From my previous post about Introducing Solids, I mentioned that I would also document Lennox's journey with BLW. He started when he was 24 weeks old (5 and a half months). By the time he could sit up on his own and was already holding items and putting them into his mouth.
Here are some tips i learnt when starting BLW, suggested first foods and basically photos of him looking terribly cute while eating! :P
Food prep for BLW
Babies do not need teeth to chew! Their gums are strong enough to bite stuff off (just check with moms who breastfeed babies without teeth - the gummy bite can still be painful! :P)
Babies around 6 months would be able to pick up objects, but using their whole fists. So one tip i learnt was to cut food into strips that are a little longer that their fists, so that even when they grabbed the food, one part would be sticking out for them to eat.
I have here a few examples of Nox holding pieces of carrot, beans and cooked plaintain with his whole fist. Basically for the beans and carrot, i steamed these greens until they were soft but not too mushy and where he could hold them and 'bite' pieces off.
Choking vs Gagging
The biggest worry of parents (also for myself) was whether the baby would choke since he is holding on to whole pieces of food. Firstly it is always important to make sure that the food is soft enough for the baby. Next, it's important to remember that gagging is TOTALLY NORMAL! All babies would have a gag reflex (some to different extents than others), especially since all they have known to eat thus far is milk.
Here are some sites that delve further into this choking vs gagging issue - the Babyled Weaning website and BLWequipment site.
One quick video i saw about how to save a choking baby was also quite handy.
For Jürgen & myself, we went for a 3-hour baby first-aid course to get hands on practice on what to do when a child/adult is choking (and also other first aid-y stuff). I would definitely recommend doing it even if you've done it before, just as a refresher!
The Mess
Oh boy, there was definitely a mess. Lennox wore a full body bib for the first 8-10 weeks, that was really handy! It was winter time here so it wasn't possible for him to just wear his diaper ;)
Also, i had an old (clean) shower curtain under his baby chair to catch any food that he dropped (which was a lot!). In that way i could just pick up the food and pass it back to him to eat instead of wasting it and going into the bin!
What were his first foods?
It was mainly a lot of fruits and vegetables for the first 2 weeks - banana, avocado, baked pear/apple, steamed/boiled broccoli, carrots, green beans. Then pieces of bread and pasta. At first i really wondered if any food was being consumed, as it just seemed like it was going everywhere but his mouth! But a quick check on his poop told me otherwise ;)
As i mentioned in the previous post, i was leaning towards doing strict BLW, meaning i would not feed him directly to his mouth at all. But it was difficult! And also he opened his mouth gladly for us so i just went with the flow and for some messier foods, i started feeding him directly with a spoon. Also, I'm a big fan of Ella's Kitchen pouches. They are so handy when we were on the go! I started using them when we were here in Holland and i was pleased when i saw them on sale in Singapore as well when we were there on vacation for 5 weeks.
After about 10 weeks i became more daring with the food and didn't specially make separate dishes for him. He ate what we did! Fish, meats, fruits, vegetables, grains, you name it. I just made sure i set aside one portion from the pan for him before i added salt or stock or sugar. In fact, i started cooking healthier for the whole family and now we have reduced the amount of salt and sugar that we add to our foods.
BLW currently
Nox is 12 months old now and mealtimes have largely been great! Up till about 11 months he stayed put in his high chair during meal times. Unfortunately the last weeks he's figured out that he could stand up and get out of the chair! So i've had to buckle him down which he doesn't like. Also when he was teething he hardly had any appetite to eat. Now it's better (3 new teeth have sprouted!) and i guess there will always be ups and downs with eating.
Once the 'pincer grasp' movement was developed (where the baby can pick up small objects with his thumb and forefinger), then it gets fun! Babies are also known to go through different stages (throwing food, refusing foods they used to love, gorging everything into their mouths, eating nothing at all). And that's supposed to be 'normal' as well. I'm not looking forward to it though! Haha!
