Baby led weaning thread

Lovemyboy · by **Lovemyboy** » Mon Jan 23, 2022 2:00 pm

Girls I'm at a loss as to how you approach blw with a 5 & 1/2 month old!! He will not eat from spoon!!!! O:|

PaniniRoses · by **PaniniRoses** » Mon Jan 23, 2022 2:10 pm

You don't give him one! :o0

DD started around that age and I just let her at whatever she was eating with her hands. Some good ones I found early on were very gloopy porridge, toast fingers, rice crackers, stemed veg (carrots in batons, mange tout, baby sweetcorn, etc), chicken chopped into fingers/torn into easy to manage pieces. I think I probably gave her apple or pear wedges too and she just scraped the flesh off the skin. Potato wedges, pasta shapes, etc are good too. And she loved cherry tomaotes (chopped in two to start) early on.

Lovemyboy · by **Lovemyboy** » Mon Jan 23, 2022 2:27 pm

Thanks a mill for the response!! I'm just horrified at the thought of giving him food to feed himself :eek

he has no teeth does this matter??! :-8

Say if I was to try him with porridge, do I just keave the bowl on his highchairs and let him help himself!? With his fingers? I'm so clueless I'm sorry!! :o0

PaniniRoses · by **PaniniRoses** » Mon Jan 23, 2022 2:50 pm

DD had no teeth when we started her either and you'll be amazed at how much he manages to consume! Tbh, we did a little spoon feeding, but mainly I let her off with her hands. I used to put a bowl of porridge (good and thick so it's easy to grab a fistful) and she'd just mash it into her mouth and then lick off what was left on her fingers :o0

Scrambled egg was the same when she was a bit older. Yoghurts were always fun, I gave her rice cakes with them and she'd kind of dip them into the yoghurt and sometimes it reached her mouth. Even if she didn't get the yoghurt, it made the rice cake nice and soggy so she'd monch away on that afterwards. Things like sweet potato chunks or roasted butternut squash cut into strips are great as they are nice and soft, but you will end up with a lot of it mashed into the hand until their grip develops. DD loved strips of peppers too (uncooked) and she'd gum away on them for ages (and out of the fridge they're nice and cool for teething gums too).

You'll have to invest in some full cover, long sleeved plastic bibs and possibly something for the floor! (I used a shower curtain.) Some people put a shower cap on the little ones so they don't get too much food in their hair, but realistically, you're looking at a minimum of a good rub of a face cloth in the evening. Do you have the BLW cookbook? It's great for some background info.

Lovemyboy · by **Lovemyboy** » Mon Jan 23, 2022 3:46 pm

Ok its starting to become abit clearer :-8

thanks for the advise!!

For lunch there after I unsuccessfully tried him with the spoon I gave up and gave him the spoon with food on it.....and he ate a good Bit of it. Now it was extremely messy!!! :wv

Dh thinkgs I'm mental to try this as he is terrified of ds choking but I'll just take it nice and easy!! It may work great for him as spoon feeding doesn't at all!! :duh:

PaniniRoses · by **PaniniRoses** » Mon Jan 23, 2022 8:20 pm

Sorry, never thought of the pre-loaded spoons, DD was never interested in them, she preferred her hands!

My Mam was the same as your DH, she was convinced I was trying to murder her grandchild! But since she saw her tucking into a bowl of lamb stew at 6.5mths she's a convert and evangelist and can't understand how anyone would be bothered with purees, sure they're only ridiculous! She keeps telling me things about blw that I told her, and thinking she's made some great discovery for me :o0

by **delgirl** » Thu Feb 02, 2022 3:23 pm

I have not posted on this thread in so long - been busy since getting back to work.

