Baby Led Weaning

[sgmom]

I'd really love to do this, but I'm completely freaked out about starting (choking fear). Can anyone offer some advice and/or tips about BLW?

Who here has experience with it?

[sapphire_chan]

There's a thread around here somewhere.

What you do is let your baby play with food and keep an eye on them and see that they aren't choking (although there are some really really weird noises and faces) and stop worrying.

We started with broccoli which got a ton of enthusiasm because of it's spiffy texture. Just a thin, long stalk, steamed. Fruit is really popular eaten by taking bites in turn with me. Eggs were fun. Hummus didn't make it to her mouth really but it spread around a lot.

If you think gagging's going to freak you out, don't start with breads. At least for us, bread was easy to get a big piece off and it took her a bit (like 30 seconds) to work it around to the front of her mouth for it to fall out and she made some freaky sounds while doing it. And once with bread she did make a face like "I can't do this alone" (while still breathing just fine and working away at the piece) so I used my finger pop it out, which is why you don't just leave them to play with food alone.

[sgmom]

I searched for threads, but didn't find much except that in the CLW group.

Is it that easy? Offer large pieces of foods she can't bite off big chunks? Do I have to steam them (ie fruits/veggies)? She's 6 months old and has no teeth yet, so what would be good foods to start with?

Thanks for the help. We've been doing cereals and little jars of food, but I'd really just love to give her something to occupy herself while we're eating OUR dinner (so of course she's sitting with us). BLW just seems like such an obvious way to go. Especially since she's OBSESSED with grabbing whatever she can off our plates. :

[violets8]

We just started this 2 weeks ago. Orion is 6 months old and I give him a mooshed up bland version of whatever we are eating. He LOVES it and gets all messy. He does get a little frustrated at times when he struggles to get food in his mouth so I help him out just a little to ease his frustration. I really want meal time to be a fun family time. So far he has had mashed potatoes, green beans, Lima beans, carrots, salmon, egg yolk, and bread. He has only choked once and that was today on Lima bean moosh. We sit him in his bumbo on the table looking at us. Follow you gut mama. Have fun!

[sapphire_chan]

Mashed things are harder for Lina to get to her mouth. She does best with slices of things where she can grab one end and gnaw on the other.

What I'll do is set aside a larger piece, like a square of a layer of onion for instance or a slice of avocado with the peel, while I'm cooking for dh and me. She eats when we do, and I try to give her a bit of everything that she can manage. She picks what she wants to try.

Some things are surprising, I try not to give her too much salt, but did give her bits of my Indian buffet meal and she adored the pakora.

Apparently around 9 months babies start learning how to dip things. That'll be fun! I'd better get some aprons ready.

[XanaduMama]

I just gave/give dd tiny bits of various things. You might need to steam some things, depending on what they are (soft, ripe fruits obviously don't need to be cooked!). Banana or avocado is always good, but anything pretty much goes. Scrambled eggs too.

She's never choked either. Gagged a few times, usually when she gets a piece that's too big, but gagging is good: it's how they learn. Babies are designed NOT to choke!

[AAK]

Originally Posted by sgmom

I searched for threads, but didn't find much except that in the CLW group.

Is it that easy? Offer large pieces of foods she can't bite off big chunks? Do I have to steam them (ie fruits/veggies)? She's 6 months old and has no teeth yet, so what would be good foods to start with?

Thanks for the help. We've been doing cereals and little jars of food, but I'd really just love to give her something to occupy herself while we're eating OUR dinner (so of course she's sitting with us). BLW just seems like such an obvious way to go. Especially since she's OBSESSED with grabbing whatever she can off our plates. :

steam the carrots, or nuke them, or boil them--they need to be kinda soft (let them cool before offering)
frozen peas can be warmed easily--my nephew actually liked them frozen when he was teething
diced bananas are super easy, as are diced ripe pears & mangos

a hand full of cherrios is entertaining too, esp as they work on their pincer grasp.

When I would make soups, I would just ladle/strain out what the baby could eat & would add salt after that. Other seasonings I let her enjoy.

It is much more fun to do this rather than "baby food". After all, breastfeeding will cover the needs, this is fun and learning for baby.

Amy

[holothuroidea]

At 7 months I just give her whatever we're having. Some of it ends up in her mouth, most of it ends up on the floor! We have fun though.

We don't worry about allergies except the real big ones (dairy, nuts and shellfish), which we rarely eat anyway.

So, yeah, I just give her food from my plate and let her have at it. If she makes a gagging noise I'll help her out, but we haven't had any issues so far.

If you're worried about gagging, avoid dry foods. They're a lot harder to swallow. Bread is the main offender, but if you give the heel of a very crusty bread it will be soaked with enough saliva for them to swallow it by the time they break a piece off.

