Tell me about BLW--what early solids did you introduce, and at what age?

[Blanca78]

I've been really interested in the BLW approach to solids since reading a bit about it here. DD is almost 7 months old, and while we've tried some cereal and purees, she seems fairly indifferent to them. The only food I've found that she's REALLY dug is a chunk of apple she can suck on. Even when I made applesauce out of the exact same apple, she wasn't into it.

Last night I put some black beans in front of her and she was very interested in reaching for them and playing with them, but didn't like it when I smooshed one up and put one in her mouth.

My understanding of BLW is that it involves putting different things in front of your DC and letting her play around and make her own choices about what to put in her mouth. Is this the gist of it?

What foods did your DC like at first, and how old was he/she?

[Baby_Cakes]

My first was around 6 months when we started.  Her first food was roasted sweet potato - cut into julienned pieces with just some olive oil and roasted til they were soft.  Big hits were steamed broccoli, roasted asparagus, cooked carrots.  Anything easy to grab, soft enough for her to eat.

[sosurreal09]

My DD was 11 m/o when she was ready for solids, it varies greatly. She just started picking food from my plate and eating it really. I didn't do any special foods.

[sundaya]

About 8 months old, she loved chunks of avocado, sweet potato, bananas, shredded roast, steamed pear cubes, peas, and blueberries. By a year old, she preferred the blueberries and peas frozen (teething).

[Youngfrankenstein]

I think you're handling it fine.  I would skip the purees and cereals altogether.  I see no advantage to those at all.  She's learning to like and eat foods, she doesn't need their nutrition.  I would give very large pieces of celery for her to gum and taste.  Using some common sense, I would just feed her what you're eating.  If you're having tacos, give her some ground beef and some shredded cheese.  If you're  having spaghetti, just put bite-sized pieces on her tray.  It sounds like you're getting the gist of it.

[askins]

Yeah, the gist of is that breastmilk is nutritionally complete food at least until a babe is 1 yr, so you don't really need to *worry* about what makes it into her mouth or not.  Learning to like food is about learning about its texture as well as its taste, so today she might only play with the beans, but next week she might scarf them down.  Keep offering them, even if you think she "doesn't like" them.  But don't put them in her mouth - let her decide when to do that.

DS started out with broccoli about a week before he turned 6 months.  It's still one of his favorites, I believe because he recognizes its unique shape on his tray.  Foods we've tried (my babe is just a few days younger than yours):

Broccoli - LOVE

Roasted butternut squash - LOVE

Oatmeal

Pears - LOVE

Steak strips  - LOVE to suck and gnaw on

Chicken breast

Banana

Avocado

Whole wheat bread fingers - LOVE

Gingerbread cake - mostly wanted to play with it and break it into pieces

egg yolk - mostly wanted to play with it and break it into pieces

Steamed bell pepper strips

Now he reaches for my oatmeal bowl in the morning if I haven't offered him any.  And his in-home day care provider reports that he reaches for the other kids' food at lunch.  He's definitely getting much better at chewing than he was in the beginning.

Check out http://www.babyledweaning.com/some-tips-to-get-you-started/

BLW is so much fun!  Good luck!

[Blanca78]

Thanks, everyone! These replies are helpful. I'm excited to give her some choices and see what grabs her fancy. Question, though--how do you deal with choking concerns? Should everything be chopped up really small? For example, she loves sucking on the apple, but a half-inch-square chunk broke off in her mouth, so it spooked me a bit.

[Youngfrankenstein]

Just use your best judgment.  If you have a mealy-ish apple that she could gnaw a hunk off of, then I'd skip it.  Some mom's like to grate it.  If it's not a solid hunk, like a carrot piece, she probably won't choke on it.  I would obviously sit with her while she eats.  If you notice that she is always stuffing her mouth full, you could try one piece at a time for awhile.  Give meats that are shredded or cubed.

[Baby_Cakes]

I found that if the piece was too big, it would get thrusted out by DD's tongue.  She may have gagged a time or two, but spit out anything she couldn't handle.  In the beginning I made sure everything was mushy enough.  Apples we waiting until she had at least one top tooth so she could bite.

Idk how BLW'ing it is, but you could always try mesh feeders as well.

[katelove]

We tried to cut everything into pieces long enough that some would stick out of her fist when she held it. Little things like beans or berries came much later. Even when she could pick them up she still had trouble getting them into her mouth and letting go.

