BLW- when and what?

[ammiga]

With my dd, we did the whole mushed up foods, spoon-feed, follow an order sort of thing. With ds, we'd like to try BLW.

I think I understand most of it, but I'm a little confused.

DS turns 6-months next week. And he's huge (almost 23 lbs). He's ebf, but not by choice :) For almost a month he has lunged for our food any chance he gets, and is ANGRY when we won't let him have any. We can't have him at the table when we eat, because he hits the table, salivates everywhere, and screams for our food. He can sit pretty well, but still tips over after a few minutes. I don't know about his pincer grasp, and he does not have the tongue thrust anymore. Does he sound about ready for food?

When it comes to foods, I see a lot of people mentioning the "standard" things to start with... avocado, banana, sweet potato, etc. Does BLW follow the same guidelines as baby food for when to introduce certain foods? When can I offer scrambled eggs? Or ground meat? Apples? Brown rice? I remember waiting for such a long time with dd on those things!

[kblackstone444]

I'm curious, also.  I'd like to try this with my son when he's old enough.

[mrsjerrygarcia]

So, my son is 8 months old and was doing the same things at 5 months. I really think that they're just interested in something that they can't have/see you doing. Because, I finally gave in at 6 months exactlyt and he made a face of disgust and I've tried everything. He STILL doesn't eat hardly anything solid except pears. Don't your babies reach for and try to grab and throw fits if they don't get your phone/book/computer, etc? I really think theyre just interested in what you have/are doing. Wait until 6 months for sure, but try after that. If they don't like it, wait a month and try again. I'm not sure about the scrambled eggs/meat thing though, seeing as DS is 8 months and still pretty much EBF.

[Knitting Mama]

I agree with mrsjerrygarcia. I think that most babies do better waiting a bit. At 9 months old Cecilia still doesn't eat appreciable amounts of anything, but she will try everything, which is great if you ask me.

[karen1968]

I agree he probably just wants to imitate you, not necessarily eat solids. After all, he doesn't really know what they are, does he? Have you tried letting him have a spoon at mealtimes? Another option we used with my son was a breastmilk ice cube in a mesh feeder. He was able to imitate us and I didn't have to worry about gagging/choking. Happy baby, happy family!

As to what to introduce when there are so many theories! I think the best thing is to follow your instincts. If there is no history of food allergy in your family, I see no reason not to give your baby whatever food you want, within safety limits, of course. In many other cultures they don't follow any sort of schedule.

[ammiga]

I'm still expecting him to be pretty much ebf, I just wasn't sure when I could/should allow him to start trying solids. Originally, I wanted to wait until 7 months, but he is so interested! My dd was never this excited about solids, so it's really thrown me. We started them with her just after 6 months, but I'd guess she still got 75% of her calories from bm until 18 months or so.

We did give him a spoon, and he threw it on the floor... that was not what he wanted! The frozen bm in a mesh feeder sounds like a great idea. Unfortunately, I have excess lipase in my milk, and both my kids have completely rejected the sour taste my frozen milk acquires.

I guess we'll start next week? Is six months definitely a safe time to start? I read something about gut flora changing when solids are introduced, and I want to make sure we don't do that too early.

[Knitting Mama]

I believe you are supposed to scald breastmilk before freezing it to get rid of the lipase. That might help!

I think that 6 months is the minimum age to start solids, personally, but I 100% believe that that doesn't mean you should start solids at 6 months just because of the age! I believe that babies need to be sitting well independently before starting food for safety reasons, and of course, the tongue thrust needs to be gone.

[P.J.]

Sounds like he's ready to me. And they don't need the pincer grasp in order to start BLW, my baby's just getting it now (almost 8 mo) and he's been on solids since six months. As long as they can grasp and hold the food and get it to their mouth, that's what matters.

We started with apples and cucumbers, actually. By now he's had loads of various veggies, and for fruit just apples, pears and bananas.

[crystal_buffaloe]

We've done BLW and started with sweet potato, then pretty quickly added banana and avocado (maybe 2 days in between?) right at 6 months. My DD sounds a lot like your son in that she seemed really, really interested, but after we started offering, she looked like she had been betrayed whenever I'd give her a taste of something or if she actually randomly got something into her mouth.

Being able to play with the food at 6 months (and introducing a sippy cup of water with meals) solved the table frustration, but it wasn't exactly "starting solids" in a traditional sense, IYKWIM.  She didn't move much food to her mouth (and keep it in there) until about 7 months, and at almost 8 months now, she's finally started to chew and swallow things (still no teeth, though). Her poop is mostly just breastfed poop, though it's beginning to look a little more solid and also sometimes has blueberry skins or bits of carrot or broccoli.

Other than those first three foods, I didn't follow any sort of order. I just let her have some of whatever we're have that's appropriate. It helps for things to be in a stick shape or some shape that's easy for her to pick up. (One of the first things she was really enthusiastic about was a red pepper strip, and she just sucked on it.) She really likes to try things -- pears, cucumber, squash, zucchini, peas, carrots, chicken, steak, ham, oatmeal, applesauce, plain pasta noodles, tofu, beans, cauliflower, potato (baked and french fried :), beef & barley stew, tortilla, crust of baguette, turkey, baby mum-mums (a cracker), and I think that's all so far.

I'm avoiding all dairy, eggs, and tomatoes/strawberries/citrus until at least 9 months (I'm going to talk to my doctor at our 9 month appointment) and then nuts/honey until at least a year.

I have limited it to mostly just whole foods, and almost no salt/sugar.

I hope that helps! I'd also be interested to know what other BLW foods mamas and babies have had success with (or just table foods/self-feeding ideas).  

[mrs.t]

I'm wondering the same thing...my DS is 9 mo and we've done various veggies, bananas and pears. He has also had foods that dissolve, like baby mum mums. He was always very interested in table foods and he loves being a part of mealtimes, especially because he feeds himself.