Hi everyone,
I have been taking a few short videos of my LO's BLS/BLW journey. I am no expert but I know so many people want to try this way of introducing solids so I thought I would share what I have learnt so far in case it can help someone. Thinking about doing up a website if I get a chance!
He has been BF exclusively and now is eating some solids. He has always been a big strong boy - 8.5kg at 5 months. I wanted to wait until 6 months for any solids, but we ended up starting at 5 Months and 1 week (just random offering of food and normal BF) as he was constantly chewing and salivating watching us eat, very unsatisfied after days of big feeds very close together. I was constantly feeding and he just wasn't satisfied. I have a good supply and he is a very efficient feeder. He has been able to sit up for some time with a bit of support and was able to sit unsupported for up to a minute by the time we started solids. Other cues for me that it was time, was that he could easily pick up things and bring them to his mouth.
We started with a nice yummy ripe pear as his first food. Since then he has eaten pumpkin, avocado, zucchini and bannana. He also loves rice cereal and I encourage him to feed himself with the spoon as that is just as an important skill to learn! We offer him "food" 3 x a day now. He is just on 6 months. I BF him 2 x overnight usually, and demand feed so during the day he may feed a lot, or just 3 or 4 times, depends what is going on and taking his interest! With regards to volumes of food, I usually microwave/steam/bake some fingers of food and offer him 2 or 3 to play/chew/eat, and he gets about 80ml EBM with some rice cereal as well, and of course his booby drink. He has a huge appetite and often eats the lot, has eaten a whole pair, the cereal and booby in one sitting hahah.
He ingests a lot of what he tries, but as you would all know a lot ends up over everything :-)
Thought I would ask here if I should post up links to the videos as I thought it might help others thinking about trying baby led solids/weaning to see what happens. The main issue people seem to have is that there is a risk of choking. Jordan easily chews/gums his food up, and then swallows. He sometimes gags, which is just their way of getting the food back into their mouth to chew a bit more. If you stay relaxed and just laugh and say something like "chew more!" and keep it all very relaxed, they stay very relaxed and figure it out quite quickly.
Gaggging - noise, coughing, tears in eyes, food coming back to mouth etc
Choking - no noise, no food moving, silence and baby not breathing, airway is obstructed.
2 very different things, both scary but one is normal and part of the process. Everyone should do a first aid course, as no matter what age you introduce food that has to be chewed, there is always a risk and it will give you some confidence if you know what to do in the event of a problem.
My way of thinking is "food for fun until they are 1" so I don't worry too much at each meal time about how much he eats, sometimes he just plays, sometimes gobbles up a heap of food, just go with the flow, they know what they need/want!
So yeah, if anyone wants to watch any of our videos I will post them up here for you!
Last edited by Roquen; August 18th, 2008 at 04:48 PM.
I was going to start something similar documenting our food journey... not with vids thou as i am not as good with that stuff...
I went to a talk last week and got a whole heap of information and thought that i would share it as i think this is a fantastic way to introduce solids and will be doing it despite the MESS !!!!
I agree with the choking/gagging stuff - it freaked DH and my Mum out the first time, but once they realised she was OK - it was all good.
The biggest points that i took away from the talk were that
Its all about letting your baby choose what he/she puts in theor mouth and that they enjoy the experience.
Milk-I am still BF too - is the most important and that meals should be about 20mins aftet a BF
At this age it is more about the taste, feel, smell and textures than the nutrition
you can start family foods straight away, these can be cooked veggies in wedges or rusk shaped, soft fruits, cooked soft ;and moist meats..
basically they can eat anything you are eatin, with exceptions on smaller peices or hard bits as they present a choking hazard.
We have 2 rules in starting at our houseq
MJ decides what she puts in her mouth, she is given several options on her tray and she picks up and eats or mouths what she wants - we can give things to her for her to take with her hands, but we put nothing in her mouth
If she appears to have had enough or gets upset, we finish straight away
First meal - Friday lunch
Stick of cheese (prefered this)
wedge of avacardo
stick of banana
Saturday morning
weetbix - wore most of it but loved mushing it everywhere
lunch
strawberries
dinner
Floret of broccoli, kiwi fruit, rock melon and avocado(she loves the broccoli and melon)
Sunday breakfast
Scrabled eggs (just played with it)
vegemite on toast (loved it)
lunch
stick of cheese and kiwi fruit
Dinner
some of my home made chicken pie (liked the chicken pieces)
Rock melon
Monday breakfast
Weetbix and stawberry
- no lunch - not interested
This has been such a fun experience and MJ loves sitting at the table with us all and eating. she looks around and feels part of the family. We give her a sppon and sometimes fill it with food, but let her put it in her mouth.
