Baby Led Solids Chatter #3

[Jennifer13]

Welcome to the Baby Led Solids (BLS) 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?
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.

[Jennifer13]

Hi all

You may notice that this thread has been moved to a new sub-forum especially for Baby Led Solids! It was felt this more appropriately fit with the 'Infant Led Breastfeeding and Weaning' section (since it's infant led weaning).

This also means there's an area where you can post your own individual threads that relate to BLS without it getting lost in the general feeding forums.

Introducing solids threads (not specifically BLS) and related information are still here.

[Nettie]

Great idea! Thanks!

So far Liam likes bread, bread and bread.... oh - and a bit of banana. I think he ate an arrowroot biscuit for the first time today (usually just nibbles, screws up his face and drops it on the floor...).

He made a mess with pear and the veggies are on the way (just got to get organised)... hope to try carrot and brocolli later this week.

How's everyone else going??

[amberj]

Nettie, Peter is a big bread fan too. Bread and butter is always a winner, although half of it somehow ends up squished under his bum!

Tonight Peter had a bit of pasta with a mild cheese sauce and some mince on it. He thought it was great, although he had trouble picking it up- he kept putting it in his fist and not being able to find it, poor thing!

[[M]umma[M]ia]

Ok.. Mia had a pead appointment on Monday as i was really concerned about her vomitting. On average 45 times a day. He suggested cutting down the amount of milk she is having (which i wont be doing) and to start her on solids. He wants me to steer clear of pureed foods. NONE at all. So here i am.. again. She had some vegemite toast for lunch today (just giving her one solids meal about 1:30pm). I uploaded some pics in my gallery. Not much went down, but a little did. I think she had more fun just sucking the vegemite off.

what to do tomorrow..... ???? shopping night tonight, so please give me some ideas of what to buy her.

[beckoes]

we have never had much fun with bread, i have tried it over and over and she always has a major problem getting it down, she will just keep gagging on it, spit it back up, gag again. i have just stopped trying. she eats mountain bread no problem so i spread something on it and cut it up.
DH cooked a roast chicken and veg. DD sat there and scoffed a HUGE amount, kept banging the table when ever her plate was empty so i kept filling it. i just shredded the chicken up and gave her pieces of roast pumpkin, sweet potatoe, potatoe and even roast onion and beetroot! then even packed in half a manderine!! what a guts!
she is eating everything and anything atm...i find it hard to keep up sometimes.
as for chocolate this easter...my mum in england sent grace some choclolate, said it was special choc free from 'bad things' and that i was so mean not giving her any choc....we are going to england in a few month and i just know they will all try to feed her everything i dont want her to have! SO i came up with a bit f a sneeky plan....im going to tell my family that i gave her the chocs and she came out in a bit of a rash on her tummy and my doc has said we should avoid chocolate till she is older.!
And...Salt, i dont add salt to dds food or to our food if she is going to eat it but some things have salt in that she eats, but say you add a pinch of salt to a pot of sauce and DD has a teaspoon of sauce she isnt going to be haveing that whole pinch of salt...just a few grains. not that we do that but i think once or twice she has had something off my plate that wasnt really ment for her but i havent worried about it that much! She has vegimite every so often and LOVES it.

[amberj]

Hollye, FAR OUT, I didn't realise Mia vomited that much everyday. You poor things! You've probably already shopped by now, but here are some things Peter likes that you could try:
- avacado on cruskits (broken into about 4 bits)
- butter on toast or bread
- those mini rice cakes with a little bit of dip on them (or plain)
- ham (he likes to suck on it)
- arrowroot biscuits- if you don't mind giving her sweet!

Hope the solids help!!!

[SamiH]

Just after some advice from the old hands here

You might have seen me post off and on a few times - allergy laden family blah blah - but - I have tried Zander lately on rice cereal and some fine mashed swt potato - but he aint interested and still has a tongue refelx

BUT

me eating a banana he sucks the other end in between me eating it wanting more, and this morning I threw the wheat caution to the wind LOL and gave him a crust off my toast which he was very excited about - i took it off him after 5 seconds to flatten it a bit etc, and he screamed and pushed his head as far as it would to towards the toast with his baby bird mouth WIDE open - what a cack.

So, I am thinking I am just gunna bit the bullet and see what happens

Where to start?? Cube up pumpkin, swt potatoe and pop on his tray and see? Grated apple - do you blanche it/soften it first to help him out? (he is only 6 months old) - So like Hollye - what did you do first? I have a bit of fear of choking - so am not keen on giving him a whole banana to go for it just yet

I know it is not true BLS off my plate - but I will get there!!! So some help and advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Mods - just realised separate area now - should I post as a new thread - am unsure ??

[Jennifer13]

Sami, you can post a separate thread if you like, hun!

Actually, a baby is less likely to choke/gag if just eating small pieces of the food you would normally eat. There's no need to puree or grate. He will suck and chew on the apple fine. The smaller pieces are merely so they can hold them effectively.

I posted this in another thread that might be useful (it's from kellymom):

Solids readiness depends on both the maturity of baby’s digestive tract and baby’s developmental readiness for solids. Although the maturity of baby’s digestive system is not something that we can readily observe, research indicates that 6 months appears to be ideal for avoiding the allergies and other health risks of too-early solids. After this point, different babies are ready for solids at different times -- developmental readiness for solids cannot be determined using a calendar. Most babies are developmentally ready for solids somewhere between 6 and 8 months.

