it builds up their immune system....right?!

Hope that's helps,

Sonia x

I'm sure it will be fine not sterilizing - anyway you could always hot water sterilize in a saucepan if you were desperate!. As regards making up formula I don't know as LittleE is still BF but I do know the department of Health guidelines are that you make up each bottle just prior to giving it. I know most people make them all in the morning or the night before but the government recently changed the guidelines. Don't know if thats helpful-it would just confuse me!!

Put boiling water in the beakers the night before and leave to cool overnight. No need to put in the fridge and add the formula powder when you need it. The cooled, boiled water will be ok for 24 hours.
Or, if you're just doing 2 a day, why not buy the little cartons of ready-made stuff?

i haven't sterilised since babybear was 12 weeks old, cos we've got a dishwasher. i don't use a rinse agent, though, so the last rinse is all water.

and i haven't used cooled boiled water since 6 months, which is also the guideline. don't know if i'd do this if i was living in london, what with it having been through 7 bodies first and all...

with regards to making the milk up, the guidelines change a lot. most recently, they say that because the conditions that the formula powder is manufactured in isn't sterile, the water must be 70 degrees to kill any lurking bugs.

so, holding true to my 'laziest approach possible' we run tap water into the bottle and heat it in the microwave for about 40 secs for 7oz, and then add the powder. i don't like adding the powder before microwaving as i read on the mumsnet archive that it kills some vitamins. who knows?

if i'm out i fill with boiling water and then use a tommee tippee container for the powder that sits in the neck of the bottle. the good thing about that (not that you'll need it at this stage) is that if the water has cooled it's much quicker to ask for a cup of boiling water to add than it is to wait for a cold bottle to warm up in a bowl of water.

re. the making up formula in advance - i used to work many moons ago on Heinz Babyfood when they first started talking about not making up formula in advance, the reason being that there was the minutest chance of salmonella (from memory, I think this was less than 1-2%) - i just think its government being over-cautious and have always made all my bottles up at the same time (unless i'm going out then i do the water & powder method like Aitch)

Not sure that that helps anymore...

Sonia x

Our latest trick....Munch was eating some rather lovely cherries a few days ago and was inspecting one for rather too long so I leant forward, said ' I'll have it then' and opened my mouth, and she posted the cherry in. Yum for me!
Now when she eats she holds out the skankiest bit of rhte food (or the bit that has been in her water cup) and shouts at me until I eat it. Not so Yum for me.

Just thought I'd share!

sorry, that was me!

Yes we're on this one too! V cute... think it was all my fault tho as I started a 'feed Mummy yoghurt' game... thankfully she now understands 'you have it'!!!

Tonight, I had to force down a prune smeared with tuna and onion. And she watched me until I swallowed it.

OK, so I thought Keenwah was the girl who came third on America's Next Top Model, but my macrobiotic cousin has just put me right... it's spelled quinoa, and it's a protein rich carbohydrate. It looks like a sort of rice, but it isn't... however, it's gluten free and easily digestible.

Anyway, my question is: what on earth am I supposed to do with this stuff?! I cooked some for us this evening, just to try it out, and it tasted of the stock and onions I cooked with it. And it had a slightly weird texture.

If any of you ladies have a recipe for it, I'd be very happy to try it out! DH has demanded a return to rice ;-)

We dabbled with quinoa when Minky was gluten free. What do you have? Flakes or grains? I've tried to cook grain. They were like little bullets so I threw them away and abandoned the packet. The flakes I cooked like porridge (4 parts water to 1 part quinoa I think) and then bunged it in her soup to thicken up both her and the soup. Have not touched them since we moved on to gluten.

Gosh, I'm not much help... How about a tabbouleh-esque thing with quinoa instead of bulgar wheat?

we tried it when we were doing a ridiculous gillian mckeith detox thing. i think she mostly does it as a porridge grain. we also tried quinoa pasta, it wasn;t very nice, but was palatable. i wouldn't get it again.

So, we have the magic low allergenic formula. Will she drink it? Will she heck. To be fair, I don't blame her. It HONKS.

She gagged on the first mouthful and then wouldn't put the beaker anywhere near her mouth.

The dietician's first suggestion was to try 3 parts rice milk to 1 part dirty milk. She still spat it out. She then suggested mixing in banana nesquik. Oh the irony of breastfeeding my daughter for 12 months and then giving her Nestle products to get her to drink formula. Anyway, she sipped it and then let it dribble out of her mouth, over and over again until everything was a milky-bananay mess.

So, we have no milk substitute and my tiny child is wasting away. Well, not really, but we need to find something she'll drink or I'll have to continue breastfeeding until she's two!

Just thought you might be interested in this which should show you the "nutritional" breakdown for Banana Nesquik.

What sort of dietician recommends something that is 93% sugar!? Bonkers.

We are having a similar issue, I've been trying to persuade the Weeble to have some formula instead of BF for one feed; he's having none of it. We experiementally tried him on some full fat cows milk the other day and he gulped it down - naturally, since I was planning on holding off on that for another month. Contrary child.

Oh I know. It's appalling. It was suggested as a temporary measure to get her used to the synthetic aftertaste of Nutramigen. To be honest the main ingredient in her formula is glucose syrup. It's all very unsatisfactory. She'll happily drink cows milk and rice milk but this stuff is vile.

I'm beginning to suspect that it's going to be impossible to give our children the perfect diet! <grin>

I wonder what the sugar content of breastmilk is? Mine's probably pretty high, seeing as how I had a doughnut and a coke for breakfast <blushes>

After initial hesitation and worrying looks at his mum munching away on breadstick Mr T decided he loves them. My question to all your seasoned BLWers is does anywhere stock low salt versions as the ones I got in Asda tasted quite salty to me!

Alice

josh loves breadsticks too, i got some mini 1s from sainsburys but hadnt checked the salt content on them. just looking now an per 4 mini breadsticks theres 0.1g of salt, per 100g theres 1.8g of salt. its a 95g pack.

I've been having a look but can't find any. There are Kallo ones which are gluten free and touted as nutritious, but they have 1.8g per 100g as well.

The Food Standards Agency says:

A product high in salt is one that has anything above 1.25g of salt per 100g or 0.5g of sodium per 100g. A product low in salt is one that has 0.25g or less of salt per 100g or 0.1g or less of sodium.

