Baby Led Weaning (BLW)

LDSJM123

Here's the place for all the questions, tips, tricks, recipes, and fun pictures of this feeding journey! 

kellz14

Alright first question. They say baby is ready for solids when they can sit up on their own, as one of the pre-reqs. I've read though that for most babies, they can sit up for a few minutes independently at like 5/6 months.. but don't really master it til 7 or 8. If that's the case, how can they sit up eat on their own at 6 months if they haven't fully mastered it yet?? 

arhodes6

@kellz14 I could be wrong, but I thought that they had to be able to sit upright because if they can't and have to lean backwards there is a greater risk of choking. I am not sure if they have to master sitting on their own, just be able to sit so they can eat and not fall/lean backwards. 

TiffRox81

We're planning to start with some purées for I figure at least a month. Things like avocado, squash, sweet potato and banana. Then move on to actual (super soft) foods in their actual form. I'm curious about portion sizes and frequency. Anyone have thoughts on that? I have some 2oz and 4oz freezer containers. I wasn't sure if even the 2oz would be too much for a single sitting. And do we do this in lieu of a bottle or with the bottle? Definitely need to start doing my homework cause clearly I'm clueless about a lot of it, lol. 

shaylalr

I have never done baby led weaning, but as a previous nanny I know a bit about starting solids. Usually you give them solids after a bottle. Most of their nutrients are from milk and solids shouldn't substitute it. I would definitely just start with 2oz and see how it goes. 

austinjl

I've started with some sweet potatoes/breastmilk that I pureed and put in ice trays.  We are on day 5 and Elijah is just taking half an ice cube. I just made squash today to try later this week. We will do soft foods once he gets the purées down.

austinjl

I just got the blw book from the lib.  Has anybody read through it?  If so, any reviews?

arhodes6

@austinjl I have read through it and I think for us it is exactly what I want to do. Obviously you have to understand that the people who wrote the book are very passionate about BLW, so I also looked up cons to it as well. The benefits out weighed the cons for me. I am planning to follow the book by giving full pieces of food, no purées, and letting my LO decide if he is still hungry or if he is full. I will still nurse, before giving solids so he isn't starving, until he is ready to drop feedings. I love the idea behind the book/concept and want to give Q the chance to love it too. 

LDSJM123

As mentioned above, I don't think they have to have mastered sitting independently, but need to be able too in a high chair. 

I'll continue to nurse like normal and when a meal time comes, I'll stick her in the high chair and let her eat/play with whatever we're having. No portion sizes per say, but she won't be getting table food when she's hungry. I'm really sticking to the idea of food before 1 is just for fun. 

Im about halfway through the book. As a foodie, it really has been resignating with me and the ideas behind it are great. I know with my first daughter (10 years ago) I did a variation of BLW without even realizing. I was just winging it and trusting my gut. It's nice to have a guide this time. 

sunshineandwhiskey

I got the BLW cookbook which I think is really helpful too!  It has all of the basic information from the actual book, and it has tons of cool recipes to try.  and the servings are listed as "1 adult and 1 baby serving" which i thought was cute.  

We are gradually introducing food, and I would like to focus mainly on BLW.  I like how it allows the baby to control when they eat solids and how frequently they want to.  Currently we have tried baby carrots, apple pieces, and a part of a banana.  We left the banana in the skin and cut a strip off the top and she went to town!  She probably just liked mashing it with her gums, but it was cool to see.  

winnie1122

Got the go ahead from the pediatrician to start introducing some stuff, but LO has had a bit of a cold and had a fever after shots on Wednesday so we haven't tried anything yet. I was going to start with peas, and we're planning to make our own, but what is the best way to puree stuff in small batches? I don't really want to start stashing large amounts of anything since we're basically just tasting and practicing right now, but even my littlest food processor seems too big to make a small batch of peas! I know they have those baby bullet blenders, but I would rather not buy more appliances if I can help it.

holly142

I have this and it's nice for small quantities. For bigger amounts I use my Blendtec. 

DachshundMomma

@winnie1122 Baby Breza makes a steamer/puree machine that's really nice. Pricey but if you can find one on sale it's worth it. 

LDSJM123

If you're going the purée route, steaming, boiling, or roasting the fruit/veggies is easy. Then toss it in a food processor/blender with some milk to the consistency of you're liking. I personally am not big on extra kitchen gadgets so I like to use what I've got. But I've heard good things about baby bullet and the Breza. Food mills are great too. You can just purée whatever you're eating with it. 

