BLW'ers educate me please.

LIAngel

So it is my understanding that an example of BLW would be to hand Ava a sweet potatoe wedge (for example) and let her bite off and "chew" (or in her case "gum") since she has no teeth and hopefully swallow.   Is that correct?  When you first started doing BLW, weren't you afraid that your LO would bite of too big of a piece and choke on it?   Nicholas used to take such huge bites of things (like bagels for instance) and shove food into his mouth like a squirrel gathering nuts that I was afraid he'd choke.   I would never dream of handing him (when he was an infant) a big ole wedge of sweet potato and letting him go to town.   So how were you not nervous?   

Mouseygail

DH was super duper nervous...so I compromised...I gave him things like strips of a cheese quesadilla that I would hold on to...I'd use my fingers to control how much he could put into his mouth and since he didn't have teeth he had to gum a long time to work off a piece...sometimes i would perforate it a bit with my nails so that he could work off a piece sooner...  I honestly feel like it helped him learn to chew better...but my DH would probably disagree because he thinks that DS still doesn't chew things  

 

GypsyEsq

I think that those of us who are ok with BLW definitely worry about choking but recognize that by going with a BLW approach we do have to let down our mommy guard slightly.  I think the other thing is it's easier for us FTMs to have done it b/c we don't have experience otherwise.  But that aside, of course I worried about choking but honestly DD never choked.  She gagged but she also just didn't pick up things or try to eat things she couldn't handle.  And it's actually quite hard for a baby who has never eaten solid foods before to take a bite out of a hunk of anything.  We gave her alot of grilled asparagus spears at first, she simply could not bite through the skin, didin't know how I don't think, but she sucked out a lot of asparagus inner...  bananas for a long time were things she sucked, licked, smooshed in her face until one day she took a bite.  It's amazing but it just works out.