BLW support thread? - Page 3

[tzs]

hey there. just popped in.
we've done a modified version of this also. i've spoon/fork fed yogurt etc.. and have resorted to some homemade chunky "purees" that i inherited from a friend...they came in handy when we were eating something baby inappropriate (caesar salad comes to mind...hotdogs...) or if we weren't eating ourselves.

but basically she's always eaten table foods....sometimes in big chunks to chew off (strawberries being the favorite) sometimes cut into chunks for her to pick up. and btw....she loves beans, especially if they are a little spiced up. i don't worry about the size except for chickpeas, plus, she's really good at chewing....i think we've had one gagging incident and it was lettuce (duh!.)

so as we finish our falafel/pita lunch here's a question for you guys....do any of your babes just prefer the spoon??? i mean...ds is really good at pincer and can feed herself but wasn;t really going for it until i started putting falafel chunks on the fork and feeding her. then she kept opening her mouth for more. is she just really lazy??? does she know how to play me that well??? or is she just not going to go for foods herself unless they are known favorites????

[ElliesMomma]

Originally Posted by tzs

so as we finish our falafel/pita lunch here's a question for you guys....do any of your babes just prefer the spoon??? i mean...ds is really good at pincer and can feed herself but wasn;t really going for it until i started putting falafel chunks on the fork and feeding her. then she kept opening her mouth for more. is she just really lazy??? does she know how to play me that well??? or is she just not going to go for foods herself unless they are known favorites????

i can't say for sure. in our case, i *never* spoon fed. and after seeing what he can do in terms of eating, i'm pretty sure i probably won't ever do it. yours may well prefer a little spoon feeding, and there is *nothing wrong with that*. heck, *MOST* people do it! but for me, i guess *I* am a little lazy LOL. plus i already have a 4 year old, and a husband, and it's tough enough keeping up with all of the cooking, cleaning and other "work" around the house. to be totally honest, the times i have DS in his high chair with food in front of him that he can feed himself, are my times to 1) unload the dishwasher, 2) prepare other people's food, 3) sneak in a few bites for myself, etc. etc. LOL

if you're happy spoon feeding him, go for it! if on the other hand, you want him to do more self-feeding, then start giving those delicious falafil chunks on the high chair tray rather than on a loaded fork. save the spoon feeding for something that's not his favorite food.

LOL!

[tzs]

yeah, the falafel chunks were just sitting there and all she was eating was the pita (takes after her mom!)

food she loves like red pasta or beans she'll for sure eat on her own but i guess even though i know food is just for fun i still want her to get tastes of real food and not just the pita, yk? it's just weird how she had no interest when they were on her tray and when i started fork feeding her she wanted more and more (well, until she got a chunk of red chili flake...poor kid, that's not the first time i've sabotaged her)

maybe i'll have to get her her own fork and see if we can reach a happy medium.

[mommy92109]

For those of you giving water, how are you presenting it? I am nursing and doing BLW. I don't want to use a sippy cup, so I pour a little water into one of ds's bottle caps (I pump at work), and give that to him. He can't get the water on his own yet, but he's practicing! However, I need him to actually ingest some water to help him poop after eating, and now he looks like a puppy dog sticking out his tongue as I tip the cup for him. How do I get the water into him, but still foster independence?

[LionessMom]

this is the second child where i have just gone with my gut. my 3 yo still doenst like to eart harldy anything except yogurt but my almost 8 mo old will try anything. she likes to feed herself but likes me to give it to her from my plate lol.if i put applesauce on a spoon she can get the right end in her mouth. even though i went about it the same way with both kids, they are very different eaters. the are even almost the same size. my 8 mo old can wear 18 mo and my 3yo just grew out of 24 mo clothes. i just give them what i eat.

my 8 mo old eats a better variety than my 3yo too. .

she almost has some teeth in. i usually give large enough pieces that it sticks out the end of her fist. but now she can use her pincer grasp so i have been giving her things she can pick up with it. she wont eat bananas but loves cantaloupes and strawberries. i have made large soft noodles and potato wedges, any kind of bread.

[Adasmommy]

My dd just turned 5 months and though I planned to put it off as long as possible, she is frantic to get our food and drink!

Luckily, I think BLW is perfect for this. I'm going to start giving her food, and I don't think she will be very good at picking it up, but she can have at it, at least. And I don't think she can get it to the back of her mouth yet, so she'll essentially be pretending to eat until she's physiologically ready to eat. Right?

Our library doesn't have the book, but this is my working theory.

Now I'm looking for a high chair, and looking forward to the mess!