Lovemybaby - my mother thought I was mad trying BLW but my LO would not eat from a spoon either and still does not like to be spoon fed unless ity has some ice-cream on it :o0

I too bought BLW book and did a combination of pre-loaded spoons and finger foods, gloopy food, rice, pasta etc. She is a great eater now - eats what ever we have and can spoon feed herself very well. She can eat yoghurt, soup etc herslef off a spoon and has been chewing homemade burgers, chicken, roast potatoes etc exceptionally well since 9 months. She still only has 6 teeth but she manages fine. I would stick with it and just go with her. My LO will eat an apple in her hand now - screams if someone cuts it into chunks. She is very strong willed :-8

by **babybambino** » Fri Feb 24, 2022 11:25 pm

Thanks strangeangel for pointing out this thread, I'm feeling so much happier about weaning now, it sounds like such fun! I have a while to go before starting but could you recommend your highchair, bibs, any other essentials for weaning. We live in an apartment so a highchair that folds up or doesn't take up too much space would be ideal. I'm going to borrow the famous BLW cookbook from the library and have a read of it.= over the next few weeks.

strangeangel · by **strangeangel** » Sat Feb 25, 2022 2:34 pm

Ikea supplied everything we used for weaning

The Antilop highchair is super easy for cleaning and if you want to put it away while not in use, the legs come out of the seat part easily. It isn't huge assembled, but because the legs angle outwards slightly for balance, it can get in the way in small spaces.

We also had the bibs with long sleeves which are great for messy food and the bowls and spoons that come in sets of three bowls and six spoons (3 short and 3 long handled) - they're in green, orange and blue, I forget the product name.

by **babybambino** » Mon Feb 27, 2022 9:47 pm

That's great strangeangel thanks, the antilop high chair keeps popping up, a trip to ikea is warranted I think

PaniniRoses · by **PaniniRoses** » Thu Mar 01, 2022 11:40 am

My mum has the antilope high chair too and DD loves it, and it's nice and tidy if you're short on space. I found a shower curtain really helpful - I got one for €5 in Pennys and put it on the floor under DD so when things went flying it was easier to catch the curtain and shake it outside/into the sink then throw it in the washing machine. I never managed to find long sleeved plastic bibs so for ages DD had to make do with home made long sleeved bibs that were cheap babygrows from Penny's that I chopped the legs off! I got them 2-3 sizes bigger to make sure they were big enough to go over her clothes. And the plastic plates, bowls, cups and cutlery from Ikea are great - a nice size for small meals, the go in the dishwasher and they bounce!

by **luckymummy** » Fri Mar 16, 2022 2:02 pm

well i'm seems like me and lovely DS2 will be going down the baby led weaning route. he is 6mts2wks, started feeding him a few weeks ago, its been hit and miss really. He loves anything sweet his pureed fruits, yogurt, and even baby rice with fruit, but dinner is another story, just spits it back out at me. i said i'd keep going as we were for this week and if no better i was going to read up on BLW, buy the book and read it cover to cover and have a good ould think about it.
Then this dinner time (we have dinner early) was sitting with himself after he spat back all my lovely fish dinner when he grabed a big piece of chicken off his brothers plate and ate it!! not a bother on him, the jaw was going ilke 90 he was gumming so fast, DS1 who is only 18mts thought this was very funny and kept handing him carrots and more chicken and itall just dissappeared.
Delighted but terrified, but heart will be pounding everyday as i watch him eat.

by **wasy** » Mon Mar 19, 2022 3:28 pm

Hi Girls
DS2 is just 5 months so won't be starting weaning for another few weeks but thinking of giving BLW a shot, just a few questions. Do you need the book or can u just wing it? Also is there any foods they can't eat and do u just offer them food at every meal from the beginning? Have a 3 yearbold DS so this approach will prob suit me better this time really done know how would find the time for all that chopping and pureeing Thanks

beechwood2010 · by **beechwood2010** » Thu May 17, 2022 12:06 pm

Hi there, im due back to work mid august.. Ive been told that i should attempt weaning at 4 month.... can you give me some advice re weaning.. im currently breastfeeding...

ciaraella · by **ciaraella** » Tue Jun 05, 2022 9:34 am

Hi all,
just thought i'd give this thread a bump, DD is 7 and a half months and taking to blw really well, in the last week or so she's starting to eat alot more than before and will throw a strop if she doesn't have a bit of what we're having.
I got the blw and have made the chili which went down a treat.
Any other dinners popular with your lo's?

Beechwood if you're starting weaning at 4 months i think you're more restricted to purees, the recommendation for bf babies and blw is to start at 6 months, did your phn tell you to start weaning?
We started DD on purees at 20 weeks and looking back now i don't think i really needed to start her, we abandoned purees at 6 months and turned to blw.

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