Feeding your baby BLW style

Excellent point MommyN, we do not count our meals, and thank you for the welcome:)

thank you Sarah, Claudia and Nikki. It seems I am worrying too much, and Aaqil has already decided when and how much he will eat, and what he will eat. Dh and I were having lunch at Nino's yesterday. Aaqil leaned forward and ate his father's vegetarian Al-Forno. i have been stressing about white sauce and he ate mushrooms and penne etc:) After that we did remove the sauce and mushrooms and gave him just the pasta in his own plate which he ate by himself. With regards to his cereal I have always loaded his spoon and he and I both take turns to feed him. I didn't know that was part of blw. I have started reading the thread from the beginning. Another question please - do i still only have to introduce one new food every 3 days? if he is eating what we are eating, we never eat the same thing 3 days in a row. @ Claudia thanks for clarifying the breastfeeding, as he still has 9 to 10 feeds throughout the day, but the babysense book says that they should only be having 3 feeds at this point?! not going to happen:)

Hi Ladies,

thought I would pop in for an update, before my update just some comments to the various questions/ comments :

MissesMom, banana is good, but I cut it into long fingers and leave the skin on and Paige eats the flesh out hte skin,w tihout the skin its just too slippery for her. I dont give her banana too much as I find hse gets a bit constipated. roasted fingers of butternut, potatoe and sweet potato go down a treat.

Suhaila, like the other ladies have said, dont worry about how much gets eaten, I breastfeed on demand and Paige eats what she wants, I often think she hasnt eatne much and then her nappy tells another story I will use cows milk to cook with, ie in sauces, but only a little, if I give Paige weetbix, I mix it with expressed breastmilk

Mommyn, good luck with Nathan, sure he will be eating like a champ in no time.

so here is my update:

Paige is loving her food, she has tried so much in the last month or two and she is getting much better at feeding herself with a spoon ( if I preload it) . the other night she dipped her chicken bone in yoghurt. I am finding now that she wants to eat what we eat, if we eat something unhealthy I cant get away with feeding her an alternative for much longer,

We were out with friends for lunch yesterday adn she had fruit adn yoghurt and some of my tramazini and our friends were so impressed with how she ate.

She is teething at the moment and seems to be playing more than eating the last few days, but she will eat when she feels better. I am leaving her to it

Happy eating all

Suhaila, great to see you here!
This is one of the best threads!

Nathan is now 6 months old and not really enjoying his first solids, this week has been better and we started butternut today. Being 7 weeks prem, I havent rushed him. I've done the same as I did with Sarah (which was basically following my instincts and doing BLW kindof by accident), which is starting with rice cereal - just to start and I can already see he is not into cereals. I have bought the Olli organics now, tasted the Cerelac and it was awful, but a friend recommended I make my own rice cereal by cooking up brown rice and some stock. ok, you have to spoon feed, but someone else suggested feeding baby with 3 or 4 spoons, so while you are feeding, baby is also "feeding" himself. Tried it today and wow! He enjoyed his meal so much more! So started butternut today and in the next few days will try banana and some real finger foods! He is not your average 6 month old, but I am not really worried at all.

Oh yes, about knowing how much a baby actually eats, do we count our meals? Do we measure our portions? Tonight Sarah (21 months old) went to bed without supper, but not hungry... we had a late braai at around 3pm and she snacked ALL day, and had been up since 4am (teething) so when I asked her if she wanted food at 5pm and she said no, I knew she had had enough through the day.

Kids/babies, will let you know when they are hungry. Babies will moan, then cry, then scream if they are really hungry! Just follow your instincts and their cues!

Looking forward to getting more involved in this thread as Nathan progresses... here's to messy faces, food filled floors and smiles all round!

Hey misses mom, you might not need to decide. James got banana as a first food because he grabbed it out my hand:) He was 5months 3 weeks, but seriously banana is nice, because its easy to hold and quite soft:) Otherwise he also loved avo and sweet potato:)

@ Suhaila. Continue to breastfeed on demand, then it doesnt matter "how much" he is getting, because he will be filling in the gaps with breastmilk, which is after all far more healthy. James is 14 months and somedays he east virtually nothing, others he eats me out the house. Children arent like adults, they havent learnt to manipulate food and will eat when they need to - there was a recent study done (I think in aus, but I stand corrected) that showed that babies and children who are allowed to feed on demand (including their solid meals) have much lower rates of diabetes and obesity etc than children fed to a schedule on measured amounts. If that doesnt keep you calm think about this - no other mammal mother counts the volume that their children eat, they figure they will let them know when they are hungry.

With James I have 3 set mealtimes now when we sit at the table, but I have found that he is such a busy boy now that he wont sit still for long enough to eat well. As a result I keep healthy snacks (fruit, organic oatcakes, hummus with veg dippers etc on hand all the time. Whenever james is feeling peckish he comes to find me - takes me to the kitchen and points to the fridge:) He is still breastfeeding about 10 times per day - but largely for comfort (when he is tired, upset etc..)

As for milk, the BLW book actually says that unless their are food allergies in the house, you can introduce allergens as part of a normal diet. So yes, its not a good idea to let a baby drink cows milk instead of formula/bm before 1 (although in canada if a baby has been exclusively bf they say its fine at 10 months), but as an ingredient in a meal its fine. James has been getting mac and cheeze since 7 months and its his absolute favourite meal after spagetti bolognaise. He has also been getting curry from 7 months and he loves it (I got a very mild recipe in a baby cookbook for chicken curry and even my hubby and I enjoy it)

MissesMom wrote:

I just got the BLW book from my boss - the two of us are going the same route, and I cannot wait till I can get Kate on solids! I will wait till she is at least 5 months, but now I sit and try and think what her first food is going to be! I was never this excited about it with Em, and the poor child was giving disgusting tasting rice cerel for her first meal - no wonder she didn't touch food again for 8 months after that!

Any suggestions on a first "taste" food for Kate?

Avo, roasted butternut, banana

I just got the BLW book from my boss - the two of us are going the same route, and I cannot wait till I can get Kate on solids! I will wait till she is at least 5 months, but now I sit and try and think what her first food is going to be! I was never this excited about it with Em, and the poor child was giving disgusting tasting rice cerel for her first meal - no wonder she didn't touch food again for 8 months after that!

Any suggestions on a first "taste" food for Kate?