Baby Led Solids chatter #5

[studymum]

Mrs P, I'd just persevere with the skin, they get the hang of it eventually, otherwise you will find you might be peeling everything still for a 2 and 3 year old (like my DD1). DD2 now has stone fruits cut up, like the 4 sides cut off but the skin left on, because of my scare with her eating down to the seed I won't give the whole thing to her anymore. The same thing with it sticking to the roof happens with stuff like lettuce as well.

We tend to take fruit when we go out cause its quick and easy, and sandwiches for eating out. Usually tuna and salad or egg and salad etc (well except lettuce cause its a pet peeve for her). Otherwise if we eat anywhere that's buffet she gets whatever they have on it, I try to clean up as much as possible, but I see older children who make just as much mess, so I don't feel so bad. And most restaurants tend to expect it anyway.

Hi Eliselouise, welcome, the time to start is when you think they are ready, so when they are interested in what you are eating, want to grab at food etc. The theory behind BLS is that when they are capable of getting the food to their own mouth, they will have the ability to chew and push the food to the back of the mouth to swallow. So to begin with they won't have the ability to pick up small bits of food, meaning they can't swallow and choke on them. There is also a different between choking and just gagging, gagging comes with a heaps of awful sounds and faces, and is the body preventing the food from being swallowed. Choking is silent because it has become lodged in the wind pipe. You can start with anything that has convenient little handles, like carrot, brocolli, cauliflower. To being with we steamed it rather soft and slowly brought the texture back to how we eat it. But basically anything goes with BLS, anything they can pick up, except some people prefer to delay allergenic foods such as strawberry, egg (about 9 months+), nuts (1 year), honey (1 year). DD2 is now 1, she is still on a lactose free diet since she started (and before I was to bf), which we trial occasionally to look for improvement, she is slowly getting better. It hasn't really been an issue, we cook with lactose free milk and cream, her yogurt is lactose free, and she can tolerate cheese as its low lactose, and she doesn't get butter anyway. Gill Rapley has a great book, I just hired it from the library http://www.rapleyweaning.com/

[Mrs P]

Studymum - thanks, we will persevere with the skin on Hopefully by Easter (bub will be 8.5 mths) she will be eating things like sandwiches etc. How soon did you try that with your DD?

Welcome Eliselouise - we're just starting BLS too and loving it! Definitely read the book, it's awesome.

Just did a baby/kids first aid course last night to brush up on my skills, particularly regarding choking & CPR. Very glad I did! Feel a lot more confident that if choking occurred I will know what to do.

COuple more questions I forgot the other day:

What kind of yoghurt do you all feed your bubs? I tried some of the natural stuff, no fruit etc and DD was literally spitting it out, ha ha.
Also - hummus and custard - do you make your own or use pre-made stuff? What about the baby custards??

[leckert]

with yoghurt I use a natural one (pot set) with fruit in it. Tried the plain yoghurt (same brand) and added some pureed fruit thinking it might be cheaper if DS would eat it - the munchkin spat it out everytime we tried it.

[HotI]

Just did a baby/kids first aid course last night to brush up on my skills, particularly regarding choking & CPR. Very glad I did! Feel a lot more confident that if choking occurred I will know what to do.

I've found if DD has something stuck, if i help her sit up straight then she will just cough it out. I also say 'cough cough' and she will spit it out.

DD will now cough out the skin of tomato and fruits etc

My little one likes the natural yogurt. She dips pieces of pear in it and then sucks the yogurt off. Haven't had any baby custard.

DD still gags alot on bread so i don't do sandwiches yet. Will be easier when she does. She is almost 10 months.

[studymum]

Mrs P - Probably till about 7 months it was really just fruit and vege before we started introducing things like sandwiches and cooked meals. But from around then anything went. Whatever I/we had, she had. So she ate with us each meal. To begin with she was only interested in dinner but her appetite slowly increased to other meals.

For ourselves and DD1 we use home made yogurt, the Easiyo brand, you can get it from most supermarkets and BigW/Kmart. But DD2 is still on lactose free, so the choice is limited. They really don't need to start on 'baby' yogurts, its just a marketing ploy to get us to pay more for it lol. Just keep quantities to small serves to begin with. I buy store bought hommus. Personally I've never used custards or baby custards, I feel they are too sugary and sweet, and don't hold any real nutrition. Cottage cheese is another hit with babies too.

As for us here atm, DD2 about 2 weeks ago over night dropped from 4 to 6 feeds a day to just 2. I thought it was a once off, but it looks to be permanent now. Yeah for me doing less feeds, but also a bit sad that she seems to be self-weaning so fast. Unfortunately though it seems that she has picked 2am and 2pm as those feed times, geez she could have picked like 10am/10pm lol.

