Baby Led Weaning

[Beccles26]

Hello Childminders.
I have a 6 month old baby starting, full time in the new year and mum wnats her to do baby led weaning, serious help and advice needed!!!!

[sarah707]

You need lots of bibs, a huge splat mat and a sense of humour!

Have a look at some websites for lots of ideas

http://www.babyledweaning.com/

http://www.baby-led.com/

[Wendybird]

You can probably get Gill Rapley's book from your library. It is so easy though, you don't really need to read the book. The idea is that babies explore finger foods and foods that you are eating and learn to feed themselves without the need for purees etc. They continue to get most of their calories from breast milk or formula, so you don't need to worry about how much they are actually eating. The important thing is that you offer a wide variety of foods and continue to do so even if they don't eat it. My son liked apple slices, cherry tomatoes (cut in quarters at first), breadsticks, parboiled carrots and other veg, bananas, etc. Avacado is a good one. It is messy at first and the gags can be a bit scarey at first. Babies have a gag reflex much closer to the front of their mouths though and they do sort it out themselves (obviously not if they actually have a blocked airway). Here is a link to a leaflet about it - there's tons more on google. http://www.rapleyweaning.com/assets/blwleaflet.pdf

[nikki thomson]

Now my best friends sister in law does this and when she was telling me about it I thought what a load of rubbish, a 6 mth old feeding themselfs and eating proper food, she is one of these mums that goes on loads of courses and research.
Anyway I was over there when they came for lunch one day and it was quite amazing she strapped her dd in one of those Bumbo seats with a tray and she gave her some cucumber, carrot, home made organic pizza and then she had a yogurt which she fed herself, it was quite impressive.
But she makes lots of mess and it's very very time consuming she was there for like an hour, I personally don't have time to sit for an hour especially at breakfast time.
I would go on the Internet and do some reading up on it, it's very interesting. X

[Wendybird]

Now my best friends sister in law does this and when she was telling me about it I thought what a load of rubbish, a 6 mth old feeding themselfs and eating proper food, she is one of these mums that goes on loads of courses and research.
X

Ha ha - I am totally one of those mums I drive my friends insane

[nikki thomson]

Ha ha - I am totally one of those mums I drive my friends insane

Do you know what the lady in question is lovely and this is her first baby but oh my she does research on everything and sometimes I come away and my head is spinning, but her heart is in the right place even if I do go abit glazed sometimes when she's telling about some new thing (baby) orientated gadget or way of doing something, bless her, it does make me chuckle. Xx

[uf353432]

both my daughters were BLW and I support any parent who chooses that route or the alternative weaning options - in fact I have one baby who is BLW as well and she is doing great. The thing to remember at 6 mths is they are still getting most of their calories from milk - so really between 6 mths to 1 year its an exploration of tastes, textures and fine tuning the fine motor skills. At around 9mth they really get the whole eating experience and start eating with gusto. Ensure a good range of foods supplied chopped into long peices, some made natural holding foods like broccoli, mix different textures and tastes - sweet and savoury and child can choose the taste they want. Children when left to make their own choices will always end up eating a balanced meal. You can put a blob of dip on the table and a blob of yoghurt and they can dip into them with breadsticks, veg, meats etc.

Its truly a lovely experience - but you do need to be patient and leave a bit longer for eating - which is fine because its all part of the learning process.

Enjoy it!

[Tealady]

It is very messy at first, whoever with my own and my mindee who is also BLW they become very neat eaters before spoon fed babies do.

I only did it by default for my own... he wouldn't eat a thing but one morning he nicked a bit of toast of my plate and happily sucked and chewed it. So I just spent the morning looking info up on line, ordered the book from Amazon and never looked back. If we have a third I will BLW from the start.

[*daisychain*]

The most useful information I had when I blw my son with regards to scary gagging was to sit on my hands and count to ten before I react! I never got past 3 and he'd manage to sort it . Have fun !

[ziggy]

I have 2 mindees aged 15 months n 18mnths, older child was BLW and is now eating anything and everything with hardly any mess. Younger childs mummy wanted to do it but couldnt cope with the mess, she also eats anything and everything but hates being fed now and gets into a horrendous mess lol. Both children are fit and healthy

[Pandypops]

I BLW my son and it's brill - lots of mess but it's so satisfying seeing them eat by themselves and really get stuck in! He's 17 months now and a great eater and has been using a spoon and fork for the last few months. He didn't gag so that was a bonus.

The key is give them lots of time for eating, don't worry about the mess (I used to stick a towel under the highchair then I could just gather it and stick the crumbs it in bin or in the wash) and avoid salty foods.

Have fun

[Toothfairy]

You need lots of bibs, a huge splat mat and a sense of humour!

Yes, loads of bibs and a splat mat

I also spent the first month glued to the front of the highchair watching mindee eating. He would swollow chunks of food in one gulp and not chew at all. I was convinced he was going to choke

[mummyMia]

I used BLW for my second child and am a big fan By about 12 months she was tucking away a whole plate of food on her own and it was great seeing the astonished looks other mums gave me!

The main idea with BLW is that you never put any food in the child's mouth. You offer them different foods and if they want to eat it then they have to do it themselves. For the first few months you can just give fruit and vegetables. So just cut pear, banana, cucumber, cooked carrots, cooked broccoli, etc into large chunks and place them on the highchair tray in front of the child. The peces need to be big enough for the child to grab onto with a fist, about the size of a large chip. That iis all there is to it really!

You need to have an easy to clean highchair like the Ikea one. Ikea also does really good bibs that cover their whole body and arms. I bought about 10 of them and just throw them in the washing machine. They wash really well and last for ages! It is best not to use any plates/bowls at first, just put the food directly on the highchair tray.

There are a few foods that are particularly messy, mainly things like yogurt and porridge. You are supposed to let the child just eat these with their fingers but I have to say the mess was horrific. So I used put a little bit of yogurt/porridge on a spoon and then hand it to dd so that she was still feeding herself but it wasn't nearly as messy. Within about 2 weeks she had learned to put the spoon in her mouth, lick of the porridge, and hand it back to me for more. Once she was a little older I let her start scooping the porridge out of the bowl herself.

[mummyMia]

I forgot to say that BLW didn't make our meal times any longer. I would put dd's food out first, then serve everybody else. Once the rest of the family had finished eating the meal time was over and I would clean up. I never sat around waiting for her to finish!