My 18 month old sometimes uses cutlery, sometimes her hands. She always wants her spoon & fork with her but goes through stages of using them or not. It doesn't really worry me what she uses.
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My 18 month old sometimes uses cutlery, sometimes her hands. She always wants her spoon & fork with her but goes through stages of using them or not. It doesn't really worry me what she uses.
:yeahthat:
My 2.5 DS is the same. Always has cutlery, is quite good at using it, but sometimes still uses his fingers. I wouldn't worry.
5 month old baby keeps trying to steal food off our plates.
She yells at us all through dinner and we have to give her a toy to chew on to keep her happy. But she still yells.
I never had any intention of starting solids until 6 months, she is exclusively breastfed. I want to bf her forever.
But I'm confused about BLS. Does 'baby led' mean the baby should be allowed to steal food at 5 months if she wants, or does it mean baby gets to feed herself but after 6 months?
I don't want to ignore her cue.
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Jude 07/10/08 | Lilac 16/06/11
Hey Kuraiza :) Annabelle's the same, she grabs at everything. The other day DH had a sausage roll while he was holding her, she had a massive cry when he finished it and she didn't get any!
We were going to give her solids a bit early, but I wanted to read at least a bit of the BLW book by Gill Rapley first. In there it says that baby grabbing at food isn't necessarily a sign of hunger and that she wants to eat food - it's natural curiosity and wanting to copy the rest of the family. It's likely that anything you give her at this stage will go in her mouth - Annabelle has a thing for paper right now, she munches on our junk mail if we let her lol.
It also says that she's unlikely to actually eat anything at this stage. Even at 6 months, when she starts with food she'll mostly just be exploring it with her mouth, she won't have a good ability to chew and move food around with her tongue yet, and is very unlikely to swallow any, it'll most likely just fall out lol. We've decided to wait until we've finished moving this week, then we'll set her up with her Bumbo at the table, and see what she does with things like steamed carrot. She'll be very close to 6 months by then and will mostly just be playing with it anyway.
HTH :)
um, she tried to eat a business card, and i mean really eat it.
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Jude 07/10/08 | Lilac 16/06/11
Lol, she sounds keen :) My thinking is, if she's apparently not likely to swallow it anyway because she can't developmentally, then what's the harm in letting her play with a bit of food while you're eating? And if she does actually eat it then she's obviously ready :)
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At about 5.5 months, my dd grabbed a strawberry that was in my hand and had a suck, and also grabbed an apple i was holding and brought it to her mouth and licked it. i figured she had gone to so much effort to get it to her mouth that i wasn't going to stop her. Each time, she had a quick suck or lick and then her attention was moved onto something else.
We didn't offer her food to play with until she was 6 months, and it wasn't until 8 months that she started eating anything.
Hi everyone - I'm new to the thread, and new to BLS.
My six month old daughter is hell bent on feeding herself, and gives us quite a look if we try to feed her. I've been amazed at her ability to 'eat' finger foods, and her happy reception to anything new (as long as she puts it in her mouth). Her fav's are avocado, banana, tomato, sausage and rockmelon. She tried some mashed potato the other day, and had a good suck and chew on a piece of steak.
Meal times are quite a messy affair now, and promptly timed to coincide with a bath after.
I'm looking forward to hearing other people's experiences.
it's all great fun, isn't it farmgirl?!
we keep the camera near the dining table a fair bit these days ... it's amazing how many of the photos we have of DS from around 6-12 months are of him covered in pasta, oats, yoghurt, or whatever he was eating that day ...
love love love the experience :)
Kuraiza, it is confusing. My DS never seemed especially crazy about food - just generally interested in everything. Then at 5.5 months he grabbed some orange and that was that.
My DD, from around 4 months, went mad whenever we were eating and WANTED it. Well that was way too early so I didn't allow her to get anything till she was over 5 months and then I figured if she wasn't ready, then she wouldn't eat it anyway. (Oh, and she loved - and still loves - paper too!) Well, the first time she got a hold of some fruit she just stared at it and dropped it. I waited a bit longer and let her play again closer to 6 months, and she started putting things in her mouth, but always spat and gagged (and sometimes vomitted) until 7.5 months. So despite appearances to the contrary, she really wasn't ready to eat until around 8 months, whereas DS was eating from 6 months-ish.
