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Baby Led Weaning


MrsStick

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My son had his six month appointment (almost 2 months late thanks to moving and insurance fun) this past week and the doctor...threw me for a loop. I was wondering if anyone has heard these and what thoughts you all think about this.

I've been doing baby led weaning with him. We're not strictly W30 or Paleo at home but we eat according to what W30 taught us about our bodies. I have Celiac so the one nonnegotiable is gluten free at home. My son has does awesome with trying foods; the only things he didn't like were ground sausage and a jarred spaghetti sauce that were too spicy. He eats tons of sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, avocado, steamed/roasted veggies, little pieces of meat we're eating, banana, grapes, peaches...you get the idea. Lots of fruits and veggies, some meat, some fat (that kid loves mayo dip as much as I do, which is saying something), and the occasional grain (mostly white rice when we do have grains). He has a sippy cup of water at the table for when he eats 'people food' because the transition to solids was giving him a little trouble pooping initially. We give him water only when he's eating food, and not a lot.

The doctor told us 1. no water until he's a year old - give him apple juice or gatorade if you need to give him a liquid, 2. no meat until he's 9 months old, 3. if he's having trouble pooping give him Karo syrup or [brand] baby suppositories.

I understand the thinking behind the no water thing - electrolyte imbalance could be very dangerous for a baby. But he's always eating after a full nursing session and only gets water with meals. So his stomach has milk and food in it - the water won't give him an imbalance in the tiny quanitites he'd get it in.

Meat...I can't find anything online about why this might be. My little guy mostly eats fruits and veggies right now but he loves to eat the chicken from chicken salad.

Karo syrup...just...I can't. Suppositories...no. How is needing to give a small child a suppository to get them to poop somehow better than giving them a little bit of water with their meal? What is wrong with us?

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That sounds odd. my daughter has been mostly water since she could have non breast milk liquids. I don't know much about meat and I don't understand giving essentially sugar to a young kid since they say not to give sweetened stuff til one (even that's seemingly impossible)

i noticed our pediatrician had suggestions to give more allergenic food (aside from whole milk and other things their bodies can't handle due to maturity) before the age one one starting at 6 months for not cereals. 

I know. I'm no help. My son has the go ahead for cereals but he hasn't shown interest in food and I enjoy nursing too much lol

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Cool boiled water and unsweetened fruit juice with meals are the current recommendations as far as I'm aware (certainly in th UK), and the naturally occuring sugars in the juice should help things move along... With regard to the meat it's not generally recommended until 9mths and over, and I'm guessing this is to do with digestive enzymes - kids aren't really chewing at this stage and so won't be producing enough of the digestive enzymes required to properly digest the meat.

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  • 1 month later...

Okay, I don't know if your doctor is older? None of that advice is good.

 

I am part of a big group that does BLW, maybe look for some on facebook, or there a ton of great blogs out there. They can have water at 6 months, the recommendation is less than 4 oz a day, I think you will find it is hard to give your baby 4 ounces a day, - you should still be either nursing or formula until at least a year, if you have already weaned, then there is something called weaning formula, it is very common in Europe.

 

I find that my baby only has pooping issues if I feed her grain and dairy. As long I make sure that she gets fruits and veggies with each meal to the best of my ability, the poop works.

 

Cheers, mom of a 9 month old that has been eating meat off and on since 6 months,

:)

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2 hours ago, Minamyna said:

Okay, I don't know if your doctor is older? None of that advice is good.

 

The doctor is older. I'll be seeing him again later this week and am just not going to bother mentioning food (and if he asks I'll just say what little Twig's favorite foods are and not bother asking any questions). I've been working with my little guy and things are much better now. I'm about to stop with apple juice becasue he isn't really drinking it (I have to throw away mostly-full sippy cups because the juice smells off) and just offer water. He hasn't gone through 4 oz of liquid in a week so far, so I don't think the water thing is really a worry.

