Yeah, just keep offering the different types of food. Can you put mashed banana on toast? But otherwise don't worry about it too much. Sounds like CJ is doing just great and I am sure the softer slimier foods will happen later!
Printable View
Yeah, just keep offering the different types of food. Can you put mashed banana on toast? But otherwise don't worry about it too much. Sounds like CJ is doing just great and I am sure the softer slimier foods will happen later!
MummyTummy, thanks for the advice re choking. Arlea gagged on a bit of pear yesterday & DD1 panicked & screamed 'she's choking!' & started patting her frantically on the back.
She wasn't of course, she had just gagged & was fine but DD1 was freaked out. It was great to be able to tell her what she should do! and I think she felt better for it.
We had our third attempt at banana this morning & this time she loved it! she played with it & chewed & sucked on it for ages, made a huge mess, then had some vegemite toast - she looooves her toast, but I don't give it to her too often so it was a treat ;)
Mummytummy - I have tried banana and apple on toast but she messes around with it in her hands till it has all come off (or waves it around in the air) and then eats the toast!! Hopefully she will get into it more one day.
I went to the farmers market and got a bunch of baby carrots and also some baby sweetcorn, we had pie and these and zucchini for lunch - these three vege's seem to be CJ's favourite - the carrots and baby sweetcorn in particular.
Here is a link to some pics of DD eating strawberry and parsnip the third pic shows the hammock have arranged under the chair.
Victoria McGill's Photos - Baby Led Solids | Facebook
wysiwyg: Awesome pics! :D
Megan: Scary about the gagging! I hope DH listens to you from now on!
Jasp: Glad Arlea is starting to love her banana! Banana is such a convenient food - comes already wrapped, ready to eat, already nice and soft... :)
In the past I've often questioned myself with BLS cause DS weight gains had been slow. Last month was the worst when he hadn't gained anything. I started wondering if I should spoon feed, but in the end realised that DS is perfectly healthy, and perfectly happy feeding himself - so why change. Anyway, this month DS gained a whopping 500g and grew 2.5cm - so obviously our doing BLS had nothing to do with his gains (or lack of). Has put my confidence back in BLS all over again! :D
Yay Sterla, that weight gain is awesome! It really does restore your confidence doesn't it?
Well we're still going pretty slowly here, but we've discovered a little carnivore at heart in DS. We got around to giving him some meat - I think the first bit was a bit of beef before it went into a casserole and he loved it. Just sucked and munched, didn't get any down. But I think its helped him click a bit about food being good and tasty. I guess cos its so much more flavoursome than boring old veg. He's much more readily putting things up to and in his mouth with more confidence which is great. Since having the beef he's also had chicken & veg from a stir fry we've had, he's had meatballs and pasta spirals which was a hit, plus some lamb.
Jasp - we had a pretty bad gagging incident with DS with the meatballs & pasta. I think some of the mince had broken up and a tiny bit got stuck in the wrong spot. I just calmly waited while he coughed & spluttered, trusting that his reflexes would do what they should and they did - he coughed it up and did vomit, but got it up all the same. I won't pretend it wasn't scary though.
Ok a couple of quick questions that I''m sure get asked regularly but I can't remember. When you offer toast, what type of bread is suitable for babies? I'm just thinking about salt levels and grains etc. And what cereal type stuff can I offer for brekky instead of Weet Bix. I'd just prefer to avoid it most of the time due to the salt thing....or am I being a little over the top?
Infinity - Re: bread - just stay away from the grainy stuff because it is a choking hazard, otherwise whatever bread you choose is up to you. We use just normal, but that is just our choice. Same with the weetbix. We don't cook with salt so for us the bread and weetbix thing isn't too big a deal. But I think the kids weetbix are lower in salt? Anyone else know? As for other cereal - pretty much your choice after Weetbix in the most healthy etc is Farex........ mmmm yum! :p
MT I had a look at the kids weetbix the other day and it is lower in salt than the standard weebix. I want to avoid Farex too due to it being fortified with so much iron. We already have constipation issues here due to the iron in DS' formula, so I want to keep it pretty close to basics for him. Does anyone make porridge from oats for their little ones?:
So MT white bread is fine? Is that what you use?
