BLW Question

LGalipp19

DD just turned five months old and we are wanting to use the Baby Led Weaning method to start her on solids. She is showing signs that she is getting hungrier and is wanting to nurse a lot more frequently than before. We bed share and I feel like she is nursing off and on all night long.

I am in the process of reading the BLW book but had a question that I thought this board might be able to help with. I was wanting to wait to start her on solids until June because of wanting to wait until she is at least six months so she would be at a lesser risk for developing food allergies.

My question isfrom what I have read, BLW says that you do not need to start with the rice cereal or oatmeal but could you? Is there a way to start them on this without spoon feeding it to them? Sorry if this is a silly question. I am a FTM and have no clue about any of this. One of the main reasons that we want to BLW is one of the reasons listed in the book in that children learn to eat what they have until they are full and not feel like they need to overeat. Like I said, I am hesitant to start her on other foods before six months because I don't want to increase her risk of food allergies as we have a big family history of this. Could I mix the oatmeal cereal with breast milk and put it in a bowl in front of her to see if she sticks her hand in and sucks it off to be able to wait for other foods until 6 months?

I know a lot of parents that start their baby on oatmeal or rice cereal before six months to satisfy their hunger when waiting to start solids but I don't know anyone using the BLW method.

Sorry if that was confusing and thank you in advance for any help!

SnoopyLuv

How could she eat thin oatmeal with her hands?

Just think about that.

ETA: That sounded harsh, but really, whenever you have a baby question- just think. And maybe ask it out loud.

The point of BLW is not to get nutrients in them, but to teach them to grasp food and put it into their mouths. It also teaches them how to chew. Giving her a bowl of slop to lick off her fingers doesn't really accomplish much because that's not how 99.9% of foods are eaten. The point is to teach your child to eat.

LGalipp19

SnoopyLuv:

How could she eat thin oatmeal with her hands?Just think about that. ETA: That sounded harsh, but really, whenever you have a baby question just think. And maybe ask it out loud. The point of BLW is not to get nutrients in them, but to teach them to grasp food and put it into their mouths. It also teaches them how to chew. Giving her a bowl of slop to lick off her fingers doesn't really accomplish much because that's not how 99.9 of foods are eaten. The point is to teach your child to eat.

She would eat it the same way she could eat things steamed or an avocado for example. I know at first some of it gets smashed all over their hands, knawed off and put into their mouths etc. My main reason for BLW is to help her learn when she is full instead of me putting spoonful after spoonful in her mouth. Teaching her how to grasp food and chew are not my primary reasons for doing this. There is no reason that she needs to learn that right now at this stage. People BLW for so many reasons. It may not have been a good idea but I was just exploring options beyond spoon feeding. I'll probably just end up waiting to start her on foods in a few weeks.

Jenny952

The whole concept of BLW is that the baby figures out food for herself and decides how much and when to eat.  Keep in mind that food before 1 is just for fun, so you don't have to worry about getting any nutrients, especially at first.  Think about food in wedges, like pears or bananas, or sweet potato fries... things she can hold in her hand and gnaw on.  The point is for her to explore on her own and then continue to introduce new foods as she gets more skilled.  True BLW means you won't feed her anything off a spoon or in a puree form.

I did a BLW-lite approach with DD.  She got some pear wedges or banana, but she spent more time squeezing it than actually getting anything in her mouth.  I also fed her a few purees, like applesauce and yogurt.  She actually didn't like food until about 9 months.  For a while I didn't give her any food b/c she wasn't all that interested.  Once she was 9-10 months she was much more interested and I was sending meals to daycare with her.  Now at 18 months we do a mix of table foods, like shredded chicken, toast, quesadillas, fruit, etc. and purees like yogurt, applesauce, hummus and cottage cheese that I help her eat with a spoon.  BLW is fun and I did like not buying baby food, but for me I found that I had to also include some pureed foods in DD's diet.

SnoopyLuv

LGalipp19:

SnoopyLuv:

How could she eat thin oatmeal with her hands?Just think about that. ETA: That sounded harsh, but really, whenever you have a baby question just think. And maybe ask it out loud. The point of BLW is not to get nutrients in them, but to teach them to grasp food and put it into their mouths. It also teaches them how to chew. Giving her a bowl of slop to lick off her fingers doesn't really accomplish much because that's not how 99.9 of foods are eaten. The point is to teach your child to eat.

