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Back in the dim and distant past, when I started to wean my first daughter, I started a blog. It grew so quickly that it kept getting shut down because we were exceeding my bandwidth allowance for the month.
Anyway, in a desperate effort to keep things ‘sortable’, I posted in various categories rather than just as one long splurge, so my experiences with breastfeeding had somewhere to go, my daughter’s experiences with specific finger foods somewhere else, etc. You can see the list down the right hand side, in orange.
If you are interested in any of the topics, please click and have a wander through, but if it’s something more specific you are looking for, even if it’s just my thoughts on the best way to remove banana stains from clothing*, do use the search box. Remember to look at the comments as well, they were put there before we opened the forum up, so they are a wealth of information from other BLWing parents.
*this is a bit of a trick… I personally think the only way to get rid of the stains is to throw the garment in the bin, but I believe others have had some success with sunlight. See? It pays to read the comments if you are looking for a specific issue.
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Hi Im very impressed with what I’ve read and seen on here, I’m a first time mom and a very panicky one! My little girl is five months now and I’m struggling with weaning so I’m going to give this a try in four weeks time, as I worry if she eating enough or having enough milk, hope I find this fun and Emilee will to! The website is gr8 x
cheers!
Im starting today so looking forward to the mess xxxx should be fun my friends lo looks like she loves it and eats all sorts xxx
My 7 month old has been on purées and cereals for almost 3 months now. I’ve been trying to get her to eat finger foods and she rather uninterested.
Would trying BLW ideas work at this point or is she so into the purées it’s not going to work well? She’s just starting to take to eating those Puffs they sell. But they really taste bad! A
Any suggestions ?
those puffs smell bad, don’t they? the carroty ones… blerk. if she’s not interested in finger foods and you’re meeting her needs with purees etc, then of course she’ll be fine from a nutritional point of view. Definitely try some steamed carrot, all those sort of early BLW ideas to encourage her to try them, but i always found the best way to get a child interested in foot was to sit near them (with them untethered) and eat…
if i try to give my son some banana how should i cut it? in long pieces or jst the normal round pieces?
as it happens, mine always gagged like crazy on banana, but some kids love it. try keeping it in the skin so they can grip it, or some people roll it in cereal, or some cut it in half and split the nana in three up the middle. something so simple as a banana… it really shouldn’t be this complicated…
Hi, i am from Indonesia where this BLW is not very common thing.. :)
so, my 7,5m girl refused to eat purees since a month ago. I was frustrated thinking that she will lack of nutritients.. So i did some searchings n found this site..
Today i started to give her an egg, she refused :)
then i gave her a tofu, she ate 2bites than throw it away.
Then i gave her a banana (when her sister had 1 too), she ate 4 bites, than flied it away :)
what i wanna ask u is that: how long will it take for babies to get mastered at BLW??
I need a hope actually :D
*sorry for miss-spelling/grammar ;)
Was she eating well before a month ago? If so, it might just be that she’s teething, you know. Loads of babies go off their food when their gums are sore, the poor wee things. If I was you, i wouldn’t put too much pressure on you both to ‘master’ BLW, why not just keep going with the purees (if that’s what she’s used to and if she enjoys them usually) but make sure that there’s finger food around as well, nicely chilled from the fridge in case her gums are painful. But remember, for a first try, six bites sounds fine, really, it can only get better.
My child is 7 months old, I started like a month and a half ago to give him celery in finger shape because I read that it helps with teething. He once choked and had to shake him to pass the piece of celery, which appeared in his diaper few days later LOL. After that I started with steam squash and carrots but because of this experience I was afraid that him can shock again and with him strapped in his chair I wouldnt be able to shake him, so every time he got a piece of food in his mouth I took it out. Yesterday I found this website and gave me courage to try it again. I gave him apple and he loved it, he was sit on my lap so I let him enjoy it but he shocked again. He has been breastfed all the time. Could this mean that he is not ready to BLW yet? Am I doing something wrong?
if you have a look at our entry on apple i’d definitely say not to give it unless it’s cooked and soft, it’s really a pretty chokey fruit, because it breaks off and is so hard. Celery’s usually okay, because the fibres keep it together and the babies just mash away at it and occasionally break bits off. It was a good idea to sit him on your lap, i think, that instinct was totally correct while your confidence has been shaken, but it sounds like it was just bad luck that the one fruit you chose was the biggest no-no. Poor you, what a shame. Regarding the celery, though, it’s odd that when you shook him he actually swallowed it, if he was choking and turned upside down, I’d have thought he’d cough it out, so it may be that it was further down than you thought and on it’s way to the right place? Hope so, anyway…
Definitely, he is swallowing. I will read more about BLW before continue. I started in the wrong way, because of my lack of knowledge. Thanks!
