self-feeding/baby-led weaning support thread... - Page 3

[addiemom'07]

Thanks so much for the MSNCB article. I've been trying to express to my husband what I'm trying to do with Baby-led weaning. He still thinks she has to have her baby oatmeal and pureed foods. Since this is a "mainstream" source of info, hopefully he'll see what I've been trying to tell him.

[Mere]

I love the idea of starting ds2 off with some chunks; he's got 4 teeth though (2 top, 2 bottom) and I'm worried about him biting off more than he can chew (no pun intended - hah!). He's just about 6 months, BTW.

Does anyone else have experience letting younger babies with teeth self feed?

[Arwyn]

Well, even though Naked Baby had the rodent set (front two top and bottom) and was sitting up etc since about 5 months, we waited until about 7.5 months, but his first experience with food was a whole pear. He actually didn't bite any of it off, just bit into it, and scraped little bits off with his teeth. His second or third food was apple - and same thing. After a lot more experience with food, he's starting to bite bits off (he actually ATE tonight! Almost two whole sweet potato fries! : ), but he's never gotten anything that was too big for him that he didn't gag right out. Not every kid is the same, but in general I think the more we trust them (watchfully!), the better they do.

[onyxravnos]

what about you mamas with 1ish year olds who don't have teeth? what are yiu guvung them to munch on?

[nummies]

How do you prepare sweet potatoes for babe? I am not a fan of sweet potatoes so I never really have them. So I am clueless about how to prepare. Do you bake them, steam them, etc.?

[acp]

Originally Posted by nathansmama

How do you prepare sweet potatoes for babe? I am not a fan of sweet potatoes so I never really have them. So I am clueless about how to prepare. Do you bake them, steam them, etc.?

I think you can do either of those. I'm also not a fan of sweet potatoes, so I never make them for myself. When I bought them for DD the other day, I cut them into chunks and steamed them - that worked well. But I might also try baking or (for the best flavor since it carmelizes them a bit) roasting. Steamed isn't how I'd eat them for myself, but it seemed to be the quickiest, simplest way to prepare them for her, without any added salt, oil, etc.

She's starting to get pretty into mealtime, and we're giving her sometimes two or three things to choose between. I haven't been very good about the whole "introduce one thing and wait 4 or 5 days before introducing the next" approach, but I'm not very worried about allergies (there aren't any in either family) and I'm giving her pretty non-allergenic foods. Last night she seemed interested in the broccoli for the first time, but the thing she *really* loved was a little bit of guacamole from Chipotle's :
I wasn't going to give it to her since it has more ingredients and salt, but she grabbed some when I was eating it and loved it so much that I gave her the little plastic top of the container with a bit of guac on it that she could lick off. How careful are you all being about salt/no salt? I'm thinking in the future I might just make some homemade guacamole (which is the tastiest anyway) and leave aside a bit for DD before I add salt to it.
Oh, and in answer to the pp's question about getting avocado out of our mesh feeder - we managed, but it wasn't easy! I'm definitely glad we put it in to soak immediately after she ate.
Seems we have an avocado fan on our hands, just like mommy and daddy...

[babyluvr]

Originally Posted by acp

How careful are you all being about salt/no salt? ..

not as careful as i probably should be if i remember, i leave out the salt while cooking and just have on the table for me and dh and big kids, but usually i still forget, ds2 wants what we have and it has salt in it. I am much more careful about NO sugar, and we don't eat anything like that in front of him. i'm sure it's not scientific, but i'm much more worried about him getting sugar too early than salt.

[Pumpkin_Pie]

Just wondering if anyone out there has an 8 month old without a pincer grasp yet. My DS loves to eat off a spoon if I hold it, and he is starting to "help" hold the spoon as well. He actually does pretty well, and generally gets everything in his mouth when he does it.

I know spoon feeding isn't all that popular around here, but I do it gently, and follow his cues, and he is loving things so far. I don't do purees, so it is things like yogurt, soup, apple sauce, that are on the spoon.

Also, as far as chunks go, he will pretty much only let me put them in his mouth, or will put his face into my hand to scarf them up. He loves them, and chews them right up (err....gums them that is ) and doesn't gag. He just doesn't have the pincer grasp yet. He has hit all of his other milestones right on target or early.

Any ideas why this might be?

[tankgirl73]

DD didn't have full pincer grasp until 7-8 months, but she self-fed just fine before then. That's what the "handle" or "chip-shaped" pieces are about, so she could grab them in her fist and gnaw on the ends.

She also couldn't open her fist to get at what was inside yet. That's another development that comes later.

