BLW - all or nothing? - Page 2

[isabchi]

Originally Posted by tsfairy

I gave DS1 a few jars of baby food here and there, but really self-feeding was so much easier! I just did some minimal prep (mashing a banana, steaming a sweet potato or apple, etc.) and let him do his thing while I ate in peace. With DS2 we never even bothered with purees. He's only ever self-fed, except for bites of my food here and there.

Keep in mind that most breastfed babies really don't *need* the additional nutrition from solid food, it's just exploration and play for them. Spoon-feeding tends to override the natural gag reflex and baby eats far more than his body needs. It's much easier for baby to regulate his intake when he's feeding himself.

That was exactly my experience with my two kiddos. After, learning with my children sometimes I find odd to spoon feeding especially with a breastfeeding baby. It's a really a confident act in our own babies.

[sunnygir1]

My breast fed baby is almost 13 months, and I still spoon feed him certain things like oatmeal and goat yogurt. I don't think that indicates a lack of confidence in my baby. Based on results, he can't get much yogurt on his own and it is a HUGE mess every time. Not to say that I don't ever let him work on it himself, but if he wants to eat it, I am happy to help him as he is developing the motor skills to use a spoon more effectively.

[cloudbutterfly]

We do a mix. I was more comfortable starting with purees, and my son *really* enjoyed being spoon fed at first and was quite definitely ready for solids at six months despite my thought that I'd wait past that point, but as soon as he started showing interest in self-feeding, I started offering finger foods. We've been doing mostly finger foods for a couple months now, and he makes some almost decent attempts at feeding himself with a spoon. We still do purees here and there, especially while out on the town or when we went on a long road trip. After being unconcerned about fluctuations in how much solid food he was getting from day to day and week to week, about halfway through the road trip I learned that there comes a point when there are consequences for easing up on solids after their systems are used to them! I never was so surprised by a blowout diaper before. Purees are much easier in the car, so thank goodness I brought some with us.

When I first started researching BLW vs. purees, etc., I also got the feeling that it was all or nothing and I had to make this big decision. At some point, I decided to take the "baby-led" part of it literally and follow my baby's lead.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by Parker'smommy

I didn't do BLW with my dd, but did something similar ( I had never heard the term BLW until a few months ago)

I let her totally self feed, but I didn't give her big pieces. My ped has said that anything the size of a cherrio was good so that's what I did.

The size of a cheerio for something that doesn't dissolve like a cheerio? That sounds either dangerous or tedious depending on whether you gave your LO one piece at a time or a lot. With DD, if she got a really BIG piece (size of a slice of apple or even bigger) she'd take eensy little grain of rice sized bites. If she got something smaller she'd put it all into her mouth at once and might have to plorp it back out of her mouth. Cheerio sized stuff was also the only things where she'd try to cram her mouth over full.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by ElliesMomma

just watch your baby very carefully whenever he is eating and be prepared to turn him upside down and give firm but gentle thumps between the shoulder blades should the need arise.

If you're watching carefully, you'll be much more likely to need to do a finger swipe to clear the mouth of a too large bite (a risk with softer food) before it ever gets to the flip and thump point.

[sugahbee]

Did anyone start with cereal? My ped said there was some evidence that exposure to gluten between 4-6 months has been shown to reduce the risk of gluten-intolerance. I was debating starting a multi-grain cereal mixed with breast milk (my son is 5.5 months). That would probably have to be spoon fed, right? I guess I could offer him a piece of toast or something? Anybody have experience either way?

[lizsky]

I've been offering some mushed food on a spoon and some on her tray and DD definitely prefers to self-feed. So I've shifted to just putting food on her tray. Not because I'm die-hard about BLW (I'd never heard of it until recently and am just figuring it all out) but because thats just what seems to working best for my particular child.

I personally think some spoon-feeding is fine, but its probably most important to watch your baby's cues and do what feels right to you as a mama.

[SaturnsMoon]

We just started with BLW a couple of weeks ago and I have to say that I am amazed at how well DS is self feeding. He didn't even seem all that interested in solids and we waited til he was almost 8 months (6 months gestational age; he was a 32 week preemie). But for his first food I gave him a big slice of the peach I was eating on a lark, figuring he wouldn't actually eat any of it, and he put it straight into his mouth and started gumming away and swallowing bites of it!
We do 100% BLW because I felt that Gill Rapley made some good points in her book on BLW about why to have baby be the only one to put things into baby's mouth. It may help prevent choking, it gives baby complete control to decide when and how much to eat, and it encourages a trusting and positive relationship with food, etc. To give DS yogurt I preload a spoon and hand it to him or spread it on a bread crust. With oatmeal I put thick globs on his tray that he can pick up hand fulls of.
To the OP, try this with your DP...spoon feed each other some soft runny food. Seriously! I found it to be rather uncomfortable to have someone spoon something into my mouth. You lose the ability to regulate how big of a mouthful of food you will get and you can't see/smell/touch the food first and don't know what to expect (will it be the yogurt I like or the soup I don't care for?).
This experiment convinced me to just go with BLW 100%. And it's so much easier and more fun! DS just eats whatever we are eating. I just modify it a little to make it easier for him to hold it. I don't do the spaced intro of foods because I've read that if you wait til after babies are 6 months or older and BF the odds of food allergies are decreased anyway. And we have no history of food allergies in the family, so I decided that for us it wasn't worth the fuss.
GL on whatever you choose!