I have a question about Iron I have been doing BLW but how do i know hes getting enough Iron.
When I was doing BLW I automatically gave mine heaps of broccoli, pulses and they could do serious damage to a steak, so it was never something I worried about. Is there a particular reason you’re concerned?
I’m interested in doing BLW next month. But in the meantime does BLW “allow” you to use mesh feeders? I’d like to put frozen bm or frozen carrots to help soothe her gums as she is cutting her first tooth.
Pffffft to ‘allow’… if you want to use them, then do so, you’re the parent. The only thing I’d say is that it’s not really teaching the skill of self-feeding, but that’s not really what you want to use it for anyway, is it? You’re wanting to make a teether. Try celery sticks straight from the fridge as well, that’s what I used. I read somewhere it has a numbing effect on the gums, and my two seemed to love to shred it down when they were teething.
I had started my baby on purees around 5 months and all was fine getting up to ‘three meals a day’ then someone gave me a book about blw and i thought it made alot of sense. So 6 months comes along and i have started giving finger food fruit and veg and meat and it is going well totally makes sense and i want to continue but i am preparing a puree or mashing the same food aswell and spooning some in worrried about the drop in food (this is eaten sometimes, sometimes not, she does take the spoon from my hand with some sucsess) i worry this is confusing, mixed messages and is definately more hassle for me. She is breast fed and we haven’t dropped any feeds she is probably feeding more.. is this due to the drop in food stuffs acutally being consumed….how to continue what would you suggest?
Well here’s my question… if you didn’t know about BLW as ‘a thing’, would you really be pretty delighted at the way things are going with her feeding? You’re breastfeeding (tick), doing a bit of spooning (tick) and she can self-feed (tick)? So it’s really going fine, probably, as a weaning experience, but you want her to self-feed completely and continue to breastfeed? If she’s only 6 months, that’s all probably going to work out fine in the end, just ease down the purees as she eases up the self-feeding, and from what I myself experienced and from what I’ve read others saying, don’t expect her to suddenly start dropping feeds all over the place. I don’t think either of mine started doing that until after a year (but some do… as with everything, they’re all different). Best thing you can do is look to your own experience and make sure that you personally are happy with it, and books and websites be damned. (within reason :D)
Hi,
I have been battling weaning my daughter who is 8 months for sometime. She kind of liked puréed but they had to be super smooth. As soon as I added texture she clamped her mouth. She would always fight me for the spoon are swipe my hand away.
A friend suggested baby led weaning. OMG, why have I been struggling! She loves the finger foods, no more fighting and she now laughs and smiles at meal times. The dog is also really happy, cleaning the floor perfectly! Only one thing, the crinkle cutter is a must for those slippery little fruits and foods.
Thank you for making mealtimes fun!
Well in an otherwise somewhat difficult day that is a post to gladden the heart… many thanks, Anna. And congratulations to the dog!
hi. just started blw and my son is eating steamed apple and banana and enjoying it (not so much with the veggies). I’m tempted to start trying other foods soon. he’s 6 months. can he eat bread (I’m worried about the salts and sugars), pasta, and chicken? or do all these things need to wait until he’s over a certain age. thanks!
These things depend rather on your local health service (I mean they don’t, they depend on your baby obviously but the guidance certainly does). Be very careful with the apple, good that you’re cooking it, raw apple is a known choke hazard. Grapes uncut are another one, and so, funnily enough, is bread in the beginning. Toast it, and you’re fine, or give the crusty crusts. Assuming you’re in the UK, pasta is fine, we found fusilli was the easiest to manage, and chicken yes. We gave the thigh or leg meat, it’s a bit juicier for them, and it separates nicely into holdable pieces. Good luck!
thanks!
Hi, Just wanted to say thank you for your great website and sensible, thoughtful advice. I have two boys, the second is just four months so I am starting to turn my mind to starting to offer solids and I thought I would refresh myself on what/how to get started (although I don’t intend to start before six months) so of course I have some straight back to your website. In an arena where so many ‘experts’ are telling you the ‘right’ way to raise your child, this website stands out for advising mums to trust their instincts and be kind to each other and other’s parenting decisions. I think you probably underestimate how soothing your calm words and excellent advice is, especially for first time mums… so on behalf of us all – thank you. Cheers, Pip (Sydney).
oooooooh, guess who is my new favourite person in the entire whole world?
