Starting solids? - Baby Led Solids Chatter #2

Hey Bec!!

It could be just that age for Grace, or it could be teething perhaps, especially if she likes cheewing on the rusks.

I have a book on baby-led solids and it says that unless there is a family history of intolerances than from 6 months of age their guts should be mature enough to handle any food with a few exceptions. Strawberries it mentions because most young babies get a red rash around their mouths, same as with citrus fruit due to the high acidic content. If your baby is fine with them then it isn't an issue.

Cheese is ok, not all the time though due to high salt content. Otherwise it is ok.

Over the last couple of weeks I have taken to giving Jett solids whenever I eat, and I give him some of what I am having because that is what he wants. Not his own different meals. That is my choice of course, and I did start with just vegies and fruit. Now I just pick the suitable foods from my meals and put them on his high chair tray and let him pick and choose what he wants to eat. So far that has been a little bit of everything. I have been amazed at how his manual dexterity has improved, and he's happy to chase something around his tray until he gets it.

Gagging has been very little of an issue, a few big ones in the beginning but he seems to know how much or little to put in his mouth now. He even started chewing yesterday. I thought it must have been a fluke when he did at lunch, but he did it again at dinner.

So really the only rules are feed Grace what you are comfortable with and she is comfortable with, don't stress if she doesn't appear to eat much (which is why feeding her what you are having is easier, less wastage) and just relax and have fun with it. Grace will love it!

Hey folks, just a quick one for me, but wanted to jump in and join you all here! Will be back later to chat some more, but wanted to ask quickly, what kind of spreads you would give on bread or toast? Vegemite seems too salty, peanut butter is a no-no, jams etc too sugary.... and I'm all out of ideas! :doh: do you give spreads on their bread/ toast or just give it plain? Anyhoo, I'll be back later with more questions etc but just wanted to jump on the bandwagon! :hello:

Pixie - how about hommus or avocado? We do avo here... or just butter (on toast) ... um.. just plain bread mostly though, we are pretty boring... I gave her a bit of vegemite just before - but I think she is more interested in her rockmelon.. lol

LOL see this is what I need you guys for! :doh: Seriously I wonder if I still have a brain some days. I am taking a hiatus from avocado cause we had a nasty projectile vomiting incident after avocado a couple of weeks ago but I don't think it was the cause... so on toast is probably a good way to ease back into it! Beth must be getting sick of banana and yoghurt cause it's all she's eaten for about 2 weeks now!
BTW and totally OT - love the store Mel, had a quick look around last night, I will have a closer squiz when I get a chance! :dance:

I've used vegemite - I want to raise a vegemite kid!! I don't give it all the time, no more than once a week, and because it is only a scraping on toast I figure that should be fine, but that is my choice! He loves it!! I think you can use avocado, banana, corn, anything really that can be made into a paste consistency.

so we (grace and i) went shopping today and bought some nice brown low salt bread, a nice avo, bananas, carrots and some cruskits (as recomended by a friend) cause the cruskit kinda dissolves.she had cruskit with avo. licked the avo off and some of the cruskit dissapeared and she loved it so not a bad start!!

ok firstly hi :) I don't have much time tonight to read back threads, I will get to it when I have a moment or 2 but I have a couple of questions.

Ashton is 5 months, he is sitting up and interested in food, but then again he is interested in everything. He isn't 'hungry' for food. He still breastfeeds every 3-4 hours during the day then at night he has a 5 hour sleep from 9pm - 2am then feeds 2 hourly until the morning at 8ish. Nothing had changed. However I was thinking if I was going to start him in a few weeks that I might look into BLW and get as much info as possible before I start...

SOOO have any of your babies choked?? I am so scared of this happening as it happened 2 times with my oldest :(
Also what sort of foods did you start with? How much of it do they eat (as opposed to chew and spit)? Is there anything that should be avoided?

Thanks in advance for your help :)

Hi Missymoo! Good to have you on board!
Haven't had any actual choking incidents, but had a fair bit of gagging for a week or so which freaked me out more than it worried her. Seems better now ... :crossfingers:
Starting foods - we have tried banana (a favourite), bread, avocado, carrot, broccoli, yoghurt, pear, apple (not really a fan), potato and other things she has stolen from our plates! Going to try pumpkin and sweet potato this week. We started at 5.5 months too because she seemed hungry and we couldn't take the starving african orphan look we got every time she watched us eat!
We had banana on toast for breakfast and that was a hit! Think I will do that more often as there was a lot less mess than the usual banana and yoghurt and madam thought it was delicious!

so with no teeth do they chew or just swallow it whole?