Watermelon was an early favourite and slices of cucumber were also popular (I cut them on the diagonal so they were long oval shapes and kept them reasonably thick).

I personally don't think that mesh feeders are BLW because a big part of it is managing different textures and learning how to move pieces of food around in the mouth and cope with different size bites.

[Baby_Cakes]

Originally Posted by katelove 

I personally don't think that mesh feeders are BLW because a big part of it is managing different textures and learning how to move pieces of food around in the mouth and cope with different size bites.

yeah, thats what i was thinking as well.

[Blanca78]

Originally Posted by Youngfrankenstein 

Just use your best judgment.  If you have a mealy-ish apple that she could gnaw a hunk off of, then I'd skip it.  Some mom's like to grate it.  If it's not a solid hunk, like a carrot piece, she probably won't choke on it.  I would obviously sit with her while she eats.  If you notice that she is always stuffing her mouth full, you could try one piece at a time for awhile.  Give meats that are shredded or cubed.

Grating is a "grate" idea (heh). I think i'll try that. Last night I put some sweet potato fries in front of her--she looooooved playing with them and started to cry when she managed to push them all off the tray! So cute. She was working on her pincer grasp before my very eyes--concentrating so hard--it was fascinating, like watching a nature documentary.

I have a mesh feeder and have tried it a bit with apple--she likes playing with it but doesn't really seem to get that it's a food source, so it seems more hassle than it's worth. My cousin did say they're nice for teething because you can put frozen grapes in them.

[gumshoegirl007]

We started BLW when baby was about 5.5 months.  She had all the readiness signs able to sit up on her own and then she tried to grab a peach from my hand so we started a bit early.  We haven't put anything in front of her that she hasn't loved.  Peaches, apple, mango, turkey and broccoli were some early favourites.  She also loved sweet potato, potato, beans, pumpkin, squash, banana, chicken and peas.  Actually, the only thing she hasn't swooned for is tilapia.  I think the key thing is that they're not necessarily eating at first.  They're putting it in their mouth, sucking and exploring texture. And if some of it gets eaten, bonus!

We also did purees with her, too, as my MIL had bought a baby bullet for us and I was required to use it.  I really like it, and wish we actually did need it cause it's a great little food processor.  When I loaded a spoon with purees, my baby would take the spoon from my hand to her mouth and feed herself.  That was important to me.

I also started her on cheerios around 6-6.5 months.  I really thought that it would be something for her to play with, I didn't actually expect her to get any to her mouth as she didn't have a pincer grasp (still doesn't, but now knows how to open her fist to get the food out).  She got one in!  The second time, she got about 1/2 of them in.  We give her a little bit of cheerios every morning in the the snack tray of her exersaucer.  That gives me enough time to brew some coffee and throw together breakfast for myself.

Have you seen the baby led weaning cookbook?  I just borrowed a copy from the library and love it!  It has all of the how-to and why (I think even more clear and concise than the baby-led weaning book) and some pretty awesome recipes, too (very british in the sense of brit and indian food dominates).  It encouraged me to move on to stage two foods, which for us meant to spice it up.  Turns out the baby loves it even more.  She's had coconut curry chicken, butter chicken, apple and zucchini curry soup with cannellini bean dip on toast, and last night gnocci with tomato sauce.  The more flavourful it is, the more she seems to like it.  I only add this last part for future possibilities for you.

[katelove]

Originally Posted by Blanca78 
 My cousin did say they're nice for teething because you can put frozen grapes in them.

Or just plain ice cubes. I've never used ours for food but we still use it fairly often for ice. Even if she's not teething, or LO loves an ice cube to eat in hot weather. I've never done this either but some mums on here make breastmilk ice cubes as well.

[Blanca78]

Have you seen the baby led weaning cookbook?  I just borrowed a copy from the library and love it!  It has all of the how-to and why (I think even more clear and concise than the baby-led weaning book) and some pretty awesome recipes, too (very british in the sense of brit and indian food dominates).  It encouraged me to move on to stage two foods, which for us meant to spice it up.  Turns out the baby loves it even more.  She's had coconut curry chicken, butter chicken, apple and zucchini curry soup with cannellini bean dip on toast, and last night gnocci with tomato sauce.  The more flavourful it is, the more she seems to like it.  I only add this last part for future possibilities for you.

Ooh, I'm definitely going to hunt that down. Thanks!