Roquen, i will keep 'logging' here too, hopefully we will be able to provide some of the answers that others have and examples of what we are doing i will post some pics in my gallery soon too
I am sorta going this way. I am giving him farex & fruit for brekky. Tried weet bix this morning, but have been using a spoon & feeding him that one.
Vegemite sandwich for lunch. He loves it. Then something while I'm getting dinner prepared for us. He's tried banana, broccoli & carrot so far.
Then I usually give him something from the spoon as well. Pumpkin usually.
I think I'll let him feed himself the mash tonight though. & I have a pear in the fridge to try.
I will put him more on the finger foods, just want him getting used to eating & swallowing a bit first. I'll get my confidence up though.
He's really good with bread!
Thanks ladies for starting this thread, I am hoping to skip the mush stage as much as possible but DP is worried about choking so it is good that I can show him this. DP is very excited only 1 mnth to go before we start giving him solids
I do have a question, Sammiejane mentioned she waits 20 mins after a b/f before offering solids, when do you offer solids BJ & Roquen??
Also I always thought there was an issue with strawberries & eggs & allergies & they shouldn't be introduced until 9 - 12 mnths or something, I might be wrong but I just thought I might mention it & duck for cover
njd - basically this talk that i went to (Roquen - it was run through our council - it was awesome) asks you to totally rethink theway that we feed.
EVERYTHING (well most things) is back on the list that was previously a no no...
IF you or your partner or any of your babies sibling have an allergy to something, it is advised to wait until 12 months, however this new evidence says that it is fine... how is this, PENUT butter (smooth) is fine right now...
Obviously if you are concerned dont do it, this is what i was told (please if you are not happy dont do it) but came from research from the RCH.
The only things to avoid are small objects atm like peas ,corn (unless mushed) and sultanas, oh and rice too...
Whole nuts are not advised until 5 years... but things like satay are fine.
Basicially they say, give you are having it for dinner, they can too.
NO added salt or sugar until they are old enough to ask for it, so when cooking dont add the salt, unless you remove a portion for your bubba first.
I dont always wait 20mins before offering, sometimes it is straight away, depebds on when she wants a feed and we sit down to eat... its what they said as a recommendation, so that they get the milk, which is where the nutrients are to come from first...
Oh and the lady said that farex is bad and should be avoided if possible. too many additives and additional Iron binds up baby...
And no juice unless you squeeze it yourself - but if you want to ge extra fluids you should offer water in a sippy cup if FF but BF babies shouldnt need any extra fluid as the BM will adjust to thier needs...
Cows milk as a drink after 12mths... no low fat milk until 2 years (but you can cook with milk)
Personally if i am doing something for her only i used EBM but if its a family thing she gets cows milk
Last edited by Sammiejane; August 18th, 2008 at 05:15 PM.
: extra stuff
Wow all that info is great! How awesome that your council is helping to educate about this!
With regards to timing of BF/solids etc. Jordan generally has a early morning BF around 6am, then he will munch on some fruit while I eat brekky around 8 or 9, then he will often have a quick BF again and snooze for an hour. Lunchtime is always a bit different, I sometimes offer him booby and he isn't interested but clearly wants food so I give him some then, then he will have a good drink afterwards. Evenings is always BF then if he hasn't gone to sleep I will offer some food then too, then he has another BF at about 10pm, then twice overnight usually (we mostly co sleep)
Roquen, it was Kingston council (vic)
They also showed the DVD by Gill Rapley which answered most of the Questions. It went for about 20 mins - maybe you could see if your council has a copy of the DVD as ours has one in all its centres
7 - 7.30 = wake up
7.30 - 8 = bf
8.30 - 9 = brekky
9 - 9.30 = sleep
11 - 11.30 = wake up
11.30 - 12 = bf
12 - 1 = sandwich
1 - 1.30 = sleep
3 - 3.30 = wake up
3.30 - 4 = bf & sometimes back asleep.
