Weaning - clueless!

[ASmidgeofMidge]

I'm a second-timer at this parenting malarkey, but at the moment, you wouldn't think it! I am totally clueless when it comes to weaning this time around (feels so long ago with dd who is 6) and could do with any tips/pointers you can share. DS is 6.5 m, and I totally appreciate it's early days.

DS has had some fruit or veg purees and am giving him a spoon to help him 'join in'. I'd like to do some BLW alongside this, but have got the fear after giving him a piece of ripe nectarine to suck/gum - he has some teeth and managed to get a lump off, triggering gagging and eventually him vomiting up his entire stomach contents! I've read about the differences between gagging and choking but wasn't prepared for the river of sick! Is this just par for the course? Any other finger foods I can try? So far DS seems to struggle with lumps/texture even in puréed foods (v small lumps of banana and an Ella's pouch sip hick had lentils and was a bit grainy have also fazed him) but I don't want to give him endless thin gruels...

I'm also finding it difficult to pinpoint windows where he's receptive to eating - he seems to go from ravenous (ie just wants his bottle) to playtime (not hungry and not interested) to tired (too cranky) in 2 hr cycles in the day. What kind of routines did you work to at this stage?

Thank you so much in advance!

[milkjetmum]

Regarding timing, we just put dd2 in the highchair if sheis awake while we are eating. so somedays 3 meals offered, others none, I'm guessing it will become more regular as she gets older, but certainly not going to wake her for meals.

We did a baby first aid course at our sure start centre, made us more confident about dealing with gagging/knowing what choking looks like and what to do.

We are also doing a mix of pureed and blw. Basically blw while I eat my dinner then purees once I have agand free!

[ASmidgeofMidge]

Thanks milkjet ... How old is your dd, and what kinds of foods have you been giving her (when blw)?

[Tangoandcreditcards]

Marking place. Joining you in cluelessness smidge

I've just been giving 6mo DS weetabix and banana at breakfast time and the odd bit of fruit or veg to suck. Sometimes he eats half a weetabix, sometimes a couple of mouthfuls and then wants his bottle. I'm not really sure how to progress from here. He doesn't seem to have a problem with lumpiness but I'm a bit worried about him slurping down big bits of finger food.

[milkjetmum]

She is just coming up to 6 months now, so early days for us too. So far she has enjoyed breadsticks and bagels - both go nicely soggy when gummed. Not at all impressed with a greenbean! liked banana and nectarines. Cheese stick and cucumber have been sucked/gummed. But with the blw only a fraction is actually eaten, most of it pops back out. But I think this stage is much more about learning how to eat rather than getting the calories in. Eg as she gets older will give peas/cheerios so she learns finger punch grip.

[ASmidgeofMidge]

Bagels sound like a good idea. Just thought of another q (sorry!)
Eating leftovers for lunch and gave DS a lick of (tomatoey) pasta sauce off spoon. He loved it, but can I introduce something like that at this stage? Think I read somewhere that I was supposed to do one new food at a time, and pasta sauce obvs has garlic, herbs, oil etc in it...

[milkjetmum]

Well that advice is designed to make it easier if your child has an allergic reaction to a food. Eg if your ds has gone red and blotchy around the mouth after the sauce it could take longer to work out what had caused it - was it the garlic, herbs, tomato etc. This could be important if you have a family history of allergy. For example if you gave a pancake with peanut butter on top is it the flour, dairy, egg or peanut they reacted to?

But I am happy for my dd to have a mix of ingredients (within reason of course) as I am aware of this. For example, if my dd had reacted to buttery bagel i would go back to basic fruit and veg only for 3 days, then re-try bagel alone and see if she reacted, if all ok wait 3 days then try butter alone etc. Until we had it worked out. If you had a lot of foods to try this could be time consuming and stressful as you would not want to deliberately set them off again of course.

So up to you to weigh up risks (allergy) vs benefits (convenience) in your circumstances. But for me I am not worried, but watchful if that makes sense.

[Toowittoowoo]

Just like milkjet we just sat DD2 in the highchair at mealtimes and gave her what we were having. It felt a bit disorganised to begin with while I got used to what she was capable of eating so I bought a few pouches of age appropriate food in case I got it all wrong! I also borrowed MIL's mini chopper which is proving very useful for when the food wasn't big enough for her to pick up with her fingers but too big for her to swallow comfortably. I have also worked out that you can crumble in a stock cube at the end of cooking and it doesn't seem to make too much difference, so I just cook the meal with no stock (just water or tinned toms etc), take out DD2's portion and then stir in the stock cubes and cook it for a few minutes more while DD2's food cools down.

As for finger food - I didn't like the gagging either but she seemed to get used to it pretty quickly!