I found quite a few things saying "feed your baby unsalted breadsticks" but none saying where to buy them!!!

Organix used to do baby breadsticks with no salt - but I remember they were a bit splintery and more likely to be inhaled than the adult ones. Haven't tried BabyRed on them yet as she is addicted to toast and I make my own bread without salt (hurrah for Christmas present breadmaker!)

I'm sure I posted this earlier?! Anyway, I'll try it again...

MummyRed, how was the no salt bread? I've been meaning to try making some. Did it taste OK? Weeble is also a toast addict!

Hi Bunny. No salt bread is yummy, but it does take a few days to fully get used to it! Because you have to put (a very small amount of) sugar in to activate the yeast, so it has a slightly sweet flavour. But even the ultra-sceptical DaddyRed has overcome his initial fears and now tucks in with gusto (providing I slice it up in advance, otherwise he hacks it into chunks and sets fire to the toaster... twice so far). It's delicious with no salt butter and cheese - plenty of salt in the cheese to compensate!

Fantastic, thank you for that. I will give it a try this weekend.

The Minx was 6 months old last week and we are blw all the way. He has tried carrots, banana, broccoli, sweet potato, cucumber, rice cakes with, hummus, avocado and toast with butter. My worry is that although the nappies show that he is eating a bit - my impression is that it's more by accident than design! He will happily put things in his mouth but he gags on nearly every mouthful then lets the food fall out of his mouth.

I know that amounts don't matter but i'm wondering if the frequent gagging is a sign he's not ready for weaning yet and i should leave it for a few weeks?? I don't want to force him!

Any advice greatly appreciated as I feel pretty isolated on the blw front as noone I know has done it/is doing it!

Thanks.

I too often reach this stage, but at eight months old my girl is getting better each day and I'm beginning to fret less - I've even sent some piccies to Aitch to post on here, showing my little Widget off.

She really impressed the inlaws at the weekend sitting up at the table with the rest of us for our roast lunch and eating better than her three year old cousin!

Hang in there - it is worth it, I promise!!!

it's just my opinion, Anon, but i think that they need to learn 'mouth skills' (i made that up, by the way, lord knows i have no sort of expertise!). so this, in my opinion, is a stage that they go through, where they learn how to move food around their mouths better.

anyhoo, putting things in their mouths, gagging (being left to gag, that is) and then letting the food fall out, that all sounds really normal when you are starting off. and you are probably right that it's more by accident than design, he really doesn't know what he's doing at the moment, so presumably he's just thinking 'oooh, a lovely toy. i chew toys. let's chew this. crikey, a bit's broken off... what happens now? etc etc'.

it's hard for me to remember this stage as it passed by so quickly. i think at the very beginning Babybear ate a lot of fruits like really ripe apricots and peach, which are quite good as the skin prevents big bits from falling off.

if you can bear it, persevere, but if you can't and it's upsetting either him or you, then i think your instinct to dial the weaning back for a week and stick to milk is absolutely fine. it certainly won't do any harm.

and hopefully that you've found us here you won't feel so out on a limb, everyone here is a fan of BLW but we've all had different experiences and taken slightly different approaches so you'll get lots of good advice.

Thanks for your comments. I'll keep persevering because he seems to enjoy the process and even the gagging isn't really upsetting him!

(Don't know why my login isn't showing up?! I'll try and log in again).

I'll keep you posted and keep checking this blog for more ideas and support.

Thanks x

Hello! Could I ask your opinions? We'll be starting weaning in a couple of weeks (5-and-a-half-mth baby has started bouncing up and down with her mouth open when she sees me eating) and I'm pondering allergies. There is a bit of eczema and asthma on both sides of the family and the babe is a bit prone to eczema herself - but I don't know if that's enough of a reason to follow those quite restrictive allergy-safety guidelines where it's 9 months before they can have cooked apple, and so forth. I'm just looking for others' experiences really - what did you do and how careful were you? (I know you're not dieticians and I'm not going to come back here shouting "But but but you said..." if it goes wrong!)

(ps, sorry, I should probably have posted this under the allergies section rather than the general natter thread?)

Hi

I have eczema quite badly so was a bit concerned about LittleE although she's shown no signs of it yet. To be honest I BF exclusively for 6 months but when we started weaning I have really just let her get on with it - so she's had pretty much everything including dairy. although I have eczema I have never mananged to link it to any foods that I eat, so I figured I'd just give her varioius things and keep an eye out for any adverse reactions. So far so good......

Thanks Alison and MummyRed. I haven't managed to link this little one's outbreaks to anything I eat either - in fact I think it's far more likely to be the cat's fault! Someone said under one of the Allergies posts that order of introduction is probably more important than timing, which sounds sensible. We shall see...

We are another family with eczema on both sides (used to get it very badly myself as a baby) and my two year old also had it a bit for a while. I have never restricted my diet because of the eczema - I think in the seventies it was probably not as common to cut out things like dairy. So we haven't cut out anything for BabyRed either. From the beginning (6 months) she has had wheat, dairy and all manner of fruit and veg. I've only just introduced eggs (at about 8 months) and won't do peanuts or peanut butter for either of my two until they are school age. And no sugary or salty stuff, I am super-stern on that score!!!

We've had no adverse reactions at all, the only time BabyRed has had a little patch of eczema was after her big brother emptied a bottle of Lynx shower gel into her bath *sigh*

The munchkin for some reason can't cope with any bread but toast and she's getting fed up with that as a quick snack.Bananas are still being mushed whatever shape they are so we needed a filler for mid morning.

Pitta bread me thinks so we toast it and slice it open but then I've got nothing to fill it with so we slapped on some soft cheese.She wolfs it down and hovers round my feet once she hears the food on the go.I had a bored taste while waiting to give her the next piece and I love it too!!!

Mr T will suck toast but isn't the biggest fan. We are avoiding eggs and porridge pancakes are a gag waiting to happen. He is not keen on anything that requires much chewing, just things that mush in the mouth easily (eg banana, pear etc). I've tried ordinary porridge and oatabix loaded on a spoon but he'll only eat about 2 spoonfuls at best. The only things he'll really take from a spoon and stewed fruit.. any ideas for breakfast?

