Starting solids? - Baby Led Solids Chatter #2

Welcome to the Baby Led Solids Information and Discussion Thread. This is a place for sharing your experiences with BLS, and also to ask questions. Please feel free to share your food ideas, successes, and challenges with BLS.

What is BLS?
Baby Led Solids (BLS) is also known as Baby Led Weaning or Infant Led Weaning. It is way of introducing solids. Instead of starting with pureed foods, it involves starting with finger foods. Traditionally purees were introduced as a first food, as babies were starting solids at 3 months or so. Now the recommendation is to start solids at 6 months, and by this age babies are capable of feeding themselves finger foods.

Interestingly, many parents naturally follow the BLS method with second and subsequent children. Physiologically, it has been shown that choking is less likely when a child is feeding themselves at this age, rather than having a spoon of food put in their mouths.

Why use BLS?

The many benefits include:

• Less mess
• Easier and less time-consuming, as food doesn?t need to be pureed or spoon-fed
• Children enjoy feeding themselves, and it is good for their development to do so
• Exposure to a great variety of tastes and textures earlier
• Children are eating adult foods sooner, so that the whole family can eat the same meal

Your previous thread can be found here

This is interesting!! I did this more so with my DD, but I hadn't thought too much about it until reading the thread....

Will be trying it out tonight, Jake loves to munch on arrowroot bikkies I don't know why I never thought of anything else!!

Thanks, I'll keep reading :)

Mj had pumkin and avacardo for dinner last night and scoffed the lot! didnt really play with it much it just went in and never came out again.
I also tried her on my banana bread that i made, she loved that too

Oh and when we went out for dinner last friday, she had some of my eggplant (Afghani style prepared - i love love love it) and she screwed up her face, but then shoved more in so i think she enjoyed that to0

I am still worried about bread - can you guys give me an idea about ho you give them bread. i.e. what size pieces, what type of bread etc. Bread that i eat seems to have a lot of sodium.
I'm still only doing fruit and veg.

Lenny I was always told that white bread just sogs up into a ball (and it does!) so anything that's wholemeal is better. I just give small squares (ie a slice that's quartered) but you could do fingers too.

I gave jake some carrot broccoli and beans last night which he loved. I also let him self feed his puree and he did a great job. This morning it was vegemite on toast and banana. Although judging by his behaviour I think he's missing his weetbix in his tum!

Lenny i give fingers of bread you know like 'soliders'
MJ has what ever bread we are having, but i usually make that myself, so has less salt that stuff that is bought - she has also had rasin toast if we eat it...
Becstar, i have found that all bread goes soggy and clumps up if it is sucked on for as long as MJ does!

rememeber Lenny, they dont actually get a whole lot in at this age, its more the experience - and toast is good for introducing new flavours - i just spread a little of what ever it is that we are having on the toast - even if its something weird that we wouldnt have on toast :)

I cut into soldiers or soldiers and then in half or sometimes just give him the whole piece of bread because he thinks that is heaps of fun.

I asked in the last thread; when do they actually start swallowing foods? I'm not worried from a "he's not eating" POV just interested to know. He swallows the occasional mashed foods and wahtever he licks of toast etc, but will bite of the whole head of a floret of brocolli, chew it up and spit it out. Same with nearly everything!

Has anyone else given bubs pineapple? Oh my, Alexander loves it. Although it was less than pleasant when i found an undigested piece in his poop! :rofl:. Obviously this is one of the exceptions to the not swallowing ;)

ETA: Does everyone else find a nice pile of leftovers sitting between bubs crutch when you take them out of the high chair :lol:

Yep in the crutch and down the sides of the arms!

I have only noticed that MJ is taking more in, this last week -she sucks food alot and then spits it out again... i know that some is getting through cos of whats in her nappy! she loves brocolli and there is always bits in her poo!
You will probably find that he is eating more than you realise as sometimes they digest the food... aslo they probably suck the good stuff out of the food.
However she has days where she has heaps and days that she just plays... I dont think that its a problem just yet as milk should still be giving them everything.
HTH

SJ white bread sogs up 'more' than the wholemeal stuff, something to do with the composition, I guess it's because the white stuff is all refined :)

Cookie, I can't even remember when they start swallowing more, but you will notice slowly they are getting more and more in their mouth and less on the floor!! :D

Hi everyone!! SJ just let me know about this thread, let me just start out by saying BABY LED SOLIDS ROCKS!!! :lol:

I could not, would not, feed my DD any other way, she loves this & so do I. As I was just saying to SJ, my Punky had her first taste of Indian food last night and last week saw her first sushi roll - messy as all hell but she loved it. I figured since she loves avocado & tuna then she would probably like them both together with some rice lol.

