List of BLW food ideas (& sizes)

[GuavaGirl]

So, it appears that my boy who's been loving purees for the past two months, now only wants to hold a big piece of food in his fist and gnaw on it. (he grabbed his dad's carrot and wouldn't give it back) I was stoked to have a nice little system going, but now I'm kinda thrown for a loop.

Is there a list somewhere of BLW foods ideas w/ the sizes to feed them in....or could you ladies jot down some for me. (or maybe there's already a thread that I couldn't find)

He doesn't not want to do any sort of small chopped up finger food. (I've tried shredded meat, blueberries, shredded carrot, chopped acorn squash, & chopped cooked beets)

[waiting2bemommy]

here is what I do for dd: we have gerber puffs, biter biscuits and cheerios (the no name brand WIC kind, which are smaller) that she has for snacks.

for breakfast I give her oatmeal. I make it thick enough that I just dump it on her booster tray and she goes to town. If you make it thick enough it makes decent sized lumps that can be picked up and gnawed on.

Also, anything put in that munchkins food grinder (thats what I have) can be made thick enough to pick up lumps, without being a choking hazard.

don't know if that will help any....but those biter biscuits are great!

[ShwarmaQueen]

Boiled carrot stick, baked sweet potato hunk (triangle shape works welll), 1/2 piece of ww toast, half a banana, large ww elbow pasta tossed w/ olive oil or butter, tomato quarter, largely diced boiled potato with olive oil or butter, pear quarter, soft oatmeal cookie (made with ww flour and sweetened with applesauce and honey),...basically whatever we are eating, I just set aside some before I spice it.

The key is to think big, not small. That sounds a bit odd, but they like to hold the food and move/mash it around their mouth. DS does better with bigger hunks as opposed to when I tried peas and other small food things. Teeth are not essential either, DS just had his bottom teeth come through a couple days ago and has been self-feeding for months.

[Knitting Mama]

We don't do grains or grain products here, so no cereal or biscuits. We have tried sliced avocado, sliced apples (large chunk, microwaved for a few seconds to soften), cubes of butternut squash, and cooked baby carrots so far.

[cocoanib]

subbing

[Lauren31]

Originally Posted by Cecilia's Mama

We don't do grains or grain products here, so no cereal or biscuits.

What is your reasoning behind this? Do you have research to back up this decision? DD still has not had grains/wheat etc bc I did not want her to develop a gluten intolerance. But now I am finding that there is no reason to withhold those things past 7-8 month and if you wait too long then it could cause a gluten issue in your baby. Originally I was going to wait until she was a year but now I don't know.

[Sfcmama]

Another sub

[Knitting Mama]

One of the biggest reasons, seconded by her doctor, is because I am diabetic and her doctor believes that early introduction to grains may make her more inclined to diabetes herself.

As well, rice cereal and other fortified baby cereals are nutritionally useless. There is absolutely no need for them, especially when there are whole foods that have the same vitamins, minerals and nutrients naturally. I would be more inclined to give her a non glutenous grain like quinoa, but I still want to wait on that until closer to a year.

Here is one of the articles that I found in my research about grains. http://www.suite101.com/content/intr...grains-a201444

[AislinCarys]

Actually, the correct advice regarding gluten is:

1. As late as possible
2. As slowly as possible
3. And under the protection of breastfeeding

This comes from research after a horrid experiment was carried out on children in Sweden in the 80s. Doctors got this clever idea: What if we could catch gluten intolerance really early, the children wouldn't need to suffer for so long! So they tripled or quadrupled or something like that the amount of gluten in Välling (a cereal and milk based liquid given to children in bottles for generations, nowadays not usually before 4 months, but in the past from about 2 months, and often until the children are 3 or 4 years old. And to all babies breastfed or formula-fed, as it is still considered by the general population as so nutritious and absolutely essential). And, surprise, in about 4 years, the number of school age children diagnosed with gluten intolerances quadrupled, and they realized they were causing the gluten intolerance and the gluten levels where cut back to previous levels.

The problem with the advice above, however, is that most people (and definitely nearly all in Sweden) finish breastfeeding between 6 months and 1 year. And as the protection of breastfeeding is most important, the advice has changed to "after six months" (that is as late as is possible, isn't it), slowly, well there's no time, and breastfeeding, well (if you tell women that they'll feel guilty if they can't breastfeed). So we'll just say "Wait until 6 months with gluten".

[lizsky]

The thing I've noticed that DD likes is for me to leave the peel/rind of fruits and veggies intact- that way its less slippery and she can get a better grip. I was worried at first that she'd have trouble with the peel, but she kinda knaws around it.

Some of her favorites are:
-watermelon
-cantaloupe
-apple
-pear
-potatoes
-banana
ALL with the peel on-

She also likes to knaw on green beans, spinach, broccoli and red peppers. And I was pleased/suprised to notice that she preffered the veggies I sauteed with garlic and chili to the plain ones!!!

She doesn't actually ingest a who lot, but I keep hearing that solids are just for exploration at this stage, so I'm not worried.