Sorry I am really keen to give this ago but am so frightened he will choke! Were you all as paranoid as me? Lol

Hi Missy Mel :hug:

Miss M sorta gums it to death... if she takes in big sections, she'll gag, and then spit it out. She might have a little cry, looks at the food in her hand - and then gums it again.. lol

At the moment - she is sitting in her high chair with some vegemite sandwiches. I just give her whatever I'm making aricyn for lunch/morning tea/arvo tea/dinner - whatever.

So then I don't have to make two separate ones. And Aricyn never eats all his stuff, so I just do enough for what I think he SHOULD be eating, and then subtract some stuff for her.

Last night she had pumpkin which she liked.. but rockmelon and watermelon are by far her favourites. Although I can see her mungin on into that vegemite sandwich!!!

Missymoo, you'll be surprised what they can eat with just gums! Anything soft enough to mush is fine and they'll spit out whatever they can't mash - maybe proceeded by some gagging. Babies tend to choke less with BLS because they're controlling the input themselves.

My DS has now learnt to eat off a spoon! I'm so proud... ;)

Thanks so much girls!!
Well Ash just finished off a peice of vegemite toast. His FIRST food :) Photos are on my facebook page, link is in my sig if you want to see! He didn't choke and he barely gagged, maybe 2 times. And he ate almost half of it and chewed on it all!
Wow I can't believe I nearly died a month or so ago when someone posted in another thread to give bub a bit of toast. Whoever that BB member was, thanks for opening my eyes to this all!

Yay Missy - will have to check out those pics!

Marcellus - yay for spoonage!!!!! :dance:

just lurking/reading .....

I have loads of allergy/intolerance/anayphylactic history in my family but wanna try and do BLS as I have 2 other kids and dont wanna puree/blend/mash again - too much work for me :redface: ....

Anyone else who has this history successfully done BLS and if so, where did you start?

Hi popping my head in too, gotta head to doctors shortly for K's 6 months shots but will be keeping an eye on this thread for ideas for BLS

Marcellues woo hoo for eating from spoon - MJ will hand the spoon back to me to 'reload' for her now, but if im not quick enough, the hands are straight in the bowl!!!
I have sucessfully managed to leave a bowl in front of her now a few times and she wont throw it on the floor - although sometimes she wears it as a hat!

Sami - We dont have allergies here, but the guidelines say that if you or your DH have an allergy to something then not to introduce until 12 months and then introduce as you would with your other kids...
As with anyone, i would start with the veggies and then move onto diff things.
You will find that not a whole lot goes down, its more played with and sucked on for ages

bekeos - white bread is easier for them to eat, cos it goes really thick and gluggy... if you are not a fan of wb, some of the more stogy multigrain breads are good - fine to eat thou the seeds come out whole the other end!!!

Peanut butter is fine to give your bubs, low salt and smooth, so long as there is no direct family history of nut allergies... this sort of quietened the room at the lecture that we were at, but we have given it with no probs here, she doesnt really like it anyway No whole nuts til 5 thou is still the recommendation due to choking hazard

we find that tomatoes give MJ a rash around the mouth too.

after starting this only teo days ago i already feel so much happier about her and food! i found i was constantly stressing about what and when to feed her! and it was starting to feel like the whole day was taken up by feeding...now i can relax and if she is hungry give her a bit of avo on bread or cruskit or a piece of banana. so easy AND she loves it, she was crying for something yesterday and i tried to BF her and she wasnt interested, i couldnt work out what the problem was till i gave her a piece of vegimite on cruskit....looks like this is just what she was waiting for....would never have tried it if it wasnt for BB!!
Missy: i steamed up some carrots for her yesterday but i must not have done them soft enough cause she had a major gag! she had broken a big bit off and just tried to swallow it, i was panicing but tried to let her deal with it, she gagged a few times and it came up, i took it out if her mouth rather then let her try again cause i was abit scared! she didnt mind but i took the carrot away, think il try it softer next time!! How soft to you all cook the veg?
Sami: cant help with allergys sorry. but i can see why you would want to do BLS with three kids! would be so much less work than trying purees etc!

Well Ash had a banana this morning and toast for lunch. He loves his food! I gave him a bit of broccoli last night which got the funniest look! He didn't like the feeling at all haha so it just ended up all mushed. He wouldn't stop staring at my food until I gave it to him haha
This is sooo much fun!