As far as cooking the food... she gets whatever I have. If I'm eating a raw carrot, she gets raw carrot. If I'm eating cooked apples, she gets cooked apples. Variety is the spice of life, right?

Some of the easier foods: Well cooked potato, pasta, raw carrot or celery, heel of bread, and of course the tried and true banana, avocado, sweet potato, pears, etc.

[Thing1Thing2]

Tried this, but my baby has acid reflux, so most of the foods were causing a reaction. The foods that he can still eat with no problems are banana and steamed broccoli. His first food was avocado - I used to give it to him with the peel on it, but now I mush up the avocado.

One thing to remember, when you give them fruits with the peel on (for grasping), wash the peel first.. there are all sorts of pesticides on non- organic fruit and it all goes into the mouth...

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by AAK

When I would make soups, I would just ladle/strain out what the baby could eat & would add salt after that.

Is that okay flavor-wise for the adults? I want to let her share the soup, but I use vegetable boullion (read: salt) as the main flavoring and let it simmer for a long while.

[marlee]

There are some fun videos on U tube of BLW.

[sgmom]

Oh wow. Thank you all!

I think it's more so her age, and complete lack of teeth that makes me nervous, but I'm going to dive right in anyway!!

Does the food have to be mushy (ie banana, avacado) or can something like a carrot be just steamed until it's "bendy"? And for things like potatoes, I guess I could quarter it up and just give it to her like that (like one big french fry)?

Why am I so nervous??! This is silly. I may need a hug. LOL (kidding)

[holothuroidea]

[holothuroidea]

Originally Posted by sgmom

Does the food have to be mushy (ie banana, avacado) or can something like a carrot be just steamed until it's "bendy"? And for things like potatoes, I guess I could quarter it up and just give it to her like that (like one big french fry)?

Well, I make my veggies fork-tender and so far she likes them that way.

[Ironica]

We've never done anything beyond making smaller pieces to prepare food for DS2. Of course, we don't give him EVERYTHING we eat, but select things that are good shapes/textures for him. He loves loves loves meat; we break it into bite-size pieces for him. Beef (except ground) was too difficult until he started getting his first molars recently, but chicken and fish have been favorites from the start. Broccoli is fun; he'll take the whole floret and just gnaw off the springy part. Peas and green beans go over well (I usually cook them in some leftover chicken fat, or they're ingredients in soups and stews), and he really loves tomatoey stuff like pasta sauce and "Spanish rice" (ground beef, tomatoes, onion, rice, chili powder). The last two I use a spoon to feed him, because I have a low mess-tolerance, but I don't feed him unless he clearly indicates he wants it (opens his mouth and leans forward... or sometimes grabs part of the spoon and helps shove it in his mouth!)

We're in a good position for this as he's always had teeth (seriously, popped the first one at eleven WEEKS), and he developed a decent pincer grasp before he even hit the six-month mark. OTOH, he *will* shove an entire item in his mouth if it can conceivably fit, and then be baffled when chewing doesn't work.

[alinajoy]

there must have been another thread on this b/c I swear I replied to this the other day!

i was totally freaked about choking. my dd would swallow her food without chewing...aaahh!

we used the baby feeder thing that i bought at babies r us and I LOVED IT!! seriously it was the best 5 bucks i ever spent!

check it out:
http://www.babysafefeeder.com/

[MadiMamacita]

we used the baby feeder thing that i bought at babies r us and I LOVED IT!! seriously it was the best 5 bucks i ever spent!

check it out:
http://www.babysafefeeder.com/[/QUOTE]


i've seen these before and they look lie such a good idea but i've read nothing but terrible product reviews (which i generally try to take with a grain of salt..) . i'm glad to see that someone does like it- do you find it difficult to clean? that, and loosening of small plastic parts seem to be the biggest complaints.

[EzzysMom]

I started off giving very big pieces of soft food. Basically if she squeezed her hand it would fall apart. Steamed all veggies and fruits to start ith (except banana). I started with things like sweet potato, regular potato, broccoli, carrot, apple, banana, pear, etc. Avocado is currently her favorite food, just cut into chunks, but she's mastered picking up food and eating it now.

Just try to relax about the choking, and stay with your baby. Mine gagged some at the start, but it's pretty clear when they want help and you just stick your finger in and "sweep" it through the mouth and pull the food out. I've had to do it like three or four times total. I haven't given her bread because of the choking issue (and a gluten intolerance in the family)

[SandraS]

I did it with four. Never had a single one choke - gag, yes - but gagging is normal and can happen with a liquid or puree too. I've never given a jar or puree and all is well. They've referred to great sites in this thread, and I've summed them up on my blog too. Have fun!

[Baby_Cakes]

Here is the 2009 BLW Support Thread. Good luck!