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EK - We did that - load the spoon and let Jett put it in his mouth himself and we also just let him use his hands. It is another sensory experience for them, so even if you you keep handing them the spoon they are going to want to dig their hands in at some stage anyway!!
Hi all. I've been MIA again. I've quickly skimmed through posts and welcome to the new people. :hello:
Last time I posted I was having trouble getting Maya to drink from a sippy or straw cup. Well I took away her bottles and then she started using her straw cups more and now she is capable from drinking from any straw cup I've tried. :dance:
I have always had trouble getting Maya to eat meat though. She won't eat pieces of meat for some reason, so I do have to mash it a bit, so that she can still grab it with her hands. I'm not sure why she won't eat pieces of meat though.
I tried a cheesy + vegetable pasta sauce this week and Maya loves it. She can't get enough of it.
Oh and suddenly foods Maya used to love she refuses to eat. She will no longer eat potato (at all!!!) or any sticks of steamed veges. I'm not sure what to do about that. I have to hide her veges in with her other foods now (things like casseroles). Is it usual for them to suddenly dislike things they used to eat with no problems?
So I come back and everyone else disappears. :lol:
Just wanted to say I am so excited cos Maya ate some chicken for the first time. I roasted it and it was very moist and juicy. She didn't eat a meal's worth but I'm hoping it's a start to eating more meat.
Also I have a question: Is there any particular type or brand of spoon that is easier for babies to use? Maya understands how to use a spoon but isn't successful in getting anything on to her spoon. She will make digging motions but can't scoop anything up.
Oh sorry Moi! I must have missed your first post! :redface:
:dance: yay for the chicken! Hopefully it will be the start of some meat eating. And well done Maya on drinking from a straw!! :clap:
And yes there is lots of foods that Jett used to eat but now refuses, or has refused and now has gone back to them. It is more about what they need from food right now, rather than what they like and dislike so you just keep offering the food and leave it up to them to decide if they do or don't want to eat it. In that respect we never make Jett another meal just to get him to eat something. He gets the main meal and dessert (fruit and usually yoghurt or custard) and that is what he gets. If he refuses any or all of that he doesn't get something different.
As for spoons it really is just a matter of practice. One day she will just get it. But what she is doing now is just as important as getting it right - it is the start of spoon control. We have a number of different spoons, so different sizes, different weights and also different textures - ie. some are soft silicone, some are plastic and some are stainless steel. Personally I like the stainless steel ones, they don't hurt their mouths on them any more than they would on a plastic or silicone spoon, and they are just like Mummy and Daddy's! The only important thing to remember is to give them a child size spoon, otherwise it is the equivalent of giving them salad servers to eat with! Same deal with cups later on - give them child size ones or it is like trying to drink out of a bucket or mixing bowl.
Thanks MummyTummy. I can't help offering something else when Maya refuses to eat something cos I always worry she'll be hungry. :redface: I know I shouldn't offer an alternative though.
With using a spoon it's really that Maya wants to be independent and gets so frustrated when she can't scoop things up with her spoon by herself. I guess I was hoping maybe there's a spoon better designed for this age, to help her succeed. Then again the other day she did succeed in scooping up some yoghurt using the handle of the spoon. :lol: She was so proud of herself. :)
MOI - I am like MT... Either BJ eats what he's served or he gets nothing else. He always gets fruit after his meals & fruit plus yoghurt after dinner so I'll give him a little more than usual if he doesn't eat his main meal. As for the spoon, BJ has different kinds of spoons too, but the one he can use the best has a handle that goes right around. Imagine bending the handle all the way back so it forms a circle, so the tip is touching the spoon bit. The spoon came in a pack with a plastic bowl & lid. We were given it so I can't tell you where you can get it from. Sorry, not much help I know.
Hey MT - How are you feeling? Did you get much MS? (Sorry, not BLS talk I know)
oh i'm going to try Edward with a spoon and see what he does - i could never really figure out how yoghurt would work lol
Heya are you guys all a lot healthier than me, or do you have 'naughty days' every now and then when you just can't be bothered cooking and dinner or lunch ends up being chicken and chips or something - and what do you do with BLS then? for example a couple of weeks ago we got chicken and chips and i thought i'd just give DS some chicken but he grabbed himself a chip (okay, or two) and LOVED it!! I felt so guilty that my 7mth old was munching on a deep fried chip, but it's not like it's every day, or even every week or anything... then yesterday my mum was over and we had those heavan icecreams, DS was on grandma's lap and grabbed her icecream and pretty much devoured the whole thing!!!!
