Baby Led Solids chatter #5

[human bean]

DD loved the variety of food on Christmas day, she ate so much turkey! I wasn't impressed to see MIL sneaking her bits of choc balls and making a big joke on 'not telling Mummy', but just let it slide for the sake of the day grrrr. She ate alot more than normal and pretty much pooped all day yesterday, not unwell, just lots of nappies!

As for dinners, she really just has what we are having. If it's steak and salad, she gets it, chicken and vege, she gets it, slow cooker casserole etc etc we literally give her everything we eat, just might prepare it a little differently i.e. cut into fingers or blocks whilst we make our own. She loves pasta and bog sauce, the curly fettucine is a big hit, and easy to grab too. Lunches is pretty much the same, although DD is having sandwhiches, plus either cut up apple, pear or sultanas or cucumber/capsicum sticks etc. Like shell's DD she does tend to pull the sandwiches apart, but loves them all the same. Quite often I have salads for lunch so she gets salad too (is loving lettuce of all things atm) and maybe a few cruskit fingers.

Kate when we are out it's almost not worth trying a BF anymore for us, she just refuses, unless I can find a really quiet, dark room. And even then she has to have a good look around and check it all out first. It's hard with all the visiting going on this time of year! I do offer her sippy cup of water regularly, trying not to take over the BF's but I do find she's thirsty and I figure some fluid is better than none. She always makes up for the BF when we get home though.

Tali the beauty of BLS is that due to generally waiting til bub is 6 months old, their digestive system is much more mature and able to handle a variety of foods being introduced. Plus at the start they are actually more meeting the food then eating it, so very little is actually eaten. That's my understanding anyways, and we have never had any issues with introducing foods, and haven't touched rice cereal either! It's any exciting time for you and your DD

[CinderToriella]

HB i cant believe your MIL did that! I think i would have said something being me lol..Why do they need to do this for , haven't seen the MIL yet but i am glad with how my mum was Xmas day she asked before she gave DD anything except my sister offered her some of her trifal (sp) jelly cream custard nuts hhmmm so glad i saw it before it was late ..We don't give DD things like that.

Dinners here are what we have as well , she loved Spagetti as well, and 2min noodles omg she is obsessed ,same as lunches , what ever i have , she does love sandwiches though , i make them as a sandwich cut it up and she pulls it apart hehehe cherry tomatos and cucumber are a huge hit .She tried raison toast today that was a winner.
We are still BF often here , she is a serious booby girl
Oh the rice cereal is awful , we tried that months ago and she got the worst wind pain and screamed both days we tried it

Oh we also love risotto here

[Asparagus and Lemons]

thanks guys
So is it okay to introduce foods other than plain fruits and steamed veges at 6 months old? I usually have a banana with me when we are out to offer Harlee if she is bored. Sometimes I swear there is more food on her than there was to beging with! We have only noticed food in her poop maybe twice now, and I think she swallowed it by accident. Now it's just bf poop again, but shes playing with more food.
The good thing though is that the MIL beleives that we have 'introduced solids' now, so she is off our back about it, she was pushing us to start solids so that Harlee would sleep through. I loved telling mil that we wake up just as much! (I really dont mind getting up either because I love midnight cuddles!)

[MantaRay]

Yes Tali, it's fine. Good in fact - lots of variety early is more likely to lead to a great eater later. Meat is an important early food for the iron and zinc - babies seem to love pasta bolognaise or you can give her big pieces of steak or smooth bones to chew/suck on, or scrape meat into something else.

[HotI]

Thanks for the snack suggestions, we give her most of those foods at home so don't know why i didn't think of taking them out.

She has tried tuna and chicken (both in pasta bakes) but we haven't really given her much meat. I was vegie for years (since i was 12) and only started eating chicken again when i was pregnant. I never really liked meat and remember being forced to eat it as a kid. I guess if i am being 'baby led' i can just offer it and see if she likes it(and secretely hope she doesn't).

[human bean]

We found quite a few people over the recent celebrations commenting that they couldn't believe what DD was happy to munch away on, especially tomatoes. She just loves them and will pick them off the plate first time every time. We have some type of meat every night, as DH doesn't believe a dinner is a dinner without meat lol DD is happy to eat any kind of meat, and has had everything, sucking on a juicy bit of steak keeps her busy for ages, and she's just starting to break pieces off. Fish is always devoured too which is good because I don't like fish much at all, but am making a real effort to have it a couple of times a week. Lamb cutlets are good as they come with a built in handle, but just have to make sure they don't have any sharp edges.

I love doing BLS as it is just so much easier now she's really into her food. Although with that said we still have the odd day or few meals where it is much more fun to throw everything on the floor than eat it, but I guess we have days when we don't feel like eating much too!

