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Babies: 6 - 9 Months
kmm2150
member
Starting BLW - a few questions
kmm2150
member
We are about to hopefully start BLW and just have a few questions:
1. Did you talk to you pedi before starting, and what did he/she say? Ours is great but kind of old school, and I know at her 4 month appt. he mentioned rice cereal at 6 mos.
2. Do you have a list or chart or anything where you're tracking what foods LO has tried and how s/he reacts?
3. We are not great about cooking at home - what do you feed LO if you and DH are eating something that LO can't have?
4. I'm down with avacado, mushy steamed veggies etc., but meat terrifies me - how do you prepare it, when did you first introduce it, how does LO handle it?
Any other pointers you have for getting started are much appreciated!
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Re: Starting BLW - a few questions
Hi! We actually started right before 7 months. And the first foods were soft, i.e. banana, sweet potato, avocado.
We didn't ask the pedi first, I just went for it. Same for cereal. I started it a little before 4 months because DD was showing interest. At 4 months, pedi said I could've/should've waited. Then at 6 month appt, pedi was ok with DD's progress with foods, as long as I was still feeding enough BM.
As for tracking, I just feed her. We went through all the fruits/veggies first between 4-6 months, and each time, we waited 3 days before introducing a new food. At 6 months, the first foods were a lot that she had before. We then just starting throwing more food options into the mix. I figure if she has a reaction, I'll remember what it was, because now we are really only introducing one or two new foods every couple days. We rely on a lot of the same foods.
With that said, when we have something that is not great for LO, we give her a variety of things: purees, cottage cheese, string cheese, toast strips with hummus or peanut butter, fruit, veggies, etc. We also bought the Gerber graduates toddler raviolis. They are really soft and DD loves them. She can pick them up without a problem and eat them. Typically, I cook a meal and it's too hot or too late for DD to eat the same thing... so usually, she will have it for dinner the next night. Or, I make big batches of chicken and sweet potatoes, etc. She loves sweet potatoes.
When we first introduced meat, I did it in small pieces. I noticed that with bigger chunks of ground turkey, she was having issues. Same with chicken. So, we just started making the pieces even smaller. Little shreds of chicken and finely ground turkey. She's had no problems since. Once she gets teeth, we'll make the pieces bigger.
One thing... DD loves to shove everything in her mouth at once. So, I give her one or two pieces of things at a time. Good luck!
1. We did not talk to our pedi before starting. With my son we did a mix of purees and table foods and had a pretty good idea of our pedi's stance on things, which was that they would recommend the standard and we could do what we felt was best. Now we're doing strictly BLW with this one and the pedi asks about it and says "great" when we tell her.
2. We do not track what foods she has or hasn't had. We have no history of food allergies in either family so we're not worried. We figure that if she has a reaction we'll do an elimination diet to figure it out. I don't want to deny her food because she tried something new yesterday so can't try something new today or anything like that. I do mentally keep track of "risky" foods like nuts or strawberries. I still give them to her but I make a note and then later I can feel more comfortable because she's already had it.
3. I have a toddler as well so we're in the habit of keeping things on hand for quick snacks for the kids. We do fruit purees on toast, fruit, cheese, cereal or yogurt usually. I also make smoothies and put them in refillable pouches (thesilico.com) and have those available.
4. Meat is trickier. If she reaches for the meat on my plate I'll give it to her, usually in long sticks and she just kinda gums on the end. If I specifically want her to eat meat I'll make hamburgers, meatloaf or meatballs. Ground meats are pretty easy for them to handle. I cut into pretty big chunks so she can grab it with her whole fist.
1. Did you talk to you pedi before starting, and what did he/she say? Ours is great but kind of old school, and I know at her 4 month appt. he mentioned rice cereal at 6 mos.
Nope. At the 4 month appointment, our ped had said that we could start solids at 6 months and that's what I was planning to do, so just said "OK." A few weeks later, my daughter started lunging at our food and grabbing food of my dinner plate so I did my own research and decided I was OK with starting a little early given her "signs of readiness." We have the 6 month appointment next week so if the Ped asks about solids, I'll tell her what we're doing but I'm not really looking for approval - whether to use purees or solids is just a matter of preference, not medicine.
2. Do you have a list or chart or anything where you're tracking what foods LO has tried and how s/he reacts?
Nope. Neither my husband or myself have food allergies and my daughter hadn't reacted to any foods I ate while breastfeeding, so we didn't have reason to suspect we would have an allergic reaction to things. So we just give her what we're having, without salt. Sometimes that means more than 1 new food in a day. Read the book - it has a great discussion of this.