Step forward, Pip of Sydney…
Hi there! I was failing miserably with purées so finally a couple weeks ago I gave my 6.5 mo a big chunk of pear to suck on and to my surprise she not only got a chunk off of it, I stared at her gums while she mashed it up and swallowed it! Voila! Apparently we are now a BLW family! Sometimes however, my darling little chubster, manages to bite off more than she can chew. This leads to gagging and my sticking my fingers in her mouth to pry out giant hunks of banana! Any tricks to teach them one bite at a time? Thank you!
P.s. I agree with the previous poster- thrilled to have found such a supportive site!! Thank you!
Hey! So my little boy will be 8months on the 1st of April…
I’ve had him on pureed fruit (homemade) from about 5 and a half months…then at 6months, started with soup in the evenings…he now has sweet potato at lunch time too…I’ve also started adding pureed chicken in his soup at night…I know right! So much mushy mush! A friend told me about BLW and I came across your site…love it!
Look there’s no doubt my babe loves food, he’s always trying to reach for anything we’re eating…
He loves loves toast, but being a first time mom…or maybe just paranoia, but I’m soooo scared of him chocking! So I tend to take out the piece of toast that he chews off into his mouth…he has his two bottom teeth…so bites everything, still breastfeeding too….
Any advice on making sure he wobnt choke?
Scared that he’s just gonna swallow before trying to chew…
Hi, my son is 6.5 months old and totally uninterested in food. He rarely puts anything in his mouth (except for his fingers) and even only occasionally opts to explore my mouth with his hands. A week ago my husband and I started introducing somewhat mushy / some texture solids – one taste at a time (rice cereal, butternut pumpkin, banana, pear). My son is uninterested in all food – ours, his, anyone else’s. He usually spits most of the food out, occasionally he swallows some food. I also cut up grapes into small pieces and put it on his tray table but those ended up on the floor (fine) – he didn’t see them as food, despite seeing me eat a few pieces in front of him. He has thrown rusks on the floor, again, they’re just toys to him. Any ideas / thoughts?? I’m keen on BLW but don’t know what to do as my son just doesn’t see food as food – just toys. :(
My daughter is 8 months old and I have done some BLW but she now has a sinus cold and is congested. I am afraid to let her self-feed for fear of choking. Should I stick to steamed foods until she is better?
Hi,
My son started early on solid foods at 4.5 months since he wasn’t gaining enough weight. I give him rice cereal and breastmilk once a day which he was very excited initially but now after a month he doesn’t care for it. I want to keep things exciting for him by trying BLW. However, he doesn’t sit up yet or have teeth. Should I wait until he can do either one of those or should I just start BLW at his 6 month mark?
Thanks,
Pooja
Hi Pooja,
The teeth aren’t a bother, we’ve had BLWed babies on here who didn’t have teeth until thirteen months, would you believe? And if you think about it, they do have teeth… just under the skin. As you know from when they bite your finger, those little gums are HARD. Regarding the sitting up, however, that core strength is something important. Rather than sitting for ages on the floor, though, if they are fine sitting up in a high chair and don’t collapse inwards, it’s worth a try at 6 months. Good luck.
Hi my son is 4.5 months and the GP suggested I try weaning him because of some tummy problems which he thinks may go away with weaning. Is 4.5 months too young for BLW? I’m worried he may choke. Has anyone on this group done BLW at that age?!
Hi i have a 6 month old who has been eating soilds since 4 months old I have always loved the idea and beneficiary of blw but been so scared of her choking I can’t bring myself to let her try. I have just bought some baby cookies for her and seeing her with the cookie makes me less paranoid but I still freak out when she gets a big piece in her mouth. She gets her 6 mo needles tomorrow but I’m thinking this week I’m going to ditch our purees and start strictly blw. (Alongside of bf)
Just looking for some reassurance / tips & advice
Please & thanks in advance
Hi there! My 14 month old daughter eats solid foods decently (finally!!), but absolutely refuses to take milk from any vessel other than her bottle. She will happily drink water from any vessel, including a glass with a straw. She’s a very happy baby most of the time, but milk in a sippy cup elicits the craziest tantrums every single time. Doc says no bottles by 18 months. How can I accomplish this and do it so that there is peace in my kitchen?