Baby Led Solids chatter #5

[Roryrory]

Hi all, Rose will be 6 months old soon and is just starting to grab at things so I guess its time for us to start BLS. I didn't do it with my boys but am keen to try it with Rose so lok forward to all your tips

[Cassius2]

hi girls! sorry have been MIA! havent been posting to my usual rigour of late lol! (holidays and all that jazz ).

Welcome fellow baby buddy Milly!!

I guess with Marta being a second kid, she eats with us and pretty much all of our food...'cause we seem to only eat at kid friendly times now lol! she has become a fan of pesto pasta, apricot chicken and toast soliders with a light smearing of good ol' vegemite (much to my italian DHs chagrin lol).

we already do hard cheeses she also has the incidental milk stuff if i have cooked with it or with some cereal that she has decided to eat, or in a baked good (like scones for example, omg does the girl like scones ).

marta is eating with us as i said before so that is brekky, lunch and dinner with some incidental snacks in between like a bit of fruit or a rusk and of course booby! but because of the boob i'm not too worried about what is going in her tummy or what is going in the dogs (who LOVES to sit under her chair for some reason ), but i can imagine as they start to stop feeds that it might get a bit more worrying....watch this space lol.

RORY! welcome!! (sorry didnt see your post earlier!!!)

[MummaSue]

Similar things going on here, Sue. Some days she will eat alot (for her) and others day back to nothing and she just plays.

Are you having a party? We are. The majority of the food will be stuff i am happy for her to eat. Probably too much excitement for eating anyway!

Yeah, we're having a really small gathering of people who she knows really well. We're making food that we are happy for her to eat too - sandwiches and other finger foods and I've got a friend making her an Ollie cake (from NickJr - Sing along with Ollie - she loves that little dude )

MammaSue - How gorgeous about your DD eating yoghurt with a spoon. Did you just get her to do this by loading the spoon and giving it to her and then putting yoghurt in the bowl?

Yeah, that's exactly how we've done it. I used to load up the spoon for her and she'd guide it into her mouth. Now she wants the spoon herself and just gets on with it. We give her a bowl now and she just works on it herself! She doesn't even try and throw the bowl away. It's awesome!

DD still has loads of feeds in the day time. Although, some days more than others. She is horribly constipated at the moment though so I am also giving her water to make sure she's hydrated as she just refuses boobie at times. She's developing at a crazy rate though, so I'm not worried. I'm taking her to be weighed next week (for her baby book) and don't think I'll be taking her again. The nurses always have something to say about BLS and forcing her to reduce feeds which I am not prepared to do.

Welcome RoryRory!! BLS is soooo much fun! Do you have the Baby Led Weaning book? It's an awesome read. xxx

[Cassius2]

I'm taking her to be weighed next week (for her baby book) and don't think I'll be taking her again. The nurses always have something to say about BLS and forcing her to reduce feeds which I am not prepared to do.

[/QUOTE]

I am getting this too with our nurse. she already doesnt really care about us that much anyway (she noticed the amber necklace, asked us about the immunisations after seeing it, then asked about feeding lol...i guess she thinks she has us 'pegged' lol)

[MummaSue]

I am getting this too with our nurse. she already doesnt really care about us that much anyway (she noticed the amber necklace, asked us about the immunisations after seeing it, then asked about feeding lol...i guess she thinks she has us 'pegged' lol)

I'm usually pretty happy with our nurse, she's old school but nice. But she won't open her mind to BLS and told me that babies need to "experience the sensation of purees". Apparently she'd just been to a seminar where a dietician was talking about this. I almost asked her who she thought was paying the dietician (ie, formula companies or heinz or someone like that) but I didn't. It's a fight I am over fighting to be honest, but I can see that a lot more people are aware of BLS as time goes on. I'm the last of a certain group of friends to have a baby and they've all gone down the puree route and love that we're doing BLS and all now say they'll do it this way next time.

But yeah, I know what you mean about being "pegged". I'm pretty sure my mother thinks I've turned into some sort of breast feeding, co-sleeping hippy who doesn't feed my child properly.

[starangelk]

I also had to educate our MCHN about BLS but she had heard a bit about it and was quite pro. That said, we haven't had DD weighed since 6 months! We'll get her weighed at her 12 month appointment and maybe before but as long as she is eating and meeting all of her developmental milestones (within time) I am not too worried either. As DD gets older I find that people are less and less weirded out by the BLS as most of the other kids are now starting finger foods, DD just seems super good at the finger foods. An absolute win is at daycare though, the daycare girls are so supportive and impressed and sing the praises of BLS to all the other parents at every opportunity they get. Goooo daycare!!

[HotI]

Sue, have you tried an 'unbelieve-a-bowl? THey have the suction pad that sticks to the table, and then the bowl can click in and out. THey are great cos the bowl doesn't move and bub can pick the food up without having to hold or chase the bowl. My bub is getting pretty handy with her spoon now, but also loves using her fingers to get the yogurt and then slurps it off her fingers. She can use a little fork on pasta too.

[starangelk]

I've got a Tommee Tippee suction bowl, are the unbelivable ones more suctiony?

[human bean]

I find neither bowl (Tommee Tippee or Heinz) to suction well to our table or high chair tray, so I gave up. We just hover while she uses a plastic bowl in case she decides to send it flying. Maybe I'm using the suction bowl wrong somehow? Although the heinz one is more suctiony I think.

