Baby Led Solids Chatter #4

[MummyTummy]

Oh yay for Maya!! And yeah I understand about getting something else if she refuses something new. I don't think we came across that too often, because being creatures of habit every time there was something new there was always something that was tried and tested with it!! I know when he went to Childcare though they tried giving him tuna and he hated it. I had tried it before at home and he was fine, but it was when he was much younger and he ate EVERYTHING!!! So from then on if fish (tuna or salmon) were on the menu at childcare he always got it offered to him, but there was always something else on standby for him. It has now been so long since he has been refusing the fishy stuff that they don't offer it and I don't offer it. It really is something he doesn't like and there isn't much he doesn't like so I figure it is only fair to not keep torturing him with it!

[Georgi]

MOI - Yeah, IKWYM about them refusing something new. We did it tonight actually. I had made a beef casserole & he spat it out. Even the sweet potato which he normally loves. So I got something out of the freezer, and he didn't eat much of that either. Obviously he just wasn't into his food tonight. I will try the casserole again as he might eat it next time. I often find if he refuses the new meal, it's normally because he's just not that hungry. If he's really hungry he'll eat anything

MT - BJ also eats more in the morning and tapers off in the afternoon/evening. He will always eat all of his breaky, plus snack like crazy in the morning. He's great with his lunch, will have a little for arvo tea, then gives or takes dinner. I must say, i'm a morning eater too. 17 weeks hey, boy, that has gone fast. It really didn't seem that long ago that I read your pg announcement. I hope my next pregnancy goes fast!

JOEY - With BLS your baby leads the way so give her the banana to play with & see how much she actually eats. Most babies are good at letting you know when they've had enough. And yes, her BM is most important so it's good to give her solids after a BM feed

ALIMOY - Yes, I'm a bit of a natzi. I'm very fussy with what I feed BJ. Probably not so much now that he's becoming a toddler, but certainly when he was a baby. I only give him tastes of things now, like ice cream & choc chip cookies, but me & DH are very healthy eaters so poor BJ has to be too. I am a freak when it comes to veges. I just think they are sooo important so I make sure BJ has them with his lunch & dinner every day, fruit too. But that's me. My sister thinks I'm over the top as she has 3 girls that aren't good eaters so she just feeds them whatever they'll eat. She doesn't cook either so they have take away alot

[AliMoy]

Thanks guys... I agree 100% about not differentiating food from food, that's a great way to think of it.I am generally pretty careful about DS's diet (as i am with ours) and besides it being better for Edward, it's nice to have grown up desserts with a glass of wine after he's gone to bed some times, so we do normally try to eat "naughty foods" when Edward's not around, it's just those times when it doesn't always work like that but i think since it's only an occasional thing then i won't worry about it if he has the odd chip or icecream.
Besides favourites at the moment are brocilli, boiled potatoes and rock melon so not too much to worry about!

Joey - I started off by BFeeding before solids, but pretty quickly I decided not to worry about it - he still feeds loads so he just has BM when he wants it and solids whenever we have our meals... BLS is pretty much a progression Breastfeeding on demand so i wouldn't worry about it unless you notice that Lily's not feeding well, or your supply is decreasing too quickly.

I think we just all need to keep reminding ourselves with all these situations to trust our babies to know what they want, how much, when etc ... clever little things

[MummyTummy]

I think we just all need to keep reminding ourselves with all these situations to trust our babies to know what they want, how much, when etc ... clever little things

Well said... I think you have just hit the nail on the head!!

[joey123]

I think we just all need to keep reminding ourselves with all these situations to trust our babies to know what they want, how much, when etc ... clever little things

So she won't overeat and give herself a tummy ache (taking into account she is new to this, and she might just be eating cause it's new and exciting and not cause she's hungry??)