3. We are not great about cooking at home - what do you feed LO if you and DH are eating something that LO can't have?
Cooking at home is the easiest way to do BLW plus it saves you money by not eating out or buying ready-made things. But, ready-made things are alright in moderation for baby if they don't have added salt, sugar, or a bunch of additives. If we're eating something she can't have, we might steam some broccoli, roast some yam slices, etc. We generally make a large quantity of these things & keep them in the fridge for the week and pull out for snacks as needed.
4. I'm down with avacado, mushy steamed veggies etc., but meat terrifies me - how do you prepare it, when did you first introduce it, how does LO handle it?
Meat is actually one of the easiest things for her to eat, plus they need extra iron starting at around 6 months. If you're not going to give your baby meat, then you might think about iron-fortified cereals, iron vitamins, or tons of spinach (our daughter actually eats spinach daily & meat a couple times a week). To prepare baby-friendly meat, we take a roast & season it as we normally would except for salt, then put it in the slow cooker for a few hours. We then cut her a 2" by 1" slice and place it on her tray. We eat the same roast, in whatever size we feel like. My daughter loves it.
It's a lot of fun! Enjoy!!
1. Did you talk to you pedi before starting, and what did he/she say? Ours is great but kind of old school, and I know at her 4 month appt. he mentioned rice cereal at 6 mos. No, but he doesn't really dealve much into the details, which is fine with us. He respects most parenting choices, like feeding. At the 4 month appointment he said we could start solids. I said I'd rather wait till 6 months and he thought that was fine. At the 6 month appointment he just asked if the babe was on solid food yet and was thrilled when I said the little guy loves food.
2. Do you have a list or chart or anything where you're tracking what foods LO has tried and how s/he reacts? Nope. Allergies are more of an issue before 6 months, since we waited until 6 months we've just been letting him go at it. No allergy issues so far. We've only held off on nuts.
3. We are not great about cooking at home - what do you feed LO if you and DH are eating something that LO can't have? I cook at home 6-7 nights a week, so this may not apply. There is practicially nothing I make that LO can't have. We let him eat it all. When I do something like a nut crusted chicken breast, or heavily spiced pork, I just remove his portion before coating it in nuts or adding the spice.
4. I'm down with avacado, mushy steamed veggies etc., but meat terrifies me - how do you prepare it, when did you first introduce it, how does LO handle it? We introduced meat right away with his first meal - breakfast sausage, which is easy for him to handle and get in his mouth. My guy LOVES meats. His first week he was sucking and gumming on steak, pork chop, chicken. The following week he had chopped liver and duck! I cut everything into finger sized shapes and just let him go at it.
Any other pointers you have for getting started are much appreciated! You sound really nervous. Have you read the Gill Ripley book? Reading that really helped me with nerves. The pictures of the kids eating, the reasoning behind it, the research, seeing him behave exactly as they describe it - all made it stress free for me.
Haha I guess so! Haven't read the book but have done lots of reading on a number of BLW websites. Not really nervous - we actually gave her a big hunk of avocado the other day - most of it ended up on her shirt, but it was fun. I guess the isolated act of her eating food is no big deal to me (just the meat thing - just seems like it would be harder for her to eat it with no teeth, but I guess it works out!), more like how this becomes part of our daily activity and how it evolves from her trying food and exploring into her eventually eating table food with us is mind-boggling to me!
I guess I'm also stressing/overthinking because, like I said, we aren't great at cooking at home, so I know I'm going to need to improve my meal-planning and shopping habits so that we can regularly have healthy things for her (and us!) to eat.
Thanks for all the info!!
Just wanted to add re: not cooking at home
When we do go out to eat, we try to order something she can nibble on but if we want to eat a cheeseburger & fries, then we might pull off some of the bun bread, get extra tomato slices & lettuce leaves for her to munch on. If we're at a restaurant, we usually order a side of steamed broccoli for her. Whole wheat toast is also available at most places. She's now in the habit of eating when we eat so she gets pretty upset if we don't give her something to eat while we're dining. Most places also offer a side of fresh fruit. If you say it's for the baby, they should be happy to give you a side of whatever you want.
If you're doing take-out or premade food, then you might want to keep healthy snacks around that you can pull our for baby as needed - avocado is great, maybe make some yam fries for the week, veggies you can steam quickly, pre-washed salad greens. Keep these things on hand might help you & your husband work more healthy items into your own diet as well - it's great inspiration!