*Infinity* - i've made porridge a few times for DS - he really likes it. i just make his a bit runnier than i'd have it. he loves feeling the texture of it in the bowl as well as eating it!
Infinity, we use the kids weetbix which have around 1/3 of the salt that the normal weetbix have. But, like MummyTummy, we don't cook with salt so I'm not concerned that he's getting too much.
As for bread, we just use wholemeal. No particular brand. Sometimes we'll have white because we live in a small town and we just have to take what we can get!
A new fruit DS has discovered today... Mango. He loved it and ate nearly the whole thing. Had to hold the pip for him so he could suck on it because it kept slipping out of his hands and he was going to scream the house down if he didn't get it in his mouth soon!
For those of you with older babies, when did you start introducing morning and afternoon snacks? I think DS may be wanting something extra and a b/f doesn't seem to be doing the job any more. It's mainly in the afternoon. I feel like he needs something around 3.30-4pm and then we have dinner between 5.30-6.
Megan: I think I started offering snacks around the 9 month mark. I found it hard to come up with snack ideas to begin with though. A favourite of ours here is plain crackers with dip, like hummus or tzatziki.
Thanks Sterla :) That's a start. He's had hummus before when we were out and really liked that.
I'm not a snacker at all, so I find it hard to come up with things!
He has fruit with breakfast and/or lunch, and sometimes at dinner with his yoghurt, so I think I'll try and make his morning and afternoon snacks savoury rather than sweet. Anyone know if there are any suitable cheese snacks?
Just thought I would give a run down of what he has in a day. He has just suddenly started eating so much and now what I make up for him just doesn't seem enough. This is what he has had today
8.00am Brekky - 1 slice toast, 1.5 weet bix
1.00pm Lunch - 3/4 chicken and avo sandwich and TWO slices of watermelon
6.00 pm Dinner - Roast beef with potato, carrot, pumpkin, broccoli and cauli followed by about 3/4 mango
I offer him a b/f in between those meals and he is really only having a quick drink, but continues to grizzle and get upset as if he's hungry which is why I thought I would try and add some snacks in there.
There are some in my MG who seem to think that's a lot of food for a 9 month old, but since he's leading I have to trust him that he's having what he wants, no more and no less.
Ooh I didn't know such a thing as kids Weetbix existed (are they in the normal cereal section)? CJ currently only really tastes it and probably injests about a sixth and maximum of two soldiers of toast every other day - and that is probably only source of salt at the moment, but good to know about the kids Weetbix for when she starts really eating.
Megan - I have a friend whose DD is a couple of weeks older than your DS and from what I have heard and seen she eats a similar amount to your DS - my friend gets comments about how much she is eating too from her IL's but said in her mothers group that amount is fairly standard.
I am forcing DH to read some of Baby-Led Weaning book at moment - he is happy to go with whatever I reckon on the feeding, but I think is something we should both know about and be able to make decisions on.
Yep, they're just next to the normal weetbix usually. I can't remember the exact quantities, but it is definitely significantly lower in salt.
Thanks for that, I'm glad that seems about right. It's just funny how he went from picking and eating little bits, and sometimes refusing almost a whole meal, to eating everthing in sight! Including I might add, a piece off fluff off the floor this morning! Looks like I need to vacuum every day instead of every 2nd now! lol
I liked how you said you are forcing your DH to read the book! lol That's what I need to do to my DH! Usually I do the reading and then have to explain it all.
wysiwyg - yep the kids weetbix is in the normal cereal section, its just in a smaller box.
To date we have only been offering DS food at tea time with us as its worked in the best, but now that he's getting more and more into it I'm going to start brekky & lunch too. I think I'll try fruit & yoghurt for brekky and some salad (cucumber & celery maybe) and toast with spreads for lunch. We gave his toast soldiers with casserole tonight and he just loved it. Its so nice seeing them start to enjoy and really relish it all.
