Weaning - im completely confused!!

[reren]

My baby is almost 6 months old and has been exclusively breastfed. For the last month ive been starting to try food but so far he is completely uninterested! I was quite drawn to babyled weaning but slightly freaked out by fear of choking - but my bigger issue is that im really confused about what i can give him? The book i read suggested you can give anything after 6 months, but then a friend who did baby led weaning seemed shocked by the idea of giving raw apple slices and seemed to think fruit needed to be stewed. But this goes against what id understood - and at this time of year its tempting to just grate up fresh fruit or blend it? Why cant you do fresh fruit- is it harder to digest? The annabel carmel puree world doesnt massively appeal but that seems to be full of rules about peeling and stewing things! He is very happy holding bits of food and sucking on them - but wont actually swallow anything but i'm sure that will come. So my question is - for those who tried babyled weaning what kind of food did you try? Could i try things like cous cous and roast veg? Do i need to peel skin off roast veg? Or do i just give him a bit of whatever im eating? Like cooked cold chicken? Meat seems daunting - the book i read definitely says yes to meat - but im quite nervous of choking...should i just give up and enter the world of purees? Oh and what about yoghurt? Is cows milk in yoghurt really ok as early as 6 months? I plan to keep breastfeeding until he's at least one.

[Fuschia]

Have a look at this, with comments:

http://www.babyledweaning.com/some-tips-to-get-you-started/#comment-3851

[sophiechristophy]

here's a little baby-led weaning video that my daughter Thisbe and I are in, might be interesting!:

http://www.askamum.co.uk/Listen-and-watch/Search-Results/Video-tips/MB-TV-video-Baby-led-weaning-or-letting-your-baby-feed-herself/

[Saffron]

Meat and fresh fruit are just fine. We did BLW, no choking here. Little Saff did gag a lot at first, but that's normal. Babies have to learn how far in to put the food and how big a piece to tackle at once.

Little Saff loved strips cut off a roasted lamb chop. She didn't have any teeth at all, but that didn't stop her. She would gum all the 'juice' out of meat and spit out the fibres. Cold fresh grapes were a favourite at the height of last summer. I cut large seedless grapes in half, then scored them a little. Lightly steamed broccoli dipped in houmus was also hughly popular. Try making oaty porridge with a bit less liquid. As it cools you can make it into little baby-sized chunks.

Cow's milk yogurt and cheese are fine in moderation. (Cow's milk is high in sodium compared to breastmilk, so that's why you can't give it as a drink. Although a little is fine in cereal.)

We had so much fun with BLW. It was really easy once we got into it.

Happy Weaning! :)

xx

[sillywoman]

Poor you reren, it is all very confusing. I did BLW with number 4 and kicked myself the for time I wasted pureeing green & orange stuff for the other three. Essentially I worked on the basis that baby 4 could eat anything I was eating (watching salt intake though) as long as he was with me the risk of choking was so small as to be non existent. He gagged a bit but I'd learned by then that babies do this and usually whatever they're gagging on pops right out.

Mostly it was finger food, a bit of cooked carrot, or potato, some cucumber with bits of bread or toast to chew on. Once he got the hang of it I found a high chair with a tray was essential. Initially I would just put his food onto his tray (generally selected bits of whatever the rest of us were having), then we progressed to bowl once he was old enough not to tip it all out constantly.

It's possibly coincidence - who can say? - but out of the 4 of them he is by far and away the least fussy, & most willing to experiment eater.

[Belle]

Not much to add to the good advice you've been given. I would say it's early days yet - - my son def took to about 7ish months to be eating any great quantities I'd say, but we did pretty much exactly the same approach as Silly woman and it worked well. You have to use your judgement a bit - so raw apple we didn't do for a while just because it's quite hard, not so easy to gum etc, did things instead like chunks of nectarine. never had any choking incidents - can't even remember any gagging to be honest, or nothing stands out. Didn't do any purees but did spoon feed some yoghurt I think. Mini oatibix in milk was a good finger food breakfast. My son's going through a classic 2 yr old (I hope so anyway) picky phase at the moment but generally BLW was a big success and cut out so much hassle.

