Baby Led Solids chatter #6

So, we started giving DD food the other night to see what happened. We were having lamb with salad, so I put a few salad veggies on her Bumbo tray. I wasn't sure how she'd like some of them - gherkin and capsicum don't have such a great flavor on their own lol. The faces she pulled were hilarious! She mostly just seemed fascinated by how it all felt - wet and slimy lol. I thought she'd have a good go at the cucumber, but the gherkin was the only one she got close to her mouth and just the taste on her tongue made her gag.

She's also had a good go at banana, though more wound up in her hair than anywhere else, it was so cute. Her fave so far is toast. Just plain, dry toast. She loves it! She had another go at tomato and cucumber last night, and actually had a good chew on the tomato :)

I've got a question for anyone that feeds their little ones to sleep. I know it's best for DD to be fed and not tired before offering her solids, or she'll just be cranky and not interested. Our night routine is usually bath at 6, then quiet time and start to feed to sleep at 6:30 (she's usually asleep in bed at 7:30-8). So we're having dinner at about 5:30, then straight into the bath after. But then she's not hungry and not interested in feeding to sleep! So I walk around our darkened bedroom for what feels like forever singing to her. Eventually she does latch on and fall asleep, but it's not as easy as it was.

Just wondering what others do?

Our bedtime chaos hasn't changed since introducing bls. But dd doesn't actually eat much.

Speaking of not eating much. I'm just sitting here watching dd trying to make sense of a cooked piece of carrot. How is a toothless baby supposed to eat anything solid?

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Jude 07/10/08 | Lilac 16/06/11

they smoosh it with their gums :) but they dont' tend to eat much, no, which is fine.

Kaytee you could do dinner earlier? Or it could just be a natural change in her inner 'schedule' that has coincided with the introduction of food.

They sure do smoosh it! DD has two tiny teeth on the bottom, but she hasn't actually managed to properly eat anything yet anyway, so they don't make a big deal of difference. She didn't really like her carrot tonight, but had a real good suck and chew on a piece of steak, I think we have a new favourite!

MadB, I don't think we could do dinner any earlier. I'm currently starting cooking at 5 which feels ridiculously early lol. I go back to work in March and won't get home til 5:30 at the earliest, so I'm thinking we may actually have to start slowly pushing things back to an hour later. So if I fed her when I got home at 5:30 (or if DH fed her from a cup or something a bit earlier), then we could have dinner at around 6:30, then start the bed time routine at 7 instead. Will see how she handles that I reckon.

Can you do her bigger meal at lunchtime instead of dinner?

Things changed regularly with my LO in how much she would eat and which meals, but if your DD is in more of a routine making the big meal in the middle of the day might work.

oh yes, that's a good idea about lunch.
we still eat dinner at 5... used to be 4 :lol:

Dinner is the worst meal of the day for my DD, she's just too tired and over it at that time of the day - so dinner is more snack like as far as portion sizes go. She has a massive breakfast and lunch and at least a morning and afternoon tea snack too, so we just don't bother fighting her at dinner. I figure as she gets older and is able to stay up later, she'll be more awake to eat a bit more dinner.

Hmmm, that's a good idea about a bigger meal at lunch. She's not actually 'eating' anything right now, as in she's not swallowing any food, it's more that I'm breast feeding her just before it so she won't be cranky, and then that throws her out for her bedtime feed. But, if we don't worry so much about dinner, and focus more on the other meals, maybe we can work out the dinner thing later on when she's got the hang of eating and is actually needing it. Thanks :)

If she is getting cranky without having a breastfeed (when you wouldn't normally give it to her then) maybe she is not up to playing with solids yet. It sounds like nights are pretty busy at your place anyway, and maybe leaving the night meal for awhile might help.

We didn't offer all meals until bub was probably 10 months, she didn't really start consuming food til around 8 months.

Yeah, I reckon maybe she isn't ready for dinner yet. She does a fantastic job with toast in the morning, and she's had banana for a snack and a few vegies at lunch, she did really well with those :) I think to work in dinner we're going to have to re-jig times and routines, so I might just leave it for a while yet.

Although, last night I fed her at 4:30, then we had dinner at 5:30 and she was fine - loved her steak. And she was still ready to feed and went to sleep really easily at 7. I don't know, maybe I just haven't been timing it right?