She would eat it the same way she could eat things steamed or an avocado for example. I know at first some of it gets smashed all over their hands, knawed off and put into their mouths etc. My main reason for BLW is to help her learn when she is full instead of me putting spoonful after spoonful in her mouth. Teaching her how to grasp food and chew are not my primary reasons for doing this. There is no reason that she needs to learn that right now at this stage. People BLW for so many reasons. It may not have been a good idea but I was just exploring options beyond spoon feeding. I'll probably just end up waiting to start her on foods in a few weeks.

 

No, people do BLW to teach their children how to eat solid food.

RoryorHenry?

I am doing BLW with my almost 7 month old daughter. I had completely intended on waiting until 6 months to start but she was strongly showing all the signs that she was ready to eat by just after 5 months. She was sitting up unassisted, had lost her tongue thrust, and most importantly aggressively grabbing food from our plates. After much deliberation I decided to follow her cues instead of following a calendar. I decided it is called BABY led weaning for a reason.

My daughter has a milk protein allergy as well as soy intolerance so I understand your concern about allergies but I truly believe that if they are showing the signs than they are ready to start.

That said, I did not notice you saying that your daughter is showing the food readiness signs in the book that I mentioned above. Frequent night nursing does not mean that she is ready for solid foods. It just means she needs b breast milk or formula. In fact you should not expect any decrease in breast milk consumption when you start solids.

Oatmeal would be very hard for your daughter to eat by self feeding and I really don't recommend starting with it if you truly want to do BLW. My daughter has a very hard time with all of the squishy foods and does much better with easy to hold strips of meat, toast, vegetables, and fruit.

I would suggest eating with your daughter sitting on your lap and seeing if she try's to steel your food. If she is actively trying to eat than go ahead and start before 6 months, otherwise hold off.

Definitely keep reading the book as it has a lot of great insight for first time moms. I'm a FTM too and I found the book very helpful.

LGalipp19

RoryorHenry?:

I am doing BLW with my almost 7 month old daughter. I had completely intended on waiting until 6 months to start but she was strongly showing all the signs that she was ready to eat by just after 5 months. She was sitting up unassisted, had lost her tongue thrust, and most importantly aggressively grabbing food from our plates. After much deliberation I decided to follow her cues instead of following a calendar. I decided it is called BABY led weaning for a reason. My daughter has a milk protein allergy as well as soy intolerance so I understand your concern about allergies but I truly believe that if they are showing the signs than they are ready to start. That said, I did not notice you saying that your daughter is showing the food readiness signs in the book that I mentioned above. Frequent night nursing does not mean that she is ready for solid foods. It just means she needs b breast milk or formula. In fact you should not expect any decrease in breast milk consumption when you start solids. Oatmeal would be very hard for your daughter to eat by self feeding and I really don't recommend starting with it if you truly want to do BLW. My daughter has a very hard time with all of the squishy foods and does much better with easy to hold strips of meat, toast, vegetables, and fruit. I would suggest eating with your daughter sitting on your lap and seeing if she try's to steel your food. If she is actively trying to eat than go ahead and start before 6 months, otherwise hold off. Definitely keep reading the book as it has a lot of great insight for first time moms. I'm a FTM too and I found the book very helpful.

 

Thank you so much everyone for your help! RoryorHenry-Thank you for the story of starting before 6 months and it working out. I think I will do what you suggested and see if she tries to take anything off my plate but just keep breastfeeding as normal. Thanks again!

RoryorHenry?

Edited to delete duplicate post.

RoryorHenry?

LGalipp19:

RoryorHenry?:

I am doing BLW with my almost 7 month old daughter. I had completely intended on waiting until 6 months to start but she was strongly showing all the signs that she was ready to eat by just after 5 months. She was sitting up unassisted, had lost her tongue thrust, and most importantly aggressively grabbing food from our plates. After much deliberation I decided to follow her cues instead of following a calendar. I decided it is called BABY led weaning for a reason.