Personally, I feel that "pincer grasp" isn't the strong "sign" of readiness for solids that many people do. The pincer grasp is only about the ability to pick up tiny objects with thumb and forefinger -- that's not necessary IMO for eating. If they have the ability to grab an object and deliberately bring it to their mouth, that's all they need.

As for teeth -- DD didn't have any teeth until 8mo (then got 6 teeth in 6 weeks -- and no more since then!). She doesn't eat much differently now than she did then. The only real difference is that she now takes deliberate ripping bites of larger things, like pancakes. But even before the teeth she ate pancakes just fine. Those gums are hard!! Most 'chewing' is done with the gums at this age anyway, the true chewing teeth (molars) don't come in until much later. The "biting" teeth, the incisors, are useful, but not necessary for most solids.

About salt/no salt. We already eat reduced salt due to my HBP. So I don't worry about it TOO much. Foods with 'usual' salt amounts in them (ie, my reduced amounts), like breads and curries, I don't do anything different. Foods that would often be served with "extra" or "added" salt, like french fries or scrambled eggs, I cook up plain then everyone salts their own. I don't automatically add salt to boiling water, things like that, but I didn't before either.

Regarding sugar: I'm not going to stress about sugar. Glucose is an essential part of the body's energy system. Refined white sugar and processed sugars (HFCS) and artificial sugars are a different story, of course. But just because something is sweet does not mean it's BAD. Humans have a sweet tooth for a biological reason

That doesn't mean I'm loading DD up on cake and cookies lol... She eats a varied diet. But I'm not one who obsesses over sugar. I should add that I only buy 'natural' sugars, unbleached organic or sucanat, that sort of thing, I try to limit the amount of PROCESSED sugars in other words.

[Arwyn]

I adore sweet potatos... I didn't think anyone could dislike them!

Prep - the last time, we did oven baked sweet potato fries. Take a couple "yams", skin them, cut into fry/british chip shape, toss with some melted coconut and, yes, a little salt (we use Real Salt or celtic salt, 'cause I dislike the chemical declumpers "regular" salt uses), bake in a 425 oven half an hour or until done. Everyone here loves 'em!

No tomatos for the Chipotle guac! (Man, now I have a craving : ) I don't think introing one food at a time is necessary, except for convenience for those whose kiddos have a high liklihood of allergies. Last night Naked Baby had spaghetti for the first time - introducing tomato, onion, garlic, and a bunch of spices, and probably a few other minor ingrediants. He loved it! It was with brown rice spaghetti, because I'm trying to put off wheat because I don't think it's particularly good for us. Wheat, dairy (except traces of cheese), eggs, nuts, and citrus are the only things we're deliberately trying to avoid for the moment. And honestly, I'm not sure about avoiding those, and am not a hardliner about it. (I wouldn't have a problem with the lime in Chipotle's guac or rice, for instance.) Other than that, we generally don't eat anything we wouldn't want him to have, like artificial ingrediants or HFCS etc. I will suck the sauces off his veggies when we eat chinese, but that's about it.

[addiemom'07]

I've been really bad about limiting salt Today baby girl had a french fry from McDonald's because Mommy was eating them. I held it out, she grabbed it and brought up to her mouth. She gummed it good, I don't think she actually ate any but she didn't seem to care, she was having fun

[onyxravnos]

[QUOTE=Pumpkin_Pie;9942794]Just wondering if anyone out there has an 8 month old without a pincer grasp yet. My DS loves to eat off a spoon if I hold it, and he is starting to "help" hold the spoon as well. He actually does pretty well, and generally gets everything in his mouth when he does it.
QUOTE]


we sometimes have it sometimes not and he's almost 10mo. I'm not worried. it's hard to tell then their so little. and i dont let him practice on cherrios or anything beacuse he chokes on them...

[ShyDaisi]

Subbing...

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_Pie

Just wondering if anyone out there has an 8 month old without a pincer grasp yet.

I have seen Micah (who is close in age to your peanut) practice his pincer grasp on the elusive pieces of stuff the vacuum cleaner doesn't get (when I get the chance to use it , but doesn't seem to use it for food very much. He usually grabs it with his fist. Maybe if you let him play with something that is really soft and mushy it will give him some practice, but with it being so soft it would just disentingrate when he goes to pick it up. Maybe he will suprise you and eat it, too!

Originally Posted by onyxravnos

what about you mamas with 1ish year olds who don't have teeth? what are yiu guvung them to munch on?

