@maureenmce I would do avocado one of three ways: mashed with a fork on a spoon (others can chime in here but I don't think we need to thin foods so much when starting at 6+ months), in a mesh feeder, or straight from the peel like a little french fry. Whatever you're most comfortable with! Our LO didn't love it the first time, but he's had it several times now and has come around And hello from Northern CA
ETA I will watch the video when I'm done feeding LO. Anyone else's baby majorly distracted while eating these days?
i love baby lead weaning. Baby just eats what we eat when we eat. Of coarse if we are eating pizza he's getting blueberries but you get the picture. I scramble eggs in the morning and put them on his tray and he pick them up and eats them. I find myself hand feeding him too because I hate stepping on an errant pea. Like I hand him some soft chicken breast smashed with a fork. I spoon feed too. I miced up some steak we had with some quinoa and carrots. He loves steamed carrot sticks and sweet potatoe sticks. He caught on really quick he would stuff his mouth to full the first week or so maybe gag. But hardly ever now. Its cool cause when we go out to eat I just make sure to get a side of steamed veg.
I've been doing purées with my little guy for the past 2 months but he's recently been more interested in my food than his own! I'm thinking of incorporating some BLW. Can anyone tell me about their typical day with feeding baby? Like what LO eats for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Thanks!!
We do sort of a combo right now of BLW and purée. Breakfast I've been trying to do baby cereal w some fruit mashed into it and spoon feeding just bc of a lack of time but she hates it and grabs the spoon so I think we're going to be switching our routine in the morning so I can give her "real food". We have daycare for lunch so she gets puréed/mashed fruit, yogurt with mashed fruit, or stage 2 baby food. Then dinner babes gets what we're eating: roasted sweet potatoes, ravioli/pasta/lasagna, pancakes, or some fruit or veggie if what we're having isn't suitable for her. She loves Trader Joe's kale balls, strawberries, avocado, blueberries, banana, cottage cheese. I try to plan our meals so that she can always eat part of it. I'm not brave enough to give her meat yet, other than in baby food.
Is there any hard and fast rule about how much to feed a baby, solids wise? Rose is about 6.5 months and just started solids a week ago. She's formula fed and hasn't really wanted any less formula, so we're feeding her about the same, bottles wise. She only eats solids at breakfast and a late dinner, and she's only having, I'd guess, 4-5 teaspoons each time she eats solids? She doesn't seem especially ravenous for her solid foods so far, she's just kind of getting used to the idea. Just curious if you guys were keeping track of amount, or just watching for hunger/fullness cues? Thanks!
@maureenmce my LO loves his solids, he gets 2 tablespoons of oatmeal with fruit for breakfast, 2 tablespoons of fruits or veggies for lunch at daycare and 3-4 tablespoons of whatever the new food we're introducing for dinner. He'd happily eat more if I offered, but I don't want to overdo it. He's still taking the same amount of milk in his bottles and seems to be nursing the same as well. He's been having solids for about a month now.
@maureenmce my LO is formula fed too and hasnt decreased the amount she eats. I don't know exactly how much solid foods she gets I just feed her until she doesnt want anymore and then feed her a bottle about 15-20 min later. She eats a ton. She has 2x 7ox bottles and 2x 6 oz bottles a day.
Ive been feeding purees and trying to get her into chunkier foods but having a hard time. Ive mashed foods and she isnt a fan. I cut up soft foods and put them on her tray and she just plays. Literally the only thing she DOESNT put in her mouth.
LO is EBF so I have no way of knowing how much she is getting but hasn't decreased her nursing sessions. We are also kind of doing a combination of BLW and puréed food with cereal. I don't think she eats a lot but does like to sit with us at the table and eat a bit, taste, play, and then feed the dog. She doesn't mind avacado and we tried bits of noodles yesterday and she liked those. I use the mesh feeder as well sometimes, used it for cantaloupe today. I was getting a bit worried that she isn't getting enough solids but I keep telling myself that every baby is different. So I will keep giving her opportunities to develop the necessary skills and she will eat when she can.
@maureenmce if you are doing purees, perhaps your pediatrician or local health resource would have some guidelines? In working with infants I've always offered based on baby's interest - basically stopping when they lost interest unless the parents were expecting a certain amount to be consumed, then I'd pull out all the stops to try to convince baby to eat more. If we're talking Baby Led Weaning like the original post, the idea is for baby to decide how much they eat of what is offered to them with them setting the pace to gradually move from exploring to chewing and swallowing and eventually full meals. There are lots of resources online that can go into greater detail. I'm from Canada, and Health Canada's information on solids states that they are to be complimentary to breastmilk/formula until the age of 1, working eventually up to 3 meals a day. They don't give hard rules about how much is consumed.