Also he only really eats/enjoys really mushy fruit, veg and rice cakes at the mo and I feel a bit stuck in a BLW rut. Do I keep offering the harder stuff (harder to chew like cucumber, toast etc; and harder to pick up like rice, grated cheese etc) even though he attempts it then gets either cross and frustrated or upset with it? (Mr T is 7 and half months old and BLW since the magic 6 months)

Have you tried yoghurt with fruit in? Or LittleE loves Tesco organic ready to eat prunes and apricots - they are really soft and keep her occupied for ages - she chews them for a long time then spits out the skin. Why re you giving grated cheese? Any special reason? She loves sticks or slices of cheese which are easier to pick up (shes partial to extra mature vintage cheddar! not too keen on Edam etc!). Organix banana porridge is also popular (although v expensive) I mix it with readybrek to make it last longer, then make it up really stodgy so she can pick it up in lumps!! Does that help?

i'd ditch the rice for the moment except in a really stodgy risotto form, it's just not that easy to eat with your hands i reckon. like alison, i give Babybear her cheese in slices, rather than grated up. and of course i HUGELY recommend porridge pancakes and Shredded Wheat bitesize for breakfast. i've written entries on them, do a search. gagging is not a bad thing, remember, when they do it they're actually learning not to gag, if you know what i mean? plus i really don't remember Babybear gagging on them at all, so maybe you're making them too thick or something. mine are about 7mm thick and quite rubbery. lord knows i wouldn't eat them but Babybear finds them delicious.

Hello, not sure how to change the subject line, or post a new comment for that matter, have only ever replied but here goes.

My mum (formerly of the "oh my god, she'll choke" and now of the "my grandaughter loves my roast potatoes" fame) bought me a really good book for Christmas. It is called Finger Food for Babies and Toddlers by Jennie Maizels. It has got loads of ideas for meals, snacks, dips etc and I have made quite a bit of stuff from it. She is a vegetarian so lots of veggie ideas which makes a nice change.

Anyway, you can get it on Amazon and I would recommend it for those of you needing some inspiration (on top of what this blog gives you, of course!).

Tracy

Ha! Could it be I've learnt how to change a post title?

Anyway, we're not due to start BLW for a few weeks but I'm really curious how you all organise meals so that you can all eat together. Hubby doesn't get home until about 6.30 and LO goes to bed at about 7.30 so if I'm supposed to leave at least an hour between her eating solids and going to bed (or is that another HV myth) how does it all work? Does it just happen at weekends? Lunchtime? In a blue moon? I'm actually hoping it'll make me eat regular healthy food rather than subsist on snatched unhealthy stuff (mincepies for breakfast anyone? I blame Waitrose for selling them off cheap after Christmas.) And what do you do about the mess if you're staying with people (just remembering my MIL's new laminate flooring...)? Sorry, so many questions and we haven't even started doing it yet! You are so going to regret me finding this site.

HI there, we have brekkie at around 9ish and sit wth her and have my cuppa and fnish all the bits she leaves (or mince pies... you're not the only one). We have lunch together at 12.30/1ish. I will confess to sometimes going and doing the washing up while she is deciding whether she wants some more. We aim for dinner at 6pm when hubby gets in and then bath etc is straight after at 6.30-7pmish (5-10mins to settle), if hubby/dinner is gonna be later than 6.30 then I feed her first. If hubby out for evening we both eat at 5.30ish. She usually goes to sleep around 7.30-8pm. So we aim to eat together but sometimes it doesn't happen (like the whole of last week - teething/ill madness). Never heard pf hour after solids thing... altho its usually an hour by the time we have done bath/stories/bottle etc.

And yes, my diet has improved considerably, sharing fruit and salad wth her, also making all our dinners salt-free means I had a packet of crisps (have a crisp addiction!) the other day and they were gross!

Oh, and about the mess just try and stick to non-sloppy food (cucumber, sandwiches, mixed veg etc) but puree +baby = much worse mess, honest!

Hello! 'Fraid we can't manage evening meals either. We always get breakfast and lunch (on days I'm not working) together and sunday dinner in the evening. I don't get home from work 'til 7 and my husband doesn't get TheBubs back from nursery until going on 5.45 and even that's quite late to have to start dinner. It won't be forever.

Thanks for the reassurance, aiming for breakfast together and then lunch for just the two of us then maybe all three meals together at weekend sounds like a good aim to begin with. And I even managed yoghurt and cereal for brekkie today (oooooh get me!)

I'm another that doesn't manage dinner with Munch!
We have brekkie at 8/half8ish, lunch at 12/half 12 and she has tea at around half 5 and then bedtime is at 7.
We have our tea at half 7 in peace!

Is not great for a diet though as I always end up eating some of her tea, and considering it is normally leftovers from our tea the night before I get more than my fair share of food in this house!

(BUT have recently found out I am pregnant, so I don't care! hah!)

oooooh, congratulations Rowan... that's lovely news.

and we have dinner with Babybear i'd say about half of the time, sometimes i think she quite likes all the attention she gets when i'm with her on my own... not least for the fact that she can offer me her half-chewed broccoli and dare me to refuse it. which i can't do, obviously, so i'm trapped into eating some revolting pieces of food by my evil genius baby.

Oh congratulations Rowan! I am soooo jealous. Just spent the day with some friends and their angelic 5 week old (Weeble was a shouty horror at that age - the joys of colic) and I am v v broody now ;-)

I'm so excited, a little teary even. Minimoo is now just over 8 months old and has just eaten lamb dhansak with us for tea. Why the tears? He was even picking up lentils to eat. Ridicuous really but I'm so proud and so glad I found baby led weaning.

aaw, well done Minimoo. you don't seem so scary now, Scary...

thanks!

Ah congrats! You love BLW sooo much that you just had to go through it all again.

Well yes, we had a full defrost this weekend. Will someone please explain to me why our fridge beeps at you like a loony if you dare to leave the door open more than, ooh, 3 seconds, yet there's no warning when your husband forgets to fully close the freezer?! (not that I'm assigning blame, or anything).

Consequently the whole family have been feasting on the Weeble's chicken fingers, mini meatballs, beef stew etc etc etc...