Ideally i think i should try not to be eating unhealthy food around Edward because he is very determined and doesn't seem to be fooled if we're eating one thing and he's eating something else, but around Xmas time esp it sometimes gets tricky - what are thoughts on this? :D
Hi
I gave Lily her first try at solids last night. I gave her some banana that I had mashed with a fork. I only gave her about a 2-3cm piece of banana as I didn't want to over feed her as she's never had anything in her tummy but breast milk before. She absolutely LOVED it and wanted more, but I wouldn't give it to her incase it gave her a tummy ache. Are there any recommendations as to how much you should feed your baby at the beginning? I know you should breastfeed them first, but what if they just want to keep eating? It's been 11 years since I introduced solids, and I wasn't as cautious then.
AliMoy - Even though I just started Lily on solids yesterday, she had been looking interested in food for a little while now, so she would, if I allowed her within arms reach grab anything and stick it in her mouth.
Can I suggest putting DS in a high chair so he can't reach your food (when there is something that you don't want him to have) and if he does manage to get something that you'd rather he not have, take him into another room and do something fun with him so he doesn't want to eat the rest of it (like the ice cream).
It's up to you as to what you do and don't let him have, but if you really don't want him to have sugar or oil you'll just have to remove him from where it is as he won't understand that it is no good for him.
If he throws a tantrum and then you let him have it because you don't want him upset, he'll know that's what he needs to do next time, and you'll end up with a tantrum everytime he doesn't get what he wants. Just make your decision and stick with it. Good Luck. I know it can be difficult. I still don't eat certain foods in front of my 11 year old if I don't want her to have them!
Ooh this thread has had a bit of a work out in the last couple of days!!
Moi - I understand - that is why our meals always consist of two parts - main and 'dessert' with dessert always being a healthier type of dessert - such as fruit and dairy! But beyond that if he refuses both (and sometimes he does) it means he really just isn't interested in eating. It could be because he is not feeling 100% or perhaps he is tired, or even just plain not hungry. But part of BLS is respecting that and letting them lead the way. It is hard to take that step back though!! I also find that Jett eats heaps in the morning (way more breakfast than I do!!) and then by the end of the day he just picks. And I was talking to a friend about it the other day and he has two kids, and one is the same as Jett, and the other eats little for breakfast but eats a massive dinner. So keep an eye out for this sort of behaviour too.
Georgi - All good - 17 weeks now!! Very little MS, I didn't get much with Jett either - I'm just really lucky I think!
AliMoy - yeah we get the occasional bad days too, but that is just it - occasional. Joey makes some good suggestions about how to deal with it. But the other thing to try to remember with BLS is that food is just that - food. Try not to think in 'good food' 'bad food' kind of categories because ultimately bubs/children will always want the highly desirable 'bad food'. So if you treat all food equally (and I don't mean give junk food every second day or anything) but not being seen to favour one over the other, and certainly don't use food as reward or punishment then fruit and veges will have the same status as ice-cream and hot chips. This is kind of a hard concept to work with though, because we know that there is 'bad food' and 'good food'.
So I guess what we do - as in your example when we get chicken and chips, if we have it at home we cook veges as our main side and then Jett gets the chicken, the veges and a couple of chips (because Mum and Dad are having them) and that is his meal. No fuss and bother over eating veges first, no extra chips - that is his meal. If we are getting C & C while we are out then we usually get a side of their vegies, or roast vegies if they have them, and then the same deal.
And as for ice-cream - we usually have it when Jett is getting his fruit and dairy dessert and it never seems to bother him. If we do happen to have it as an extra then I either give him something I prefer him to have (which he usually doesn't mind) and perhaps a couple of tastes if it doesn't seem to distract him. But again - don't make a fuss either way about it. It is neither reward or punishment. It is just food.
In saying all that 7 months is young so I would definitely try to limit the exposure to these foods as much as possible. But remember that right now for DS it is all about learning new tastes and textures and exploring ALL foods. So don't beat yourself up about it.
Joey - there aren't really any recommendations about how much to feed. I pretty much just followed Jett's lead. He was super interested in food right from the start so as he ate something it would get replaced on his tray and eventually he would just stop eating and start experimenting with gravity, or squishiness etc. Then I knew he had had enough. I also didn't do the BF first unless it was part of the routine time. I would put his meals at the time when it was meal time (usually the same time as me) and follow that. I would offer a BF afterwards to quench his thirst because he didn't want water. It didn't affect his breast feeding in any way and it always seemed to allow him the time to learn about the new food.