[ElliesMomma]

Originally Posted by Adasmommy

My dd just turned 5 months and though I planned to put it off as long as possible, she is frantic to get our food and drink!

Luckily, I think BLW is perfect for this. I'm going to start giving her food, and I don't think she will be very good at picking it up, but she can have at it, at least. And I don't think she can get it to the back of her mouth yet, so she'll essentially be pretending to eat until she's physiologically ready to eat. Right?

Our library doesn't have the book, but this is my working theory.

Now I'm looking for a high chair, and looking forward to the mess!

if she's truly motivated, BLW will allow her to work on the skills you describe, and she might pick it all up really fast. you might be surprised.

enjoy your anticipation of the mess. it gets old fast. like, cleaning up after meals three times a day. ugh.

[tzs]

this might sound weird but shot glasses are really good for letting the babe drink from a cup. just the right size for their mouth and water goes less all over the place than a regular cup

[mommy92109]

I think a shot glass would be so funny! I didn't think of that! What a picture that will be!

[batsister]

Originally Posted by Mom2M

I thought grains were not good to have right away but we eat a lot of grains/legumes because we are vegetarian.

So would you hold off on giving bits of your own meal for a while if it has grains and just stick with the plain veggies/fruits?

From my understanding there are differing opinions on this, but we waited until our son was about 8 months old before giving him grains (well, he might have had a few grains of rice or gnawed on pizza crust before that, but that was all).

For those of you giving water, how are you presenting it? I am nursing and doing BLW. I don't want to use a sippy cup, so I pour a little water into one of ds's bottle caps (I pump at work), and give that to him. He can't get the water on his own yet, but he's practicing! However, I need him to actually ingest some water to help him poop after eating, and now he looks like a puppy dog sticking out his tongue as I tip the cup for him. How do I get the water into him, but still foster independence?

We give water in a few different ways. For meals at home, I usually just hold a cup of water for him, and he gets some that way (sometimes he dribbles it or tries to drown himself, but generally he does fine). We do use a sippy cup sometimes, too, and when we are out and about he uses one of these: http://www.rei.com/product/792636
I got it for him because he was (okay, fine, he still does at times) always stealing my water bottle (which is the same, but without the dinosaurs ), and I was tired of dried hummus, etc. on the spout of mine.


On another note, his latest fun game is to pick food up, hold it out to the side, then drop it on the floor (esp. food he doesn't feel like eating). The other day he did this, so I assumed he wasn't hungry and removed the food, but then when I held the same food out to him, he leaned towards it with an open mouth. I realize his behavior is totally normal and he has to learn about gravity, cause and effect, etc., but does anyone have any tips regarding the food dropping/throwing?

[octobermoon]

how long is the learning curve for this? i feel like whenever i give DS something he gags on it. i can't stand to watch him, it makes me a nervous wreck. you know if it were only once in a blue moon that he looked as if he were choking i would continue. as soon as i work up the courage to give him something he doesn't seem to handle it well. i read the book and i am careful about what i offer him. so what's the deal? is my kid just not ready?

[leam811]

slow starting solids

I'd love to join this group. DD is working on 10 mos (June 6), and has really only tasted some things up to now. She is essentially still 100% EBF. I WOH full time, and life has been especially intense this winter/spring. BUT, solids are our summer project, and BLW feels really right to me.

She's tried sweet potato, banana, avocado, and carrot. Teeny bits. And the last couple of mornings I've offered tastes of my oatmeal (laden with strawberries & raspberries - I threw caution to the wind) which she seems to like.

But she's more interested in grabbing at it all than in putting it in her mouth so far. I feel we're on the edge though, and I just have to work at sitting down together at regular times with food that can work for her. The main challenge is that other than my breakfast, family mealtimes don't really happen at normal hours (DH and I typically eat dinner LATE as he doesn't get home till 9-ish in evenings). And once we get home from daycare we really only have an hour, maybe 1.5 till she's ready to be done for the day.

I just feel a little like the freak, as she's the only baby her age eating so few solids (essentially none) at daycare. Anyway, sorry to ramble but glad to see this thread!

[Adasmommy]

Ellie'sMomma, I believe you about the mess!

We do a lot of smoothies at our house, and of course she wants them. How do you apply baby-led-weaning to this? I know she can drink from a straw, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's developmentally ready for the contents!

Do I try and hide them from her until I see that she's really eating food, and has hit all the recommended criteria?