Anyhoo, a question: can a baby eat too much banana? Weeble would happily have a whole one at every meal if I'd let him.

nightmare. although at least you have an intelligent fridge (even if your DH is a bit of a duffer) - i only know ours is defrosting when i see the puddles.

as far as i'm aware (which is not very) the only tricky thing with bananas is that they can cause constipation, but it's never seemed to trouble Babybear.

Hello everybody
I posted just before we were due to start BLW the first week in January, and here we are. For the first couple of weeks, BabyB would suck a little and mush a lot, but eat very little - it just went onto the floor. But then it was as if a light went on in her head and she now makes serious inroads into her fistfuls of food.
I've never been the type for fancy garnishing food but at some point - as a joke - I was given a crinkle cut chipper and I've taken up the suggestion to put it to use for BLW. It's brill! It's my best friend - how sad is that? A crinkly apple wedge is so much easier for B to pick up - even if it gets slimy. And is we're having carrot she has a two inch length off the narrow end with horizontal crinkles in it . We call them Carrotty Knobblers - they look rude but she loves them.
Of course my four year old wants crinkly food too, and I'm not in the business of prepping different foods for different family members, so we're all eating crinkly now - and DH has admitted that he prefers it!
Handy that penne pasta is already ridgy - she's taken to that very happily. She also likes a spoon ready loaded with yoghurt and placed on her tray. She holds the spoon (Heinz v soft rubbery one) in one hand and uses the other hand to push the yoghurt off it and straight into her mouth.
But enough ramble - can anyone tell me why those Organix moon biscuits are labelled for 9 months plus? What's so unsuitable about them?
Cheers cloviscat

cloviscat, carroty knobblers do not merely look rude... they sound rude. sounds like you're doing brilliantly, i must say. i asled the BLWing ladies of Mumsnet for their top tips and the crinkle cutter was one of them... MUST transfer them over when i get a minute.

i assumed that the moon biscuits were labelled 9 months as that's the usual finger food time. i certainly gave them to Babybear when she was about 7 months as i recall.

Off to buy a crinkle cutter today - excellent idea!

The Weeble has been on the Moon Biscuits since about 7 months too - since I discovered how much sugar there is in rusks! He makes short work of them. We tried the Crunchy Carrot Sticks this weekend and they were well received - although I felt very guilty as they are distinctly "Wotsit" like!

osh loves them carrot sticks, they look absolutely vile tho, prabably cos they remind me of wotsits so much! sadly josh cant have the moon biscuits as they have milk in them :( however my other 2 boys (age 11 and 14) both enjoyed them lol

josh loves them carrot sticks, they look absolutely vile tho, prabably cos they remind me of wotsits so much! sadly josh cant have the moon biscuits as they have milk in them :( however my other 2 boys (age 11 and 14) both enjoyed them lol

Organix food age guides: The Official Line

OOOh I've just noticed I can change the title [takes a bow]

It's been asked before, and I can't find my comment about me asking Organix about why they put the guidelines they do on their products, so here is their reply. I've cut and pasted most of the email.


I'm curious as to why you are advising the ginger bread biscuits as suitable from 12 months, while the Moon Biscuits are apparently suitable from 9 months?

I have spoken with our Technical Manager and Product Development Team about this and they have informed me that the only reason the age ranges are different for each of these foods is because of the texture. The Gingerbread Men are much harder than the Moon Biscuits and therefore if we had advised that the Gingerbread Men were also from 9 months, they would be a choking hazard. Whenever we launch any of our foods we always send them to GP's and Health Professionals to ask them their opinion on the age suitability so we do act with care when placing a recommended age range on our foods.

I would also like to know why you sell food advertised as suitable for use from 4 months, when the WHO advise no solid food until the age of 6 months.

We are in the process of reviewing our statement on 6 months and exclusive breastfeeding and we are working to change this on all of our packaging and marketing materials in the future so that it is far clearer to our consumers. Our packaging for weaning babies currently says: "Babies should not be introduced to solid foods until 4-6 months of age. The Department of Health recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months. Your health visitor can advise of the best time to start weaning".
Organix do support the guidelines given by The Department of Health and WHO however we also understand that some babies develop quicker than others and from talking to consumers on a daily basis understand that the 6-month guideline frustrates some mothers as they find it difficult to express anyway let alone for 6 months so, this subject is a controversial one. I do want to assure you though that we do support the Department of Health and WHO guidelines and are working towards making our claims on packaging and marketing materials clearer.

So there you go!

Well done!
I gave Moon Biscuits from about 7 months so I wonder if that would pull the Gingerbread Men up as well? I've never even seen them in the shops here, actually. Good for you for pulling them up about the 4 months thing. You should re-post it on the Moon Biscuits post on here and in the Weaning section of Mumsnet, where you will be greeted as a weaning heroine!

Must say I'm a bit puzzled by the commend on expressing. What has the 6-month guideline got to do with expressing?

I found the 6-month guideline frustrating because my little man got SOOO hungry (actually I have to be totally honest we didn't make 6 months, we didn't even make 5 months so even if I had heard of BLW then I would have had trouble implementing it. Going off at a tangent here, but that is the one problem I have with BLW, what do you do with a HUNGRY baby? I tried offering more milk, it did not fill him up.)

Anyway at least they do support the guidelines (I support them I just couldn't follow them!)

MSal.

im not having a go here but felt i needed to add that at around 4 months babies have a big growth spurt. This, as well as other growth spurts at other ages can often get misinterpreted as baby needing more than just milk.

the kellymom site provides lots of useful information for breastfed babies, the page on growth spurts can be found at http://www.kellymom.com/bf/normal/growth-spurt.html

S'alright I won't take offence. I know about the 4-month growth spurt. I started my first child on solids at the 4-month growth spurt which is why I was really keen to make it to 6-months with the Munchkin - failed again. Motherhood is such a guilt-trip.

