Baby Led Weaning

My friend Jen is a good and impressive woman, but let's just say that she is un petit peu cautious by nature. And a teensy bit anal, as well, but in a cute way, with just a hint of Monica Geller. (Like Monica, I suspect she is secretly a flibbertigibbet of monumental proportions, but I digress…)

On the matter of allergies, however, she has good reason as her family history seems to predicate her son to having frightening allergic reactions. Maybe he'll have them, maybe he won't, but you can bet your life that Jen will make every effort possible to avoid him suffering in any way.

She has also recently discovered that she can't be bothered cooking, so she has evolved a cunning way of bulk cooking BLW foods, which is worth reading even for those of you who are intolerant of the very idea of intolerance. Here it is…

Fast-food baby-led low-allergen-risk
weaning

How’s that for a title?

On behalf of all Canadians I should come
forward as the true Canadian worrier that Aitch was referring to, and perhaps
come clean about my anxious tendencies. This, I hope, will help everyone
understand that my worrying is simply a result of being a product of a
skilfully nervy family, as opposed to being a citizen of a worrying country. Or
maybe it’s about my need to be in control? 
Perhaps that’s for my therapist to sort out…

I do feel that my worrying about Bubby and
his eating has really stemmed from a legitimate source, as opposed to my own
delusions. The fact is, he has a cousin on each side with life-threatening food
allergies (egg, dairy, wheat, peanuts), and his parents have had eczema and hay
fever.  So clearly Bubby is pretty darn
eligible for the food allergy award of the year. 

I met someone over the summer who told me
her 18-month-old has a dairy allergy, and that her GP told her it was likely
because her child had been both (a) genetically vulnerable to developing this
allergy, and (b) introduced to milk too early. Combined, this has resulted in
the allergy, she thinks.

It seemed clear to me then that when we
began weaning, Bubby’s diet needed to be as cautious as possible when it came
to introducing foods since exposure to the food plays a significant role in the
development of an allergy.

However, being the queen of
not-planning-meals-more-than-five-minutes-in-advance, the fact that almost
every pre-prepared baby food out there contains at least dairy, if not other
potential allergens, has meant I need to find creative ways of weaning that are
both healthy and quick.

Since I’ve taken time to figure it out, I
thought perhaps there might be others not so keen to sort through everything
like I have (or not so obsessive), and my discoveries might help you.  Even if you’re not Canadian… I mean, a
worrier.

Here’s my combination approach:

1. Baby-led weaning

2. Introducing low allergen-risk foods at
recommended stages to minimize reaction

3. Foods pre-prepared for speedy, dash-to-the-fridge/freezer-and-grab-what-you-need delivery.

Baby-led weaning?  Well, you’re on the website, and can sort
that out pretty easily.  We’ve offered
Bubby a range of food options at each meal, which he feeds himself.

Introducing low allergen-risk foods? For the sequence of introducing foods,
we’ve followed the guide you can find under ‘links’ to the right of the screen:
‘Sequence of Adding Foods…’ (this by the way came thanks to my frighteningly
all-knowing paediatric physiotherapist sister—see my above reference to family
for more insight)

But what the heck kinds of foods can I give
him?
It’s one thing to know what I’m not allowed
to feed him, but what and how I can feed him is another problem altogether. I
have to recommend a great book which has helped me through all this stuff: Lucy
Burley’s ‘Optimum Nutrition for Children’ outlines best options for food
choices.

The pacing of introducing foods
Lucy Burley’s book also has a chart that
gives recommendations about the pace of the introduction food. It was her chart
I’ve used to guide us through first three months of weaning. It’s been
particularly helpful since I’ll be going back to work, have been breastfeeding
till now, and needed to plan how to wean him from breastfeeding without using
(dairy-based) formula.

I suggest using it only as a guide, of
course…surely you’ve read enough of this website by now to understand that BLW means
being relaxed about mess and food amounts? But I am someone who always needs to
feel some sense of control over the world (surely this is related to my great
worrying capacity?) and who needs to have some grasp of the direction we’re
moving in at all times, so this chart was a lifesaver. 

It’s simple, but good. Obviously the
teaspoon and dessertspoon bits aren’t that relevant to Baby Led Weaning but
it’s a good place to start. And it does give you a good idea of just how little
babies are supposed to be eating in the early stages.

Adapted from Lucy Burney, Optimum Nutrition for Babies
and Young Children
http://www.lucyburney.co.uk/books/index.html

And we’re lucky enough that we haven’t had
to worry about amounts; Bubby gobbles up just about anything – even if he gets
three chews in and then suddenly remembers that he hates what I’ve sneakily
given him again (like butter/ lima beans). Aitch calls this ‘weaning groundhog
day’.  Hilariously, it happened with
organic lamb’s liver again this week.

The quick and easy solution.
Remember I said I just don’t do
‘plan-in-advance’ foods very well? I used to think it’s because I work long
hours.  Now I’m at home with Bubby, I
have had to face the raw truth that I simply just don’t like cooking. Not that
I don’t have great aspirations – I’ve read through the recipes on this site a
million times, thinking ‘right, next time I won’t buy the organic oat cakes,
I’ll bake them’.  Hasn’t happened yet,
and I’m coming to terms with the fact it may never happen.  Surely this doesn’t make me a bad mum…?

Here’s what I’ve done to make things really
easy:

1. Buy up all the vegetables and fruit for
baby in one shop. We’ve gone organic with everything.

2. Set aside all the vegetables and fruit baby
can’t eat raw

3. Chop them all up in fist-grabbing sizes

4. Steam them (we are the deliriously
appreciative recipients of some fantastic hand-me-down baby things, including a
‘babycook’ which has made things even easier, since it reduces the risk of over-steaming
food)

5. Let them cool 

6. Put them in separate plastic freezer bags
(and label and date them, if you’re OTT organized). We keep food in the freezer
for up to 1 month.

7.Toss out everything you don’t need in your
freezer and make room for these bags.

8. At each meal, go through the bags, taking
out whatever you want to feed baby. 

9. Put in bowl, and pour freshly boiled water
over them.

10. Leave for 2 minutes, and presto! Food is
right ready for baby; a whole healthy range of colourful veggies and fruit.

We also freeze lentils, brown rice and
kidney beans in those ice cube boxes, and toss them into separate freezer bags
too.We heat them to piping hot in the microwave then let them cool before letting the baby loose on them

Bubby loves the range and variety of his
foods, after all he doesn’t know that I’m limiting him. He can eat off our
plates when we’re out without having to dig into the rare prefab baby food that
doesn’t have dairy, and we’re all happy.

So there you have the consciously anally-retentive
approach to baby-led weaning.  May other
control-obsessed (and consequently control-grieving) mothers be buoyed and
encouraged:  there is a way!

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