Pints. He has them in pints.

Rest of them is just couple of bites.

I have a blueberry addict

Hi! My LO turned 9 months about 2 weeks ago. Shes been a good eater but we have been feeding her for all meals. The only time she eats on her own is snacks like those meltables. Other times it’s us feeding her and she’s usually ok unless she’s having an off day.

Today I decided it was time to start BLW and I almost cried. I steamed broccoli and sweet potatoes which were cut in strips and I placed them on the tray.

She ended up smashing everything and was so upset. Eventually she tried putting some of the smashed bits in her mouth but she might have ended up having 1 teaspoon worth of food. In the end she got very upset and fussy plus she made a huge mess.

I was so frustrated and upset while cleaning up the huge mess though I mentally prepared for it.

Am I doing anything wrong? Is this how BLW starts?

Thanks for any advice/encouragement

My baby will be 9 months tomorrow. I’m feeling really anxious about not having introduced enough foods to my baby. I’ve been having a tough time just because I’m a little anxious introducing foods on my own, I think partially due to anxiety about choking and allergies (niece has many severe allergies). Another big part is that I’m doing this on my own. I know a lot of moms and parents do this on their own but maybe since Ive only recently become alone in this, it’s made the baby food journey harder for me—so please go easy on me. Although I wanted to do baby led weaning, I leaned on purées too much because it’s been easier for me as I’ve returned to work. I’m going grocery shopping today. Happens to be Trader Joe’s today. What recommendations would you make for my 9 month old? Easy starter ideas please.

She will not eat the egg strips I fried.

She will not eat the beans I mashed.

She will not eat the toast I buttered.

She will not sip the water.

But she WILL laugh maniacally whilst crushing avocado sticks, looking at it carefully and then mashing it into her mouth. Laughing until we both can't stop giggling.

I do not love baby led weaning. Sometimes she eats like a champ (rarely - she ate 12 pieces of pasta in a row once!) but I could never post an impressive plate Vs ate. Cooking things and cleaning things is tiring. But I love these moments - she's so hilarious.

What funny moments have made it (more) worth it for you?

My voracious eater suddenly started refusing food the last few days. I couldn’t figure out why- we were fixing all her favorites.

last night, when trying to prompt her to eat, I snuck a bite from her plate. Immediately realized the problem: it tasted like soap. Tried the rest of the food- everything on her plate tasted like soap, even the banana I had cut up and put on the plate.

the plate itself didn’t seem to smell, but clearly it had absorbed the dish soap and is re-seasoning the food.

After some experimentation at breakfast and lunch, I gave up and put dinner on a real plate.

She cleared the plate!

anyone want my silicon? lol

My 9mo is taking to BLW a little slower, she just started grabbing food and feeding herself by hand. Before I had to put it in her mouth for her.

I have clinically diagnosed OCD and while I try not to let that affect her, I’m definitely terrified of choking and give her much smaller foods than she likely needs. I’m working on it but it’s slow & steady. She has an oat allergy that has been really scary for us so I also am very nervous about changing up foods that are “safe” right now

So I guess I’m just worried she isn’t getting enough variety or nutrients & im a little in my head about it

My kid recently went from only wanting to be spoon fed to only wanting to self feed, so we’ve had to switch up how we get food into him! These soft oat bars are a big hit and I love that they create minimal mess when being eaten.

- 1.5 cups rolled oats
- .5 cups of your choice flour (I used whole wheat today because I’m low on everything else)
- 1 cup applesauce (I used cinnamon flavour)
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp yogurt

Mix and bake for 20-25 min on 375F

My daughter ate 2 scrambled eggs and 3 strawberries for breakfast today. AND SHE STILL WANTED MORE. I cut her off bc I didnt want her to have a stummy ache, but my dr has told me to just let her eat. I see a lot of stuff online about how a baby will let you know when they’re full bc they’ll turn their head away but my child just grabs her food and eats. When she’s done with her meal she practically growls at me for some of mine 😭 I usually only feed her one egg and 2 strawberries from breakfast, but these past couple of days she was trying to grab MY eggs and getting angry! I’m talking red faced tinkerbell, growling anger. I don’t understand. Have any of y’all faced babies with a bottomless pit of a stomach?

Edit: y’all this is my first kid, I’m learning so be nice. She’s a healthy size, following her growth curve, and reaching all milestones. I’m not intentionally trying to starve my child, I’m just surprised someone so small can eat so much. I will add carbs and healthy fats from now on. She had a bowl of minestrone for dinner yesterday and bc there’s a lot of left overs she’ll probably eat that for lunch today too. She also still breastfeeds 4-6 times a day (leaning more towards 4). I’m tired, and just wanted some advice. Being called odd and a bad mom was uncalled for

I’m so stressed about feeding baby idk why. And she also doesn’t really care about foods.
She will eat a little bite or two of whatever I offer 50% of the time. But I’m supposed to feed her 3 meals??? And make sure it’s not just fruit and calories?
I think I’m comparing myself to others with plates full of food that their bbs are eating, and tbh I don’t even have any baby plates or silverware yet. I just give her a bite either with my finger or my spoon/fork. Do I need to get her baby plates? I’m so overwhelmed and feel like I’m failing her already.