6 - 6.30 = finger food while I prepare dinner
= spoon food til dinners cooked
7 - 8 = bf & bed.
Will wake up to 3 times atm for bf, but is settling down to 2.
He does have bf between those times as a drink too. Sometimes he will have a full feed straight after solids as well. Thats just an average of the last few days.
I don't think he's cut out, but he's more settled & is happier since starting solids. He was still waking every 2 hours through the night, but is more like the happy relaxed bubba I brought home from the hospital now.
Thanks for that info Sammiejane that is really interesting. I think the most thing about being a parent especially a new one is that things seem to change so much which makes BB even more invaluable as we can share info.
Ok - to updae what MJ has been eating the last few days...
Monday Dinner
Homemade Hummus on toast - she LOVED it
Tuesday
Breakfast - banana and rockmelon
No Lunch - too tired
Dinner - Pumpkin, cheese and straberry
Wednesday
Breakfast - Avocado on toast
No Lunch again
Dinner - broccoli, pumpkin and banana
Thursday
Breakfast - Banana on toast
Lunch - Broccoli and strawberry and a peice of avocardo
I am finding that some meals she is more interested than others... some days she will love one food, and another she will prefer something different.
DH has been working laste so we have have had no sit down dinners this week, hense the veggies and fruit for most meals.
She will sit in her high chair in the kitche while i tidy up or prepare other things and chat and munch on things.
Her dexterity has improved over this last week and is picking things better and finding her mouth easier...
She knows that sitting in the high chaor is fun and usually has a great big smile on her face
We are all loving it - nanna and tic toc (my dad) included
oooh can I pretty please have your recipe for hommus?
Jordan has been eating on average 2 times a day rather than the 3 we started off with. Doesn't seem as interested in solids of an evening, but look at brekky time, he sits in the high chair bashing it with his fist until the food arrives !
Lately he likes banana or avocado at brekky and a little bit of wholegrain toast to chew on, lunch tends to be just some vegies and/or a bit of fish - so carrot, pumpkin, zucchini etc. Will be trying some cheese this week and hommus if I can learn how to make it!
Also - as you will see in the videos - initially Jordan was gagging sometimes, that seems to have sorted itself out, he tends not to swallow at all until he has chewed enough, or it just comes back out! From memory I'd say he gagged slightly once or twice each meal for the first 3 or 4 days, then seemed to figure it out. I made a point of staying relaxed and just reminding him to chew more. I'm sure with new foods he may go through that again here and there but for now it all seems a lot easier and he is quite willing to have a chomp on everything we have offered, other than potato, not a real fan of that!
His 2 top teeth are now coming through, so that brings us to 4 teeth already arrrggg!
Last edited by Roquen; August 24th, 2008 at 05:20 PM.
: edited to add info on gagging
Hommus - I take a can of chick peas - drain liquid and set aside (going to do the soaking way soon, so will update with a new recipe when i have done it)
Juice from 1-2 lemons
Garlic (2-5 cloves depends how garlicy you want it)
some tahini paste (about 2-3 dessert spoons)
Put in food processor and blend...
to get desired consitancy add some of the liquid from the chickpeas
thats it
We had home made souvlakis friday night so MJ tried a bit of lamb and chicken... she LOVED the lamb. ( i dont eat red meat so she never will have had anything like that from the BM) She also tried a bit of fish to, which she really enjoyed, she actually couldnt get enough of that, so i think i will be doing fish a bit more often
MJ tends to onl have 2 meals too, she is too tired at one meal time
Roquen, isnt it funny how they know that food is coming already Yep the gagging has sorted itself out here too, and MJ doesnt like potto that much either
How old is Jordan? MJ has no teetth yet - 4 teeth wow, not looking forward to that and BFing
Thanks everyone for the great information.
mmmm - hummus
Roquen, your videos were great - and your DS is so cute! There was another one on utube that I found with a kid eating brocoli for the first time - it was so adorable. Definitely want to introduce foods this way, when the time comes.
Do we need a highchair or something like that...? They need to be able to sit up, don't they>?
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i will post some pics in my gallery soon too
Yep the gagging has sorted itself out here too, and MJ doesnt like potto that much either
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