Baby-led weaning: rethinking

One of our coffee mornings ago, Amy, who works at baby's nursery, brought up the subject of baby-led weaning (BLW) and asked if any of us had tried it. And I said that I'd read about it - it's just giving baby a portion of what you normally eat sans salt but without pureeing and extra vigilence, and letting them choose what to stuff in their mouths - but thought it sounded a bit nuts to be giving a six-month old chunks of food.

And I said I'd definitely let Izzy, for example, take bites out of banana that were small enough for her not to choke on, and I let her hold anything she felt like holding but BLW in terms of chunks of meat, which babies will apparently suck on and gum to death, sounded a bit bizarre. And vegetables: do you give it to them soft enough for them to masticate but worry they could bite off chunks big enough to choke on? Or give them stiff bits which are less likely to break but if they do are bigger choking hazards?

So anyway, a few weeks later, I am thinking hmmm maybe it's not as scary as it sounds. Part of this is due to Roz herself who has been snatching pieces of bread out of my hands ever since she had her first taste of it.

And when I say snatching I'm not exaggerating. She'll be in my arms, I'll be eating a burger with one hand and, on sighting the bread, she'll throw herself toward the bread and grab it, pulling off whatever her little fist closes on. And because I'm concentrating on balancing her so she doesn't fall out of my arms, I can't defend the bread. Once she'd done this twice I just gave in and every time we eat bread now I give her a little piece of crust to chew on.

So here's the odd thing - I puree avocado for her, she gags on it. I mash up a banana, she gags on swallowing. Ditto a mush of lentils cooked in chicken stock. But she has never gagged on any of the pieces of bread she's eaten so far. Even when she's had relatively stiff pieces of crust from eg a posh loaf of sourdough. Maybe because the crust is so hard there's no way she tries to swallow it without gumming it? And she seems much happier being allowed to bite off small pieces of banana, and being given little bits of avocado than the mashed-up versions.

Anyway am slightly more open to the idea now though there are already two little bags of rice and apple and lentil puree in the freezer. I suppose I can try to add little chunks of things to them for texture. It's not as if I didn't do this for Izzy, I guess, I just seem to be moving forward a lot quicker than a did with her.

Milk allergy?

One of the other things I've discovered is that Roz may be allergic to cow's milk. So far, each time I've tried her out with yoghurt and fromage frais, she's developed hives on her face. Then the other day I bought a packet of baby cereal from the supermarket, which had follow-on milk (43%) in it. I mixed it up and fed her and the hives were even worse this time although she'd consumed only a few mouthfuls.

Usually they appear around her mouth and on her neck and they come and go within two hours. And usually she doesn't notice them at all. But with the cereal they stayed a bit longer and were more severe and she obviously felt the itching because she kept rubbing at her face.

Arrgh, this is terrible because it means I may have to get on the expressing treadmill after all, instead of putting her onto formula, which Alex and I had been looking forward to! Even worse this means I have a month to start stocking up for when she starts nursery - argh, argh, aaargh!