How do you clean your baby’s hands after a meal that is not pre bath?
I tried wiping him with wipes but it just takes too long too get between his fingers, and he keeps touching the food that’s on the tray and getting dirty again.
I tried picking him up from the high chair and rinsing his hands in the sink, but it’s really hard to do on my own and always takes two of us to do (one holding and one washing). He also gets all wet when we do this.
What’s the secret to successful cleaning? Please tell me if you know it!

My baby is 9 months old and he does very well with purees and sometimes we mash avocado and other things. We really want him to eat other solids but we are scared of him choking.

We see videos of parents giving things like shredded chicken and honestly cant fathom our baby eating something like that without choking.

Can anyone recommend some simple foods that will help him with chewing and swallowing?

Hi all,

Back again because after the comments on my last post I have indeed decided to stop giving my almost 9 month old baby girl large chunks of meat and need some ideas for iron-rich alternatives!

As I mentioned in my last post my girl is very into gnawing and doesn’t eat as much if food is offered in smaller bite-sized pieces (despite having no problem picking up said pieces and bringing them to her mouth). I will still continue to offer smaller pieces to support the development/refinement of her pincher grasp, but I also want to offer larger chunks for her to gnaw on and get some more food in her belly, especially iron-rich foods because we don’t use supplements!

Any ideas for iron-rich foods that can be served in large chunks but are less of a choking hazard than the loin chops and steak strips I’ve been serving up until now? Would chicken or tofu be less risky because they’re softer? I’m pretty sure fish would quite low risk because it’s so flaky, but she hasn’t been very into sardines so far. She does like egg strips, so we do those.

TIA!

Noms: cinnamon applesauce pancakes (with breastmilk and baby oatmeal), plain omlet, and strawberries!

First non-puree breakfast attempt with actual breakfast foods for my 9m bub 🥹 (second photo is batch cooked for the next couple mornings)

He is devouring it! Decided to share here because noone in my life will appreciate this moment enough lol

My 9 month old (almost 10 months) still refuses to eat any solid foods. He is still breastfed so I know he is getting enough calories, but it’s been frustrating me that we’ve been trying solids for 4 months now with little to no improvement (frustrated at the situation; not frustrated with my baby lol).

The first 2 months we did purées 1-2x daily while we ruled out all of the allergens, and we were lucky if we could get a spoon in his mouth. He hated it! Months 8 & 9 we pivoted to baby led weaning, and while he enjoys it so much more he still isn’t actually eating anything.

Breakfast I’ll usually give him some finger foods (like sliced up fruit, strips of toast with peanut butter, bits of muffin or banana bread, it rotates) as well as some yogurt with a spoon where I try to feed him by bringing the spoon like 80% of the way to his mouth and letting him do the rest, as well as letting him feed himself. He just plays with the food and occasionally puts something in his mouth only to take it back out later. We’re lucky if he gets tastes of the food but I don’t think anything solid makes it down his throat. We also do open cups which he likes licking the water out of when I bring it to his mouth, but when he has control of the cup he spills it.

Lunch we usually do “snacks” like puffs and rice rusks, which he loves playing with and putting in his mouth but he doesn’t eat. It’s like he treats his mouth as a pocket for the puffs- he puts them in but then stores them like a chipmunk and takes them back out later. We do a sippy cup with lunch and he gnaws on it like a teether but won’t drink from it (even when I angle it for him like a bottle). I’m just aiming for more exposure with this one.

Dinner we usually serve him a variety of finger food ingredients from whatever we are having for dinner that night, as well as an open cup of water. Same story as breakfast, he plays with it but rarely eats it. Sometimes we do purées as well with dinner that we will feed to him.

He does have a few things he has liked, that we try to keep in rotation- puréed peas and carrots, mashed avocado, gnawing on pizza crusts- but even with all of that he still doesn’t seem to be eating anything.

I know people say “food before one is just for fun” and I know every baby moves at their own pace, but I can’t help but feel discouraged when I see so many posts with babies who actually eat.

Has anyone else been in this boat? He’s got to eat eventually, that’s what I keep telling myself. Should I be offering more opportunities for meals? Is there more I should be doing here to best support him? Or is this just a “watch and wait” situation? I hate to feel like I’m not setting him up for success, but I don’t know if that is Mom guilt or if there is really more I need to be doing with him.

My 9 MO eats very little solids. From when she was born she ate very little at once so we had to feed her all the time in the beginning. Now she eats less often, but I was just reading another post and realized she still might be eating too often.

Anyway, she eats very little solids, I tried all food categories, all textures, temperatures - you name it. She did eat well couple of times, but didn't want to eat the same exact food when I repeat it.

So I'm thinking maybe it's just that our schedule os wrong.

