Weaning blw

I really want to try baby led weaning.

With the boys they were both weaned early because they fatties lol

So anyone any tips or advice, I'm thinking ill start her early December but interested to hear people's opinions

I did it with Sophs! We strted at five months (almost to the day!) as she dive bombed my toast!

To start with, i just sat her on my lap when i was eating and let her pick at my food. Then as she got more into it, i sat her in a booster chair with tray.

I would say make sure you make plenty, you need to not mind waste. And make sure you have a splash mat. and a big thing to try and hold on to is that it is not about eating at the start, and not really for the first couple of months or so, its just about exploring. They will be fine, getting all they need from milk, see the food as an added extra.

Poo, is weird at first, when they have had those first few tatses, the food comes out in their poo the same as it goes in! Changing slowly to adult type over time, but quite a long time. Poo was the easiest way of me knowing how much she actually was eating. (sorry tmi)

The gag reflex is scary at first, but try not to panic when you hear that yack noise, as long as you hear that noise, you know they are ok! and the food will come back out! IF they were choking you would know the difference as you wouldnt hear that cough and they would go a funny colour, that would be when you would need to panic! But i have to say Sophia only had a handful of yack moments, she picked it up really easily.

Baby Led Weaning by Gill Rapley is fab and explains it all, however they also have a cookbook by her now too which also explains the fundamentals. The cookbook is brilliant! Recipes are sooooo simple and easy but also sooooo tasty. Havent had a bad meal out of it yet!

I wouldnt bother with plates or bowls to start with, its easier just to put onto a tray, plates and bowls are just an extra thing to knock to the floor.

Overcooking things like rice helps it stick together more so making it easier to hold. Porridge (proper porridge, not the baby version) works well if you cook to quite firm then let cool in a bowl then it can be cut into chunks to hold onto.

Experiment with fruits, leave some skin on as will be easier to hold.

Just a few bits to mull over! Any q's, happy to try and help.

Kind of done a mixture this time with joshy. He has had baby breakfasts(not anymore) spoonfed and then normal adult meals for the other meals, with a mixture of helping himself and us spoonfeeding the meal to him.

Mandy x

I think Mandy's covered it all lol

We did it with Charlie, and tommy was jar/purée fed. I think this time ill do a mix of the two but mostly focus on blw

I'm just thinking we cook for Lucas so would be easy to cook for miss too.

Plus be a bit cheaper than jars I hope

Definitely cheaper than jars and much easier than making batch upon batch of purees!

At first, it is enough to just give a little bit here and ther from your plate, its not till they are about nine months or so that they really eat much so no extra cost on the normal shop at all for quite some time!

Enjoy, we found it lots of fun, and its nice not watching how much they eat, just letting them enjoy the food for what it is.

MAndy xx

Mandy covered it all. I loved blw. It made it so easy when we went out as well because in the early days we just ordered a side order or veg and he picked away at it. I agree just dump it on the high chair tray and it will be very messy. I started Jamie off with veg but we moved onto giving him things like spag bol and curry very early on and that was really messy (and it amazed me what he could eat with his fingers). They're ok if you can hear them does become a bit of a mantra as well with blw