Megan - I got a mango at the shops today for DS to try tomorrow...can't wait!
Hi all :hello:
I'm new to this thread but was hoping to join in to get some ideas for food for Fred during the day when DH is looking after her.
I've been letting Fred eat from my plate and from her high chair for a while now, well since about 4.5 months as she yelled at us until she was allowed to hold some food and wave it around. She happily eats almost anything but we have found she is a real carnivore. She had some of my roast lamb cut into a finger and attacked it muching away on it furiously. When I tried to take it away from her to clean her up she screamed so loudly we had to give it back to her :lol: We are also lucky as she happily plays and eats fruit, vegies, cheese and bread.
We went strawberry picking today and when I was reaching down for some more strawberries she must have grabbed a strawberry and stuck it in her mouth (she was in a sling) I only realised this when I saw the stalk sticking out of her mouth. I pulled it out but it looked like she had eaten most of it. Is strawberry ok for a 6.5 month old? I just remember something about them not being good for LO's under 12 months...
Thanks everyone
Ryatha, strawberries are fine. I would probably only steer clear if there were allergies, but if not they should be fine. DS has been eating them for a while and we haven't had any problems.
The only food that should really be avoided completely before 12 months is honey due to the bacteria that can be in it.
Jamie is Doing BLS but i need some more ideas for meat
Jacinta, we just tend to give Kyson whatever meat we are having for dinner. If we have steak, then he has a strip of it etc. We just usually make it separately so that it has less oil/salt/spices. Kyson had osso bucco with us tonight and it was the first time he had the exact same meal as us. It was very cute!
Ryatha, Kyson has been eating strawberries for quite a while now. Actually, I never realised that strawberries were high on the potential allergy list until well after he had been eating them. Our strawberry patch started churning out strawberries, so I just kept picking them and giving them to him because he loves them. We're always careful with new foods though and watch for allergic reactions, but he's fine :)
Thanks Krystie and Megan - we don't have any serious allergies in the family so I'm quite relieved.
JwithJ - we offered Fred some saussage meat & hamburger patties first and she thought they were great. Now we just give her a strip of what ever we are eating.
Jacinta - CJ's favourite meat so far seems to be lamb, I made some lamb tagine in the slow cooker and put in a little bowl with some cous cous expecting her to just ignore it - but she shovelled it in and was snorting with excitement. She has strips of steak too, I just give her a big chunk of whatever we are having to have a go at. Chicken bones are a hit for chewing on, but not so much the chicken itself.
CJ seems to be getting to grips with mushy stuff a bit now, the cous cous I was amazed at how she took to it, but has also fed her self chunks of banana (which she was refusing) and avocado too. She is not ingesting masses but we are getting there I think. I think I also needed to just embrace the mess and just stick whatever in front of her and not think about how she was going to manage it as I don't think I was giving her enough credit.
How long do you spend in the high chair/at the table eating? CJ will sit there for ever (we are often sat there 40+ mins) mostly waving the food around and eating bits and pieces, I find I am snacking more because I want to sit at the table with her and eat but often I finish the meal and she is still going so I go and get myself more to eat! If she throws all the food on the floor repeatedly then I call it a day but that hardly ever happens, so I am effectively deciding when she is finished.
Ryatha - I read about strawberries in the Baby Led Weaning book, there was a bit about a little boy who got a rash from eating strawberries, and then after that time he would touch them but never put them in his mouth - clever!
Just popping in to ask a quick question - tell me about tuna?? I'm making tuna mornay tomorrow and I'm sure its fine for DS to eat, I just wanted to get your opinions! We have no history of allergies or intolerances to fish so I'm happy to give it a try. I make it all from scratch myself, it just has butter, plain flour, cheese, tuna, creamed corn, onion and I bake it on a bed of pasta. DS loves pasta stuff cos its easy for him to pick up!