He was still hungry at the end of breast-feeds but wouldn't take more milk. He made his father feel guilty for eating in front of him and spent all his time chewing on his fists. I thought he was teething initially. When offered that 'orrible babyrice he grabbed Mummy's hand and practically forced the spoon into his mouth - there was definitely an element of baby-led stuff in this! I kept having to make more up! I too have read the stuff about bm having more calories than babyrice but Munchkin's weight gain had dropped to about 4oz a month (from 2 months onwards) yet when started on solids he started gaining 4oz a week again so I have never understood it. I felt (and still feel) that he needed solids.

If I knew then what I know now I would certainly have tried to hold off solids longer (this is over a year ago btw, Munchkin is 18 months now) but I am not convinced that I could have held out more than another week or so and I did have my HV saying "secondary failure to thrive"! which didn't help. I do recommend BLW to friends, I think its great, we effectively started it once we started finger foods we just did a puree-bit first. I NEVER chased him round with a spoon though, it was very much baby-led purees. I remember saying to my HV (Munchkin was about 5 months), "he never lets me know when he's had enough, he's a bottomless pit", she assured me that he would and said I needed to keep going to find his full point. 2.5 bananas later he was sick! We didn't do "its just for fun until they're one", this young man was (and is) SERIOUS about his food! (and oddly enough no more than ordinarily chubby, less than most in fact)

Didn't mean to troll btw, I never seem to be able to login to this blog. Goodness knows why. Sorry for long post, wanted to clarify that I wasn't posting to dis-BLW, I like it, I just think it doesn't suit all babies - and that expressing comment in the Organix thing is bizzare.

MSal

you know, all it might mean is that your baby really was ready earlier, there are a couple of babies on Mumsnet at the moment whose parents were very surprised when they swiped bits of banana or whatever at 5 months. but as it happened they had intended to do BLW and gave finger food from the off rather than purees, so in a way it's not so different to what you did anyway.

only reason i posted about the growth spurt is that so many people i have met irl dont know about them, i was really surprised. it seemed every week at the breastfeeding group i go to some mum would come in and say how hungry baby was and how they didnt feel that their milk was quite enough for them so they had started thinking about solids or formula top-ups. all i ever seemed to talk about was growth spurts i felt like 1 of them stuck records lol!

Thanks Aitch, I certainly think so but I was beginning to regret having mentioned it.

Jeni, I know what you mean. Sometimes I think its just their expectations are wrong. They look at formual-fed babies going longer between feeds and think somethings wrong with their milk because their breastfed babies needs feeding more frequently. Mind you, both my children were on the petite-side when exclusively breastfed but my best mates children were related to the Michelin Man when exclusively breastfed. I did feed my children on demand - honest.

MSal.

speaking of the michelin man, my elder boys were both bottle fed, and my eldest was 9lb12oz at birth! josh, however, smallest of the three at 8lb6oz, exclusively breastfed and when u compare their red books he has actually put weight on faster than either of the other 2 and weighs more than my eldest did at the same age.

josh = michelin man lol

i'm not sure what comment about expressing you're referring to, Msal. i can't find it, can you tell me where it is? and i agree with Jeni about the growth spurts. Kellymom is an amazing resource.

the question i always have about filling hungry babies up is 'what are they getting that's higher in calories than milk?' so really if you're feeding them rice it's presumably just filling up their stomachs with empty calories and stretching their stomachs to make them feel full. (i imagine if your baby never sleeps, however, that distinction might blur)

plus, a lot of my children have friends who were weaned at 4 months and they all say that their babies were hungry and really needed to eat then. whereas my friends with children now haven't had any great difficulty sticking to the new guidelines, albeit having adjusted to the 4-month growth spurt. am rambling now, but i suppose what i'm saying is that BLW would say that a hungry baby needs more milk. and if it doesn't fill him up then he needs even more milk. and bear in mind that some babies do start BLW earlier than the 6 months, generally if they can swipe it out of your hands and start eating then one can not unreasonably assume that they are ready. if they can't do that then more milk is the answer.

I think it's this bit Aitch:

Organix do support the guidelines given by The Department of Health and WHO however we also understand that some babies develop quicker than others and from talking to consumers on a daily basis understand that the 6-month guideline frustrates some mothers as they find it difficult to express anyway let alone for 6 months so, this subject is a controversial one.

It is a bit odd!

Guess they mean for people who're expressing so their babies can still have breastmilk while at nursery/childminder's?

Kellymom is triffic. Piglet's 4-month growth spurt was a mightmare (attached to me the whole day and waking up 4 times in the night) and I'm sure I'd have put her on to mush at that stage if I hadn't known in advance that it would pass...

(By the way, the comment verification phrase for this is "fab x 8". Now that's fab.)

I didn't see that... i guess they do mean for mothers who can't express for children to go into childcare. however, it's also utter bollocks, as surely the baby will be better off with formula than solids. all they're doing there is making things sound more difficult than they are. as usual. mortgages to pay, and all that...
comment verification - kfc pd... what might that mean? get me to kfc immediately?

Hi there.

Aitch encouraged me to post my e-mail on Mumsnet and I did. Interestingly, there was already a thread started the same day with almost the same reply as mine. I think what has happened, is we both queried a while back in October and they looked into the queries and then paraphrased my reply, with reference to the other letter, not mine. I suspect the other person mentioned breastfeeding and expressing in her letter, and the reference snook into my reply. It did confuse me a little!

Jenn

I know I saw a recipe for fish cakes somewhere on here, but I can't find it (it wasn't in the recipe section). Does anyone know where it is? Thanks xx

http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2006/12/29/2605579.html#842210

the joys of getting email notifications from this site and being able to search them :)

The Pickle is now 9 months old and has been really enjoying her food up until a few days ago. She even loved puy lentils...... But the last few meals have been quite different. Rather than eating she is just perfecting her flinging technique whilst barely tasting the lovingly prepared morsels I place in front of her.

Now, she has just cut her first 2 teeth which is what I'm putting this down to, but just wondered if any of you had been through the same sort of thing?? If so, did it last long?

I have to say that the monkfish episode a couple of nights ago was hysterical, not only was there the bleurgh arsenic face but then there was the most almighty shudder before the fling and sweep.

One other question - any suggestions for getting the Pickle to drink more water? I don't really want to add fruit juice. Just been out and bought 2 more different sippy beaker cups things.