[cloudbutterfly]

Originally Posted by SaturnsMoon

You lose the ability to regulate how big of a mouthful of food you will get and you can't see/smell/touch the food first and don't know what to expect (will it be the yogurt I like or the soup I don't care for?).

One way I've tried to minimize this is when spoon-feeding is to hold the spoonful of food up to his lips and let him lean in to take the bite himself if he wants it. He can also smell the food first that way. A couple of times I think he was expecting a different food because they looked similar, but that's actually happened more often with finger foods. He was not pleased about what he thought was another slice of banana turning out to be an artichoke heart, poor guy!

[EdnaMarie]

My "compromise" was this:

If she wanted to eat something but logistically could not manage, I would help.

For example:

Helping spoon-feed soup (I let her open her mouth before putting the spoon to it).
Scraping apple off an apple if she was choking on little pieces but really wanted to have it because she liked it.
Giving extra helpings of smoothies she was enjoying.

I also made sure they had plenty of time and space to eat with their hands as they wanted. They ate lentil soup, burritos, whatever, with their hands. Was it messy? Yes. But at least they get good nutrition before the 3-y-o pickies set in.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by sugahbee

Did anyone start with cereal? My ped said there was some evidence that exposure to gluten between 4-6 months has been shown to reduce the risk of gluten-intolerance. I was debating starting a multi-grain cereal mixed with breast milk (my son is 5.5 months). That would probably have to be spoon fed, right? I guess I could offer him a piece of toast or something? Anybody have experience either way?

My interpretation of that particular finding was that it had more to do with how much gluten babies got at once when introduced early vs late. A 6 month old with a piece of toast is going to have like 5 grams worth of bread and get a tiny amount of the protein and have a chance to build up a resistance. A 9 month old with a jar of wheat puff cereal will eat the whole jar, ask for more, and blow their gut out of the water.

Grains have no nutrition that isn't found in vegetables. Grains can actually suck nutrition from the body. And grains can damage the gut even in people who don't have an overt reaction to them.

So I wouldn't start grains with a baby until the baby had been having plenty of yogurt and other highly nutritious foods like egg and vegetables.

[sarahr]

We planned to do 100% BLW, but my baby didn't get that memo. His desire to eat far, far outpaced his ability to put things in his mouth (he doesn't even put toys into his mouth very often). He would get so, so angry if we didn't help him eat.

But we've done mostly fork-mashed/soft chunks of food, with only a little purees. And he's always welcome to feed himself as much as he can/wants to.

ETA: we started solids at 7 months.

[sunnygir1]

Originally Posted by SaturnsMoon

To the OP, try this with your DP...spoon feed each other some soft runny food. Seriously! I found it to be rather uncomfortable to have someone spoon something into my mouth. You lose the ability to regulate how big of a mouthful of food you will get and you can't see/smell/touch the food first and don't know what to expect (will it be the yogurt I like or the soup I don't care for?).

Just because you find it uncomfortable doesn't mean a baby will. And there is a difference between assistance and coersion. I tell my baby what is on the spoon, ask him if he wants some, and let him touch it if he wants. I never insist that he eat something...I only aim the spoon at his mouth and wait for him to indicate whether or not he wants to eat it -- which he does very clearly.

I think the most important thing is to follow your instincts and follow your baby's lead.

With regard to introducing foods, both of my babies had tummy troubles that were partially alleviated by me eliminating things from my diet, so we started solids very gradually and at first only one food at a time. Later I might do a soup or sauce with several ingredients that he hadn't had before and if there was a problem back off of all those ingredients. I didn't worry about spices too much.

At nearly 13 months, ds is still not on tomatoes (gets a rash), cow dairy, soy (except fermented like tamari and miso), eggs, and nuts/peanuts. We don't do gluten, food coloring, artificial flavoring, or preservatives, so he also hasn't had those.

[newmamalizzy]

Originally Posted by sarahr

We planned to do 100% BLW, but my baby didn't get that memo.

Seems like a lot of babies on here have "led" by asking to be spoon-fed or otherwise assisted in their eating. I think I'd definitely choose to follow my baby's lead over following a method called baby-led that seems to differ from what my baby desires. It sounds like that's been successful for most of you, too.

Also, I think our situation differs a bit from most others in that Bea has been formula fed since several weeks old, so we have no sense yet of her food sensitivities. I think I'd feel OK introducing foods more quickly if we'd been breastfeeding, but, since we haven't, a slow, careful pace seems wise. I'm also less inclined to be satisfied with an "under one just for fun" approach to solids because I'd so much prefer her to finally get at least some nutrition from "natural" sources. I'd be happy with her EBFing for as long as she wanted, but formula definitely doesn't give me the same sense of security.

[EdnaMarie]

my baby didn't get that memo

Haha, totally. I wish somebody would invent a way to somehow get babies to read What to Expect while they had all that free time in the womb.