Micah isn't one, but he doesn't have any teeth. We have done sweet potatoes, green beans, pears, peaches, bananas, pickles, cucumbers (mostly just to gum), and honeydew melon (his FAVORITE!!)...I think we are going to do carrots and broccoli next.

Originally Posted by acp

How careful are you all being about salt/no salt?

I haven't been adding salt to Micah's food, but I was thinking about when I do, using sea salt instead. Which I heard might be a little better. What is so bad about salt, anyway?

[tankgirl73]

What I've read is that an infant's kidneys are not yet able to properly process excess salt. Salt is required for life, it's in all our cells and most cellular functions involve the relative salinity of inside vs. outside the cell -- so it's not a matter of completely eliminating it. Nor is that possible, as sodium is in the cells of most everything we eat.

But too much salt is too stressful on their kidneys.

[iris777888]

We've been self feeding with our babe since just before 6 months and he absolutely loves it, as do we! One of his favorites, and something easy to bring out with us is seedless cucumber.

One tip I've not seen mentioned yet is to invest in a crinkle cutter. It makes thing easier for babe to hold on to things as they get wet or slobbery.

Also, here's a great interview with Gail Rapley, the person from the UK who did the research and came up with official protocol for this method of feeding.

I can't believe this way of feeding isn't more common. It just makes so much sense (but when did that ever ensure popularity? ). I guess it's more the norm in other countries. Our parents were skeptical at first, but after watching him eat they've bought into the concept.

[Arwyn]

There's an official protocol? Whoda thunk?

[Arwyn]

I killed the thread?

[puddle]

Originally Posted by Arwyn

I killed the thread?

I wish it hadn't died--I was lurking here trying to figure out how to get started! We might start offering this week...

[Arwyn]

How to start: 1) Take baby. 2) Place food in front of baby. 3) Take pictures.

Done! :

Seriously, what we did was just let him finally at a piece of fruit I was eating (he'd been lunging for a while - at 7.5 months, when I was eating a pear, we decided we'd let him try). That was it. We'd "started". He bit into it a bunch, scraped a bit off with is teeth, and might have actually consumed a small amount of juice on accident...

And tonight he had spaghetti with mushroom bison marinara sauce, and this morning he had a couple blueberries from my blueberry pancakes. Yesterday it was the introduction of wheat with the heal of a loaf of french bread. And half a dozen sweet potato fries, of course.

Speaking of, since this is a support thread, can I just say:

He's actually eating! Didn't he get the memo that food in the first year was just for exploration??

Ok, so he's not replacing milk with food yet, but he is actually EATING, putting food in his mouth, chewing, and swallowing, and then going back for more. That's so wonderful but so sad! : I know I'm not the only parent to feel this ambivalent... right?

[Ubelle]

Originally Posted by Arwyn

Speaking of, since this is a support thread, can I just say:

He's actually eating! Didn't he get the memo that food in the first year was just for exploration??

Ok, so he's not replacing milk with food yet, but he is actually EATING, putting food in his mouth, chewing, and swallowing, and then going back for more. That's so wonderful but so sad! : I know I'm not the only parent to feel this ambivalent... right?

:

Our LO has been doing the same, and eating so much. She still nurses as much as always, sometimes more but I feel sad a sometimes a little empty that it isn't just nursing that she wants anymore.

I'm so happy I found this thread, I've been lurking for a few days, glad is isn'y dead.

When self feding and following a baby led solids/weaning approach is here such a thing is offering too much food? I am constantly worried I am giving her too many solid choices. Right now a typical week day for my DD goes as follows for food (solid servings I send are 2-3 tablespoons):

AM - nurse anywhere from 1-3 times before leaing for daycare
~ 9 am - 4 oz BM in a bottle, then 2 solids (sweet potato, turnip, fruit)
noon - She nurses anywhere from 20 min to 45min. then she gets 1-2 solids followed by 2 oz BM in bottle
~3 pm - she gets another 4 oz of BM in a bottle
5:30 pm we are home and she nurses on demand
~ 6:30 pm she has solids as much as she wants, usually 2 tablespoons woth sometimes more
Then to bed ans she nurses when ever she wants to.

If we and daycare are just jutting the food in front of her and letting her eat what she wants and stop when she is ready will she eat to much, will she wean early? - I am looking forward to a long nursing relationship but worry that it will end too soon. It took alot for me to start sending more than 1 solids serving to daycare and then I only added 1 more plus more milk and DD was still unhappy, she has been very happy with the current set-up but don't think I was/ am ready fir her to eat so much, but I can tell when she want the solids and I am trying to relax and understand that she will go at her own pace.