We're having roast lamb & veggies tonight so I'm sure he'll enjoy.
We tried weetbix for the first time today with some cows milk and some mushed up pears - I think he enjoyed it. Rightly or wrongly I spoon fed some of it, but its funny, he's such a suspicious little character. He *needs* to hold the spoon while he eats if off, its too cute. Just more reinforcement for how much we need to trust them to do it themselves I guess really isn't it?
ok ladies - i need some advice! how much should my little piglet be eating? like CJ, E doesn't want to stop after any set period of time some days. she generally lets us know when she's full (sweeps all mess on her highchair off to the sides) but when she is having fave foods (spag bol, vegie bake etc) she just keeps going and going and going. she is getting plenty into her (we have minimal mess really) but she just doesn't seem to want to stop even when she looks like she's full and bloated!
and, a couple of others! in the discussion about highly allergic food types - when do you start introducing them? DH and I eat satay semi-regularly - at the moment, we've not eaten it for 2 months due to the peanuts with DD - but when is it ok to have something like that. i'm not talking super spicy satay (had that at the pub the other day - she dosn't react to the peanuts through the BM) - just a simple satay... and, how spicy is too spicy for a bubba - is it just a case of her enjoying the flavour and running with it? we had burritos last night - she picked at the salad, but wanted some meat as well - i gave her a small amount and she loved it. we make our burritos rather spicy so i was surprised (and didnt give her anymore - dinner was late and she needed to go to bed not long after!), but today, i had some left over meat and cheese in a toasted sandwich - she ate her vegemite crust (i'm not sure when to introduce softer bread cos i'm worried about they doughy factor in her mouth!) and then wanted my dinner right or wrong. i have her a small corner of crust (no real meat in it) and she scoffed, and wanted more so i gave her a bit of the edge about an inch wide. i chewed the bulk of the meat off, but i know there was a bit still in there - she loved it! i'm just worrried her tummy is too immature to cope with it
Hi everyone,
I'm brand new around here and just starting on BLS with my DS Jasper who is a 6 and a bit months.
We had a bit of a scare today at lunch time - we were out and I gave him a strip of chicken breast from my salad. He was happily sucking away on it for a while but then he managed to get a biggish bit off and started choking on it. He wasn't gagging or coughing but silently trying to bring it up. I picked him up out of the high chair and put him face down, hit him on the back a few times and he spat it out. I was surprised at how calm I was at the time but after he was ok it felt like my legs had turned to jelly.
So, my confidence for doing BLS is a bit battered at the moment and I need some advice. Should I be avoiding chicken breast and just going with leg meat?
Cheerio
Jess
Welcome Jess - sorry to hear your DS gave you a bit of a scare. I haven't personally had any experience with choking with my DD, have given her chicken breast - but I am sure someone else will be in who has. However just wanted to say that we have my IL's staying at the moment from the UK and they are amazed at how well DD handles food and big lumps of food too - I have a niece who is 6 weeks older than DD and they say she doesn't cope with lumps or sticks of food at all well - so I am convinced is because we have done BLS that DD is so confident with food in her mouth.
BG - I have given DD nut butter (almonds, cashew, brazil) on a rice cake and I just watched for any reaction. We have no history of allergies so I am going for it with everything but honey. She has also definitely had foods that have been prepared in areas with peanuts (the odd crisp etc). We haven't tried anything particularly spicy yet - just because we haven't had, but she has had a suck on lettuce leaves that had some chilli sauce on from a can of tuna. In fact so far haven't found anything she isn't keen on.
Oh - someone mentioned no salt rice cakes - where do you find them? Every packet I have looked at has added salt.
In regards to meat like chicken, sausages or chops, Fred is a carnivore. She loves meat and will always love to chew on either a bone or a strip of meat. We haven't had any problems, other than chicken occasionally getting a bit stuck, but she gets it back up again, spits it out and throws the rest away. :) clever little soul.