Cookie, I too have already forgotten when the Punk really started to 'eat' but you'll definately notice when it starts.

Anybody else upset that Imperial mandarines are out of season now?! They were the Punk's favourite food, she'd eat a whole one in no time, we've had to resort to oranges though 'cause murcott mandarines are NASTY!!!

MJ just had quiche for dinner, was a but hesitant, but she chowed down!

Thanks for your replies about the bread. Will probably try it tomorrow.
Guess what...mummy gave Little L an arrowroot bikkie. :redface: He loved it! There is squishy bikkie bits everywhere!
Crazy that apples were the most expensive thing i bought at Safeway today - and the bananas were $4.98 a kilo too. Something is WRONG with that. Thank goodness i can grow my own tomatoes and lettuces.

Well DS is having something to eat most days so I am going to build that up to daily. Which meal did you start as the first regular meal of the day - breakfast/lunch/tea? & was the same kind of food eg brekkie = cereal/toast, lunch = sandwhiches, tea = vegies?

He loves brocoli & mostly squishes pumkin, zuchini, sweet potatoe, banana, strawberry & avocado. I am thinking of trying him on some toast in the next few days.

Cookiemonster, I find DS doesn't seem to be swallowing but all the brocoli bits coming out the other end tell me he is. I gave him an arrowroot biscuit today & it was the first time that I actually saw him chew & obviously swallow so I don't know if it is because it is a little harder then steamed vegies.

How often are you feeding your bubs overnight, my DS is 6 mnths next week, he is b/f & is still feeding every 2/3 hrs & when he is teething etc... it can be every hour or so? just wondering if this is normal

njd Jordan is just over 6 months - he often still feeds every 2 or 3 hours overnight - not for long.

Well Jordan is still loving it - tonight is some avocado, carrot and cheese. We often feed bread - I've actually started baking my own from scratch. It is easy and not very time consuming - has no preservatives etc, I know exactly what is in it! We often give him some with food spread onto it like Sammijane does.

Lately for brekky he is loving oat porridge with some EBM or water, with banana mixed in, or he will devour a whole kiwi fruit, pear or banana :-)

We now can't miss a meal - he is feeding of both bbs during the day before we offer solids but every meal time ie brekky lunch and dinner he is still hungry after a drink every time. Takes after us though, we are both quite fit people with fast metabolisms and we never stop eating heheh

I've noticed lately he always examines each piece of food in his hand before bringing it to his mouth. Anything new we try he doesn't screw his face up as much now either, just looks at it, looks at you, then eats it :-)

One thing he reacted to was bolognese - not sure if it was the onion or tomato in it that did it but it set his eczema off that day, so will wait a while before trying that again.

When out and about I try to order something I can share with him as it doesn't go down too well if I eat and he doesn't get any! He loves pasta but if there is a sandwich bar it's easy to just get him a bit of plain chicken to munch away on, or a banana, some avocado/cheese etc.

Very proficient at chewing and controlling the food in his mouth, I still watch him very carefully but he is quite confident and the whole process has really been quite enjoyable and not much effort!

Also - I now grow a lot of our vegies as I am fed up with tasteless, bad quality, pesticide covered bought food! -
We have so far-

brocolli
tomato
snow peas
cabbage
choy sum
pak choy
lettuce
spinach
carrots
shallots
leeks

we done have a big yard but are using a no dig. square foot gardening techique which has been very successful! Completely organic and not very time consuming!

Roquen - good on you! I am starting a veggie patch off soon - will have to look into the no dig

Cookie - MJ started 'eating' food this week - we have been doing it for 4 weeks now.This morning she ate half a peice of toast and i found no leftovers other than crumbs!

Hi Ladies,

I have just dicovered this thread. I started DD on pureed food but I am interested BLS.

DD is 10 months old have you got any tips on starting BLS?

Hi Bekz, just be prepared for the mess, but basically what ever you were planning to give your DD for dinner, dont puree it, give it whole... things like brocolli have a natural handle, but if you cut things into 'soldiers' they are great to grasp.
Molly Jane gets everything on her highchair tray and chooses what she wants to eat and like Roquen says she grabs it looks at it then shoves it in her mouth!
Lots goes on the floor to start with and all over the face, but they are learning and MJ can find her mouth really well now and we get a bit less mess. She loves the experience of feeling the food and then deciding when to put it in her mouth

enjoy :)