Signs that indicate baby is developmentally ready for solids include:
- Baby can sit up well without support.
- Baby has lost the tongue-thrust reflex and does not automatically push solids out of his mouth with his tongue.
- Baby is ready and willing to chew.
- Baby is developing a “pincer” grasp, where he picks up food or other objects between thumb and forefinger. Using the fingers and scraping the food into the palm of the hand (palmar grasp) does not substitute for pincer grasp development.
- Baby is eager to participate in mealtime and may try to grab food and put it in his mouth.

We often state that a sign of solids readiness is when baby exhibits a long-term increased demand to nurse (sometime around 6 months or later) that is unrelated to illness, teething pain, a change in routine or a growth spurt. However, it can be hard to judge whether baby’s increased nursing is related to readiness for solids. Many (if not most) 6-month-old babies are teething, growth spurting and experiencing many developmental changes that can lead to increased nursing – sometimes all at once! Make sure you look at all the signs of solids readiness as a whole, because increased nursing alone is not likely to be an accurate guide to baby’s readiness.

HTH!

[kelebek]

Well it's been a while since I have posted in this area but we sort of followed the BLS way with DS in the sense of no mash/puree etc...

The first foods we started with were avocado, steamed florets of brocoli, banana and moved onto steamed fingers of sweet potatoe, zuchini and pumkin and cauliflower.


I was wondering DS eats almost anything (isn't a fan of pumpkin, I think cause it is mashed ) and he eats mostly with his hands. Dp has always spooned his cereal etc... (hence not totally BLS) so how do we get him to use a fork and spoon? cause everytime I offer him either an empty spoon/fork to load himself he just plays or if I load it for him and try to pass it to him he picks the food off and uses his hands... so any suggestions on transitioning to spoon/fork or should I not be worried at this stage?

[Jennifer13]

I had to spoon-feed yoghurt as well, njd, but I would give her a spoon to use at the same time. She was using it like a pro pretty quickly. She would try to help from the first time, but not very effectively!

I have video of her at just under 12 mths eating butter chicken and rice with a spoon and she's handling her spoon like a much older toddler. Nothing drops once.

[Nettie]

We tried some cucumber today - and he LOVED it! He usually puts something to his mouth and makes a sour face, then plays with it. But the cucumber he kept putting to his mouth & tasting! He ate a fair bit of it - for him! Then I made a apricot spread sandwich (100% fruit spread) and he must have actually eaten about 1/2 the bread. Again - pretty good for him!

He's cutting quite a few teeth at the moment and I think the cucumber helped because it was cold. I told DH to look out in his nappies for the seeds

He's certainly getting used to actually eating. The only thing he automatically eats though is bread. Everything else is a 'dabble' thing, iykwim. But now with bread, he'll actually bite bits off and chew (and sometimes even swallow!)

How is everyone else's journey going??

[1MOREPLZ]

Jack LOVES avocado on cruskits!!!! there is barely anything left when he has finished...
he had bolognaise/pasta yesturday..(no pics...batteries in camera are dead!!!) and he was a mess...enjoyed himself..not sure how much pasta went...but he enjoyed the sauce....

[Visitor8]

hmm we went away for the weekend and stayed at a friend house so it wasn't always BLS as I didn't want him making too much of a mess. I fed him yogurt but he also had lots of vegies and some chips which was a first. My friends mum gave him some donut too which I wouldn't have done but oh well. He loves his food

[amberj]

Today I bought a pizza roll from Bakers Delight for lunch and I toasted it at home (yum) and cut it up. I was eating it when Peter woke up, so DH went and grabbed him and came out and stood by me and stole a piece of my lunch. Peter looked intently at my plate and at us both eating and then his little hand darts out quick as can be and whips a bit off my plate and jams it into his mouth! Cheeky boys stealing my lunch!

He seemed to love it, however....

[[M]umma[M]ia]

Mia tried banana today. She loved it but found it hard to hold on to as it was so slippery.. any ideas?

She also had some avacado on toast which she loved.

[Visitor8]

Hollye I give it skin and all. Ashton doesn't eat the skin obviously but it helps him hold it and when it gets down to skin I help him peel a bit more off. He is getting better at it.

Sami I was exactly like you. We started with bananas (given as above), toast, peas and corn, roast potato, and some cruskits.

[~StarBright~]

Hi everyone!

I am new to this thread- DS is 8 months old (well in a few days) and we started with pureed food at about 5 and a bit months and as i didnt have a high chair for him i continued to go with the pureed food as it was easier to feed him that way.. BUT i have now recently bought him a high chair and now for the last few weeks we are off all purred foods and he is experimenting with real vegies eating with his hands!!

So far his fave is by far broccoli, we have also tried cauliflower carrot, peas corn and pumpkin.. which is all going down well. I thought the first time i tried the peas and corn that not much had made its way into his mouth- but his nappy the next day told me it did!! :P

I have a question though- with the pumpkin, i am trialing just how much to cook it- as if i cook it too much is just squishes in his hand, and he likes the taste, it was his fave as a puree and he seems to get frustrated that he cant get it in his mouth to eat it!! So i tried not cooking it as much last night, but then he didnt seem to like it NOT being so soft in his mouth! Any ideas or suggestions??

Oh and i must have a laugh, the opening bit to this thread mentions BLS are not as messy... well i beg to differ!! lol I have never had so much mess to clean up!! lol He has food all over him, the highchair, the floor lol lucky i have a dog who loves vegies and is happy to eat up the mess on the floor when we are done!! hahahaha But its worth the mess, DS has so much fun feeding himself and it means i can eat dinner with him which is lovely!!

We also have had banana, and he loves his vegemite sandwhiches!! He ahs only just got his first teeth (bottom ones!! just two days ago!!) so we havent tried arrowroots yet, but we will be soon!