Gill Rapley Webchat

[gillrapley]

Here's another two. And don't forget to send your recipes and meal ideas to tmurkett@googlemail.com for the new book!

Julieg: Been BLWing for 2 weeks, Ben has been great but now seems to break pieces off into his mouth and gets really distressed as can't move it around in his mouth - making family meals a bit stressful! Things that he was spitting out now seem to get 'stuck' but other things (partic carrot) are going down and out the other end! Is this just the frustration phase that will pass, should I be limiting food choices so that he can't break pieces off (hard things only?). What do you think?
I think this is all part of the learning process. It may be worth not mixing up the textures too much within one meal for a while – just to give him the chance to practise with one degree of hardness at a time. Do make sure he’s sitting properly upright, to give him the best chance of spitting out what he can’t cope with. It may be worth reminding ourselves that babies take a while to get the hang of any new activity (crawling, walking) – it can take days or weeks to really master it. Eating involves lots of different skills that kick in at different times: Ben is just discovering how to move food around his mouth – that involves a lot of different muscles and co-ordination.

Lizum: Is it possible for LO to eat too much fruit? DS is 10 months and ate two whole bananas today! And that wasn't the only fruit.
Also, I really have no clue when it comes to portion size.
I don’t think they can overdo it if they are truly choosing for themselves. Babies decide their own portion size from day to day. Just file these days away in your memory, to offset the times in the future when he will seem to live on fresh air!

[clh]

hi gill
thanks for your response earlier.Heard your doing a recipe book any news when it will be available to buy! cant wait !

[bimbambaLINs]

As things have calmed down a bit now I just wanted to add my thanks Gill. While not entirely stress free I know the stress is down my frustration and not my little boy's. He eats what he wants from the food put before him and when he does eat, he eats well. Now if you could just come up with a method for frustrated mums ... or is that called sleep?

[Aitch]

i think you already know it's wine.

[gillrapley]

And here are what are probably the last three:

Sooty8: We've been BLW for about 5 months now and it's going pretty well.
Firstly, i am worried about portion sizes. My Lo can eat 30g of cheerios and 50g of blueberries after a full bf in the morning, and 50g (dry weight) of pasta for her tea (plus another couple of bits of fruit), although she is less interested in food at lunch time. Does this seem ok? YES.
Secondly, I think she is teething today and hasn't been very keen to eat anything other than fruit. When she is like this, should I just keep giving her fruit until she refuses it or should i offer the same amount as fruit as I would usually offer...and would this apply to whatever food group she was focussing on?
What would you want if you were she? Provided you start off by offering other things, it’s fine to continue to offer more of what she really seems to want. Babies balance their diets over a period of days, not necessarily within each day – and definitely not within each meal.

Emamum: my questioon is about salt as well, how do you make sure baby dopesnt get too much when its in things you cant (or dont) make yourself such as bread,crumpets,cheese, tinned fish and is it ok to swap regular salt for the low salt stuff (for things like bread that need salt)or is it like swapping sugar for sweetners and just as bad?
It’s really about doing everything in moderation, and not relying on ready-made foods at every meal. We all need some salt and, while excessive amounts of salt are bad for all of us, a baby of six months is not at quite as much risk as a baby of three months (and a lot of the advice we read dates back to when that was the weaning age). I don’t know much about ‘lo salt’ for adding to cooking (though I will try and find out) but I do know that most recipes work fine without any salt. They may taste odd to us (and we can always add our own salt later) but babies don’t seem to mind at all.

Toothfairy: Hi Gill, a question from the oldies...
What can we do to help promote BLW, especially to health care professionals, in our local areas?
Talk about it – to them and to other mothers! And lend them the book! It IS growing - honest – and it’s almost all because it’s being talked about by folk like you and forums like this one. Even the die-hards are being forced to find out about it simply because parents are bringing it up. And there are some fab HVs etc. who are really on board.

