[mrsfrenchy]

DD will be ready for solids soon and I'm trying to figure out what her first "meal" should be (although I doubt she'll do much actual eating).

I've read a good amount of information on BLW, but I'm still not sure what I should do first and when certain foods (like pasta or toast) would be appropriate.

So if you used/are using the baby-led weaning method, what were the first few foods that you gave to your LO?

ETA: i should add that by baby-led weaning, i mean skipping purees and spoon feeding, and instead just letting DD feed herself. for instance brocolli is the one food i've seen suggested often as a "first food" because it kind of has a "handle" for the baby to hold it by.

 

[alegna]

forgive shortness- squirmy baby

fruits and veggies

avocado
banana
sweet potato

-Angela

 

[frenchy chan]

we did avocado, sweet potato, bananas, apples....i can't remember....but we weren't very consistent with feeding purees everyday and we ended up skipping a lot of pureed food and went to small pieces of solid food. we have no history of food allergies in our family, so i don't think i waited too long before dd got pasta and tomato sauce....maybe like 10 months old....

you can pretty much do any food that you can mush up as long as it's not one of the high allergy foods

 

[Arwyn]

Fruits (ripe pear was his first) and veg (green beans, sweet potatoes)

 

[mama2peyton]

We did exactly the same as PP:

avocado
banana
sweet potato- they are all pretty easily mushed up in the mouth

I also did broccoli pretty early on, but personally I don't think it's essential to have food with a "handle". They'll find a way to grab hold of it!

As far as knowing when to introduce new foods, I think it really depends on the baby. You might want to wait on some foods until the gag reflex has further diminished (but maybe that's just me, DD has a strong gag reflex) and also consider if there is any family history of allergies and hold off on those particular foods.

Good luck with BLW, I love it!

 

[mrsfrenchy]

if you didn't spoon feed the avacados and sweet potatoes, how did you serve them? or did you put them on the spoon and then hand the spoon to your LO?

 

[alegna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mama2peyton We did exactly the same as PP: avocado banana sweet potato- they are all pretty easily mushed up in the mouth I also did broccoli pretty early on, but personally I don't think it's essential to have food with a "handle". They'll find a way to grab hold of it! As far as knowing when to introduce new foods, I think it really depends on the baby. You might want to wait on some foods until the gag reflex has further diminished (but maybe that's just me, DD has a strong gag reflex) and also consider if there is any family history of allergies and hold off on those particular foods. Good luck with BLW, I love it!

yeah, we did broccoli just last weekend... little florets EVERYWHERE...

a good time was had by all...

-Angela

 

[butterfly_mommy]

At 7 mons DS tried Avocado slices, half a banana with some skin on, pear slices, peaches, roasted sweet potato

We tried broccoli as his fourth food (8 mons) but he had a hard time digesting it and was gassy so we weighted and he has had some since with no problems.

DS had kamut pasta about a 6 weeks ago and since then has had Kamut puffs and Oatie-O's, oatmeal, but no wheat yet. I debated and thought about and read about and researched out feeding grains and I decided to do what felt right.

Now DS eats pretty much anything except, Wheat, Honey, Strawberries, nuts, sugar, processed food and choaky food like popcorn and stuff.

 

[accountclosed2]

Avocado is a bit harder, you can try leaving half the peel on, and cut it in long chunky slices, leaving a bit of a "handle". Now I usually smear it on crackers, or try it on toast. Most root veg can easiest be cut like chunky fries and baked in the oven with oil. Very easy to eat. DD also likes asparagus, and to chomp on long pieces of meat. Pasta spirals are easy to eat too (we use rice pasta). She loves bananas, at the beginning we left some skin on for her.

It is up to you in what order to introduce things. Recently the advice here was changed to say it doesn't matter what order you feed things, unless there are allergies in the family. DH has food allergies, so we decided to keep milk, wheat and eggs back until a year. I introduced yoghurt and spelt at 8 months, as they may be easier to deal with. Babies should not have honey in the first year, and salt (sodium) should be kept to a minimum as it can damage immature kidneys. And it is a good idea to wait with sugar...

Try to make family meals, including things your baby can have/a good shape for baby. Gill Rapley recommends that your child can choose from 2-4 foods at every meal in the beginning. So we might have pasta with a pasta sauce, asparagus and broccoli. DD may or may not have the sauce depending on what's in it. Or we may have lamb chops with sweet potato and potato "fries" and cucumber sticks. If we eat something she shouldn't have we cook veggies as a side for all of us.

 

[pixiepunk]

we've done pretty much the same as the pp's (with all three of our kids thus far). banana, avocado, sweet potato. now she's also had carrots (sometimes just chaws on a raw one, which is great for teething, but has also had steamed) and green beans and potatoes and broccoli. as far as pasta goes, there are lots of wheat-free pastas in the health food aisles of most stores, and baby just had some of that last night and it was a hit!

i hold off on wheat until close to a year, as my dad has some issues with it (well and lots of food allergies in general, so i'm very cautious). so no toast or crackers for a while yet, there's not a lot of gluten free stuff available where i am and i'm too lazy to bake GF bread just for the baby to have some toast

my older two were terrible spoon feeding themselves and didn't let me do it, so they didn't get anything via spoon until they were at least a year old. this baby is really good at putting a spoon straight into her own mouth, though, so she's also had some oatmeal and after she grabbed my spoon which was full of yogurt and stuffed it in her mouth and smacked her lips, i've let her have some unflavored homemade yogurt a few times which she goes crazy for

once baby has a good pincer grasp, you can also do some dry cereals - you can usually get organic O's, and this baby looooves puffed brwn rice cereal, and i got it in a bag in the health food aisle of our local grocery store for like $1.50 and it'll last forever! the only ingredient is organic brown rice, so gotta love that, and it's a great thing to throw in a little container and bring along as a snack. also a great way to keep her occupied while i'm getting DD1 ready for school, cooking dinner, etc. if she's not in the mood to be worn.

there's a great support thread here in LWAB (might be on page 2 or 3) all about BLW, which you might want to check out too

 

[mama2peyton]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alegna yeah, we did broccoli just last weekend... little florets EVERYWHERE... a good time was had by all... -Angela

Did I forget to mention how messy broccoli can be? I'm still finding florets in the crevices of the highchair!

 

[mama2peyton]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrsfrenchy if you didn't spoon feed the avacados and sweet potatoes, how did you serve them? or did you put them on the spoon and then hand the spoon to your LO?

With the avocado, I cut it into a small wedge and left the skin on so there would be something to grab hold of, otherwise it's very slippery. The sweet potato, I cut up into chunks and steamed and just served in chunks. I've also baked sweet potato and served in fry shape. We actually haven't used a spoon at all with DD.

 

[SandraS]

Whatever we are eating. I didn't follow any rules, didn't regulate or restrict, didn't introduce slowly. We have no food allergies so there's nothing our babies can't have from six months on. Her "first" meal was shrimp fried rice, technically - and from then on out it was simply whatever we were eating. No thinking needed, easy squeezy!

 

[YesandNo]

Try the book "Super Babyfoods" - it has all the details month by month.

 

[Tizzy]

Maybe my avacados are over ripe? It's all pasty and impossible for him to eat unless it's on a spoon.
So we compromise, I load the spoon then he sucks on it for a few minutes.