@winnie1122

[Deleted User]

I plan to do a combination of BLW and purees. I did some apple purees and froze them the other day, but we may try avocado, bananas, sweet potato.. We have a food grinder I got at one of my showers so I may try that out as well!

winnie1122

I gave him a little piece of avocado to play with tonight and he liked squishing it but I don't think he could pick it up, haha. So he just kinda alternated between squishing it and sucking his thumb. But it was fun to see him examine it! 

shaylalr

Elise has had really bad diarrhea for 2 weeks now. Going to the pediatrician for the third time tomorrow. I was so sick of it I thought maybe bananas would help so I gave her some "sticks" of banana. She picked it up, put it in her mouth, made a weird face and then threw all the pieces on the floor. This is going to be interesting. 

mnkenned

@shaylalr - ask your pedi about probiotics...a lot of times after a diarrheal illness the gut flora is all effed and some studies have shown quicker resolution with probiotics.

@winnie1122 - I have an immersion blender similar to @holly142 by Breville. I love it for soups and stuff and I think it would probably work really well for small batches of purée.

shaylalr

@mnkenned Thanks! We had been doing that. Thankfully, after 3 weeks, the diarrhea has stopped. 

DachshundMomma

Funny story: my husband and I went out to dinner last night and I had DS on my lap as I was eating. When I turned my head for a millisecond, DS reached in my food and took a giant handful of lettuce. Not the BLW weaning direction I was thinking lol. 

Ps. I did take it away before he got it all the way in his mouth. 

FTM53

@DachshundMomma OMG! At least yours was lettuce! We hosted our monthly poker game on Saturday. I was holding DS and picked up a chocolate chip cookie I had one bite and the DS lunged for it, grabbed it and shoved it in his mouth within 2.5 seconds. It was too big for him to actually get into his mouth, but looked adorable so I called DH over and we laughed. Then I took it away from him and finished it. The look on his face was priceless! BLW FTW!!

arhodes6

I met with a new pediatrician this week and she gave me the go ahead to start BLW! We decided we would wait until Christmas so it can be a fun thing with family and Q will be almost 6 months, but I'm getting excited! I am so excited I've given him a few things already and he did great! I let him play with an apple I've had a few bites of and he got a few big chunks of but just spit them out and started sucking on it. And I gave him a chunk of watermelon the other day that was way to big to get in his mouth but he could play with it easily. He picked it up off the table and put it right to his mouth. He used his bottom teeth to scrape it and get some meat off. He was loving it!! It's amazing to see BLW work like the book said. 

We practice eating with him every day to get him ready. When I eat I set him in his chair and give him the sassy banana on his tray so he can practice picking it up and putting it in his mouth. Christmas feels like it did years ago now since I'm so excited to see him eat! 

arhodes6

So we have tried a few more foods and it has gone really well BUT it is extreamly terrifying to see Q gag on foods!! I freak out and I am usually a pretty chill person. It's really awesome to see him work out how big of bites to take, figure out how to swallow, which seems so natural to me, and see which foods he likes best. But that split second where he is gagging and looks like he is choking I die a little on the inside. And then he swallows, breaths and keeps eating. Baby led weaning is NOT for the faint of heart! 

On another note, we have tried so many different things and he seems to be loving all of it! He pretty much likes everything so far, but he loves zucchini and eggs ( I do them like an omelette really well done then slice it into finger sized pieces)! He will freak if I take away his zucchini or egg lol it's pretty cute. I am also doing a little bit of rice cereal on the peds orders (for the iron). I hold the spoon out in front of his face and let him guide it in his mouth and he seems to like that too! 

DachshundMomma

We are doing a variation of BLW with some purees involved too, mainly because he's 21 weeks and I'm a nervous nelly. But I'm taking his cues and starting foods. He's been reaching for my food for a few weeks but I wanted to wait til the 21 week mark. So far we've just done oatmeal, which we grind ourselves because it's much cheaper that way and the oatmeal baby cereals had a lot more in the ingredients than oatmeal. 
DS loves it. He takes the spoon, while I'm holding it, and puts it in his mouth himself. We are going to add in some veggies and fruits soon too.
How have you all introduced fruits and veggies? Do you mush them at all or just steam them? From what I've read, BLW doesn't do purees but I know it varies from baby to baby.

