Hi. Have been reading through this site & found it so interesting. SweetPea is 6 months old now and we're wanting to go for BLW. I did try her on babyrice last week (she's quite sicky and I was hoping it would do the job of gaviscon without resorting to gaviscon) but she wasn't having any of it (whereas quite happily sucks away on apple/pear segments)
She's got quite nasty eczema, which seems to have improved a fair amount since I cut dairy out of my diet a couple of weeks ago (she's exclusively breastfed) - so I'm guessing that she has a dairy intolerance at the very least - and possibly other sensitivities/allergies (my sis is very allergic)
I've read the info on here about allergies, but was wondering how it worked in practise - if we were going down the puree route then we'd offer the same new food in isolation for 3 days before moving onto the next new one. Does the same go for BLW (ie I offer her sweet potato chips for the next 3 days then try something else) or is that not proper BLW? Would be interested to know what others have done in a similar situation.
superhoop

Moomin's your gal, here. hopefully she'll see this. i'll buzz a pal of mine as well for you. like your name, superhoop.

bumping for moomin and jen.

Hi superhoop - my dd is milk intolerant, but the only allergies in our family are eczema and a little bit of asthma, so we haven't been overly cautious with leaving things for 3 days. DD did have silent reflux though, which was aggravated by something in the early days, so we slowed down a little right at the beginning. As your dd also has reflux, you might want to check out lists of acidic foods to delay introducing (things like tomatoes, cauliflower, the otherwise ideal broccoli).

Ideally, yes you would do single foods for the same length of time as you would with purees. It doesn't go against the blw ethos at all IMO, as long as you're just putting the food in front of her and leaving her to get on with it.

The only problem we've had so far (dd is 13 months now) is with tomatoes, which brought her out in a contact rash on her face, but we continued to give occasionally, and she seems to be outgrowing this now.

Hiya superhoop. Am currently covered in baby sick. A second lot of gastoenteritis in our household - blimmin nursery, it's currently going around there (there's a reason not to send Babybear). Anyhoo, I will try and reply in more detail later. Suffice to say, I'd do one food at a time for three days, I'd pick an order to introduce major allergenic food groups and I'd be aware that eczema is a tricky one. I find that weather, teething and the phase of the moon effects Minky's skin. Difficult to disect other things out.

Okay, BLW and allergies. I shall start by saying I didn’t start with BLW, I started with purees. Didn’t know BLW existed. We changed over when she was around 8 months due to the freezer defrosting (“My beautiful purees!”) and Minky’s preference for no spoon(ing). I shall BLW the next one (the one that is immaculately conceived). The next one will, of course, refuse BLW and demand to be spoon fed until the age of three. I digress…

I was very cautious/obsessive/slightly crazy about allergies and weaning. I did one food every three days. I would do this again. I also decided on a time to introduce allergenic food, with no restrictions on other foods.

Six months: Started with root veg and fruit. No citrus fruit, berries or tomatoes.

Eight months: Tomatoes

Ten months: Dairy, wheat (was going to leave it until a year; the dietician said there was no evidence it made any difference after six months)

Twelve months: Egg, fish

Minky has a true allergy to egg. She is intolerant to cow’s milk. She won’t drink any sort of formula and I’m no longer breastfeeding, so she has yogurt and cheese. Her skin would probably be better without them but she can tolerate them.

I’m glad I went slowly and that I can identify what she can and can’t have. I’m glad I introduced dairy gradually using the order suggested on here, so that I’m happy giving her yogurt and cheese, but milk is a step to far. I’m pleased that she was one before I gave her egg, so that she was bigger and stronger when she reacted to it.

When you begin weaning, SweatPea can just have a bit of veg/fruit from your plate. Very much in keeping with BLW. You can then make very plain casseroles for you all for example lamb and root veg (keep the bouillon powder on the table for sprinkling on the grown ups portion a la Aitch). I often make a casserole and take out a few portions for Minky. If you’re having pasta, and you want to keep her wheat free, you’ve got the option of rice, corn or buckwheat pasta.

As I mentioned, I find with eczema that there are many, many things that affect it. At the moment she is ill and, consequently, her skin is perfect. Top eczema causes in our house are teething and changes in weather. All we hope for when she is trying new food is that her skin keeps going up and down rather than up and up, if you see what I mean. I expect the back of her knees to be sore, when it starts spreading to the front of her legs, I know we have a problem.

It’s actually very easy to avoid dairy and wheat, until you introduce it and then you don’t know how you survived without cheese sandwiches! Good luck, it can be a fun time. I can see how BLW is actually easier for babies with allergies as everything isn’t whizzed up into a gloop, but individually foods are eaten and reactions can be seen.

Do post any other questions. It's good to feel my obsession might help someone else!

Gosh - thanks Moomin & CSWS - some really helpful advice there. It's so good to hear from people who have gone through a similar experience.

Moomin - your order/timelines sound good - I think I'll stick to similar. I'd love to be able to offer her anything and everything, but common sense dictates caution.

SweetPea's eczema also seems to be affected by high tides/roadworks as much as anything tangible. The only thing that seems to have really made a difference is me cutting dairy from my diet. And I'm already craving cheese enough to be seriously considering buying some vegan alternative ("sheese") so I'm not sure I'm quite selfless enough to cut much more out of my diet.

My sister (16 years younger than me so I remember this stage with her) had horrible eczema and lots of food sensitivities/intolerances/allergies. Is my Mum right when she says the difference between the intolerances and the allergies is that the sensitivities make the eczema worse, whereas the allergies just get vomited straight back at you? I remember rushing my sis to hospital a couple of times due to mouth swelling/repeated vomiting and am terrified of going through the same with SweetPea. Still - the other option is keeping her on breastmilk alone indefinitely, which isn't really an option.

Anyway, we're now a week in and SweetPea has sucked/gummed on pear and sweet potato (proper tastes) and sucked raw apple & carrot (probably gets a hint of a taste but not much). I think it'll be a slow process, but that's fine.