Thanks All

Babybear definitely drinks milk and virtually nothing else when she's teething, the poor soul. sometimes if i remember i rub a bit of gum gel on before dinner and that can help.

that's galling about the monkfish, given that it costs about £20 a square inch.

as regards the drinking more water, Babybear is best with an open cup or a freeflow cheapy tommee tippee one. but to be honest she's one now and has only just started drinking water in any great quantity. much to my surprise, i might add. i think walking's taking it out of her...

You're not wrong about the monkfish. Luckily I wised up fairly quickly and rescued the majority of it before it flew. The chicken curry was not so lucky........

Tried the open cup but that is currently just considered as a vessel for blowing raspberries into - have to try REALLY hard not to laugh when she does that.

Minky drinks water out of a doidy cup or one of our glasses (she prefers the latter). Some days she drinks a lot, some days nothing. Although the same can be said for milk. A friend of mine had success with a beaker with an integrated straw. I think she bought them from Tesco.

It is so frustrating when they fling the food across the room you have lovingly prepared, but rest assured it is definitely short lived. My little son really looses his appetite when he is suffering from his teeth, becomes clingly and wants milk mainly, or yogurt or crumpets.

Try not to worry and go with it, the firsts of everything are always hard, my LO is cutting his 7th tooth so becoming well versed in the teething routine (we are currently going through it at the moment, so I empathise!).

Teething gel and teh homeopathic teething granuals are good too, my friend also swears by chamomile drops/powders which help sooth their tummy too.

Re the water question, my son barley took any, but I had to go out for 2 hours and left no breast milk and my mother in law offered him water when he was thirsty - it was either that or nothing (he's a thirsty boy), so he drank water and we haven't looked back since - we also use the cheapo tommy tipee cup, but have just bought a doidy cup, which should be interesting.

Hope things improve :)

Two days in and everything we've offered has been met with either total uninterest or (in the case of a nice firm-but-ripe pear) a brief second of enthusiasm followed by coughing then puking... Is she not ready (she is 26 weeks) or do they all do this?

Thanks!

We had a LOT of the "oh my god you;ve poisoned me" face at first (actually, we still get that)... pear was greeted quite enthusiastically, but how much he exactly ATE is a matter for debate.

It might be that she's not ready, they are all different after all, but it might just be getting used to it. Keep at it, make sure she's still drinking her milk (which is her main food for a while yet anyway), and she'll get there - honest!

we started off with really ripe apricots and peaches, so they were more squashy than firm but the skin held them together. as it happens DD really didn't take to pear at the beginning, i think it was a bit hard for her.
the puking thing is discussed a bit on the 'Gagging Thing' posts, DD didn't puke very often but when she did it was very mucusy, which made me rather suspect that it was designed to happen that way sometimes.
and the good thing about BLW is that if your DD's not ready then it won't do her any harm to be presented with food, but i'm sure you'll find something she likes soon. a bit of chewing and sucking is all you're hoping for at this stage, really.

Thanks Bunny and Aitch. Perhaps squashier fruits will appeal ... did she not get into difficulties with the skin? Tbh, what mine really seems to want is whatever I'm eating at the time, so maybe I should be bolder in what I offer!

no, she mostly sucked the fruit and left the skin behind, and go for it on the 'bold' front, just give her (unsalted) what you've got. makes life much easier...

Well, being bold, I gave her a piece of roast lamb, and she chewed it to a rag and asked for more! Should have realised sooner she's obviously a born carnivore... :)

Hello

This blog business is all new to me so I'm not sure if this comment will appear in the right place or at all.

Anyway, just to say thanks for this website it has been a great source of info, reassurance & amusement to me in negotiating BLW with my 9month little girl (here on known as Sausage).

So a quick question, Sausage loves veggies & fruit but she doesn't seem interested in any food containing protein ie meat fish beans. Will she just start eating it one day if I keep offering it up? Or any ideas would be welcome!

My girls have both gone through distinct phases - I think the early months are definitely fruit and veg-based, and then I remember my eldest, Flump suddenly becoming mad for chicken at around a year old. So, I would probably say go with the flow and trust your babe's instincts.

I don't know whether you do dairy, but my girls have always been consistently hooked on cheese, if you're worried about protein?

hi tara, i've written this message three times and my computer keeps losing the connection so i'll keep it brief this time.
i was going to say cheese too, although keep an eye on salt levels. and Babybear liked pork long before she liked chicken or steak. good luck, you've got 6 months for her to decide what she likes, remember?

thanks for the reassurance ladies, yeah just needed reminding to leave it up to Sausage didn't I.

Hi there. Quick question, I have a five month old baby boy but he is very big for his age....nearly 18lbs! He seems desperate to eat solid food, staring at us eating...and our food, hungry after feeds and generally chewing on everything in sight.....I was wondering if anyone had taken Gill's guidelines literally....saying that when a baby shows the signs you can try BLW....or if everyone has found it better to feed baby rice or something simple until they reach 6 months....and then move to BLW? Any advice?

personally i think that if you're going to try BLW you should just start now, so long as you don't help the baby then the thinking is that if they are ready, they'll do it. if not, leave it for a couple of weeks and try again. but there isn't much point in doing the rice thing in the meantime, they're either ready or they're not. there are a couple of babies i know who started at 5 months, but their mums had to be very clear-headed about leaving them to it. i'm a big believer in waiting until the 6 month mark by the way, but as i understand it a bit of experimentation won't do any harm. good luck.

This question is aimed at those with older BLW children........

I'm interested to know if any of your LO's are showing signs of being fussy, or is it just exercising freedom of choice?

The Pickle (14 months) definitely has a preference for different foods on her plate meaning that some items NEVER get a look in. Do you think this is fussiness? Or maybe a phase? I wonder if the theory that BLW produces children who are not fussy eaters is entirely correct or does nature rather than nurture play a bigger part in it.

The Pickle still won't touch broccoli, will not touch raw tomatoes either which is interesting considering my sister and grandfather both would not touch them due to the texture being utterly disgusting to them. Maybe this is a family trait?? She certainly doesn't seem to be phased by new foods put in front of her and will generally give them a go at least once at a meal.

Wondered what other LO's are doing............

let me put it up as a poll, it's a good question...

