Baby Led Weaning Support Thread - Part 10

[amayzie]

so I tend to pick the flesh out of the skin (halved) before giving it to Sofia.

Princess sophia strikes again!! (I don't really think she;s a princess... ) you should just give it a go- it's unlikely that a half grape would totally occlude her airway anyway!! AND it's really funny watching as the grapes shoot across the room they are slippery little buggers!!

[Fiver]

I still cut grapes in half, but then DD still doesn't have teeth so would be unable to properly bite through the skin.

And pick away!  I'm not really an expert, just a bit further along the road

[amayzie]

do you mean amanga that she has no molars? Or no teeth at all...?

[Fiver]

No teeth - period.  Gummy bear.

[beckygatt]

Rach - Sophia only has 2 teeth but she manages a lot of meat. Guess it just takes practice. She'll have burgers, chicken off a drumstick, any meat from the slow cooker (I remember you have one, right?), salmon, chicken patties, chicken nuggets... Just keep offering!

She's eating so much now and with very little mess. Its just incredible

The one thing we struggle with is things like yoghurt. She won't let me help her with the spoon so its not very successful

[Fiver]

I think yoghurt can take time.  Are you offering loaded spoons?
We got to the stage where now DD is happy to open her mouth for me to help with yoghurt, but I figure she realises it'll go in quicker that way, but still wants to do it herself too

[amayzie]

Amanda- i love it!! I hope she doesn't get them all at once in a week or something!! (Or that might be good- a week of hell versus months of teething..)

We have yoghurt every day- i'm a creature of habit... breakfast is always yoghurt (and weetbix and a piece of fruit... yes... boring mummy- you can tell why i jumped at the oat fingers!). Initially i would offer the spoon and he would grab it and put it in his mouth (the first time we tried with hands on the tray.. fun- but messy... )- while i held the end. But i figure that he eats EVERYTHING else with his hands and feeds himself that i can help him with this. I still let him grab the spoon- but he is happy enough to let me feed him.

You could try as you get into 'summer' (this is how i refer to the english summer... i'm not sure it really deserves the title ) you could make 'iced lollies' out of yoghurt and fruit? Is that what you call them? I call them ice blocks... not sure if an iced lolly is a specific kind of lce block or not...

I found these things called ooby oohs (or something).. they look like cheerios, but taste AWFUL!! No sugar, and hardly any salt at all!! Hamish thinks they're great! I'l be able to pop a few on his tray while i get other stuff ready and he can work on picking them all up and eating them- very tricky!! Takes AGES!! Hopefully he won't ok out they're the most bland thing ever... 

[creations]

what else can I do with meat to make it finger food-ish?

Not sure if it is specifically meat dishes you want or if it is protein to balance out the diet?
DS gummed on meat before he had teeth but wasn't a big meat eater until maybe 12 months so I increased the beans we have and make little bean or lentil burgers/fritter type things or falafal.  I use the canned beans and lentils in water, no salt or sugar, they are SO convenient, drain and rinse then throw into whatever you are making (stew, curry etc) or whizz with some other flavours and fry off in patties.  I made some black-eyed-virgin-Mary burgers this week which he loved (black eyed beans, tom puree, dash of Worcestershire sauce, white pepper, egg, flour - all whizzed then fried - served with mint mayo dip and Thai sweet chilli mayo dip).

Grapes (and similar size/shaped food, like cherry toms) I now give whole, bare in mind DS is 14 months.  I've heard scary choke stories of much older kids choking on whole grapes and even halved grapes!  So I think caution is a good thing but even adults can choke.

[beckygatt]

I try offering loaded spoons but she just wants to snatch it out of my hand. She won't let me help her with it! Do you give baby yoghurts or adult ones? They baby ones I find are so full of sugar.

[creations]

I've never given yoghurt aimed at babies or children they do all seem very high in sugar.  I got onken natural which has nothing added at all, I could only find it in big pots though so you'd have to decant to a small reusable tub if you wanted to go out and about with it, not quite as convenient as the individual pots.
I prefer natural yoghurt anyway but if you like it sweeter or with fruit you could add steamed/pureed fruit.
I noticed that yoghurt wasn't good for DS's silent reflux though so it's not a regular in his diet.

[amayzie]

Mine is called jalna- it;s a pot set greek style no added anything yoghurt- full fat. No flavours or anything. Hamish eats it straight and loves it- never minded tangy things... I never give him the baby yoghurt. Why they market the stuff that;s full of sugar i never know!! Why encourage extra sweet things! Sometimes i put some bits of prunes in it, or pears- but i rarely stir them through as such, i just give it to him on the spoon like i would have it- in chunks.. NEW PEOPLE PLEASE NOTE- This is probably not the best idea- the BLW book suggests not poking little chunks of food into babies mouths.. mostly i give him small chunks, or soft things...

Oh- and yoghurt is an at home- usually pre-shower food. Even on a spoon hamish likes to investigate it thoroughly!!

Ok- another question.. I think i've been stressing myself out over lunch- i'm trying to ensure that he has a fully rounded meal at each meal (with varying levels of success). BUT is it fine if lunch is just a serve of yoghurt say (if he didn't have it for breakfast) and a piece of fruit? Is this a fine lunch? Keeping in mind that he pretty much still has 4 BF a day? (and 3 meals..). At dinner i try to give him a protien, carb, veg and fruit... sometimes miss something.. does this sound ok?

[creations]

Katy, when I started out I was advised to consider the balance of food groups over a DAY or WEEK not a meal, and the amount of food too.  So I wouldn't worry at all if for example breakfast was all carbs and lunch all veg then evening meal just a chunk of protein iyswim.  I think on the whole it wouldn't be quite so split up as this but I don't think at this stage you need to balance every individual meal.
Esp when DS just started out, he ate lots but he didn't like a mixture of things, so it would be a plate of just two different veg and he might eat both or just all of one.  So long as I didn't offer exactly the same veg every day then across the week a variety would have gone in to balance the various vits and nutrients and give variety of flavour and texture for him to get used to.
hope this helps - it's really hard to make every meal totally balanced.

Even on a spoon hamish likes to investigate it thoroughly!!

Hamish does like his mess eh!  At one of the toddler groups I go to there is a messy play wher they have things like baked beans or cooked spaghetti in a massive tub and the LOs play with it, dive in, get covered head to foot.  If DS is hungry he just goes over and eats it, if he's not hungry he totally ignores it!  He isn't into messy play or messy food at all.

[amayzie]

Great!! YEah- i never really have to worry that hamish is hypersensitive..!

[beckygatt]

OK! I need some quick ideas for a lunch that will loosen the bowels! S has been getting constipated and the daily prunes aren't working!

I guess I should get some natural yoghurt. We don't have any nice healthy yoghurt in Malta unfortunately I know in England there are nice organic ones but not here!

[amayzie]

You could make your own yoghurt.... I'll google around and see what i can see...

How about pears in the slow cooker? 2-3 hours on high... possibly if you did it with some sugar free prune juice (do they have such a thing?) Then you could give them cold or warm?