My son, just in the last week since he turned 7 months, seems to be "getting it" where he's regularly chewing/sucking and starting to swallow more than just experimenting (we started at 6 months, BLW all the way no purees). His pincer grasp has also refined a lot in the last month, so I'm able to offer him smaller pieces of food that he can mash and swallow easier than the large pieces standard to BLW, so that helps. He eats whatever we eat, within reason (I have frozen home made finger foods for when we are eating later or eating something not baby friendly like high in salt or can't be cooked to an appropriate texture). I mostly do 1 meal a day (dinner) since he has been making more of a mess than actually eating, but I am now offering breakfast nearly every day that we are home (we spend 2-4 days a week at the cabin where meals are all over the place so it's easiest to just commit to 1). I hope to be serving breakfast and dinner daily by 8 months and adding lunch by 9-10 and snacks by a year. He still nurses the same as always. I would say he started out by consuming almost nothing (I'd see the odd chunk in his diaper) and is still consuming quite a small amount compared to a baby who is fed purees. Some days I worry about this, but most days I don't, as the resources I'm relying on for baby led weaning advice focus on solids as fun. I chose baby led weaning after working in infant care as an early childhood educator and as a nanny making and serving home made purees and stressing over how much the baby was consuming to the point that meals were often a big struggle for everyone. The parents of the babies I nannied were comfortable moving to finger foods quickly and the babies ate so much better that way and are awesome eaters to this day. I felt that skipping that step of purees where I was stressing over "how many tablespoons" and instead following baby's lead entirely made a lot of sense to me (of course you could do that with purees as well, I just remember feeling frustrated that I'd made all this purée only to go to waste). The concept of chewing before swallowing also made sense to me.
Anywho, sorry for the long post, in summary - I've chosen not to stress too much about the amount consumed based on the baby led weaning approach philosophy.
@EmmyMommy123 - I should probably just call our pedi and check, I was just curious if other doctor's had given any guidelines to you all. Our pedi didn't mention amount, just that we should go one food at a time, and try that food for three days to check for an allergic reaction. So far, LO been only mildly into solid foods (she likes avocados best - California baby!) Overall, I'm not stressed, I suppose. I'm just kind of letting her get used to the idea of eating solids.
We're doing purees/mashes for the first month or two, letting her get used to food, testing all possible allergens, then probably doing BLW for the rest of the time.
@maureenmce our pediatrician just wants us to get to 3 meals a day by one year. Some days, my LO is really into solids and some days, he couldn't care less about them! I just take his lead and try not to worry about it! As long as he is healthy and growing and taking in plenty of milk, I'm happy
@maureenmce when I asked my docs about quantity the only guideline they had was that once baby eats ~150g per meal she shouldn't need milk at that meal. I weigh her food from time to time just out of curiosity. When we first started solids she was getting about 25g, now she gets close to 100g. She has never been a huge nurser and at first I worried a bit that she seems to drink even less milk now. Many things I read said babies should still drink ~32oz until 1 year. She is breast fed so I can't tell exactly but doubt she drinks even half that but the doc did not seem to worry about that so I'm following baby's lead and just to make sure she gets a bit of milk and I keep being able to make some I started pumping and use the milk in her cereal or food. (When I asked the doc about the milk her reaction was like oh either baby is a super efficient nurser or she just doesn't need that much milk). So other than the guideline for complete weaning the doctors didn't seem to have a guideline for quantity. The only other thing they said was as long as baby keeps gaining weight it's all good. She gained just ~300 g in 1.5 months and they were fine with that, didn't seem concerned about a specific weight gain target, just seeing some gain.
Re: Baby led weaning
ETA I will watch the video when I'm done feeding LO. Anyone else's baby majorly distracted while eating these days?
Edit Added
Ive been feeding purees and trying to get her into chunkier foods but having a hard time. Ive mashed foods and she isnt a fan. I cut up soft foods and put them on her tray and she just plays. Literally the only thing she DOESNT put in her mouth.
I was getting a bit worried that she isn't getting enough solids but I keep telling myself that every baby is different. So I will keep giving her opportunities to develop the necessary skills and she will eat when she can.
My son, just in the last week since he turned 7 months, seems to be "getting it" where he's regularly chewing/sucking and starting to swallow more than just experimenting (we started at 6 months, BLW all the way no purees). His pincer grasp has also refined a lot in the last month, so I'm able to offer him smaller pieces of food that he can mash and swallow easier than the large pieces standard to BLW, so that helps. He eats whatever we eat, within reason (I have frozen home made finger foods for when we are eating later or eating something not baby friendly like high in salt or can't be cooked to an appropriate texture). I mostly do 1 meal a day (dinner) since he has been making more of a mess than actually eating, but I am now offering breakfast nearly every day that we are home (we spend 2-4 days a week at the cabin where meals are all over the place so it's easiest to just commit to 1). I hope to be serving breakfast and dinner daily by 8 months and adding lunch by 9-10 and snacks by a year. He still nurses the same as always. I would say he started out by consuming almost nothing (I'd see the odd chunk in his diaper) and is still consuming quite a small amount compared to a baby who is fed purees. Some days I worry about this, but most days I don't, as the resources I'm relying on for baby led weaning advice focus on solids as fun. I chose baby led weaning after working in infant care as an early childhood educator and as a nanny making and serving home made purees and stressing over how much the baby was consuming to the point that meals were often a big struggle for everyone. The parents of the babies I nannied were comfortable moving to finger foods quickly and the babies ate so much better that way and are awesome eaters to this day. I felt that skipping that step of purees where I was stressing over "how many tablespoons" and instead following baby's lead entirely made a lot of sense to me (of course you could do that with purees as well, I just remember feeling frustrated that I'd made all this purée only to go to waste). The concept of chewing before swallowing also made sense to me.
Anywho, sorry for the long post, in summary - I've chosen not to stress too much about the amount consumed based on the baby led weaning approach philosophy.
We're doing purees/mashes for the first month or two, letting her get used to food, testing all possible allergens, then probably doing BLW for the rest of the time.
So other than the guideline for complete weaning the doctors didn't seem to have a guideline for quantity. The only other thing they said was as long as baby keeps gaining weight it's all good. She gained just ~300 g in 1.5 months and they were fine with that, didn't seem concerned about a specific weight gain target, just seeing some gain.