We haven't tried any nuts yet, but she is eating cheese and custard. Yogurt just seems to make her chuck up for the next few hours after eating it, so we are giving it up for the time being. We also spoon feed her occassionally, but again, she likes to hold the spoon as it goes into her mouth, we just help her get it on the spoon.
wysiwyg - I buy the Coles thick plain rice cakes or Sunrice thick plain rice cakes. I am sure they are the same - the ingredient list is identical. Both have next to no sodium in them and they are the only ones I have found without lots of salt.
BG - the latest guidelines which were released last year now recommend starting all foods, including those that are high allergy foods, early (ie not long after the 6 month mark). This includes peanuts, although not whole nuts due to choking, so satay would be fine. As for spice, I guess it depends on the baby. Both my boys loved spicy food very early on. I have heard that if you eat spicy foods through pg and bfing then babies will like spice early. Not sure if it's true, but it was in my case.
ETA - I nearly forgot BG, the idea of BLS is that babies will take as much as they need when they are ready. So in theory they can't eat too much. If you are worried though, you could maybe give her a bit less and/or give her a bf first.
well, the spicy food got a run yesterday! night before last, DH and I had a curry after DD went to bed - last night, she refused to eat dinner (shepherds pie mum had made - she really doesn't like mushy food!) - anyway, we offered her some of the pasta we'd put through the curry - she scoffed it - loved it to bits!
am thinking of making a mild satay next week and letting her have a go at it - might do it at mum's though - we're a fair way from anything if she does react, so we're testing the waters with the high allergen stuff at mum's just in case.
our family has no history of allergies really but i do have a weird reaction to easter eggs so it's best for me to just keep an eye on things...
That's great that she loved the pasta. She sounds like a fantastic eater.
she is a piglet MR! put on 1.8kg in 10 weeks! piggy girl! she is just perfect thought.
tonight we had roast for dinner - beans (freshly picked so very yum! lol), carrot, potato, meat, and corn on the cob (fresh picked as well!) - she had a fair go at the corn too - couldn't quite get it properly but she sure tried!
Does anyone know if there's a nice 1-2 page info sheet out there in the "web world" that I could give to CC about Blake going with BLS? I sent some cooked carrot with this morning and apparently he gagged on it (they thought he was choking) and they were a little concerned about a 6 (nearly 7) month old eating finger pieces of carrot (bigger than his fist sized stick) mainly due to the fact that carrot doesn't mush down if they choke apparently.
Leckert - just pm'd you the url, but there is a leaflet on the rapley weaning site - if you haven't seen it.
thanks for that wsiwyg - I hadn't got to looking around the rapely site much but do have the book.
Hi, I'm new around here, I've been reading through a few posts and just wanted to say hello.
I stumbled upon baby led solids/weaning while I was pregnant with my DD, who is now 4.5 months, and at the time thought it was a great idea. I've done quite a lot of reading around it, bought the book and spent some time looking it up online too.
For the last few weeks my little girl has been really interested in food and in the last week or two wanted to touch it all the time. I'm aware that she's probably a bit young to be starting BLS, but last weekend my DH and I were eating crisps and dips and she was getting really frustrated and trying to get some too. In the end I decided to chop up some cucumber into sticks and leve it within her reach to see what she did. She took a piece and put it straight in her mouth and had a good old suck for quite a while, she managed to gnaw all the seeds off but spat them down her front. Seeing how much she'd enjoyed that, the next day when we were eating some fruit we gave her some mango and apple. The apple was fine as she could treat it in much the same way as the cucumber, but the mango was way too soft so she smushed it around the plate with her hand and then took her mouth down to the plate and sucked it! Since then I've also tried giving her some avocado, steamed carrots and zuchini, both raw and steamed, and some banana.
She's sucking the harder foods and seems to be really enjoying doing that, but the softer foods, including the steamed veggies are just making her really frustrated, and then when she does figure it out, which admittedly has been with a little guidance from us - I know this isn't the best idea, she likes the first taste, wants more, but then ends up gagging.
