what is the deal with BLS and iron?

I want to do BLS with DD. Partly because it makes sense to me and partly because we'll be travelling around the time she starts solids, and it strikes me as easier than dealing with little pots of mush all the time when we're travelling.

My understanding of what to do at first goes like this:

- offer solids after BFing? Maybe as part of a play session? I don't quite now how or when it is best to do it.

- start with single vegies or fruits, with soft or cooked to softness, cut into sticks for easy handling. Things like carrots, banana, pear, broccoli, potato, pumpkin.

- give one thing for a couple of days before offering a new thing, just incase she doesn't like it or it gives her tummy troubles.

- gradually increase the range of things eaten.

My main question is how you make sure they get enough iron in a diet that has added fruit and veg, but nothing iron fortified or anything. When can you give them red meat? Surely meat is hard to eat and takes a while before they can handle it.

My other question is how long it takes, roughly, before they can be offered most things off an adult's plate (with minimal salt added)? We eat a lot of mediterranean foods (Spanish husband), so plenty of things like garlic and olive oil. Are those kinds of things bad for babies? I'm happy to do her separate steamed vegies for a while, but not sure how long that phase lasts.

Also how long before it's safe to add in grains to their diet (bread, pasta, etc)?

Thanks for any advice!

On the iron thing, I think there's generally an idea that at six months, suddenly iron stores plummet in infants. While I know that their stores will begin to slowly deplete, it isn't instantaneous, so it isn't as though you have to get them eating iron-fortified foods the second you start to introduce solids. Your baby will still be getting some iron from your breastmilk, too, so it isn't as though they go without.

When we first began, I just steamed some sweet potato, avocado and broccoli, and Aurelia sat down in my lap about half an hour after breastfeeding, and went bananas! At first it was just...well, she puts everything else in her mouth, so this was just another thing to explore, but after two weeks she now knows exactly what is going on (well, I think so, anyway). She really carefully picks up pieces of food and brings them to her mouth, and is quite methodical. Initially she just flailed around and grabbed clumps of food and seemed shocked when they broke up in her mouth! We've had really good results just letting her take her time, not rushing her at all...oh, and a good idea is to have something to cover yourself (an apron), as well as a bib for your baby and maybe even a dropsheet...it's pretty messy at first!

I'd be interested to know about when other people introduced meat, grains, etc - I read different things in different sources.

Good luck! I can tell you it's super-exciting watching your child control their own food intake, and have fun with it too!

The thing with solids and iron, is that breastmilk provides enough iron for much of the first year. If solids replace milk too early than iron levels actually drop! The iron in breastmilk is more readily absorbed than iron from any other source. Next best is the iron in its natural from foods. Only about 5% of the iron in fortified foods such as baby cereal is absorbed by the baby. So BLS should actually be better for iron levels!

I feel like I read somewhere recently that there have bee studies done into the introduction of iron-fortified cereals, and apparently they actually hinder the absorption of iron in breastmilk? Maybe this was a Kelly Mom, I'm not sure....

Hi,

The thing with babyled solids is that, really, as humans have done from the down of time, we just offer them a bit of what we are having. No drama, no stress. At 6mnths your baby is ready to move onto eating just what the rest of the family eats at a fairly rapid rate. As a *nod* to our recent baby feeding culture, we tend to suggest starting solids one at a time so that if any allergies occur we can easily identify them. But really, this is only likely in a small number of cases - usually where there is a history of food allergies. Babies can and should start meat very early in the piece - soon after they are 6mnths. The key to successful babyled solids is that eating is a social interaction. It's fun. It's about children sitting with adults, eating, conversing, learning from each other. Babyled solids never says "though shalt not eat off a spoon" Some foods work much better with a spoon - but foods you can pick up in your fingers are fun too - and you feel so grown up when you can do it yourself. But mum and dad, brothers and sisters are there to be a cheer squad, a support when you can't quite grasp that pesky little bit of food. Let's make food fun again!

PS - Gill Rapley (author of babyled solids) will be coming to Australia again next year speaking at the ABA conferences - Sydney, Adelaide and Perth March 17th, 18th and 20th. Details soon on the ABA website - stay tuned1

Tenar, thanks for asking this :D I've been pndering it myself.
The MCHN was adamant about iron, but I thought he was covered. I will just continue on my merry way....

Thanks everyone, that is most helpful.

I'm really looking forward to starting DD on solids, once she's ready! :) It just sounds like it'll be funny and fun for both of is.

Hi! Just wanted to say if you are still worried about iron - that I'm told Apricots are a fantastic source of iron and the canned variety in natural juice (of course) are soft and could be used for BLS albeit a bit slippery.

I say go with whatever meat you are already having. While I do have regard to sodium levels in foods, it's actually more beneficial that they are cut out of all of our diets, rather than just baby's (my DP should be on a low-salt diet as it is!).

I offered DD wholemeal bread as toast from early on. Another thing she loved was to hold and gnaw at a chop bone (very little meat left and the fat removed). She was like a puppy! I used to keep leftovers and reheat them the following day. She obviously wouldn't have very much, but if we had butter chicken with rice, then so did DD (for lunch, since her evening meals were earlier than ours). I always sat down and ate the same leftovers with her. And I would give her a spoon to hold/use (she learnt pretty quickly!) for things like yoghurt.