They're funny little creatures sometimes. After my experience with DD, I wouldn't even offer play food till at least 6 months. IF they grab stuff and eat it, then fair enough, though.
Just to add - they won't miss out on anything by waiting a bit longer since breastmilk provides everything they need anyway.
Hey all :) Just popping in here as I dot think we can keep DD from stealing food for much longer ;) She's 5 months 3 weeks old and we're going to start BLS next week :o Where the heck did the last 6 months just go?? I'm a bit nervous but mainly very excited for her :)
I don't know what to do about my nearly 6 month dd . She's been very vocal about her interest in food for a couple of months. She always sits with us when we eat. I've started giving her things to chew on just for the taste, and she attacks them ravenously and then gets angry and throws everything and then gets really upset. She's like a little volcano erupting with frustration every time we sit to eat, it's getting annoying I don't know what she wants.
Tonight I gave her some of the soft bit of our chicken stew and dipped her rusk in it, she looooooved it and I have her a spoon to play with, she loved trying to feed herself with the spoon and then suddenly chucked a tanty and tried to eat the little cup of stew before she finally hurled the lot off the table.
What does she want?
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Jude 07/10/08 | Lilac 16/06/11
Sounds like you're doing fine kuraiza! It does seem she's ready to get stuck in, so maybe just let her have some more. the chucking and throwing is all part of the experience (as is painting - my DD 'dressed up' as an oompaloompa today). It's messy, but in no time at all she'll be eating more than she's wearing. Do you let her take things from your plate? Sometimes they just HAVE to have exactly what you're having.
Hello all, new to the thread. We kinda did BLS with DS1 (few purees as well) but now DS2 is almost 6 months, we are ready to start him.
DS2 has an allergy to cows milk protein and is on prescription formula (Necoate LCP). He has been super interested in food since 4 months and we've tried him with a few purees but he's had reactions to: rice cereal, pear, pumpkin, avocado, apple and seemed to do okay on sweet potato initially, but now I think it makes him grumpy. So purees are on hold.
After he is 6 months we will start BLS - but here's the thing - can I go just one thing at a time? I need to see if he will react to it. Hopefully the previous reactions were just because he was a bit more immature in the gut. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Bloom- you can absolutely do just one food at a time. In the early days, some days my DD would be offered one 'meal', others more than one and sometimes we would go a few days without offering much if anything at all. BLS is good cos it is what works for you and bub. If you find he is still reacting to foods, maybe check with a nutritionist -there might be something specific to the foods that he is reacting to.
There is a recent article on why rice cereal is not the best first food Analytical Armadillo - The Booby Whisperer: Nine Good Reasons NOT To Use Baby Rice
Kuraiza- i like the Heinz unbelieve-a-bowls. I have an ikea highchair and the unbelieve-a-bowl has a suction bottom that holds on to the tray strongly. Alternatively, don't use a bowl at all and just put food on the tray. When my DD was younger and playing more than eating i reduced the number of foods that i was putting on the tray just cos it was getting to me picking it all up. I think too much food can sometimes be too distracting and so the bub doesn't know what to focus on.
ZF- enjoy this new stage. i remember feeling sad when DD began solids because until then she had been completely dependent on me for all her nutrition.
FarmGirl- we still do dinner before a bath every night! DD is not picky and enjoys her food, so i am ok if she is still messy in her technique.
have fun
HotI, I read that AA post this morning, loved it! Still debating whether to share it on FB, not sure if it'll offend anyone in my mother's group, or my Nana who keeps wanting me to mush things up for DD.
So I think DD might have her first 'meal' tonight. She's not 6 months til the 16th, but she's gotten bored with just watching us and playing with her cup. Last night she kept throwing it away and reaching for our plates, so we'll see what she does with a bit of it tonight. Now I just gotta read up on which foods we should avoid!
We don't have a high chair yet. DD sits in her Bumbo with a tray in the middle of the table. She seems to like being right there in the middle of it all :) So I reckon I'll just put some food on the tray for her, and unless she really throws it it should just land on the table (I hope!).
I have a picture in my head of your DD sitting like the queen in the middle and throwing food at everyone around the table. made me giggle!
Lol that's a pretty accurate picture! Last night her cup landed in both our plates from her throwing it around :lol: