Baby Led Solids Chatter #3

[beckoes]

we have never had much fun with bread, i have tried it over and over and she always has a major problem getting it down, she will just keep gagging on it, spit it back up, gag again. i have just stopped trying. she eats mountain bread no problem so i spread something on it and cut it up.
DH cooked a roast chicken and veg. DD sat there and scoffed a HUGE amount, kept banging the table when ever her plate was empty so i kept filling it. i just shredded the chicken up and gave her pieces of roast pumpkin, sweet potatoe, potatoe and even roast onion and beetroot! then even packed in half a manderine!! what a guts!
she is eating everything and anything atm...i find it hard to keep up sometimes.
as for chocolate this easter...my mum in england sent grace some choclolate, said it was special choc free from 'bad things' and that i was so mean not giving her any choc....we are going to england in a few month and i just know they will all try to feed her everything i dont want her to have! SO i came up with a bit f a sneeky plan....im going to tell my family that i gave her the chocs and she came out in a bit of a rash on her tummy and my doc has said we should avoid chocolate till she is older.!
And...Salt, i dont add salt to dds food or to our food if she is going to eat it but some things have salt in that she eats, but say you add a pinch of salt to a pot of sauce and DD has a teaspoon of sauce she isnt going to be haveing that whole pinch of salt...just a few grains. not that we do that but i think once or twice she has had something off my plate that wasnt really ment for her but i havent worried about it that much! She has vegimite every so often and LOVES it.

[amberj]

Hollye, FAR OUT, I didn't realise Mia vomited that much everyday. You poor things! You've probably already shopped by now, but here are some things Peter likes that you could try:
- avacado on cruskits (broken into about 4 bits)
- butter on toast or bread
- those mini rice cakes with a little bit of dip on them (or plain)
- ham (he likes to suck on it)
- arrowroot biscuits- if you don't mind giving her sweet!

Hope the solids help!!!

[SamiH]

Just after some advice from the old hands here

You might have seen me post off and on a few times - allergy laden family blah blah - but - I have tried Zander lately on rice cereal and some fine mashed swt potato - but he aint interested and still has a tongue refelx

BUT

me eating a banana he sucks the other end in between me eating it wanting more, and this morning I threw the wheat caution to the wind LOL and gave him a crust off my toast which he was very excited about - i took it off him after 5 seconds to flatten it a bit etc, and he screamed and pushed his head as far as it would to towards the toast with his baby bird mouth WIDE open - what a cack.

So, I am thinking I am just gunna bit the bullet and see what happens

Where to start?? Cube up pumpkin, swt potatoe and pop on his tray and see? Grated apple - do you blanche it/soften it first to help him out? (he is only 6 months old) - So like Hollye - what did you do first? I have a bit of fear of choking - so am not keen on giving him a whole banana to go for it just yet

I know it is not true BLS off my plate - but I will get there!!! So some help and advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Mods - just realised separate area now - should I post as a new thread - am unsure ??

[Jennifer13]

Sami, you can post a separate thread if you like, hun!

Actually, a baby is less likely to choke/gag if just eating small pieces of the food you would normally eat. There's no need to puree or grate. He will suck and chew on the apple fine. The smaller pieces are merely so they can hold them effectively.

I posted this in another thread that might be useful (it's from kellymom):

Solids readiness depends on both the maturity of baby’s digestive tract and baby’s developmental readiness for solids. Although the maturity of baby’s digestive system is not something that we can readily observe, research indicates that 6 months appears to be ideal for avoiding the allergies and other health risks of too-early solids. After this point, different babies are ready for solids at different times -- developmental readiness for solids cannot be determined using a calendar. Most babies are developmentally ready for solids somewhere between 6 and 8 months.

Signs that indicate baby is developmentally ready for solids include:
- Baby can sit up well without support.
- Baby has lost the tongue-thrust reflex and does not automatically push solids out of his mouth with his tongue.
- Baby is ready and willing to chew.
- Baby is developing a “pincer” grasp, where he picks up food or other objects between thumb and forefinger. Using the fingers and scraping the food into the palm of the hand (palmar grasp) does not substitute for pincer grasp development.
- Baby is eager to participate in mealtime and may try to grab food and put it in his mouth.

We often state that a sign of solids readiness is when baby exhibits a long-term increased demand to nurse (sometime around 6 months or later) that is unrelated to illness, teething pain, a change in routine or a growth spurt. However, it can be hard to judge whether baby’s increased nursing is related to readiness for solids. Many (if not most) 6-month-old babies are teething, growth spurting and experiencing many developmental changes that can lead to increased nursing – sometimes all at once! Make sure you look at all the signs of solids readiness as a whole, because increased nursing alone is not likely to be an accurate guide to baby’s readiness.

HTH!

[kelebek]

Well it's been a while since I have posted in this area but we sort of followed the BLS way with DS in the sense of no mash/puree etc...

The first foods we started with were avocado, steamed florets of brocoli, banana and moved onto steamed fingers of sweet potatoe, zuchini and pumkin and cauliflower.


I was wondering DS eats almost anything (isn't a fan of pumpkin, I think cause it is mashed ) and he eats mostly with his hands. Dp has always spooned his cereal etc... (hence not totally BLS) so how do we get him to use a fork and spoon? cause everytime I offer him either an empty spoon/fork to load himself he just plays or if I load it for him and try to pass it to him he picks the food off and uses his hands... so any suggestions on transitioning to spoon/fork or should I not be worried at this stage?

[Jennifer13]

I had to spoon-feed yoghurt as well, njd, but I would give her a spoon to use at the same time. She was using it like a pro pretty quickly. She would try to help from the first time, but not very effectively!

I have video of her at just under 12 mths eating butter chicken and rice with a spoon and she's handling her spoon like a much older toddler. Nothing drops once.

[Nettie]

We tried some cucumber today - and he LOVED it! He usually puts something to his mouth and makes a sour face, then plays with it. But the cucumber he kept putting to his mouth & tasting! He ate a fair bit of it - for him! Then I made a apricot spread sandwich (100% fruit spread) and he must have actually eaten about 1/2 the bread. Again - pretty good for him!

He's cutting quite a few teeth at the moment and I think the cucumber helped because it was cold. I told DH to look out in his nappies for the seeds

He's certainly getting used to actually eating. The only thing he automatically eats though is bread. Everything else is a 'dabble' thing, iykwim. But now with bread, he'll actually bite bits off and chew (and sometimes even swallow!)

How is everyone else's journey going??