[Megan]

Joey, I was wondering about the over eating thing too. But then I wondered if it was that different to breastfeeding. When b/f, DS decides when he's had enough so I would say he can do the same thing with solids. I wasn't convinced until last night when DS ate probably 3 times the amount he would normally eat. I served up what I thought was a big meal and he ate the lot and was looking for more! I searched his high chair thinking he must have dropped it all down the side, but there was no sign of huge amounts of food - just one noodle (which he ate when I picked it up! lol) Then he did a couple of big burps, got the hiccups and I thought for sure some of it was going to come back up but he was happy with his big buddah belly afterwards! He washed it down with some fruit and yoghurt, had a bath and then slept for 8 hours straight (which he never does!)
We really do just need to trust that they know what they're doing, and if they are being offered a variety of nutritious food they will be fine.

[AliMoy]

besides which of course, if they do over-eat because they're enjoying the experience (like we're all guilty of sometimes) by doing BLS they're not starting before they're ready by which time their bodies are pretty good at processing and getting rid of any unwanteds... a new level of poo!

[Moi]

MT and Georgi - Sometimes Maya does refuse to eat something she used to eat and I will still go get something else for her to eat but I don't give her desert. So I guess it's almost the same as you moving on to desert. I just try another main instead.

Maya is getting better with the spoon. She still struggles a lot but I can see definite improvement. She's also slowly getting better at eating meat. She's finally getting her teeth now so maybe that's made a difference to eating meat?

[Georgi]

Moi - BJ seems to get good with the spoon, then goes through a stage where he'll just play with it. He seems to go up & down with it. I reckon it would make a difference when they get more teeth. BJ still only has 6 at the front so he does find it difficult to eat meat, stir fries etc

[Moi]

Georgi - Until last week Maya only had two bottom teeth. Last week three top teeth finally came through. I reckon it would make a difference to being able to bite through things!

[*Infinity*]

Hi all,

Dropping in again, DS has just hit the 6 mth milestone and we're keen to start trying some food out. I gave him some sticks of steamed carrot last week. He picked it up, sorta played with it, sucked it a bit. Hardly anything went down. And it wasn't long before he was bored stiff, wanted out of the high chair and back into his toys. So I'm taking that as a sign that he's not really interested I guess. We'll keep persisting at dinner times though I think.

I've got to go back and read a bit more of Gill Rapley's book again, I found that really resonated with me. However I've had some dodgy looks from mums in my local mothers group about doing BLS. Theylook at me like I'm a little unhinged, so I've actually stopped telling people. And the MCHN seemed sceptical too - basically insinuated that without spoon feeding, DS will not gain enough wait and not have enough energy as he grows BAH! We'll just battle on because know we just need to trust our own instincts and listen to DS.

Can't wait to try some new stuff this week.

[MummyTummy]

Lollybaby - it is tiring having to defend your decision over and over again. I had a couple of people like that (one from MG and the others just people who think they know best). And they do get you down, I also found reading the book and coming in here to chat were the best confidence boosters. Just give it some time and when they are all carrying around their purees etc and you just have a whole piece of fruit in your bag they will start to get jealous!!

Sounds like you did great with the carrot sticks... try a few different pieces of food - broccoli, carrot and potato for example and let him learn about the different tastes and the textures in both his mouth and his hand. And yep, when he's interested the penny will drop and the food will go down.

I don't know what has happened to all the experienced people that were in here when I first started but they had babies that weren't interested for months.... but eventually it just happened! And not one of them mentioned lack of weight gain or energy!

[joey123]

Hi LB

Don't worry, he'll get the hang of it. You have a fantastic attitude!!

Lily had some mango last saturday (a very tiney bit); about a 10th of a banana (mashed with a fork) on Sunday and some chicken, brocoli, cauliflower and carrot last Monday night. She hasn't pooed since Saturday (I think), so I am hesitant to give her any more solids until she poos. I hope I haven't clogged her up! She didn't really have that much, so I don't think that it did and she's been happy, but I just want to be sure. She's only every gone 3 maybe 4 days before and we're now up to 8!