She loves to spoon feed herself, but once we load it and place it on the table in front of her for her to pick up. She dipped it into the bowl once herself and DH and I got so excited and cheered and I think we freaked her out and hasn't done it since lol

She's going through a really fussy stage, and throwing almost everything, unless it's a bread product, grape or sultana. And I don't want to just resort to those all the time just because I know she'll eat them. Anyone with older bubs, did yours go through this stage? I'm assuming it will pass but as everyone comments how slim she is I can't help but worry that maybe she's not getting enough.....

[MummaSue]

Sue, have you tried an 'unbelieve-a-bowl? THey have the suction pad that sticks to the table, and then the bowl can click in and out. THey are great cos the bowl doesn't move and bub can pick the food up without having to hold or chase the bowl. My bub is getting pretty handy with her spoon now, but also loves using her fingers to get the yogurt and then slurps it off her fingers. She can use a little fork on pasta too.

DD figured out how to unscrew the unbelievabowl things, so we just use a regular bowl, like our soup bowls. She doesn't ever try and throw it, doesn't even pick it up. We're always there with her anyway and find that she eats better if she thinks she has the same as us. So she gets a flat side plate too with her dinner on it.

She's a funny bunny!

[onthefly]

We're starting BLS now


Did I freak you out?

DD sits at the table with us and is watching with interest. This is her first introduction to solids

I got some of those suction bowls, can't remember the brand, but it took about 5 minutes for DS to figure out how to get them off.
Bean, I would just keep offering. She'll eat if she's hungry. They go through phases and some days/weeks they eat heaps and some they don't. It's all ok.

ETA - sue, DS was the same. He was happy if he had what we had

[Cassius2]

i only had a tommee tippee suction bowl and it never stuck arghh! i want a super duper one that has blackhole kinda suction haha! marta likes to pick up her bowl for close inspection/lick/throw down to the dog for a laugh...

[HotI]

I must have got a super sucky suction bottom cos i have trouble getting it off!

I think second kids must get an earlier, more natural intro to food and eating cos by then you have learnt it's easier to work with your kids, meal times are kid friendly times, and you are more relaxed. (this is from my inexperienced view)

Perfect MadB!

[milly5]

our nurse sort of mentioned BLS in passing, but it was in a new mothers group, after talking for an hour on introducing solids, stage foods, the order to introduce foods (which I have now since disregarded!), etc, and said at the end... "or there's BLS" and that was it.

Cass - hello! That's so funny what you say about the nurse noticing Marta's amber necklace, and "having you pegged" because our nurse was the same. And so just to really stick it to her, I also told her we were using cloth nappies and doing EC! (which of course she had "never heard of") yep, pegged here too!

we have the unbeleiveabowl, but it only works if I put it in the EXACT spot on the tray, as the tray has a small circular ridge in the centre of it (fromt he plastic mould I think) and the suction has to sit exactly over the middle of that to work, but it sticks!

Of course, it is now completely superfluous, as DD will NOT eat any purees / cereal / yoghurt whatsoever now. I think the fact that we had to "force feed" her antibiotics twice a day for 10 days has her now scared of the spoon. I do let her do it herself (a bit anyway), but it is far more appealing to use as a drumstick and see if the food will hit the fridge or the window (well, at least that's what it seems like she is thinking! LOL!). She was previously letting us help her with the spoon, but not since those antibiotics. Although I wanted to do mostly BLS, I did still want her to take some cerals and yoghurt, as well as some traditional-type baby food for when we are out / visiting etc (not everyone appreciates the "decorating" DD does when she eats!

I am amazed at how variable her appetite is - some days she will barely taste, and then another day she will devour the food, at two "meals" in a row, but then will only taste for the next day or so. Do your LO's do this?

[Swoop]

HotI ours were the same, they were so difficult to remove, apart from when we put them on the dining table, then they just slid about everywhere. Once DD stuck the base to the marble floor then had a tantrum because I couldn't get it off!

[MummaSue]

I am amazed at how variable her appetite is - some days she will barely taste, and then another day she will devour the food, at two "meals" in a row, but then will only taste for the next day or so. Do your LO's do this?

Very much so Milly5, even now and DD is one next week. Some days she just throws, squishes and squashes the food, other days she eats loads!

[Cassius2]

we also have our day of variables. where i swear the only thing she has eaten (apart from boob of course) is air lol. somedays she reckons its more fun to just suck on the table
but then we get nights like last night where she ate 2 bowls! (mebbe she just likes curry?? i did crave it constantly when i was pregnant lol).

a quick question...do/did your kids have issues with chewing pear skin? marta seems to just keep it in her mouth for AAAAGGGESSS.

[peanutter]

milly - absolutely. one day he'll eat a whole banana, a whole avacado, a whole pile of pasta bake and some curry (plus all his bottles) other days he'll just chew play with and spit out his food ... our dogs like those days!

cass - yup. same with tomato skin and fried egg, interestingly. sometimes he swallows, sometimes he doesn't.

being pegged - I think I fried our MHCN's brain ... she thought she had me pegged (exclusively breastfeeding, followed by BLS, clothbummed bubba, etc) and then she found out I'm a full time career lady who went back to work when DS was 9 weeks old ... she looked like she was going to have an aneurysm, due to being unable to match up her different prejudices ...

DS is currently loving curry and plums. sometimes together.