[CinderToriella]

Kate i dont eat meat or chicken either but I make meat dishes /food for DF so DD just shares with him if its a meat night
She loves chicken legs, steak pieces , crispy salmon, tuna pasta, mince

[CinderToriella]

remember being forced to eat it as a kid. I guess if i am being 'baby led' i can just offer it and see if she likes it(and secretely hope she doesn't).

hahah i enjoyed it when DD loves the salmon steak she shared with me but always throws the chicken away lol ..I don't eat meat but IMO for us i think its important to offer it to my DD and then when she is older she can decide if she wants to eat it or not IYKWIM, my mum is vegie and she always made meat for us, and then me and my 3 sisters decided all not to eat meat hahaha, i stopped eating it at 12, haven't tou8ched meat or chiocken since

[starangelk]

Hi everyone, hope you all had a lovely christmas and got a break DD seems to have really started eating again the last few days. We are now absolutely onto bfast, lunch and dinner. Dinners for me are easy, vegies and some meat maybe or cheese. For breakfast she has a rice cracker and some cottage cheese......for some reason I really want to avoid the rice cereal. I am struggling with lunch though. She LOVES hommus so I've been doing toast with hommus or rice cracker and hommus but would love some other ideas if anyone has any to share please? She also really likes lychees, which DH and I are excited about as we also love them but they are very seasonal. She sucked on a wedge of lemon from our fish and chips for ages yesterday too. Loves savoury and sour things just like her Mummy Just a question, could I have given her fish? She is almost 7 months old. I didn't give her fish and I also held back on the chips because they were really salty. I wonder if I am being particularly anal about her foods or if this is what I am supposed to be doing. Since she's only 7 months her skills aren't great with her food but she does suck and lick a fair bit. She also chews but only soft foods.

[human bean]

DD has had fish from the first few weeks she started BLS, because we were having fish. She loves it, I think it might be because it's so easy to chew and swallow, and I am making a real effort to eat it more regularly as we are not big fish eaters in our household. I always watch the salt content, and chips are definitely salty. Although with that said, DD has had the odd one here and there, say if we're out to lunch or dinner and there's chips on our plate. She enjoys them too, but might only have one or two. As long as we don't make a habit of it I can't see the harm? I did think of doing them here at home in my own oven for a healthier version but we never do, they're not something we tend to have at home, just if out sometimes.

With apple and pear, I just automatically peel them, does anyone else do this? I was thinking this morning that I should probably start leaving the peel on or she'll get too used to them being peeled.....?

[turtleschell]

Rice cereal, baha BLS babies don't need rice cereal!
starangelk, fish is excellent to offer coz they can chew it easily and it's so healthy. As for chips, well it's up to you whether you are ok with bub eating things like that once in a while. I personally never offer it, even if I'm eating it coz the way I see it, when she is older, it'll be much harder to stop her, so I'll avoid it while I can, coz it just has no nutritional value, I'd rather her fill up on just the fish.
DD definitely loves eating rice with her spoon, and spaghetti with her fork. I love seeing her use cutlery.

[Tanya]

Hi all thinking of jumping in here.... DS is sooo keen to get the food we are eating I think he is almost ready to mung on some food other than boobie milk He is only 4.5 months and I am not too sure about him starting so early.... thoughts?

[starangelk]

Hi Tanya The recommendation isn't to start until 6 months, I think partly because of the tongue thrust thing and partly because babies only need milk until this time. I started DD at 5 months but she had a month of mostly play and a tiny bit of eating but she really started getting into it at 6 months.

Thanks for the tips re fish. I made some tuna croquettes today and gave her one tonight, she seemed to like it but it mashed up in her hands and she got a bit over it and just focused on her greens instead. I am def going to give her fish next time we eat it. As far as chips go, we aren't massive chip eaters but mostly I make sweet potato ones at home so I would be happy to give her my home made sweet potato chips.

I am really excited about giving her fish now

[Persephone1]

Tanya, I second what StarangelK said - the recommendation is 6 months for a variety of reasons, but BLS is all about following what the baby wants to do. My DS was hankering after our food from about 4.5 months, but we didn't let him have any until he was 5.5 months. I was serious about waiting until he was 6 months, but he was getting more and more frustrated watching us eat and not being allowed to join in, and our meal times were becoming stressful by refusing to give him any.

If you think your LO is ready, then it's up to you. Remember that watching you eat is not, of itself, an indication that they're ready for food themselves - they could watch you brush your hair, it doesn't mean they're ready for that But the beauty of BLS is that they get to enjoy the tastes/textures/smells/colours at their own pace, and as SAK said, chances are your LO won't be ingesting any solids until well past 6 months. Milk feeds are still sufficient at that age regardless.

AFM - DS is enjoying every meal. Tonight he shared our barbequed lamb, eggplant, tzatztiki and rocket, together with a chunk of lemon to suck on. The only thing we didn't let him have was the haloumi cheese, cause it's so salty. He's also recently enjoyed avocado, egg, pizza and all the cold meats at Christmas. We're raising a little foodie, me thinks

[starangelk]

Hey Seph, did you feed DS egg yolk and egg white? I have been holding off on eggs because the MW told me to avoid them but there are SO many things I want to make that include eggs.

[Persephone1]

He had a chunk of boiled egg (both white and yolk) a few weeks ago, and then had a chunk of scrambled egg later. The other day DH gave him a toast soldier dipped in runny egg yolk which I wasn't too happy about because it wasn't cooked through, but so far we haven't had any issues - we don't have any allergies in our families though. I thought the only reason to hold off on egg was for potential allergy issues

[starangelk]

Hmmmmm. I was totally up for giving DD egg until the MW said no. Apparently egg yolk is okay after 9 months and egg white after 12 months. I don't really know why. Off to google to find out....

[CinderToriella]

Speaking of eggs, i have been holding off as well, But want to try them now with DD, what should i make with them for her? eg scrambled bolied, and should i do white,yolk or both?

Or should i hold off? She does get excsma (sp) and whe she tried a prawn the other day she flared up ..