He does like applesauce, so I give him that to help him keep pooping and poops are much less of a significant emotional event. Right now he's teething so apple fingers have been great - he can hold them and they're softer on his gums. He loves LOVES LOVES cherry tomatoes (in pieces that he can pick up and put in his mouth). If I give him as many of those as he wants he'd probably eat 8-10 every day at lunch. He enjoyed gingered zucchini soup. He LOVED tuna salad. Dill pickles are a pretty big hit. Gnocchi with pesto sauce and mashed sweet potato with ghee/salt/cinnamon were GONE in minutes.

We do occasionally give gluten free grains if it's what we're having with a meal (and I'll admit to using Cheerios on occasion) but...when people say their kid doesn't eat anything other than these five things I just don't get it. I feed my kid food that I eat and sometimes he doesn't like it. But he eats his veggies, he likes some fruits, and he about threw a fit when we were out of tuna salad for lunch. Feed kids food, kids eat food.

Now to figure out planning for when my pescitarian sister and her family come for a visit...

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4 hours ago, MrsStick said:

He does like applesauce, so I give him that to help him keep pooping and poops are much less of a significant emotional event. Right now We do occasionally give gluten free grains if it's what we're having with a meal (and I'll admit to using Cheerios on occasion) but...when people say their kid doesn't eat anything other than these five things I just don't get it. I feed my kid food that I eat and sometimes he doesn't like it. But he eats his veggies, he likes some fruits, and he about threw a fit when we were out of tuna salad for lunch. Feed kids food, kids eat food.

My daughter is just starting to get a little more picky... she's three. She will eat almost everything I eat. When she started foods, I chose to be careful in introducing them slowly  and will probably do similarly when my son decides he wants to start foods (right now he's like no way! I want noms from mom! Lol) but seriously she eats Thai food and Indian food that have a little more kick than I liked when I was a kid and her cousins who've had more candy in a week than she's had in her life are super picky. I guess we are winning :)

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18 hours ago, Karen_Suep said:

My daughter is just starting to get a little more picky... she's three. She will eat almost everything I eat. When she started foods, I chose to be careful in introducing them slowly  and will probably do similarly when my son decides he wants to start foods (right now he's like no way! I want noms from mom! Lol) but seriously she eats Thai food and Indian food that have a little more kick than I liked when I was a kid and her cousins who've had more candy in a week than she's had in her life are super picky. I guess we are winning :)

My son definitely likes his food to have flavor. Plain mashed potatoes...not so much. Mix in some of the roast beef drippings...much better. He eats taco meat and sloppy joes (the Well Fed weeknights recipe is SO AMAZING) without any issue, pesto sauce will get him to eat more than without it.

 

One other thing...the doctor is also very overweight/probably obese, if not morbidly so, and that's probably also a consideration in his food advice. *sigh*

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  • 4 months later...
  • Whole30 Certified Coach

I'm going to hijack this... the Master is 12 weeks tomorrow.  I'd like to try BLW (not yet, a few months down the road) but am clueless... were there any resources that you guys found useful and would recommend?  Also, if BLW is a huge success does this mean that I don't need to spend a ton of time pureeing foods...?  This would make me very happy. 

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Yes there is a blog, a book and Facebook groups. I recommend all, mostly having supportive moms who do BLW is the most helpful. PM me and I can add you to a group on Facebook. I didn't do the book I had great friends and a Lactation consultant who got me started. 

I think the biggest fear in BLW is true choking, but they can choke (gag) on breakmilk or purees. Soooo there is a great video on a BLW blog. I recommend doing the choking/ CPR certification its liek 2-4 hour class. Sooo worth it. I used it once when she ate a piece of plastic packaging off the floor. OMG I was scared but the training took over she was fine. 

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Your doctor sounds seriously old-school. They went on what they knew back-when, it's not a judgment. Some of the best "family doctors" are the old curmudgeonly types that would suggest something like Karo. I did BLW with both my girls, starting at 6 months with the first (when the best BLW minds said "wait until 6 months no matter what!) and at 5 months with my second, when even the BLW minds changed to "start whenever baby is ready." My older daughter's first meal was an avocado burger and sweet potato "fries."