Another lunch time hit I have found is a small tin of well drained baked beans, mixed with a bit of grated cheese/chopped tomato/sliced ham and warmed with little toast soldiers. She absolutely loves it.

[Cassius2]

Hi guys can i also join in here??!

Marta is *almost* 5 months old and about 2 weeks ago has been helping herself to my plate at dinner (i have BF her at the table since she was born when we have dinner lol). I am feeling kinda weird about it all as i expected her to be a bit older IYKWIM. but my girl seems to know what she wants...watch out nectarines of the world...man, she can demolish a piece in like 30 seconds

she hasnt really had a great deal. i am not pushing it at all, only if/when she is asking for it. she did steal a bit of rice from my sushi the other night which got me a bit worried, but she grabbed the stick and let rip. so far she has had carrot (stolen from my spag bog lol), some cucumber (also from sushi night!) and sweet potato. i have given her some store bought puree (that raffertys stuff) that a neighbour dropped over. but that appears to be more of a sensory game for her (read: puree EVERYWHERE hahahahaha!).

Also, i *think* i may of been a bit norti...i was eating a banana the other day and without thinking i let her suck on it (ie, demolish it) when she grabbed for it from my hand. i have been told since then though that it is one of those "freaky" ones that can be a choking hazard eepp! is this the case? i did a quick search about it but like most parenting things there are different schools for thought and now i am nervous about it giving it to her (mushed up of course is ok, but whole is how she prefers it lol).

anyway, i'll be following this thread with lots of interest! must buy a BLS book now....

[leckert]

Cassius - whole is how DS has eaten his banana the whole the whole time - last summer he started them (so about 6mths old) and we just broke it into 3rds (lengthwise) and let him go for it. He LOVES his banana - will eat them even if there's any other fruit on offer (except maybe blueberries - apparently he thinks they're to die for atm)

[Cassius2]

ah thanks leckert! i will continue with banana then! she loves it so much...

[Mrs P]

We were at a Farmer's Market this morning and Miss L grabbed a 'plot' out of my hand and munched away - a 'plot' is a cross between a plum and an apricot - so yummy!!

[Cassius2]

hmm now i want a plot lol! YUM! gotta find one tomorrow lol

today marta had her first taste of pear...she hammered it lol. but 'nana is definitely the firm fav lol!

[HotI]

Seems like only yesterday that Marta was born! hard to believe she is starting solids already. BLS is great!

[kylieb77]

Cassius - I have never had troubles with whole bananas. My DD seems to squash it around in her mouth before swallowing. We leave the skin on, but cut a little strip off so that she has something to hold and something to suck on. It works well. Pasta has been a great hit with her as well.

[peanutter]

cassius: we slice a banana in half longways, and then lengthways, so he can grip the skin, and then he noms it from there.

DS *loves* baby fed weaning, and has not been fed from a spoon/fork/etc yet except for when he nicks a little of mummy's!

favourites are avacado, any meat, cooked tomato and strawberries, atm

and as for "hippy" comments, etc, whenever people make comments about us doing BLS/BLW, I tend to look at them blankly and say, "no, I'm just FEEDING him."

[studymum]

Just be careful with the frequency of giving banana's, when they are little too much can bind them up and give tummy pains. With both of mine, anywhere before 9 months, if they had it too many days in a row caused a prob, after about that age they were fine. I've known a few bubs much the same.

[peanutter]

DS seems to be fine, but a couple of people from mum's group have found that it gets their LOs constipated, yeah.

but thanks

[Mrs P]

Today DD tried some grated cheese, which she loved. Favourites are definitely thick spaghetti, avocado and stonefruit. So cute! I think she ate a heap of broccoli the other day as she literally did a green poo ha ha

[starangelk]

Hi ladies - I've been away for a week and wow, was that an experience with an 8 month old. She travelled really well but I have to admit, I had one fleeting moment of wishing I was jar/tin feeding her. Usually we just give DD whatever we were eating but we flew in at 12:15am that night, went straight to the hotel and went to sleep. As it was overseas, we had to get rid of all food I had on the plane so the next morning we got up and went to McDonald's for breakfast. I felt like I could hardly feed DD Macca's!! She had baby mum mum's that I hadn't had to get rid of and some of the yoghurt DH had for bfast. I gave her some egg and a bit of sausage from my muffin. *sigh* Other than that we did really well, she LOVES sushi! I am going to get organised and make some at home - yumbo.

HOTI - it took me sooo long to work out it was YOU

[MummaSue]

Hey guys, I've been away for a couple of weeks after a self imposed ban from BB. I was tired of whinging about the same old thing - amongst other things.

Anyway, in that time, things have fallen into place. DD is eating way more than she was previously and her skills at the table are just awesome.

There's nothing she won't eat at the moment and we have tried her with strawberries again and she's fine.

All good!