FTM - help me with BLW

njchorne11 · October 2013

I want to start BLW but i am unsure of where to start. he has had some jarred baby food, he LOVES everything except peas and green beans. So what did you start with and were you paranoid about LO choking?? Obviously i will watch him but it still worries me. I have checked out a few websites and read a few books but I want to know what you mommas did!
TIA

SidraJedi · October 2013

I started with okra and bell pepper and green beans because she could gum them and not actually eat them. We let her gum stuff for about a month before she ever ate anything. Finally she got a few pieces of bell pepper down and so we figured she earned some easier foods that she could actually eat. We gave her sweet potato and pear and let her gnaw on chicken bones or soft meat pieces.

Now that she's been into feeding herself for almost a month we basically give her some of whatever we are eating as long as it doesn't have any honey or sugar or egg white and has very little dairy or salt. I gave her some homemade yogurt (kefir) once and some egg yolk from my own plate and spoon fed her a soft boiled egg yolk once, but other than that we just give her something appropriate from our plate.

As a side note, apple is kind of hard so I just bite two or three big bites off of a whole apple and then let her scrape off crumbs of apple by gnawing on the edge of where I bit off. I find that way she gets smaller, safer pieces of apple than when I used to cut up slices and let her have them like that.

A lot of people start with avocado because it is soft but can be cut into slices so LO can feed it to themselves.

kmc84 · October 2013

Can he sit unassisted? If no, than wait until he can sit unassisted.

We started with sliced apples, banana cut length wise, mango slices, strips of baked chicken and scrambled eggs. The first two weeks she was mostly picking things up and sucking on them. After 4 weeks, she was chewing and swallowing. She has had pasta, strips of bagel, ground beef, broccoli, pears, cucumbers, homemade sweet potatoe fries, pulled pork (no sauce)....I know there is more!

They will gag and it's ok! It's part of learning to eat. A baby's gag reflex is located much higher up than an adults, so they gag faster than you would. If they gag, it's best to let them handle it on their own. Trying to grab food while they are coughing can push the food back further. We rarely need to pull any food out of her mouth. We are both CPR certified and I am a nurse. I won't lie, DH gets super nervous when she gags, but I am ok with it. The only thing we needed to help her with was getting the skin from a pear off her tongue.

If you can stick with it, it's amazing how well they learn to eat! Our LO can feed herself with a spoon with minimal assistance at 7.5 months.

VPGIRL06 · October 2013

I started with the puffs..once she seemed to have her pincer grasp down and was actively putting them in her mouth, i just began to give her little bits of my food every few days. So like, Monday I'd give her some egg yolk, purees and puffs. By wednesday if she didn't have a reaction, i'd give her some of my chicken, purees, and puffs, etc. Once i found out she didn't have reactions i did stuff like make her "baby pancakes"-egg yolk, some water and bananas with a little cinnamon, or little sweet potato fries.

At this point she's had enough that usually whatever we have for dinner, i make a tiny portion that's bland/not a lot of seasoning and give that to her. So for example, tonight we're having shrimp tacos with green beans (i know. its all that's in my fridge) so i'll probably heat up some of our left over pasta and give her that and green beans. I still give her some purees once a day, but mostly its normal food. she only gags now if she chipmunks it

MrsG071809 · October 2013

I think PP have pretty much covered it. The BLW book was a great resource for me, and answered a lot of my "what if" questions.

We started DD with avocado, which to this day is her favorite I think. Learn the difference between gagging and choking - I don't worry about gagging and like PP said we don't intervene. At first she didn't actually eat a whole lot, but played with her food and sucked on things. Now she is actually taking bites and swallowing...still no teeth but she can gum most foods pretty well.

We never did any purees, and don't plan to. I've started giving her yogurt every now and then, but I don't feed it to her I load the spoon and let her do it. After only using a spoon a couple of times she has gotten the hang of it pretty well, I was surprised.

It really is amazing to watch how quickly they learn, and it is so much easier than having to feed them and buy special baby food. I love that she can just eat what we're having!

VPGIRL06 · October 2013

also, FYI if you've been feeding a significant amount of puree you might have to sub in some more formula. i actually started doing BLW because my DD LOVED food, but was eating so much that she wasn't eating her formula and almost refusing her bottle in favor of it. with BLW she doesn't get so filled up on it and will take her formula, which is still her main source of nutrition

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