Baby Led Solids Chatter #4

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.

Aw Megan :hug: I can understand how that has rattled you. Especially if he is getting worse the more he tries. Breaking it up shouldn't be a problem - is he feeding it to himself in the smaller pieces or do you have to help him with it? Is it just chicken that you have tried? Steak is harder for them to break off then chicken or lamb, but of course if he manages it is more likely to be big chunks. I found DS mostly just sucked the steak whereas the others he would bite/break pieces off, but we also didn't have any issues either. And of course you can give him a chunk of steak that is too big to shove in his mouth all at once. The other thing you can feed him is mince-based meals?

He managed the smaller pieces no problem at all. He's the same with mince - doesn't have a problem picking up the smaller bits and getting them into his mouth, so we don't need to help him. I don't think he would want us to help him, he's becoming very independant! lol
He had a large piece of steak a few nights ago and that was ok because nothing broke off, he just sucked it dry, but I think I'm just nervous now about giving any large pieces of meat incase a piece could break off and get stuck.
He has fish occassionally which is fine. I think I might just have to give the chicken and lamb a miss for a bit until I get some courage back!
Thanks MT :)

If he can feed himself the smaller pieces with no trouble then there is no problem with you breaking his chicken and lamb up in to safer sized pieces. And all the good stuff in steak is actually in the juices anyway so sucking it dry is just as good as chewing and swallowing. Do what you have to do to get your confidence back first though!

Moi - I've been trying to think of what snack things that we do, but we don't really have morning/afternoon tea... if we do have snacks it's normally fruit, a cruscuit, an arrowroot biscuit or something... the other day we were eating rice crackers with dip that Edward really liked too, but mostly we just have breaky, lunch and dinner...

Megan - don't forget also that even though it sounds like DS is doing all the right things with food, you are the expert of your son so if you don't feel comfortable giving him something then don't, there's no failing when it comes to BLS - to me it's all about trying different things, and re-trying them later on if they don't work at first - these babies have a habit of changing soooo quickly so don't worry about things like this 'coz next week he'll probably be munching down a t-bone steak or something :lol:
but like MT said, it's all just experimenting, for both of you.

Have you tried doing something like meat balls with the mince? it might just be that in-between consistency that's soft enough, and easy to break off, but still solid enough to start practicing biting/chewing - just an idea.... Edward sucks most meats, but meatballs, sausages, pork dumplings or just really really tender meats (like slow-cooked) he seems to do really well at biting and chewing.

I froze some yoghurt today - went down a treat - Edward's first tooth poked through yesterday so i think it was just the thing to cool the gums :)
Any experiences with BLS while babies are teething? do they tend to go off harder foods or anything if gums are sore, should i be doing anything differently (i can pretty much just hear my own advice - DS will tell me if he does/doesn't want something right?!)... I think he's very clever for growing a tooth :)

moi - thanks! i'm in kingston council. some things not so good, but so far i've been really happy with my mchn centre & their philosophies.

alimoy - thanks for posting that info, it's really helpful!

MT - our DS' do sound similar! it's amazing how they just instinctively seem to know what to do. i thought i'd try porridge yesterday & was going to hold the spoon for DS but he just grabbed it & it went straight in his mouth!

megan - that would have freaked me out as well! sounds like your DS is loving his meat though!

i probably should have read info on strawberries first, but DS had one yesterday & liked it so much he had a second. he totally demolished them...and covered himself & DP in strawberry juice in the process. we were with friends & we were all fixated on him as he just went for it :lol: we offered some carrot, pumpkin & sweet potato tonight but got some real no thank you type faces. oops, probably should have held off on the fruit until we'd tried vegies. guess we'll just have to try again!

sloane - Yes I was going to guess you were in the Kingston council. :) That's where I go though I don't live in that council.

Alimoy - I don't remember when I introduced morning and afternoon teas. I think it was when Maya was around 1 ish. But I mainly do fruit too so was hoping for some new ideas. When Maya has been teething she does go a bit of her food but I continue to offer normal things.

Maya is still not very good with meat and she won't eat mince for some reason. I wonder if she just doesn't like the taste of meat.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. :)