Any suggestions anyone?? (She is BF)

[Megan]

Lollybaby, sounds similar to my experience with DS when we started him a couple of months ago. He didn't seem to get the concept of feeding himself, and that what was in front of him was food. He did figure it out though but it took a couple of weeks. I just continued to offer him different vegies and some fruit mainly during that time.
Even now, sometimes he will barely eat at one meal, but the next will eat toast and a whole banana and he manages it all by himself. It's amazing how quickly they get the hang of it.

As MT said, it can be tiring defending your decision to do BLS and explaining what it's all about.
Just last night we were at a family BBQ and DS had already eaten quite a bit of chicken, a little bit of steak and some salad/vegies quite easily. Then he decided he wanted the piece of bread on my plate, so he's happily chewing it and had quite a big piece in his mouth. He started to spit it out and went to grab it with his hand when MIL came up and took it out of his mouth and said "he's going to choke on that" and she actually took it away from him and threw it in the bin! I give up trying to explain it to her and telling her to leave him alone. I was sitting with him, I know what he's capable of and I'm not going to let anything bad happen. Needless to say, DS started screaming because he wanted his bread back! lol so we started again! No amount of explaining will convince some people!

Joey, no personal experience with the poo problem. DS would go up to 5 days while being b/f but since being on solids regularly it's now once per day. One of the mums in my mothers group said she soaked some quick oats in prune juice for her DS and then cooked it up for porridge. Apparently it worked!

[MummyTummy]

Megan - How frustrating about the bread for you and DS, that would make my blood boil!! But you are right, there are just some people you can't tell and they just won't listen!

Joey - We would go for 8 or 9 days when exclusively BF but it then reduced in time when he started solids.... My opinion is that you wouldn't have clogged her up with what you have fed her - fruit and vegies shouldn't - although I think banana can cause constipation in some babies (not mine). Meat can a bit too. The fact that she's happy and not uncomfortable is definitely a good sign - she may just be processing all the food and getting all the nutrients out of it so I wouldn't get too concerned just yet because you are still only feeding tiny amounts. If she continues to not poo then maybe look at a laxative type meal - like the prunes but I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry. But fruit and vegies - full of fibre - shouldn't cause blockages!

[joey123]

Megan - I can't beleive your MIL did that. That's sooooo annoying!

Thanks for the 'poo' advice girls. Might stay away from banana till then, but give her some more veg tonight. It might help with her sleeping as she's starting waking every 3-4 hours at night again (but sometimes going 5 in the day!)

[*Infinity*]

Thanks ladies for the encouragement and reassurance. Coming in here is really refreshing and helps boost my confidence! I wil persist with offering a few veg options for him and see where we go from there. We think he's starting to get his bottom teeth too, so that may or may not impact on things I guess.

Hey Joey.....sounds like Lily loves her food! What a champ, hope she poos soon, if nothing more for your piece of mind! I too am concerned about how Will is going to digest his food given we've had tummy and poo problems already just with his milk. I'm staying positive and hoping food will help things, but we'll see.

Megan - that would be so frustrating having people take food away from him. That would drive me nuts.

[AliMoy]

Megan - i can't believe your MIL took food away from him! Can you even imagine going up to someone who was feeding their child commercial puree food and taking it off them saying that it's bad for them to eat so many preservatives or something?! I hate how anything even slightly left of mainstream is open slather for people to criticise - but the moment you question something 'mainstream' then it's considered judgemental and offensive... my MIL asked me the other day how many bottles DS has these days and when i told her that he's NEVER had a bottle of anything, just boobs and solids she very condescendingly said "Ahh, we'll that's nice too" grrrrrr

In food news... chinese steamed pork dumplings. Edward LOVES them. We make them ourselves so we know what's in them (no msg, lots of chinese cabbage, spinach, good pork etc) ... huge hit!
Also, after reading all the posts here i tried Edward with some yoghurt and a spoon - again - love love! not entirely coordinated with the spoon, but i helped him dip it in the bowl and then he easily worked out which was the tasty end of the spoon... huge mess, but he was beside himself with excitement!!!! so cute!