Yay, tonight went so well! DD saw the carrot and dove for it, put it straight in her mouth :) Meat still seems to be her favourite though.

I was wondering if anyone else puts anything on their little one's toast? So far DD has just had it dry. I'm not a fan of the salt in vegemite, she can't have honey and I was told not to give her peanut butter. Could she have a really thin layer of jam?

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Kaytee - we usually put either cream cheese, or jam or some avocado on the girls toast. They occasionally have vegemite but don't tend to really like it as much as the other stuff.

i have also done banana on toast, mashed pumpkin or other vegies, even cooked apple.

Nothing like a bit of BLS to make you realise just how much emphasis people put on babies eating! First meal was lunch at the in-laws, everyone just stared at the poor bugger, she didn't know what was going on! Next was dinner, and, DD was near FIL & nephew. FIL seemed to think she wasn't doing it properly, so kept trying to put pieces in her mouth. I asked him no less than five times to please not put food in her mouth, she doesn't like it and it puts her off the whole thing - because apparently her pushing him away and turning her head isn't enough. In the end he got some mayo on his finger and shoved it in her mouth! At this point I hit his hand away and got grumpy, but he didn't do it again. The problem was with FIL doing it, nephew then thought it was ok to put food in her mouth so I was stopping him too, and he was trying to give her nuts and tiny grapes! DD had toast for breakfast the next morning and FIL had done a complete backflip, this time whenever she managed to bite off a piece, he had his finger in her mouth getting it out! :wall:

At lunch with my parents the next day, Mum seemed to think she wasn't eating enough, so every time something fell off her tray Mum would pick it up, pretend to eat it and say "Yum, Nanny likes it, now you eat it!" She was getting worried that she was playing more than eating, and didn't actually swallow anything, until I explained that's how it's supposed to be. Then Nana started about purees to top up her BLS so that she actually eats something.

When we just let her do her own thing though, she's going fantastically :) Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

oh dear ... thankfully, this is one area where my family mostly leave it to us!

while my sister initially had to be spoken to a couple of times (no, don't give the 5 month your finger dipped in gravy ... or chocolate cheesecake ... or ice cream ... or lollies of any variety ...) they're all pretty well on board now.

at both Christmasses, DS was more interested in making an enormous mess than eating food, but that's fine ... that's what cloths are for!

he tried different things, he ate a modest amount, but he eats when he's hungry, he doesn't when he's not (unless you offer him yoghurt or grapes ... apparently, there's *always* room for yoghurt and grapes ...) and as long as he's growing healthily, we're happy with that :)

Hey Kaytee - our Christmas lunch was pretty similar!
We have 'fed' DD a few times, but generally we give her a spoon to play with while we eat and she is happy with that. On Christmas Day my dad kept telling us to dip the spoon in apple sauce because she was hungry. My mum is very supportive, but offered to defrost some homemade purees.... I have to keep telling them that she doesn't need it. She isn't hungry, she just wants to do what we are doing! At least for me it was my own family, so I can say something.
Probably already been covered in the thread (but I'm new to it).... what do others say to people trying to feed their children??

Hi, just dropping in to say hi, will be starting DS with BLS in a couple of weeks, did it all with DD but feel I need it refreshing in my mind a bit so is good to read this thread. Found it so easy with DD (not as easy as just BF though) hope get another smooth ride. Have him sat with us for meals mostly but tonight he was salivating and lip smacking so much I felt mean so put him on floor, I want him to be sitting a little better and his coordination is improving day by day so happy to wait a couple more weeks when he will be 6 months.

Well we started and all seems to be going ok - I felt more nervous about it at first than I did with DD which is strange but am over that now and he is munching on everything (peanutter thanks for the lamb the other day at lunch), he is very into meat and anything very chewy - may be because has cut his first two teeth this week. His farts are really very smelly these past couple of days - I don't remember that being the case with DD this early - but I think he is actually ingesting more than she did at this point.

At almost seven months what should he be doing in terms of water intake - he is not interested in any bottle or sippy cup have given him, he is BF on demand so am not really concerned just curious (he loves sucking water off a flannel though)