Georgi and MT - The majority of the time Maya does eat her meal. The only time she won't eat it is when I'm introducing something new that she doesn't like. That's when I then go defrost something I know she will eat. So it's not a regular occurrence. I also do main + dessert (of fruit and yoghurt) and she eats well nearly every day. It's only when there's something she hasn't tried before and dislikes that she won't eat anything.
Alimoy - I do pretty much what MT does. I don't make a big deal of good or bad foods. If we are eating fish and chips, we also give Maya fish and chips but we also always have salad with every meal so Maya does too. Maya LOVES ice cream (and I really LOVE ice cream), so if I am eating some ice cream while she's around I will give her some but I don't eat it often in front of her.
joey123 - As MT said there aren't any recommendations on how much they should eat. I also just followed Maya's lead and gave her as much as she would eat.
Last night we had roast chicken for dinner and Maya actually ate quite a bit of chicken for once. :dance: BUT didn't eat her veges. :rolleyes: Ah well at least she's improving with eating meat. :)
Also last night she was a bit more successful with getting her yoghurt on her spoon by herself. :) She was so proud of herself.
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!
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
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 :)
Well said... I think you have just hit the nail on the head!!:clap::
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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??)
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.
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!
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?
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
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!
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.
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!
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! :o
Any suggestions anyone?? (She is BF)
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!
Megan - How frustrating about the bread for you and DS, that would make my blood boil!! :angry: 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!
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!)
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.
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!
AliMoy - Great news with the yoghurt & very good point about confronting someone about eating bottled baby food!
Well Lily finally graced us with a poo today (can you imagine her disgust when she's older, me discussing her poos!!). So tonight for dinner she had some steamed vegies. I was holding the carrot for her and she sucked it too hard, she sucked it right out of my fingers. It wasn't that big a piece, but big enough for me to freik for a second. If you have me on your facebook you can see the video!! I am hoping a fuller tummy will get her through the night tonight. I am feeling quite positive about it.
lollybaby - I'm really lucky the my MCHC encourages BLS. They even run an info session on how to start, what foods to offer, etc. It's so stupid how different councils run different programs and have different attitudes to things.
megan - My MIL sounds like your MIL. She thinks doing BLS is bad and dangerous for Maya. :rolleyes: Not only that but recently when she was over I set Maya up with some salmon slice to eat with her hands and came back to find my MIL feeding it to Maya on a spoon (which Maya was protesting about). When I explained that Maya is capable of feeding herself, my MIL replied that it's less messy with the spoon. :rolleyes:
joey - Another good food that helps with pooing is pears. Sounds like she doesn't need it now though.
What sorts of food do you all give your babies for morning and afternoon tea? I give Maya mainly fruit. I do sometimes give cucumber, carrot, cheese and rice cakes with philly cheese. Looking for more ideas.
Time for an update!
So for two nights in a row we've offered DS a selection of steamed veg. First night was carrot, sweet potato, potato and pumpkin. Second night was just carrot and pumpkin cos he was in a bad mood and I just knew he wasn't up for it, so I just did a little bit. The first night we also offered him some yoghurt just to see what he did. Both nights he's been less than interested. He's really only just squished things up, put them to his mouth and looked at us going WTF!? None went down, and to be honest he was more interested in fiddling with the straps on his high chair LOL!
I know persistance is the key, so we'll just keep on going until he figures out what the deal is!
A few questions, what do you give the kiddies for breakfast when you're starting out? And when is it ok to introduce meat?
Ta!
hi everyone, just jumping in to join the thread - we were waiting for 6 months but ds grabbed some bread out of my hand last sunday & it went straight in his mouth :lol: he absolutely loved it. he's had a couple of thing since & loved some cantaloupe that we gave him today.
moi - that sounds like my council! i thought it was great when i found out they ran info sessions & actually promote it.
megan - your poor ds!
joey - have you been getting better sleeps?
Lollybaby - Remember that your DS is still really only 6 months old. It is all just so new and foreign to him. He may not be ready until 7, 8 or 9 months. All babies develop and reach different milestones at different rates and it shouldn't be any different for interest in solids. Don't get disheartened by his seemingly lack of interest. The fact that he is squishing it and putting it to his mouth is a good sign. If he just sat there and did nothing - then you would have something to be concerned about!
