I want to start BLS but not sure how..

[bec293]

I'd love to start baby led solids with DS, he has been on solids for a few weeks now, but only small amounts. I was giving rice cereal (just stopped as it was making him constipated), mashed veg at dinner time and then some pureed fruit, and pureed fruit in the mornings with rice cereal (only fruit now though).

How do I change to BLS? Just offer different shaped foods not mashed and let him eat if he wants? Do I still wait half an hour after a BF or give him the food when he is hungry? I BF on demand, and usually wait until after a feed before giving him food as I don't want him to have less milk.
What about yoghurt and cereals? Do you still spoon feed them those things?

It feels like it should all be so simple, but I really don't know how to start!

Thanks in advance

[Mum2Romone]

You still feed them with a spoon until they are old enough to do it themselves. baby yoghurt is great, ds loved it at 6 months...

you are doing it right already, you just work your way through the different foods one at a time.

Porridge is great as a breakfast too or weetbix

[Catastrophic]

There is a great BLS thread and a article in here, I shall try find it.

Try different cut up fruits and vegies (half cook the vegies, well i did anyway)

[Lily Dust]

We starting with things like cutlets, steamed broccoli and carrot sticks, roasted pumpkin and sweet potato, beans. We never fed DD using a spoon, we would load the spoon up for her but she would always out it to her mouth. If it was ceral like weetbix, she could opt to use her hands or a spoon. Often she would just pick up a half mushy weetbix and munch away on it. I remember reading somewhere (I think) that if they cant coordinate it to their own mouth then they arent ready to ingest it iykwim so we just ran with that philosophy.

[bec293]

thanks for the tips

I kind of did half and half tonight, I put some pieces of boiled zucchini on his little table and let him squish it and just move it all over the place. He loved it! He didn't eat any though but that's ok. I also had some sweet potato and apple I had cooked and offered him some spoonfuls of those which he didn't really want but I had given him a BF not long before. I think I might do it gradually, keep offering spoonfuls of veg but also give him some pieces to play with until he realises he can eat them, then I'll just do it that way.

[belfie]

How do I change to BLS? Just offer different shaped foods not mashed and let him eat if he wants? Do I still wait half an hour after a BF or give him the food when he is hungry? I BF on demand, and usually wait until after a feed before giving him food as I don't want him to have less milk.
What about yoghurt and cereals? Do you still spoon feed them those things?

I think you've said it exactly right - just offer different shaped foods. I too was in exactly the same place & posted earlier... fretting about the order, and the BF's and how does it all WORK! The lovely ladies reassured me that i didn't need to worry. Knowing you (as i do ) and how you feed, I think you can be quite relaxed with your solids too. We now sometimes have solids before a feed & sometimes after, depending on time of day, when she will next BF and all that. It doesn't seem to bother her at all having it before or after a feed, so we just go with the flow now. If it's a good time for me to eat, we sit & eat together. She really still seems to BF as well as ever, but you could just keep an eye on how he's feeding so you feel comfortable with what's happening. For e.g. she seems to like having dinner with us all before her last feed then goes down for the night... just like her big brother.

Re yoghurts & cereals, I give her the spoons - i usually have 3 on the go... one for each chubby little fist & one for mummy to load up ready!... or is that two for annika to throw on the floor and one for mummy... lol something like that haha. She loves putting the spoons in her mouth and gets some food off them.

Hope that helps

[bec293]

Thanks Belfie. I've been giving it a go, and it's so much more fun! I have been giving him banana, I cut one of the ends then cut the peel off the top so he could hold onto the skin. He loved it, it's just great to see him wanting to eat it himself. I was a bit worried though when he managed to bite off a bit and gagged. He also did that with toast.. not gagging but ended up with a big bit in his mouth. It's hard to not worry about choking but I suppose I'll get used to him having food in his mouth eventually! I still spoon feed too (lots of purees in the freezer), I just hold it in front of him and let him take it if he wants, and I let him hold a spoon too. POst more later bubs awake

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

I just cut up food (apple, banana etc) into hand-held portions and he went from there. I don't think I did normal BLS though - I just gave DS fruit and veg with us for a couple of months, then started to introduce other foods. He always had portions larger than his mouth and bit stuff off and chewed.