Anyway, i post meal plans and recipes regularly on our Instagram page, so if are curious or if you need inspiration on what to feed your baby, follow us! :)
Here are some tips i learnt when starting BLW, suggested first foods and basically photos of him looking terribly cute while eating! :P
Food prep for BLW
Babies do not need teeth to chew! Their gums are strong enough to bite stuff off (just check with moms who breastfeed babies without teeth - the gummy bite can still be painful! :P)
Babies around 6 months would be able to pick up objects, but using their whole fists. So one tip i learnt was to cut food into strips that are a little longer that their fists, so that even when they grabbed the food, one part would be sticking out for them to eat.
I have here a few examples of Nox holding pieces of carrot, beans and cooked plaintain with his whole fist. Basically for the beans and carrot, i steamed these greens until they were soft but not too mushy and where he could hold them and 'bite' pieces off.
Choking vs Gagging
The biggest worry of parents (also for myself) was whether the baby would choke since he is holding on to whole pieces of food. Firstly it is always important to make sure that the food is soft enough for the baby. Next, it's important to remember that gagging is TOTALLY NORMAL! All babies would have a gag reflex (some to different extents than others), especially since all they have known to eat thus far is milk.
Here are some sites that delve further into this choking vs gagging issue - the Babyled Weaning website and BLWequipment site.
One quick video i saw about how to save a choking baby was also quite handy.
For Jürgen & myself, we went for a 3-hour baby first-aid course to get hands on practice on what to do when a child/adult is choking (and also other first aid-y stuff). I would definitely recommend doing it even if you've done it before, just as a refresher!
The Mess
Oh boy, there was definitely a mess. Lennox wore a full body bib for the first 8-10 weeks, that was really handy! It was winter time here so it wasn't possible for him to just wear his diaper ;)
Also, i had an old (clean) shower curtain under his baby chair to catch any food that he dropped (which was a lot!). In that way i could just pick up the food and pass it back to him to eat instead of wasting it and going into the bin!
 |
| I cooked the broccoli a little too soft. Someone enjoyed it though. hehe. |
What were his first foods?
It was mainly a lot of fruits and vegetables for the first 2 weeks - banana, avocado, baked pear/apple, steamed/boiled broccoli, carrots, green beans. Then pieces of bread and pasta. At first i really wondered if any food was being consumed, as it just seemed like it was going everywhere but his mouth! But a quick check on his poop told me otherwise ;)
As i mentioned in the previous post, i was leaning towards doing strict BLW, meaning i would not feed him directly to his mouth at all. But it was difficult! And also he opened his mouth gladly for us so i just went with the flow and for some messier foods, i started feeding him directly with a spoon. Also, I'm a big fan of Ella's Kitchen pouches. They are so handy when we were on the go! I started using them when we were here in Holland and i was pleased when i saw them on sale in Singapore as well when we were there on vacation for 5 weeks.
After about 10 weeks i became more daring with the food and didn't specially make separate dishes for him. He ate what we did! Fish, meats, fruits, vegetables, grains, you name it. I just made sure i set aside one portion from the pan for him before i added salt or stock or sugar. In fact, i started cooking healthier for the whole family and now we have reduced the amount of salt and sugar that we add to our foods.
BLW currently
Nox is 12 months old now and mealtimes have largely been great! Up till about 11 months he stayed put in his high chair during meal times. Unfortunately the last weeks he's figured out that he could stand up and get out of the chair! So i've had to buckle him down which he doesn't like. Also when he was teething he hardly had any appetite to eat. Now it's better (3 new teeth have sprouted!) and i guess there will always be ups and downs with eating.
Once the 'pincer grasp' movement was developed (where the baby can pick up small objects with his thumb and forefinger), then it gets fun! Babies are also known to go through different stages (throwing food, refusing foods they used to love, gorging everything into their mouths, eating nothing at all). And that's supposed to be 'normal' as well. I'm not looking forward to it though! Haha!
Anyway, i post meal plans and recipes regularly on our Instagram page, so if are curious or if you need inspiration on what to feed your baby, follow us! :)
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