She's 5 months old and insisting on food so just this week we've started giving her food to play with. Like, a total of 4 times. Today she got a chunk of watermelon in her mouth and sucked on it like a pacifier (which she's never had). So cute: the watermelon appeared and disappeared rhythmically and then she gave us a big smile around the watermelon

[tzs]

we love watermelon. it's so perfect..easy to hold but also not so mushy. you really have to watch for huge bites though. i had to do a swipe with a huge bite of watermelon and actually found TWO huge bites in her mouth.

and to adasmommy....I'm an "ada's mommy" too! i have an "ada bluma" named after her great-grandmother.

[Adasmommy]

Originally Posted by tzs

and to adasmommy....I'm an "ada's mommy" too! i have an "ada bluma" named after her great-grandmother.

I love it when people say, "I had a great aunt named Ada!" Love those old fashioned names! And my Ada's middle name was her great grand-mother's first name. She's Ada Maria. Ada Bluma is incredibly melodic!

My second daughter was named Clementine, another, "Oh, I had a great aunt..." name. Our baby is Annabelle. Classic, but not so much fun in that it's not so obsolete like Ada and Clementine.

Sorry, off topic. I'm done now.

[ElliesMomma]

Originally Posted by octobermoon

how long is the learning curve for this? i feel like whenever i give DS something he gags on it. i can't stand to watch him, it makes me a nervous wreck. you know if it were only once in a blue moon that he looked as if he were choking i would continue. as soon as i work up the courage to give him something he doesn't seem to handle it well. i read the book and i am careful about what i offer him. so what's the deal? is my kid just not ready?

maybe he's not ready. does he grab for food? that's probably the biggest clue. my DS literally grabbed a slice of pizza out of my hand right around six months. and then started eating it. he eats a ton, and has NO teeth.

on another note, we had an actual choking incident today. we were at Old Country Buffet, DH, DD, DS and I. DS was getting his usual share of everything. he was really going at the slices of melon. handling them very well. he was signaling that he wanted to get out of the high chair, but i wasn't ready to hold him again, since he was covered in food, and i was, after all, trying to quickly snarf down some food myself before i held him again. so he was working on another melon slice when it became stuck in his throat. he made a noise, then *no noise* and kinda looked a little panicked. i quickly decided that the *no noise* was scary, and a sign of true choking (whereas if they can make a noise, they are merely gagging, which is a good thing, means they are getting the food cleared from their throat).

so i quickly stood up, pulled him out of his high chair, turned him upside down on my left arm and thumped him between the shoulder blades. the melon fell out of his mouth and into the pile of food debris that was already all over the floor under his high chair. he cried one little cry, which i knew was good news. anytime they can make a noise, they are no longer choking. and that was that. problem solved! DH watched the whole thing and he didn't even know that it had happened. nobody else in the restaurant around us knew either!

it just goes to show that 1) you have to watch them carefully ALL the time that they are eating, and 2) you just have to be ready to jump in and save them if the need arises. instinct truly takes over, provided that you are there, recognizing choking as it happens and respond right away, i think you can know exactly what to do and save your little one.

and just because he choked today, at eight months, doesn't mean that if we hadn't done BLW that he would not have similarly choked, maybe at 12 months. the bottom line is that he was saved, i saved him, and it was really quite easy.

ps: still avoiding the foods for which heimlich maneuver doesn't work: peanut butter, marshmallows and balloons. OK one of those isn't a food. OK maybe two of those aren't "real foods".

[LionessMom]

DD2 is 8 months old now and loves eating! i give her whole strawberries. she eats them real well. loves them. they mush up real nice. i wouldnt have given them to her but she handles other things real well so i thought she was ready for it. she ate 4 of them.

and i agree about watching them real close. my kid picked up a leaf and ate it. choked on it. had to fish it out and she puked. my MIL was holding her and didnt see her grab it. they are quick grabbers. and it always goes straight in there mouth.

[tzs]

thanks for sharing the story. makes me feel better that if g-d forbid i had to do it, it works. i've even had baby cpr training as part of my job but you always worry how much you remember and if you could do it.

i think i mentioned it in a previous post but melon is one of those foods i'm extra vigilant about watching with since it's so easy to get huge chunks off.

of course, glad everything turned out ok!

[oolongtea]

I have two BLW-related questions:

1. My 13 mo DS takes giant mouth-filling unmanageable bites of things (bread, banana) when I let him work off the whole rather than break off small pieces for him. Is this common? Will he outgrow it? Should I let him do it?

2. Ideas for serving hummus? Bread is the only thing I can think to spread it on but I don't like to give a lot of carbs. Ideas for serving avocado? Just to keep it more interesting than straight. I like opportunities to add different flavors if I can.

Thanks!!

[tzs]

hummus as dip with cucumbers, peppers....
i admit i did give her hummus straight once. spoons of it. i was just looking for something and i figured hey, why not, it's chickpeas, right? wrong. she puked.