We bought bags of frozen veg - carrots/beans/cauli heads - and steamed them and gave them to him. There is a lot of playing/exploration for a bit and it's v messy, but all v healthy! Eating out is easy as you just give them bits from your plate/see what they like the look of.

[Saffron]

For hard fruits like apple, I took the skin off with a peeler. Then I used the peeler on the 'flesh' to peel off shavings of apple. Shavings of apple were easily sucked and gummed. You can also divide an apple into segments and parboil. This softens the fruit enough that even a toothless baby can munch it.

Little Saff pretty much always ate what I ate. If I made casserole or bolognese I didn't add any salt. Many ready-made soups and sauces now come with no added or low salt options.

xx

[reren]

Thank you this is really helpful! Any tips for summer eating? I tend to eat a lot of salad type of food in summer which usually means lettuce/ uncooked veg with cheese or chicken or something as protein...i think a lot of cheeses are probably too salty? I guess bits of cooked chicken will be ok? And maybe i just have to get used to cooking up a bit of veg for him? And am i right in thinking tomato can often cause an alergic reaction? Im assuming you just try and see? Do you not have to worry about salt in things like hummous? Not quite sure how worried to be about salt? Hmm making me think my diet is rather unhealthy! Ahh for the ease of breastfeeding!

[Saffron]

If you're not generally adding loads of salt, a little salt in pre-packed hummuos is fine. Or, you can dilute it with some baby rice and water, or a little yogurt. Salty cheeses are fine too, just don't offer more than a couple slivers.

You can try a small dusting of baby rice on slippery fruit and salad veg to help Baby hold onto them.

:)

[Belle]

I didn't worry too much re salt as so little of it made it down at first and I tried to make sure what I was offering was balanced - so moderation. When i give him baked beans I do buy the low salt version, and I don't add salt to soup for him but that's about it.

cooked chicken, sliced cucumber, tomato, peppers - loads of salad things work. even sandwiches.

[reren]

Just wanted to thank everyone for all their tips - for the first time this evening my son finally started eating and with great gusto! Not sure how much went down but he sucked on a huge range of things and at bathtime bits of pepper, cucumber, hummous, bread, apple and sweet potato were to be found under his chubby little chin! Once you start to feel a bit more confident and the baby starts obviously enjoying it blw is so much fun (if messy) isnt it! Am enjoying so much more than pureeing and spoon feeding! Really fun to see them enjoying it so much and for my son at least he seems to love the independence of it! Thank you for your tips! Really helped!

[Belle]

Glad to hear it went well reren. I found it worked well and plan to do it again for baby number 2. It's also great when eating out - you don't have to think about preparing stuff to take with you etc.

[bluesuperted]

Another BLW fan here: have found it such a chilled out, happy way to introduce baby to food. My little one has sucked, gummed and nibbled a lot and now at 8 months is starting to ingest more and more. I know things may well change but for now he seems to enjoy having a go at absolutely anything which is lovely to see, and some of the faces he pulls are just priceless - he looks outraged, and then just carries on chomping! I love the BLW cookbook and have also found loads of family, saltfree recipes on the BLW forum, babycentre and elsewhere online. A happy side effect has been a much improved diet for my husband and I. Still eat far too much chocolate and cake though (us not baby!).

[sandy_rose]

BLW is great. I found that steaming was most convenient initially - butternut squash, sweet potato, broccoli, apples, peas, green beans and fish seemed to be the most popular with our baby. Just make sure it's mushy, we did avoid raw apples until she was a bit better at eating but ripe pears are ok as much softer. Avocado, baby plum tomatoes, baby rice cakes and bananas are great for when you're out and about. Pasta spirals (slightly overcooked) are ridiculously popular, as are peeled cucumbers and roast chicken thighs or drum sticks. Once baby is eating eggs you can make patties or omelettes with grated veg or sweetcorn.