I don't know what to do - whether to carry on or wait until she's a bit older. On the one hand she was definitely trying to get the food and seems interested, on the other she seems very young compared to most of the stories I've read on here, and the last thing I want to do is introduce it to her too early, give her bad experiences and put her off completely. I was hoping that some of you might be able to give me your opinions.
Cheers :)
:welcome: Balmaingal - first of all - yes the official stance is 6 months to allow the toungue reflex to go and the gut to be mature enough to handle food and that baby is choosing to eat by themselves. That being said, I also hold the opinion that like every other skill that babies learn it will happen at a different rate to the next. So going by that, I think if she is able to pick up a piece of food and suck on it in her own time, then stick with that. You say that you have been 'helping', which I would try not to do to make sure that this happens all at her developmental rate. So if she is gagging on the softer stuff because you are helping her pick it up and put it in her mouth then it sounds like she isn't ready for that. But if she can pick the harder stuff up and suck on it all by herself, I think let her go for it. To her they are just tasty toys. Gradually introduce the softer foods later. The thought also crossed my mind that perhaps her teeth are beginning to shift and she is looking for things to cool her gums which is why she spat the seeds of the cucumber back out. To her it isn't yet natural to swallow, but the sucking is soothing. And if that is the case then just stick with those foods that are cooling and soothing for her.
My DS started at 5.5 months - he could have possibly started earlier but I held him off for about 2 weeks. We started with the steamed carrots and straight away he had no issue picking them up, sucking and swallowing them. I also held off giving him anything but steamed vegies until he turned 6 months, and then I gave him bits of just about everything we had including meat.
Hope that helps!
Welcome Balmaingal :) Ditto to what MT said ;)
A quick question about oranges. I only realised the other day that DS has never had orange. I don't eat them, and he's been so busy with all the summer fruits, melons and bananas that I didn't even think about it until I took him to a day care centre (for a visit as he's starting next week) and she asked if he had orange (as they wont give them anything they've never had before). Is it a bit harder for them to break up with no teeth? He's managing meat really well now and we haven't had any gagging incidents for quite a while, so I think I could possibly give an orange a go. I don't know. I had an incident with an orange where I couldn't break it up and it got stuck when I was a kid and that's why I don't eat them now, so that's always in the back of my mind too.
Megan - they tend to cut them up small enough at daycare for the breaking up not to be an issue. I also think they make sure that they are really ripe and juicy. I don't eat oranges either, but I just gave Jett one of those thin slices they use at restaurants for garnishes and that was his first orange experience. The whole trying is to reduce the incidence of surprise reactions. Jett only had his two bottom teeth until after he turned 1, and I know he was eating oranges before this so I don't think the teeth are any reason to avoid it.
Remember also that part of BLS is allowing our bubs to explore food themselves without us putting our prejudices on them. So it is a good idea to offer some orange to your DS, but if you feel uncomfortable about it, then ask someone else you trust without the same hang-ups to supervise this trial. Then if he is getting them at daycare you don't have to feel guilty about not feeding them to him. I had to do it this way with fish - salmon and tuna, for Jett. But as it turns out he doesn't like them anyway!! But he does like oranges even though I don't!!
That's an idea MT. I'll just get DH to do the orange thing! He eats oranges and tangelos, so he doesn't have a problem. I'll buy some tomorrow and we'll give it a go. I don't want him to have the same hang ups as me so the sooner the better I think. Now that you mention it, the orange at day care was cut into segments with all the white cut off it and it did look very juicy (even looked appealing to me! lol).
He wants to eat everything at the moment. If someone is eating (even strangers) he starts squealing and reaching out for food. Anyone would think we don't feed him!! I was at a meeting this morning and a little girl next to us was eating chocolate cake. He's never had anything like that but I had to take him away before he screamed the place down! Poor starving boy!! ;)
Hehe! Jett does that too. We can be eating the same thing and he still wants what we have!! So we have to give him bits of ours, even though his plate is full of the same stuff!! Aahh, they make you laugh if nothing else!