It is ok to introduce meat at anytime. I waited until DS was 6 months old, which was two weeks after he had started solids. I gave him some chicken and a chunk of steak to start with. The chunk of steak he just sucked until it went white which is perfectly normal. All the good stuff is in the juices anyway.
As for breakfast ideas, we just did weetbix or porridge when we first started out. Oh and toast! Weetbix we tried in a variety of different ways - lots of milk, only a little milk, yoghurt instead of milk, with fruit in it, etc. Really they can have anything. Toast is a good start too, easy for them to hold and suck, and you can put all sorts of things on there like avocado, or cream cheese, or creamed corn, or anything sloppy really! We also gave 100% fruit spread and vegemite. Hope that gives you some inspiration! Cheese on toast is another thing you could try too!
Sloane :welcome: - My DS didn't want to wait until 6 months either so we started at 5.5 months - but he was definitely ready. There was no hesitating for him, it all started going down right from the start. So it sounds like yours and mine could be very similar!!
OK, so now that I have actually started this, it is a little scarier than expected (it doesn't help that DH is telling me that she is going to choke!)
So when I give her steamed vegies, for example, I thought I would just give her a stalk of brocoli and she would gum/suck away at it? She tends to take really big bites (without any teeth) and gets a lot in her mouth. Is this ok? Is she going to choke on it? I wasn't sure, so at first I was holding it for her, so I could control how far in it went, and then I changed to mashing it with a potato masher and now I put them in her bowl and chop them up with a pair of scissors (held vertically into her bowl). She then takes handfulls of it, mushes it several times in a closed and open fist and then attempts to get it into her mouth, or which about a tenth actually enters. The rest ends up on the floor and in the top of her nappy. LOL! I would much rather just give her the food and let her go for it, but I don't know if it'll be ok.
What about strawberries? We have some baby ones in the garden and I didn't know if I could just give it to her whole or not.
I haven't tried her on meat yet (oh except for a tiny bit of chicken a week or two ago), beacuse I haven't been organised enough to cook it early. She eats before us as DH doesn't like to eat as soon as he walks through the door from work, but Lily eats about 5.30-6.00pm.
Any other hints or tips would be greatly appreciated. I think I will just feed her before DH gets home so I don't have to worry about him worrying!
Hey Joey - sounds like she's doing fantastically! She wont choke, but it definitely takes a few times of seeing her gag reflexes in action for you to get your confidence up...
here is a good exert from Rapley's Weaning site...
Many parents worry about babies choking. However, there is good reason to believe that babies are at less risk of choking if they are in control of what goes into their mouth than if they are spoon fed. This is because babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have developed the ability to chew. And they do not develop the ability to chew until after they have developed the ability to reach out and grab things. The ability to pick up very small things develops later still. Thus, a very young baby cannot easily put himself at risk because he cannot get small pieces of food into his mouth. Spoon feeding, by contrast, encourages the baby to suck the food straight to the back of his mouth, potentially making choking more likely.
It appears that a baby’s general development keeps pace with the development of his ability to manage food in his mouth, and to digest it. A baby who is struggling to get food into his mouth is probably not quite ready to eat it. It is important to resist the temptation to ‘help’ the baby in these circumstances since his own developmental abilities are what ensure that the transition to solid foods takes place at the right pace for him, while keeping the risk of choking to a minimum.
are we allowed to post links up? if so here are some really good guidelines and some info for when people question why/what is BLS... http://www.rapleyweaning.com/assets/blw_guidelines.pdf
I have a feeling there's something about not giving babies strawberries until they're older - i'm not sure why, or where i heard it - maybe check it out - probably one of those foods that some people hold back and others don't.
OKay, so my advice is to really really trust your baby, obviously use your common sense and don't leave her alone while she's eating while she's still learning. A great piece of advice that someone told me was that if they are coughing then they're breathing so if she has got some food stuck where it shouldn't be and she's coughing then the best thing is to just stay calm next to her and encourage her to cough it up - it's just a good sign that everything's working like it should be.
The other thing is maybe try foods like potato (i give Edward a whole half of a boiled one), cruscuits, melon etc - things like that which are solid enough for baby to hold and munch but kinda disintegrate in the mouth - just while you get used to it.
Nothing you can do about the mess, just watch!
good luck!