Hi folks, well minnie mooch is 1 week into blw, am chuffed plus entertained by it all (don't tell her the last bit) anyhow yesterday gave her a piece of yellow melon, and within minutes she'd hive type lumps around her mouth and an odd one of the face they took about 30mins to go. today sprinkled grated parmesan on her broccoli and again got a couple of hives, not as bad as yesterday. both times she was fine in herself. we're not a particularly strong allergy family, but bless she did have urticaria on her torso and jaw after naughty bad mammy had not thought and sprayed perfume on her wrists, mine not hers that was at 4 months. so folks anybody have this happen and any ideas of what to do if anything??

Hi - does sound a like a sensitivity to these foods. i'm sure I have read somewhere that melon is quite allergenic (as is dairy of course). Might be worth introducing foods carefully from now on and reading the allergy bits on this blog. It doesn't sound like a true 'allergy' as such, but I would certainly avoid melon and parmesan fro now and reintroduce it a bit later. Might also be worth getting a paediatric antihistamine medicine (like Piriton) in just in case she has a worse reaction to something in the future?

When trying a new food, the allergy specialist we see suggested a thin smear of vaseline on the skin to act as a barrier which prevents direct contact.

Sounds like she is a bit allergicky - I'd probably take a step back and have a look at some of the links to do with order of food introduction - and leave melon, dairy etc for at least a few weeks longer.

baby superhoop has allergies to dairy & eggs among other things (confirmed by blood tests at the hospital) - if any trace touches her skin (even if it isn't direct - ie I've touched egg & then an hour later I touch her) then her skin blisters up into a nettle rash (white bumps, bright red skin) which is so itchy that she gets quite distressed. Personally there's no way I'd let her actually eat a food that caused that kind of reaction to her skin - god knows what it might do to her mouth/throat/stomach etc

She also gets patches of eczema round her mouth after she has eaten some foods - often fresh fruits like mango, cherries, pineapple (I think all quite acidic) - those I'm fairly happy for her to have every now and again, as her diet is restricted enough as it is, and she doesn't seem bothered by it.

I'd take a photo of minnie mooch's skin next time it reacts like that, and go to see your GP. They should have advice on what to do when it happens (eg prescribe an anti-histamine for you to give), advice on whether you should avoid those foods and more.

starting blw- I just wanted a bit of reassurance. I really like the idea of blw mainly because of my lazy gene and not wanting to makes separate meals (I never did for my first child either even though he was spoon fed). Do most of you just give them what you eat (with modifications)? I was looking at some posts here and on mumsnet and there were loads of exciting recipes for specific hand held food, ie burgers muffins. If I had any more than 2 hrs sleep at a time in the last 6 months or didn't have to look after a very hyper 3 year old in the day I would plunge myself into baking mode. But as it is I have no energy and it takes all my will power not to eat sandwiches for every meal.

aw you poor thing, that sounds knackering. what kind of thing are you eating for dinner at the moment, apart from sandwiches?
remember that in the beginning it's really just fruit and a bit of steamed veg and maybe a bit of toast or a rice cake once or twice a day. breakfast is easy, just whack some porridge oats into the microwave for a minute.
you may already be steaming veg to eat with the family anyway, so that's really all the cooking required for a while. after they get the hang of it you can hand over pretty much anything, within reason. oh, and one of my fastest meals is spaghetti meatballs, which isn't a lot more complicated than stirring some harissa (i'm addicted) into some mince and rolling them into little balls and frying or whacking into oven. meanwhile fry an onion and later add a can of toms and have some spaghetti on the go. shouldn't take more than 15 mins to make. actually, what am i saying? pasta, peas and pesto, with Philly if i'm feeling fancy. that's nothing, takes as long as the pasta. perhaps use green beans if it's before pincer grip, though... good luck. i totally know what you mean about sandwiches y the way. look up the convenience food posts, those steam fresh bags are a godsend!

I am one of the lucky ones where sleep is concerned although I do wish Bruno would sleep longer during the day! However, I find making something specific a bit too time consuming. I have bought an electric steamer. During the morning I put a load of veg in and set the timer going and just leave it there until Bruno & I are going to have lunch. By that time the veg is cool enough for him to eat and it takes minutes to bung in & later dish up.

so true, i used to keep steamed veg in the fridge of a couple of days and maybe take the chill of it with some hot water or a few secs in the microwave.

Sounds like Bruno's Sunday roast for tomorrow - steamed potatoes & carrots that are already in the fridge. Oh I'm so lazy!

thanks for that. Sounds good. I have got a online shop coming with some of those steam bags for my very lazy days.
My baby doesn't even sleep in the day! Lord knows how he is so smiley and cheerful. I'm not! My older son was very similar and got loads better at 6-7 months so I am hoping.

I saw this question today on mumsnet and had wondered the same myself. (sorry if its already been covered but am finding this format of site quite hard to navigate for my sleep deprived brain). But people just replied try spoon feeding.

I wondered how long it takes before they start really eating? I know it will vary from baby to baby but some sort of ball park figure? I just started and my baby got more co-ordinated in just a few days but I wondered it fi was weeks of playing? Whats the worse case scenario??

What do you mean 'finding it hard to navigate?' [horrified emoticon]
i know, it's shit, isnt' it? i'm sorry. it kinda grew out of a blog and has rather got away from us. i may have somethign up my sleeve to help, though...
anyway, there are some answers here and remember that the bottom line is that it isn't a race, they'll all be eating us out of home soon enough.

thanks for that. I feel I keep needing to ask questions as no-one I know is doing this and i was sooo different with my older child.

I think is having to look at the comment and then click on the replies too thats hard, or maybe its because I am lazy. I'll start a new post about nectarines!

thanks for that. I feel I keep needing to ask questions as no-one I know is doing this and i was sooo different with my older child.

I think is having to look at the comment and then click on the replies too thats hard, or maybe its because I am lazy. I'll start a new post about nectarines!

thanks for that. I feel I keep needing to ask questions as no-one I know is doing this and it was sooo different with my older child.

I think is having to look at the comment and then click on the replies too thats hard, or maybe its because I am lazy. I'll start a new post about nectarines!

oops, it got stuck and said is hadn't posted!

