All going well!!!

Hi there, I haven't updated this blog for ages as weaning is now well under way and going really well. Interestingly Morgan is now allowing me to spoon feed him as well as still enjoying eating finger food. I think he has realised that he can get more in more quickly if I do it for him!!!!
I also was given the Annabel Karmel cook book and after being totally adverse to this thought I would take a look just to see. I have to say the recipes are quite good - and you don't have to mush them up if you want to follow BLW instead. Also Annabel recommends finger foods too from nine months - so for the sake of three months - it doesn't make that much difference.

I was surprised at some of her suggestions for food though - considering she is supposed to be the guru on this matter - for example sardines and tomato ketchup as a sandwich filling - isn't ketchup full of salt? Also she has honey or maple syrup as one ingredient - maybe the book is out of date but honey is a definite no until after a year due to botulism. Any way Morgan has turned down most of the recipes I have made him, but I have ended up eating them because they are really good!!! I've adapted most of the stuff for family meals so it hasn't mattered too much.

My advice to any one out there thinking of which approach to use is to just relax and take little bits of all approaches and experiment until you find things that suit you and your baby. I've heard of BLW followers who are so hell bent on baby eating finger foods that they end up giving them one thing such as broccoli for weeks on end!

The great thing about dipping into everything is that if Morgan turns down mush I can just feed him what were having or vice versa. The new huge fad is raisins - he can't get enough of them, its so lovely to see his little face light up when the raisin box appears!!!!

Now .. can anyone tell me how to get a baby to sleep through the night??? That is my latest problem .. maybe I should change this to a sleep blog instead!

Sunday Dinners ;-) Ummmmmm

On a good day Morgan is really eating everything!! Including lots of things that just aren't food - especially since he has just started crawling and can now get to the stereo wires, chair legs, cats etc etc!!

Food wise he now has little bits of almost everything were having this has even included little bits of pizza and danish pastry when we've been eating them. It's amazing us just how alert and aware he is, we can no longer get away with sitting and eating pastries when he's having baby porridge he just chucks the spoon on the floor and demands to have what were having!

He's finding it much easier to handle foods now too and I'm getting more relaxed about giving him more complex stuff. He hasn't tried anything spicey yet but apparentley (according to the Yahoo BLW group) its fine to give them spiced food too. Oh he's now got his pincer grip to a fine art and can pick up peas and blueberries too!

Raincoats for cats! (Approx 7 and a half months)

Update on weaning progress: We had a rocky few weeks at the end of last year due to illness etc, and a couple of scary incidents where Morgan gagged on toast quite dramatically and frightened the life out of us.

Immediately after these incidents I was ready to convert to mush, but baby led the way and refused any other option! So we are back on track and he has had much less gagging.

We have found a doidy cup available from the NCT very useful. Morgan now has a drink of water with all meals which works well to clear his mouth. He sometimes uses the water to swill larger pieces of food out of his mouth.

Were also finding that Morgan can handle bigger pieces of food and really enjoys holding and exploring fruits such as apricots and plums etc. I tend to take a bite out of them first to make it easier for him to get started.

All we need now is rain coats for the cats as they have cottoned on to sitting under the table during Morgan's meal times and get covered in discarded food!

Back on track - and all going to plan! (6 and a half months old!)

BLW is amazing, its a total love - hate relationship with BLW. One minute I think were doing great and feel really smug, the next a friend has me panicked that I'm feeding baby M too much too soon etc and I have a few days worry.

I shouldn't worry though as Baby M is voting firmly with his feet (or hands) and even when given mush is insisting on feeding himself and its really great to see him wolfing down food and enjoying it so much. As you can see from the pics he's been getting to grips with yogurt this week, he's also had cucumber and cottage cheese which he loved. I left the skin on the cucumber and let him scrape off the flesh. The gagging is hardly at all now and he's starting to try and use a fine pincer grip with his thumb and forefinger, I can't believe how quick development is and am feeling much more confident about this approach.

Progress - 26 weeks old (six months) Converting to some mush!

BLW not going too badly, although Morgan had a really huge gagging fit at my Mum's house and worried everyone to death - and also had me a little worried. His little face went all red, his eyes were watering and when he eventually got the bit of food up he was sick. Needless to say the family think I've gone bonkers!! In fairness he was sitting in his wire bouncy chair at the time and I don't think he was upright enough - lesson learnt!
He's absolutely loving all food, but had started to get frustrated as he kept dropping stuff and appeared to be still hungry and getting fed up. As a compromise and to save me from a grizzly baby I've now started doing a mixture of BLW and mush. I'm still serving him whatever were eating but I whiz it through the blender first so that it's finely chopped. I have to say this is working really well as I still let him feed himself with the spoon - which he is really good at - and he is getting more eaten and seems to be a lot more content.
I've had a couple of panics about feeding him citrus and wheat too early and got a bit scared that he may develop food allergies later on as the main advice is hold off these until one year. Saying that there has been no adverse reactions - but to be on the safe side were holding out with allergy foods for a little while.
The mess is a bit full on - the cats have got wise to whats going on and have taken to sitting under the high chair. This did get a bit gross the other day when one of them was walking around with banana mush down her back for most of the day.
I'm still sticking to basic foods- chicken is one of his main favourites which he really gets to grips with chomping down. I might start him on some more complex meals like lasagna etc some time soon.
I'm finding the BLW yahoo group fantastic to check out all my questions and queries and also for general moral support as no one else I know is using this approach. Will keep you posted as to how it goes ;-)

Setbacks and Progress! (Approx 24 weeks - 6 months old)

Since the last blog entry we've had a few ups and downs.