Great excerpt Alimoy. Babies gag reflex is actually far more developed than ours as adults so if they do gag they are extremely well adept at bringing it all back up and starting again. The only time you should really worry is if they are turning blue - and if you have one of these moments then it pays to know what to do for choking and to act calmly. We had a couple of these moments, and only with new foods - but because I knew what to do I stayed calm and just tipped him over my lap and he did the rest. If you panic then they are likely to panic and that can cause real issues. But mostly it was just gagging and he was perfectly able to bring it back up and start again.
So a whole floret of broccoli is just perfect, there is likely to be more issues by mashing it or cutting it up small.
And strawberries - they can be quite acidic so alot of babies and children can develop a rash (tomatoes can have the same effect) mainly around the mouth but can be over the entire body but if they are actually allergic to the food then you will find that they won't eat it - they have a sixth sense about these things! My DS gets the rash, but I liken it to grass rash that you get for about an hour or two and then it goes. It certainly doesn't bother him at all. My nephew had issues with them too, but again it was just a rash, and it didn't seem to bother him. The ILs cut it out of his diet for a little while and he doesn't have the issue any more now that he is older. So it really come down to a personal choice whether you try it or not. We did right from the start, and haven't stopped and the rash doesn't get any worse! But he doesn't get them all the time either!
If you want to give her a whole strawberry it should be fine, but you might find that bigger ones will be easier for her to handle.
It might be a good idea to feed her before DH gets home, if only to get your confidence up about the BLS. Once you are confident in her ability then you will easily be able to point out all the benefits to DH if he starts to undermine your decision. But it is really beneficial to her to eat with you as babies learn by copying. If she is always eating alone (as in no one else eating at the same time) then her skills at eating will develop at a much slower rate. So I would recommend trying to eat with her at lunch or on weekends or move her dinner time to suit yours as soon as you are comfortable.
The other thing I recommend is reading the book "Baby-led Weaning" by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett. It is such a confidence builder and offers some great tips for starting out. When I first read it it just made so much sense to me that I just jumped straight in and now I wouldn't feed my children any other way!
Good-luck - it sounds like you are doing a great job, you just need to trust yourself, and trust your DD's ability to feed herself.
sloane - :welcome: I see you are in Melbourne so maybe you are in the same council as me. Actually my council is terrible. I travel to a neighbouring council cos it's much better than mine with a big emphasis on BFing and BLS.
I'm still looking for morning/afternoon tea ideas. What kinds of foods do you give your babies and toddlers for those meal times?
Hi again and thanks for the support. I feed really confident about this ... until it comes to feeding time. LOL
So tonight I gave her a tree of brocoli, but what happens when she pulls it apart (so it is now the little pieces we are trying to avoid) before she eats it? Also the first piece she sucked on rather than chewed on. Is this ok? She's not going to suck it in and choke on it? And then later she was chewing on a big bit, I thought she was yawning - it was getting close to bed time - then all of a sudden a projectile of brocoli came flying out! Well at least I know she can get it out ok. Still scared the $hit out of me. Sooooo glad DH wasn't here. He would have had a coronary!
I am going to get that book, but it will be a week or 2 before it arrives, so I will have to keep pestering you all until then, sorry. Hopefully in a few months I can repay the favour to another newbie.
Thanks girls
No worries Joey, that is exactly why we are all here hanging out in this thread!!
Sucking is perfectly fine and extremely normal. They learn this and then learn chewing. Jett started chewing only a few weeks after starting but again it is up to them and their own personal development. Yes it is a bit of a shock when you get projectile food!! Luckily it doesn't happen too often!
Don't worry about her pulling the broccoli apart. This is all part of her experimenting and she will either continue to do this because it is what works for her, or she will stop and try eating it a different way if it doesn't. But she won't learn unless she decides for herself which is why we don't chop them up in little pieces.
Recently DS has really started enjoying his meat and I'm really nervous at mealtimes again (just when I thought I was comfortable with it all!)
Until recently he would just suck the meat and maybe little pieces would come off which he would eat, but since he's started biting chunks off the piece I give him, we've had some projectile chicken moments! Probably not helped by the fact that he shoves more in his mouth than he can handle. He doesn't appear to be chewing, just swishing it around his mouth and then tries to swallow and it's getting stuck. It happened with his chicken last night 3 times, and he would scream afterwards and take a while to calm down. Both DH and I were a bit rattled and ended up breaking up the chicken, because DS really wanted to eat it, but I didn't feel like I could sit there and watch him gagging and almost choking over and over. It was awful. I thought he would figure it out pretty quickly after gagging a couple of times, but he started doing it more as the week went on.
It has made me a bit nervous about giving meat at all now.