Help with BLW

M is almost 2 months older than your DS...we give solids once a day right now.

M started solids at 6.5mo, those first few weeks we only offered every few days. Now we offer every day, but to be honest there are occasional days when it just doesn't happen. Remember food before 1 is just for fun, as long as he's still getting full milk feedings there's no reason to worry. (IMO)

We had the same issues. Sounds like you waited to start until 6 mo? I did as well and then felt behind the curve.

We do lots of yogurt and steamed veggies. I like to make things up for him ahead of time and then just reheat for his meals if he can't have what we're having.

He also loves to just suck or gnaw on a piece of meat, like steak, or I'll take chicken we are eating and cut it into tiny pieces.

We did a mix of BLW and purees, but I really liked Wholesome Baby Food for ideas. Looks like she's got a page dedicated to BLW: wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/babyledweaning-recipesfoods.htm

I think your pedi might be making it too hard...

FWIW, I treated solids as mainly for practice/variety of textures and flavors rather than nutrition early on. We started at 6 mos. and both kids were still BFing and getting most of their nutrition from breastmilk rather than solids

I don't necessarily buy the whole 'too much fruit teaches them that everything should be sweet' advice: sure, we leaned heavily on veggies, but I tried to offer them a balance of items (varied food groups, flavors, textures) w/o overthinking it too much.

Don't stress if your baby is not ready for solid 2-3 times a day at 6 months. And BLWing can take a while, our dd started at 6 months and was close to 9 before she was actually eating. I would not limit fruit, and I would offer whatever you are eating.

Our babies are about the same age, and I feel the same way. I am ok with going slow though. We've only been trying solids for a couple of weeks, and it takes awhile to build up anyway if you only try one food at a time. DD has had oatmeal, banana, sweet potato, applesauce and carrot. Carrot has worked the best so far. We are kind of doing a mix of purées/BLW.

I felt like the NP at her six month appt was giving me very old fashioned advice, but I ended up buying the baby oatmeal so I can say I tried it. (NP also said we should put our pillows over our heads and let her CIO. I wasn't keen on her after that.)

Thanks everyone. It looks like I'm in line with what you did/are doing, so I feel much better. As i said in the OP, I thought we were doing okay. I'll give him some of everything tonight. Not sure how he'll eat the rice, he hasn't developed his pincer grip yet. And sauteed chard is pretty bitter, so we'll see. But maybe I'm not giving him enough credit.

We also eat locally, so that adds more complexity to everything. Berries are already out of season, and we're about to lose peaches/plums/nectarines. I haven't bought an orange or banana in years, as they're not grown here. Maybe I need to talk to DH about loosening up on that a bit for DS. At least some good baby-safe vegetables are almost in season (sweet potato, squash).

Hens, where did you read the debunking about fruit? DH agrees w/ the pedi about fruit. I had to ask DH ever so nicely to give DS a peach before they went out of season. I didn't want DS to have to wait a whole year before having one.

Question, how did you feed the yogurt? On a spoon that you held? We tried purees first and DS would not let us feed him. He wanted that spoon. He's always been great with his hands, and he hates being messed with, so spoon feeding was a huge fail. Should I let him hold the spoon? Just seems like he'd fling the yogurt....

We give M a loaded spoon of mashed avocado, I'm sure that would work with yogurt too.

You could also do yogurt with another food as a "dipper". (I don't have my BLW book with me right now, they had a whole list of "dipper" suggestions)

I just want to ditto the fact that BM is super super sweet. I wouldn't worry about fruits leading to sweetness.

Interesting fact. I read a study once that says that BLW babies tend to like carbs when they get older and puree babies tend to favor sweets. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120209135842.htm

Here's another article saying that introducing fruits before veggies doesn't matter:
wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/order-of-introducing-solid-foods.htm

It's also mentioned as a common babyfood myth here: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/ns/health-childrens_health/t/experts-seek-debunk-baby-food-myths/

Also, I just let my kids go to town with a spoon and didn't much worry about a little yogurt-flinging action or a yogurt-covered face.

Also, I think you'll be surprised how quickly his pincer grip develops with BLW.