[julieg]

Thank you for your reply Gill,it's much appreciated, you deserve a large glass of wine after tonight's efforts!!
I probably have been mixing textures too much within a meal so I'll stick with the less squidgy stuff for a while and see how he gets on. I have only recently read the book (my HV recommended BLW) and thought it just made so much sense after spoon feeding my other two children and now having two fairly picky eaters to contend with so I'm keen to continue and experiment!
Thank you again.
Good night!
Julie

[Nixxie]

Hi Gill,

I do not have any questions to ask, the lovely members of this group are usually able to answer any questions I have about blw (and anything else for that matter!) however I hope you get to read this as I just wanted to thank you! BLW has been amazing for our family (we're 2.5 months in). Both myself and my baby boy love meal times and I love watching him develop to a competant eater. We enjoy the social aspect of meal times more than anything. I am so pleased I decided to buy your book and give it a go!

Also thanks to Aitch for setting this up and maintaining the website-it can't be easy with so many of us trying to get online!

Nicola

[Tiggeriffic]

Another big THANK YOU from me!!! I'm a first-timer and your book has helped me to deal with a lot of nay-sayers (especially my MIL and my health visitor!!!) Taking the BLW approach has so far been the best parenting decision we've made!!

P.S. I'm sure if my 9.5 month old son could say thank you he would!! If it wasn't for you I'm sure I wouldn't have had the confidence to give Tiglet curry, olives, onion bhajis, garlic bread etc, etc - and that's some of his favourite food!!!

[gillrapley]

It seems the Qs have dried up so I'll sign off now. I just want to say a few things:

Thank you so much for your support and for sharing your stories - it's hugely exciting to see how BLW has taken off from very small beginnings.

I am not the fount of all knowledge with regard to BLW (and nor is Tracey!) - I didn't even do it properly with my own children (now all grown up). I'm just the little boy pointing out that the emperor has no clothes! BLW has always been there - it's just been the preserve of third-time mums who stumbled on it by themselves. Now it's got a name, and the secret's out - hooray! But it's all of you who are the real experts.

For those of you worried about iron, salt, portion sizes etc. etc., the very fact that you are asking these questions shows how aware you are of the issues. You're therefore NOT the people who are most likely to make mistakes in these areas.

The recipe book will be published next October - with your help. We really want to hear about the meals and snacks you share with your baby - and why you like them. Don't be shy - it's the simple ideas we're looking for! tmurkett@googlemail.com.

Keep up the good work!
Gill

[bimbambaLINs]

i think you already know it's wine.

<hic>

[Aitch]

i think it's so interesting, for those of us who did BLW and have never done anything else, just how weird it looks to see a child be fed rather than feed themselves. it's a revolution, Gill, really, you should be enormously proud. Yes, it's always been there, but without that little boy all those poor townspeople would have been working hard on something utterly pointless.

Thank you so much on behalf of all of us for answering so many questions, and under such trying circumstances. We wish you every success with your new book and of course you're ever so welcome to come back again...

[emamum]

As things have calmed down a bit now I just wanted to add my thanks Gill. While not entirely stress free I know the stress is down my frustration and not my little boy's. He eats what he wants from the food put before him and when he does eat, he eats well. Now if you could just come up with a method for frustrated mums ... or is that called sleep?

aaah sleep.... i remember that *looks off wistfully into the distance*

[Messymissy]

Just wanted to add a belated big thank you to Gill for your time and replies, and to Aitch for organising.

[Aitch]

ho ho, in the loosest sense of the word.
still, lots of good answers at the end of the day, and Gill said she enjoyed it, so thanks to everyone who took part.

[MrsJamin]

Just a little msg from me (I guess an old-timer!) as I had probs logging on last night. I just wanted to say how brilliant I've found BLW as now I have a 20 month old son who will eat anything and everything. He has even got a penchant for wasabi beans at the moment (which even I cannot stomach!). I can't say it was all down to BLW as you never know what would have happened if I'd gone the 'traditional' puree route, but I love having a boy who I can just take anywhere to eat at anyone's house and not worry that they might make something he won't eat. I'll definitely be doing BLW for number 2 baby this time next year! So thank you Gill for everything that you've done for the BLW cause.