BLW vs weaning, when to do it, how do you do it...?

I need to investigate Gail rapley. So do you replace milk with food or just some feeds? Which foods can they eat? Which foods should they have and how much? Does it really disturb sleeping (we have that nailed)? I'm at work for half of the day so the nanny would have to feed, everything would have to be prepared and cooked each meal time? It sounds great fun and I'm keen to try. I was eating a banana this morning and she kept reaching for it! So many questions, sorry! edited by Mau10 on 15/01/2013 You give milk and then offer food, solids shouldn't replace any milk at this age. If your nanny will be helping with feeding then she needs to understand your philosophy regarding weaning and I think you maybe first need to figure out what that philosophy is :). If you want your baby to be offered a range of foods and not to be coaxed into eating all or even any of it then make sure she understands that she will not be doing "here comes the aeroplane" , alternating spoons of sweet with vegies, or chasing a reluctant baby around with a spoon. She also needs to be trained in EXACTLY what to do in a choking situation, and in how to differentiate between gagging and choking. There is a fair bit of gagging involved in finger foods, and as a new mum you can panic a bit. What you need to do is stay calm so that your baby stays calm, do not start whacking them on the back or sticking your fingers in their mouth (doing these things can actually do more harm than good). Basically just quietly let them cough (or vomit) the offending piece of food up and then carry on with the meal. You should never leave a baby alone with food, true choking (when they can't breathe) is silent. There are some good youtube videos on how to deal with true choking. If you are offering your family meals then you may need to modify them slightly to remove salt and to ensure they are healthy (if they are not already). You shouldn't add salt to babyfood nor should a baby under the age of 12 months be given honey or raw eggs, other than that pretty much anything goes, but try and make it nutrient dense. Bread and pasta may be easy for babies to eat but they don't get much nutrition from them. When we started solids it did have a negative affect on my son's sleep, I think because he had reflux as a in infant, and certain foods made it worse. His night sleep was never improved by upping the amounts of solids he ate by day, he ate enormous amounts from day one and still needed nightfeeding until 13 months with the highest amount of night wakings between 5 and 9 months.

As plumie said, milk should remain the primary source of nutrition for the first year, so what I do is top up with milk then give food, so she has had all her milk. Feeds shouldn't really be dropped, they may reduce in size if your baby eats and absorbs a lot of the food eventually. If sleep is already good then I doubt it would disrupt it. My baby has never slept through but the hours she slept reduced slowly over time and has only now started increasing again which I am presuming is related to calories. At first there is a need to prepare food so it extra soft but over time preparation is with your own meals, so not anymore time consuming. I loved this site when I first started. The blog is useful and so are the comments http://www.babyledweaning.com/

I'm doing BLW with my second DD. I would strongly suggest you read up and educate yourself first, so that you feel mire equipped when you start! I personally think it's a lifestyle and we simply love it! The main rule of BLW is that food is for play and discovery in the first year, milk should still remain the main source of nutrition. Once you understand this, everything will make sense! My DD is just under 7 months and has eaten: Chicken curry, Thai Beef curry (tonight) lamb chop on the bone, chicken thigh on the bone, SpagBol, lamb burgers, toasted sandwiches and almost all fruits part from the acidic/citrus ones, most veggies - all whole and cut to a size that she can manage! It's probably one of the best decisions we have made - no stress about what she's going to eat as she eats what we do :) It's soooooo much fun and you quickly get the hang of it! I've never stressed when DD has gagged (also because I think she is my second), and it always amazes me at how she is able to move that peice of food out of her mouth if it's too big! She's never had anything puree'd, out of a pouch or jar and I hope to keep it that way ;) Good luck x

We did BLW (the method defined by Gill Rapley) with DD, our first child. From my experience with it, I would definitely recommend BLW. DD is now 10 months and eats anything we put in front of her- any shape, texture or taste. I enjoy it so much and she loves trying foods too. Her first food was broccoli florets and she loved to suck on minute steak. I bought the BLW cookbook by GR and find it good for ideas when I don't know what to give. A few side notes! - On holiday, whilst it was said to me that BLW is easy on the go, it was less stressful for me to give puréed food from the organic range for a couple of weeks rather than worry about food preparation all the time. DD was not having three meals then so it was really just to keep her occupied while we ate, and when I had something she could have, I shared my meal. At that time though she was not really able to eat foods unless they were really soft and not all restaurants were willing to steam the veggies for longer or cook the eggs thoroughly etc. This was when we were starting out though now, she really can eat what we eat apart from a few things like honey, nuts, undercooked meats etc. - I strongly believe that DD wakes a lot more frequently at the beginning of the night because she needs more calories and wakes for milk. I say this because she now is having a fair amount of oven baked super soft fingers of sweet potato in the evening which goes in literally like purée and sleeps longer than she ever has before. Could be a coincidence but I believe that at her age she needs more calories than three meals can give her the BLW way, with her self feeding abilities ad the way i am preparing the foods. I might be wrong but I am sure purée gives a child a better chance of absorption than finger foods do. BLW babies catch up as their skills increase I suppose, and if this is the case, be prepared for a little more demand for calories at night if you can't fit them all in during the day. - if there are other caregivers, consider how you will manage this. It was easier for me to allow my MIL to feed mashed foods with a spoon because I did not feel confident in her to give the right foods or rescue her from choking. MIL and FIL were also scared of gagging and it was just easier not to convert them to BLWers. I did encourage them to allow her to feed herself from the spoon and they gradually started doing that as they saw how she fed herself when i was around. Now however DD refuses spoons, so now I prep the food and they give it to her with much less risk or concern of gagging since she is now a lot more competent. I know others who do BLW and they also love it. Some babies click onto it fast and others a bit slower to learn how to self feed. DD seemed to really click around 8 months on how to do it. Before that i remember feeling a bit stressed about what to give her, and if she would gag. Speaking of gagging she gagged once on banana, which was her third food and that was because i didn't follow the number one rule- make sure you can squash it in your mouth with your tongue against the roof of your mouth. It was scary but amazing how she just brought up her tummy of milk n the piece came along with it. I think it's also helped a lot with her motor skills, I get a lot of comments on how good she is with her hands. I hope you decide to do it, it really is great fun and amazing how clever these babies are.