LDSJM123

M isn't 6 months yet, and our high chair is still being built (ordered it from an Amish woodworker.) but she has displayed some readiness signs. We too ground up our own steel cut oats. I did half water half apple cider and added cinnamon. It was delicious! And she gobbled it right up. I was really shocked by the extra ingredients in baby oatmeal. I'm excited for our high chair to get here so we can really dive into BLW. For now steel cuts at breakfast a few days a week will suffice. 

@DachshundMomma

holly142

I'm doing a mixture of BLW and purées. We just started a week ago. DD2 will be 6 months tomorrow. I mushed up avocado with breast milk and gave her little chunks. Next time I'll give her little slices. Last night I steamed carrots and blended them with breast milk. She liked that one! We are only introducing 1 thing every 5 days like my pedi recommended. 

FTM53

We are doing a mix too. So far it's only been purees/mashes, but out high chair gets here today, so I'll be starting to give him more finger foods. We've done banana, banana mixed w/BM, carrots, avocado, broccoli mixed w/BM, sweet potato mixed w/BM, and small bites of scrambled egg. He's not been the biggest fan of broccoli, but everything else has been mostly a hit. Oh! And we did a few bites of Greek yogurt! He absolutely LOVED that. I have had 6mo appointment next week and going to confirm the yogurt is a-okay. 

Waiting on my my food processor to do steel cut oats and some of the heartier fruit/veggies like apples. 

LDSJM123

Not sure if you have a vitamix or other high power blender, but I prefer that for grinding the steel cut oats. It took way longer in my food processor. It's also getting old... so that could be it too. @FTM53

FTM53

@LDSJM123 I'll try it in my blender. I used the blender for the broccoli and it worked well enough. 

winnie1122

So DH isn't sold on the BLW method, so I guess we're gonna start with puréed stuff more and go from there. He got me a baby bullet for Christmas so at least I'll be able to make my own baby food a bit easier, and I do still want to implement the BLW stuff as much as DH is comfortable with. LO is DEFINITELY ready for starting the process though, so I have given him the in between type foods to play with in his high chair like avocado and mashed potatoes while I do work in the kitchen. 

DachshundMomma

I love how our babies just seem to know and figure out what they're supposed to do. It's such a fun process to watch.

FTM53

@DachshundMomma I completely agree. DS is learning how to chew and is so excited about it so now anything he's excited he does the chewing motion with his mouth. It's so adorable. 

shaylalr

E is NOT interested anymore. She will pick up food and put it in her mouth, but the minute she tastes it she grimaces, spits it out, and throws it on the floor. I guess we will just keep trying! She won't even swallow purees. 

babycakesday

@shaylalr Baby J did this a couple weeks ago and the doctor upped her prevacid from once a day to twice and voilà she's eating everything again. 

FTM53

So DH is not on board with BLW. We got our high chair and I wanted to just cut up some banana for DS to pick up and DH kinda got "really concerned"  We will discuss it with our pediatrician next Friday. 

shaylalr

@babycakesday That's interesting! We have had no problems with that at all. She wants to grab things from me, but has never been interested in eating any of it at all. She just doesn't seem to like how anything tastes. 

winnie1122

Ok so I know this is a BLW thread, but since it's where the solids convo had been happening I'll just post anyways. I used my baby bullet for the first time today to start some purees and we did our first real feeding, and he LOVED it. I did avocados and he stole the spoon from me and just wanted to do everything himself. Before when I had given him a piece of avocado to play with he couldn't really get enough in his hand and didn't try to eat it, just sort of stuck his fingers in it and then sat there sucking his thumb, so I wasn't sure what he thought about it. It was fun to see him slurp it off the spoon and decide what he thought about the taste and then go crazy with it. 

babycakesday

@shaylalr does she do it to foods she used to like? Have you tried eating it first and letting her take it from you?  

shaylalr

She won't eat anything at all since we started. So she doesn't like anything. Not even bananas. She will gum raw cucumbers but hasn't swallowed anything she has been given. And yep!! I've tried that. Just lots of grimaces and then she refuses to even try it again. 

winnie1122

@shaylalr Have you tried mixing stuff with breast milk? I don't have any idea if that would work, but I know a lot of people made that suggestion during our discussions about troubles switching to formula, so maybe it would work here too? Like oatmeal mixed with breastmilk to get her started? Good luck! I'm sure she'll like something eventually! 

shaylalr

Yeah! I remembered that I tried mixing pears with formula but she wouldn't eat that either. Just going to keep offering food to her and see what happens!!