Cal, Morgan and I got a horrible cold virus which resulted in high temperatures, sinusitis, headaches, fever, runny noses and coughs. It took the whole of November for all of us to get better and poor baby Morgan was diagnosed with a dose of broncolitus so I'm afraid weaning went out of the window for a couple of weeks while we recovered.

Poor Morgan had to have so much calpol during this time that he started pushing the spoon away and getting really fed up with us. I was really worried it would affect his eating as up until that point he had been really excited about any thing that we offered him.

The good news is that we are back on track! We started with fruit again when he was on the mend and then gave him rice cakes as well. At first I started to get a bit despondent as he didn't really seem to eat at all, but literally within a matter of a few days he has started wolfing food down and he is actually chewing and swallowing properly. Amazing!

Tonight he has had chicken pieces (which he loved), pasta and some banana for tea. He seemed to enjoy mushing it all up together and we have resigned ourselves to the mess! I have just started layering newspaper under his seat. I'm also finding bibs really cumbersome so have just been putting him in old clothes to eat in and soft bibs. His sitting skills are getting better by the day.

What to give and when: I felt a bit unsure about when and what foods to introduce him to, but I bought the book on baby led weaning by Gill Rapley and found that they basically recommend just to give what you are having as long as the baby is six months, just be careful of salt intake and allergy foods. So he has now tried lots of things like cottage cheese and toast and porridge as well as lots of different fruits.

It's difficult at the baby groups as all the other Mums are pushing purees and seem to have little neat packages of 'pear, guava and mango' in little shop bought pots. I started to worry that Morgan's food was boring, but then I thought, hang on how often do I eat these fancy mixes! I'm glad he's eating real hassle free food and that we can join in eating together as a little family - which he seems to really enjoy! I wish there was a list of ideas for breakfast, dinner and tea, but I also think I'm probably in danger of over-complicating a simple and fun process.

Weeks 1 - 2 (Approx age 22 weeks at time of post)

Progress so far:
It's been an interesting couple of weeks since I started this blog. I've been trying to do as much research on BLW as possible as my Mum got me worried that I'd choke baby Morgan or introduce him to too many foods all at once and upset his digestive system etc etc etc!!!
The good news is, after lots of research I really do think this approach is great and right for us... and baby Morgan is doing very well and has so far tried: pear, apple (raw and stewed), cucumber, lemon, tangerine and banana! (With no adverse effects on digestion etc)

The banana was frustrating for him as it kept slipping out of his little hands so clever me snipped off the excess skin on a peeled banana so he could hold it better which worked a treat. This led to a comedy moment when he bit off a large chunk which stuck to the roof of his mouth and made him look like he was wearing dentures! Tangerine was a bit scary as he rammed a whole segment in his mouth, but after a minute or so he spat out the skin almost completely cleaned out of tangerine flesh...very impressive!!
BLW / Spoon feeding:
Due to difficulties holding some of the food we have also been using a spoon to assist the process with our little man, but for example we scrape little bits of fruit on to the spoon and then give it to him. He gets really excited by this and is developing excellent hand-eye coordination feeding himself. Even the health visitor commented that he had really good fine motor control in his hands.
Risks of Choking:
Although I'm pretty confident about using the BLW approach I checked it out with Morgan's health visitor to check her reaction. She thought it should be fine and also pointed out that when purees were at their height of popularity people were weaning a lot earlier - so by six months they should be able to handle some lumps in their food. She recommended steaming veg extra so its nice and soft and will slip down easily if he does gulp it - which BLW also recommends. I have been a bit worried about raw apple and pear and the peel which I haven't been removing. I discovered that Yahoo has a BLW group so I've joined that to find out more on this matter. I found Gill Rapley's radio interview (in side bar) very reassuring too - good for anyone thinking about using this approach. I understand her book comes out this week too - so I might invest in it.
Starting Breakfast, Dinner and Tea:
As baby Morgan is still not six months old we have decided just to give him tastes of food for fun at present and to start a proper meal time routine when he is six months old and sitting up properly by himself - he can almost do it - but is still a bit wobbly! In preparation for this I got the necessary equipment: - a seat that clamps on to the table so that he can be involved in family meals, weaning bowls, full cover bibs etc. Saying this though I have heard of someone who has just given up on BLW due to the amount of food getting chucked on the floor which couldn't be rescued.
I am thinking that in the initial stages it may be worthwhile just spreading a big table cloth on the floor and picnicking until Morgan has got the hang of getting things into his mouth without flinging them around (however I'm sure babies just chuck stuff on the floor anyway for fun!) So it may be a picnic in the living room for a month or two rather than at the kitchen table!
So far this approach seems a lot less hassle and it feels great that Morgan will just be able to join in family meals straight away. New worries are what to do if we visit other people and how a child minder is going to take to it when I go back to work in a few more months?