My daughter has a milk protein allergy as well as soy intolerance so I understand your concern about allergies but I truly believe that if they are showing the signs than they are ready to start.

That said, I did not notice you saying that your daughter is showing the food readiness signs in the book that I mentioned above. Frequent night nursing does not mean that she is ready for solid foods. It just means she needs b breast milk or formula. In fact you should not expect any decrease in breast milk consumption when you start solids.

Oatmeal would be very hard for your daughter to eat by self feeding and I really don't recommend starting with it if you truly want to do BLW. My daughter has a very hard time with all of the squishy foods and does much better with easy to hold strips of meat, toast, vegetables, and fruit.

I would suggest eating with your daughter sitting on your lap and seeing if she try's to steel your food. If she is actively trying to eat than go ahead and start before 6 months, otherwise hold off.

Definitely keep reading the book as it has a lot of great insight for first time moms. I'm a FTM too and I found the book very helpful.

 

Thank you so much everyone for your help! RoryorHenry-Thank you for the story of starting before 6 months and it working out. I think I will do what you suggested and see if she tries to take anything off my plate but just keep breastfeeding as normal. Thanks again!

Good luck with it! We have been having so much fun with the process. I found the gagging really scary at first but I understand that it is part of the learning process and now she eats like a champ. Have fun!!!

tjkdlhb

We did BLW and we did give her oatmeal.  We didn't spoon feed it to her. Actually it was because she started reaching for food at about 5.5 months.  I just mixed it really thick and plopped in front of her expecting her to essentially paint with it.  She loved it.  She grabbed fistfuls, licked her fingers and even licked the table. She couldn't get enough of it. 

That being said... she probably only ever ate about a half of a box of it before I just started making regular oatmeal for her.  But it was great for transitioning and my nerves!

blu-eyedwife

Just a couple of thoughts:

1) Solids DO NOT help with hunger/filling her up.  I really want to stress that since that's your primary purpose for starting early.  Breastmilk has 22 kcal/oz and 1.15 grams of fat/oz (on average).  Oatmeal has 17 kcal/oz and .3g of fat/oz.    Which means if your child drinks 4oz of breastmilk, she's getting 96 calories and 4.6 grams of fat.  Chances are, she's not going to eat anywhere near 4oz of oatmeal (1/2 a cup) and even if she did, it would have less calories and less fat.

2)  Reaching for food is really not enough to determine that your child is ready for solids.   It's an indicator, but if it's the only one, she's not ready.  Children are very into social mimicing at this age, and so she wants what you have.  She'll also reach for your keys, but that doesn't mean she's ready to drive.  Make sure she has ALL the signs of readiness before starting.  It's not just about allergies, it's also about physical and digestive development.  A baby who does not sit completely unassisted is at risk for choking - even on oatmeal.  If she's not able to direct objects with purpose into her mouth (not oh hey! My fist somehow got in here!) then she's not ready.

3) Going off number 2 - I actually disagree that you can't do oatmeal with BLW.  Of course you can.  Yogurt has always been a big part for us, and that's not very different.  The thing is, I don't spoon feed.  I load the spoon and hand it over to him and he directs it to his mouth and feeds himself.  Then hands the spoon back.  If your daughter can do this at 5 months, then go ahead with the oatmeal, but again, keep in mind that there's absolutely no benefit to introducing empty oatmeal calories at this point in time.

4) I've been on TB for a couple years now and I've seen some pretty scary stories posted about baby feeding with BLW.  And each time the poster goes off about how dangerous BLW is because their child nearly died. AND EVERY SINGLE TIME the poster has either started BLW earlier than 6 months or is not actually following the BLW guidelines.  Please finish reading the book first.  It actually answers your questions.  There's a section about starting earlier than 6 months.  There's a section about oatmeal/purees before 6 months.  There's even a section on spoon loading.  And therefore all your questions would have already been answered.

tjkdlhb

Ditto ALL of what Blu-eyedwife said.

LGalipp19

Good to hear all if your opinions and input. I was just exploring options as I was reading the book. Decided to wait until next month and most likely not going to do true BLW. Thanks again.