I thought I was being very laid back about the choking/gagging thing when my son was gagging away on a piece of toast. But it all went pear (or rather nectarine) shaped today. I first cut a bit off and held it whilst he sucked. But he went completely mad about it and wanted to hold it himself. So I cut a bit off with the skin. He then sucked it up so vigourously I panicked. I pulled it out then held onto to each piece I cut. He of course sucked half off. I kept worryng about him chioking on the skin or getting the whole bit stuck in his throat as he has the strongest fastest suck ever.

can anyone reassure me this couldn't happen?

Only 2 weeks in, but have tried nectarines...

I've found cutting the nectarine into eights and then carefully slicing a bit of skin off the top and bottom, leaving flesh exposed seems to work. Button still has something to hold onto and there isn't too much that's likely to be taken in to her mouth in one go if she does do an over enthusiastic gum bite/suck!

The pudding also sucks in big chunks of things she loves like nectarine and banana. These massive bits usually come back out with a bit of a dirty old man stylee hawk on her part. Her nappies show some pretty large choky looking chunks of nectarine and/or carrot ( v similar visually and I'm not THAT interested in which it is!) are blown out the other end.

In fact the only thing she's even nearly choked on so far, touch wood etc is a mange tout that dh had roast with the other veg. It was like a ruddy crisp for gooness sake. She's also choked on her bottle several times recently as she is suck a greedy guts she slurps it at warp speed.

thats my baby not me by the way! He can pick things up and put them to his mouth and sucks them. Nothing gets digested. But most of the time he spends screaming in frustration. (Its the same noise he makes when he on his tummy and wants to move but hasn't worked out how yet). It makes for very unrealaxing mealtimes. Did anytone else have this?

do you think he's screaming because he's hungry, maybe? it's just playing at the beginning, really, not nourishment, so i wonder if that's the problem. poor soul, if not... both of you.
can i suggest you come here as well and then you can join in with the other newbie BLWers who use this site? i'm going to make a Grand Announcement (!) later on, but it might be helpful to you first.

Hi Jane. We are only 3 weeks in and also have the screaming. I have realised that it mainly happens when he is eating things that are a bit too bitty and he ends up with lots of little pieces on his tongue that he can't seem to swallow. Brocolli is a major cause as all the little bits break up, also pasta, which he can chew up quite easily but can't seem to get the bits to slide down. Is it similar sorts of things that are making your baby scream? J is much happier when we give him things that are a bit softer and mush up easier in his mouth - mainly fruit. Banana is a favourite, as are peaches and plums, and funnily enough he does quite well with cheese, I guess it sort of dissolves when he sucks it. You may have tried these things already though. Since I'm new to this too I'm afraid I don't have any other suggestions, sorry. Good luck though, I hope he gets the hang of it soon.

Thanks for that, I'll have a look if theres a pattern. He hasn't really swallowed anything yet it all, it all comes out again. I think he was ok with broccolli, he seems to get most annoyed if the wet foods slip out of his grasp. I try to do it about an hour or so after milk so hes not too hungry or tired. After another 2 feeds during the night I was ready to give it all up and wanted to shovel food into him. Tried weetabix this am and it all just fell out of his mouth! And then he cried. I will soldier on! If I wasn't so sleep deprived it wouldn't bother me.

aitch have being trying to log into forum but somethign went wrong so your tech person has advised me to register.

I meant re-register

Hi Jane I'm a newbie to this BLW thing too but no frustration so maybe its the food? Have you tried giving him something that has quite a hard skin on the outside that means it holds together OK? I do find that a lot of food just crumbles to nothing so I just hand him another piece.

Hope you work it out & look forward to chatting on the forum.

Hi Jane

Can you list the foods you've tried, so that we can see if there's anything that rings a bell with us? I used to sing a song to the Nome to make her laugh (Twinkle Twinkle with hand gestures), if she started to fuss over a meal - just to distract and cheer her up.

what about a big crust of Italian-y bread? that was one of babybear's favourites when she first started. easy to hold, easy to get a good gnaw at and goes nice and mushy when dribbled all over.

Yes he liked french bread

so far we have tried banana, nectarine, melon, broccolli, cauliflower, toast, cheese, bolognese, sweet potato, parsnip, roast potato, hummous, rice cake, bagel, carrot, porridge pancake, pitta bread, cream cheese, avocado, weetabix, celery, cucumber, lettuce (well he tries to eat grass so I thought it was worth a shot).

I think the timing is probably crucial but as I demand feed he is sometimes too hungry or too full when we have our meals. I'll try and make a note of when I do everything to see if I can work out when hes better.

As you can see from the photos aitch kindly put up hes huge too. 98th percentile and yesterday I saw a friends 10 month old baby and he looked bigger. I also have it in my head because of my older child that there is a correlation btw food and sleep cos he slept through from 6.5 months after he started on protein, fats carbs etc. Although Joe is a bit bigger than him at this age. He wakes about 2-3 times between 7 and 7 and always wants a full feed (he can settle himself to sleep). Am just getting depressed and physically run down with it. It doesn't help that all my friends have perfectly day and night time sleeping second babies. Sorry to moan on but is virtually occupies all my waking moments!

and asparagus!
My husband was sweeping up under him at breakfast today whilst he was eating and I did contemplate just putting the food straight in the dustpan and cutting out the middle man!

Hoorah have used 3rd username and diferent email adress and am on the forum!

It's not really screaming, but Euan always sounds frunstrated when he is eating. He is very rarely relaxed, but makes a sort of angry moaning/grunting sound.

Don't worry about how much is gojng down at the moment. Its very early days, and it is more important that they just get used to handling food and exploring it I think. Euan ate hardle anything for ages and ages, and then all of a sudden he just started to eat. Every baby has their own pace, so try not to let it stress you out (I know, it is far easier said than done...), or baby will pick up on that and start seeing mealtimes as a stressful time.

Katy

This has just reminded me of a similar discussion on here a while ago - can't remember who by, but anyway, someone suggested picnicking (outdoor and indoor) - might make it more fun and relaxed for all concerned (and also just pick up rug and shake it outside back door/into bin once finished)

we did that at kew gardens yesterday. He is not 100% at sitting up so he leant on me and I had hummous covered trousers by the end.

He hasn't been screaming so much today. He now gives up and just sucks his thumb