Littleg- I haven't touched a pureer in my life, order right off the menu at restaurants (babies just eat off my plate), zero jars or pouches. Nana. Zilch. It's brilliant!

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  • 7 months later...
  • Whole30 Certified Coach

So baby led solids was a success.  I have yet to puree a thing nor have I purchased a single jar of baby food :) Today's food for our little 11m old was: scramble with eggs, sausage, spinach, onions (or something close to that, dad made it), broccoli cooked in butter, left over chicken stew, a bit more sausage, some brie cheese at TJ, some bites of apple (3 teeth have helped with the apple consumption) and a bit of  cheddar.  

But I'm running into portable snacks that aren't all carbs.  Whole Foods has free food at customer service and the only non processed item was a banana.  So I grabbed one and held it while he ate the whole thing :blink: I guess he was hungry.  But I don't want his snacks to always be apples and bananas.  I do give him dairy so cheese is also an option.  Some things that work well for me for snacks (hard boiled eggs) are just way too messy for a littler person with no fine motor skills yet.  I almost purchased a two pound tub of pemmican from US Wellness today but decided that might be a bit impulsive since I've never even tried it.  Any other ideas for not-just-carb snacks?  The fattier the better because then he is full :)  The mess and stink factor (so no sardine suggestions) for a small human still learning to use his hands make this a bit tougher.  

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Yea so mozzerella sticks, the Stoney filed organic yogurt sticks, my daughter loves sliced turkey(lunch meat), Nick's Sticks you have to cut them (We sell them in the Metro Detroit Crunchy Club), but my daughter eats a lot of carbs compared to me. I used to be more worried about it than I am now. Myka likes tuna with a spoon (I don't know if you are using utensils), almond butter on a spoon. PM me if you want any more info.

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  • Whole30 Certified Coach

Our kiddo is still getting lots of breastmilk.  Since that is so high in carbs I've read (in infant nutrition books and listening to podcasts) to try to get protein and fat in before he is old enough to argue :)  I'm not worried about carbs per se, I just don't want to start so young with him always thinking that snacks are carbs.

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  • 1 year later...

Food before 1 is just for fun.

The idea of giving an infant Gatorade seems apalling. Water is perfectly fine. At this point, most of the hydration is coming from food and breastmilk. The water is really serving a dual purpose: getting him used to the taste and teaching him how to use a sippy cup.

Poop issues during transitions to solids or when introducing new foods is NORMAL even for people who start off with rice cereal and purees. A little hydration, some coconut oil and/or prunes (pureed or in juice form is fine; pear juice is also a good option for constipation. I get the appeal of not wanting to use too many juices or purees, but I also know the stress of dealing with a fussy baby and if a pouch of Plum Organics prunes will provide some relief, then go for it), and some belly massages should help relieve pressure if baby is incredibly uncomfortable, but so will allowing the body time to adjust. 

As far as snacks go, I totally get not wanting to do only carb snacks for babies and toddlers. I think one thing to consider is that babies are messy. You can give a toddler a single chocolate chip, place it directly in his mouth, and he'll still end up covered in chocolate. It's a special talent. Yes, things like hardboiled eggs or avocado chunks may be messy, but what if you keep them as a home snack.

Again, I'm going to suggest the use of pouches on occasion. Happy Family has a line of pouches that contain things like chia seeds in addition to fruits/veggies. They also have yogurt in cups and pouches that contain zero added sweeteners (unlike brands like Stonyfield). They may not be ideal, but the shelf-stable pouches (not the yogurt) can be a great option to keep in a diaper bag as a quick snack when on the go. (You can also get reusable pouches and make your own concoctions). Happy Family has a pouch that contains apple, kale, and avocado. 

(And if you're looking for another idea for a munchy snack, look at the Happy Family coconut creamies. They're like the Gerber yogurt melts, but as far as I can see, they're technically Whole30 compliant based on ingredients- though I imagine eating them is still discouraged if following a strict Whole30. I've eaten them before [volunteering in a church nursery where they were served] and I think they're pretty good).

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