I'm not a fan of babyrice, at best it is pure starch plus a multivitamin, at worst its very hard for a baby to digest, especially if they are FF and can lead to gas, constipation and an unhappy baby. Simple carbs like fruit are easier for them to break down and meat is a better source of iron and zinc than something fortified like babyrice. Meat is now recommended as a first food along with eggs and dairy, this is contrary to older advice which was to delay these foods, review of research has shown no allergy risk and actually an increased risk if you delay some things (like eggs).

as kiwispeirs said i did the same thing.. finger food puree. i followed his cues. there are few foods which he does not like in the puree form like brocolli. he likes to hold the florets and eat. you have to follow your baby's cues. i was not comfortable with the idea of BLW only. so small babies left to feed themselves. but at the same time i wanted him to learn eating too.kiwispeirs has nicely explained everything. my ds started asking for solids at 5 months. he used to watch complete movement of us taking food into mouth from plate and used to make chewing motion :) but i started his solids at 6 months only and he devoured everything i gave him. all the best..messy times are coming.

Kiwispiers i did the same as you, my 7 1/2 month old DS prefers being spoon fed also, i try giving him bits to eat himself throughout the day but he's not keen and tends to choke a bit sometimes. my friends DD who is 9 1/2 months is the opposite, she absolutly loves feeding herself, broccoli, carrots, pasta etc.... every baby is different, but i suppose if your baby eats well thats all that matters.

it kind of depends on your definition of BLW. To me the first two words are key "baby-led" but I've heard a lot of people use the term baby-led weaning to simply mean weaning straight onto finger food vs giving purees. Gil Rapley who coined the term BLW was referring to an approach which is basically to just let babies work it out themselves when they are ready, with absolutely no parental spoonfeeding or coaxing from parents. Typically a baby would need to be older than 6 months, commonly around 8 months and able to sit unaided and pick up food with a pincer grip to navigate it to their own mouth. You would offer them a selection of foods that are in a form that they can handle (generally given whole or cut into fish finger type shapes that they can easily grip. They need to be able to lean forward to take food, so that if they start to gag/choke they can cough the food out. Feeding in a semi-reclined position (like in a carseat or leaning back on pillows) is dangerous as if they are choking gravity will be working against them. IMHO you can (and should) apply a baby-led (vs parent-led) philosophy to ALL weaning, whether you give purees, finger foods or a combination of the two. I introduced solids at around 6 1/2 months, by which point my son could sit and crawl and had lost the tongue thrust reflex (the reflex babies have that pushes food out of their mouths, to ensure they don't choke before they are ready for solids). I gave a combo of finger foods and purees, and watched my baby for cues. I fed him on the floor, sitting down with a bowl and leaving it up to him if he wanted to crawl over and have some, or move away if he didn't. It turned out he preferred purees (perhaps because of his reflux, finger foods definitely did make his reflux worse initially) and he liked to be spoonfed so being baby-led I went with that. I still gave him control though, I would hold the spoon in front of him and he would lean forward to take the food rather than me chasing him around and trying to trick him into swallowing some, like I have seen some parents do. We pretty quickly progressed to finger foods, but he still preferred that I held them, he would then grab my hand and guide it to his mouth, in a way he used my hand as a utensil! He was probably 14 months before he ever spat anything out (seriously, I actually wondered if there was something wrong with him in that he had never spat a single thing out). I think the key idea is that mealtimes shouldn't be a chore, babies should be introduced to solids when they are showing signs that they are interested in doing so and physically ready for food in real forms, eating should be enjoyable for them, not traumatic or deceptive and they should feel that they have a voice in the process. If you have been breastfeeding/bottle feeding on demand then you already have an understanding of this concept.

Hi Mau, I follow BLW as it makes complete sense to me. Most of my friends use puree so its just personal choice. BLW for me is so easy as the baby eats what you eat no faffing around, great for dexterity and hand to eye coordination and apparently makes them less fussy, my baby tends to eat anything at this stage. For BLW you tend to start earliest at 6 months when they can sit unaided and show an interest in food, those traditionally weaning can start earlier as obviously you are feeding them and there is less choking hazard. BLW say that milk is the most important thing until 1 year old and food up unitl that point is for fun, where they can discover tastes and textures. I know what puts people off is the choking but this isn't really an issue, they did gag initially but rarely choke they are clever little things and learn to spit out what is not wanted. Let me know if you have any questions, Gill Rapley is a good lady to google.