Baby Led Weaning week 4 & 5.

I'm so behind on my BLW posts. Its week 7, or is it 6?  I'll throw in week 6 too.

Last week I tried doing pre loaded spoons, I was shocked at how easily Charlie found her mouth with the spoon, first go, bam, straight into her mouth. It is super crazy messy, but Charlie enjoys it so every couple of days we do a few pre loaded spoons, normally consisting of store brought pre-made organic baby fruit.

Orange: slices, mostly she sucks the juice then spits out the orange.
Strawberry: given whole, managed well.
Watermelon: cut into large triangles, black seeds removed.
Mandarin: seeds removed.
Chicken: drumstick, I have found the softer more moist leg meat is far easier for a baby to manage. In saying that I first gave Charlie a really large slice to try to avoid her swallowing it whole, but she did anyway, guys she didn't even gag. Just swallowed that slippery meat down ha ha. My mummy fears got the better of me and from then on I gave her smaller slices, she really enjoyed it.
Bread: every morning Charlie has bread toasted, I top it with topping such as, mashed banana, sweet potato, pumpkin, avocado, carrot. If I'm in a hurry and can't deal with a messy meal she eats it dry.
Beef: from a slow cooked casserole, this girl likes meat.
Avocado: sliced rolled in corn crumbs, the corn crumbs make it far more manageable, not as slippery.
I have continued with foods iv'e mentioned before such as carrots or Charlie favourite broccoli, which is always a winner but makes my house smell, in a bad way.

At 7 months and one week, I'm still giving breakfast each morning. As soon as we get up, she eats in the bumbo seat, I then change all her clothes, nappy, and wash her with a face washer. This has been the easiest way for me to deal with the mess. Somedays she still needs a bath. I must admit the mess is still hard to handle, I'm hanging out for summer so I can sit her in a nappy on a towel, take her outside and hose her down.
As soon as her clothes are off I rinse and spray them before starting a wash right away, this mostly avoids the stains.

I have been trying hard to give a 2nd meal since she turned 7 months, it might just be a crust off my sandwich at lunch or a strawberry. To be honest it probably only happens every 2nd day but I'm working on this.

I let Charlie have a sip of water, straight out of my glass but plan to keep this to only once or twice a week. When we decide to increase the water Charlie drinks I've read about how well a baby does with a shot glass, so I'll be trying that.

Baby Led weaning, week 2.

At the beginning of this week I was ready to throw in the towel. I was so stressed out about trailing Charlie on foods Harper is allergic to, that I wanted to give up. I began worrying about not spoon feeding Charlie... was I making the right decision? Did I have the time and patience to keep up BLW? It is so much easier to just get a spoon, grab a puree and feed your baby, no mess, done. 

I thought about it some more and it became clear the real problem was my anxiety about giving her milk, so I ripped the band-aid off and just did it. And the best news, everything was fine! Charlie is not allergic to cows milk. We are so, so happy.

This week I've made sure Charlie is having one meal each day, breakfast. As soon as she wakes up she eats, then I get her dressed for the day and wash her with a face washer. 

Charlie's eating more this week and it's showing in her nappies, I'll spare you the details, but she is definitely managing to swallow food. Charlie gags most days, sometimes more often than others. We had our first gag and vomit this week, I shock myself at how calm I've become with trusting that Charlie will not choke, with Harper I was so worried every time he gagged. For me what helped the most was reading about choking, in the BLW book there is some great information explaining choking and the way our body works, providing the food is safe. It taught me gagging is good, it means your body is working as it should, I wish I had have know this when Harper was younger. 

Sweet potato: roasted, spread on toast fingers. Also given as a finger food (skin removed) Charlie loved the flavour of this super food, but it was hard to hold.  Next time I'll try rolling it in bread crumbs or corn crumbs to make handling easier.

Tomato: roasted, again hard to hold, I spread some on toast.

Toast fingers: A great easy stable, I've been giving Charlie the crust of my toast each morning. This week I've topped it with avocado, sweet potato, banana and mashed carrot, all worked great. When giving bread to a baby Charlie's age (just 6 months) make sure its toasted, fresh bread can become a choking risk. 

Steamed carrot sticks and broccoli trees: this week I steamed a big batch and froze them in single serves in zip lock bags, if I'm busy I have something ready.

Cows milk: I gave 1 ml on day one then doubled it each day, (we are on day 3) this is the safest way to trial high risk foods if there is an allergy in the family.

Baby Led Weaning, week one.

Apple: cut into quarters, peel left on. I steamed it in the microwave first. (Chocking risk) She loved the flavour of apple, but I found even steamed it broke off in chunks. Next time I'll be trying grated.
Beans: steamed, she enjoyed sucking these but didn't manage to eat any.
Mandarin: I removed the seeds and gave her a slice, she enjoyed sucking it and manage to break it in half after moving it around in her mouth it fell out.
Broccoli: steamed, it was easy for her to hold and she managed to swallow some.
Banana: given peeled with groves cut out for holding.
Teething rusks: major hit, she loves them & it gives her practice at getting food to her mouth.
Finger of toast: left to cool down so it goes hard, given Un-butted.
Carrot: cut in half and roasted.
Grape puree: put onto highchair tray, she loved putting her fingers in and licking them clean.

I'm amazed at how quickly Charlie is learning to find ways of getting the food herself. Nappy changes have proved she has managed to eat banana and broccoli. Bibs are hard, they get in the way and Charlie ends up trying to eat the bib, so for now we're not using one. I'm using the Bumbo seat with the attached tray as a highchair, We tried the big highchair but she just slips down. I was going to test run cows milk this week, but I lost my nerve. I try to stay calm, but after what i've been though with Harper introducing foods is proving to be incredibly stressful. Although Charlie is not yet sharing our meals I'm slowly cutting salt out of our diet, giving us a chance to get use to it, if needed we can season our food on the plate.

Baby Led Weaning.

Having a sibling with multiple allergies automatically puts Charlie at higher risk of having allergies. With current findings in reducing the risk of allergies it is now advised to start solids before six months, providing Charlie has ticked all the boxes for being ready. (Apparently since everyone started waiting longer before introducing high risk food, allergies have only got worse.) We have been told to give all "high risk" foods from six months, and to continue breast-feeding while introducing foods, in hope this will aid in the protection of a reaction.

This put us in a predicament as baby-led weaning is not started until six months. I've been watching Charlie from around five months looking for ready signs, at about five and a half months I thought she was ready, Because we really want to do BLW, I went ahead and started twelve days short of the recommend age of six months. I'm going to be sharing each food we give Charlie here, as well as any tips we pick up along the way.

For anyone considering baby led weaning, this book is where I started, as well as the wonderful world on google.

Day one, Banana: When giving babies bananas make sure they are ripe, Yellow with black spots are best. Green or plain yellow can cause constipation, overripe can cure constipation. Ironic right? Anyhow we cut the banana in half (across the middle) I removed the peel, then cut out some groves so she had something to hold on to. Given it was her first attempt, I think it worked pretty well. She managed to pick it up a couple of times.