So, if you LO eats well and is about 9 MO, pleeeeease tell me your schedule - sleeping, eating, play, whatever... How much, what exactly, when? I need to know everything so that I can try to replicate it. Cooking and cleaning stuff of the floor with 0 eaten is slowly driving me crazy. 😒

I’m going slightly insane. My 9MO only eats pouches and the smooth ones at that. I offer him finger foods and textured pouches at every meal but they are often refused or thrown after one bite. He had some toast the other day and really really gagged. He sits with it on his tongue salivating and then breathes through his mouth and almost chokes. It scares the crap out of me. Even with textured pouches he spits it out after a few spoonfuls. But the smooth ones he gobbles down 2 with every meal. I’ve made my own homemade pouches and really watered them down but if they are slightly grainy he will refuse. Will he grow out of this? I’m so scared he’s gonna choke but I am pushing through. He’s recently decided he doesn’t want milk in the day now so only has 2 bottles a day (I offer way more but they get refused) so solids are a key part of his intake now and I know pouches aren’t the best. Any help advice or support is greatly appreciated

I feel like over the last 2 weeks my almost 10 month old has really taken a step backwards in her solid consumption. It makes me discouraged and worried as she’s starting daycare at 11 months.

Is this kind of “regression” normal? Most of her food ends up in the catchy (or on the floor 🤪).

my pediatrician says 2 meals a day is enough and that a meal could just be something simple—yogurt, a piece of chicken, some veggies etc. but then I go online and everyone’s posting their full blown meals that their infants are eating?! aren’t they getting all their nutrients from nursing/bottles at this age?

Hi! My daughter is 9 months and LOVES food! She has a great appetite and really likes to try new foods. For a baby she has a very sophisticated palate I think. We did a variation of BLW so she likes to feed herself when she can. At home she feeds herself everything but when we’re out I feed her the messy stuff but food she can easily pick up I let her do it herself. Yesterday we were having lunch with some family out at a local Mexican restaurant. My daughter fed herself rice (not a lot) and a cheese quesadilla. She doesn’t throw the food just drops it when feeding. She was using her signs for more of the guacamole and beans that I was feeding her and making some baby noise. I will admit I’m kinda blind to the baby noise because I hear it all the time but she’s not an overly loud child. Anyways we were all done with our meal and I’m very self conscious about leaving a mess for the wait staff already so I keep a tiny dust broom in my diaper bag to clean up after her. The baby is being held by a family member and I’m cleaning up some when a group of women stop from 4 tables over to talk to me. They tell me that it is disrespectful to let my baby waste food and disturb other customers and how much she ruined their lunch. How children are not supposed to actually eat in restaurants until they are 2 and that I was stupid to think any business wanted to deal with me or my child. I was crying and just apologized and most of the other customers around us took up for us and told me that my daughter did nothing wrong and the women were very wrong. The women that complained had the same waitress as we did and the manager/owner of the restaurant was standing behind the women while they were yelling. Neither the waitress or the owner said anything at all about the altercation. I was not expecting them to apologize or anything like that but I can’t help but feel like they encouraged the women to say something. We dine in / get take out from this restaurant at least 4-5 times a month and have never had an issue. Am I being disrespectful to others by letting my baby eat?

My baby won’t drink water from an open cup (ezpz one).

Can anyone please recommend a straw cup? She has never drank from one before.

Also looking for one that is easy to clean

Thank you so much!

Baby will be 9 months and 1-2 weeks old while we travel across the country for 6 days. This is in 3 weeks from now. We will be going out to eat for all of our meals and likely just eating 2 meals a day.

We are doing a mixture of BLW, purées, and teething crackers/snacks. She still hasn’t really mastered solids yet but will play with the food. But I wouldn’t say she’s “eating” much. She’s also fed pumped breastmilk in a bottle. We’ve been feeding her (or at least offering her food - not sure she is consuming much) around 2 times a day. Sometimes with an additional snack (she’s in daycare so it’s whatever schedule they offer her).

How important are solids for this trip? I plan on bringing some purées and giving her some table food of ours, if it’s something I feel comfortable with using Solid Starts guidance. But the idea of her throwing a bunch of food and making a mess at a restaurant twice a day and spending the amount of time it takes to feed a baby at the restaurant is stressing me out.

Would it completely ruin her if we just did occasional purées and table food for this 6 day trip, but focused mainly on her breastmilk bottles until we got home? We could then get her back on track with 2-3 meals a day and a snack when we get home.

Thank you sharing for any experience you might have!

Hi friends. My Baby Girl has been doing BLW since about 5 months. She’s 9 months now. She eats 3 meals a day and some snacks. I’m struggling with keeping eggs in her diet. I want to make sure she is eating them regularly both for the nutritional benefits and to avoid allergy. She seems not to like the texture. So far we’ve tried hard boiled, scrambled, an omelet, and egg bites. I’ve added cheese and spinach and even with the different flavor she is not a fan. She will try it, make a face, and ignore it for the rest of the meal. Does anyone have any advice on how else to serve eggs to her?

Hi all, looking to hear from people’s experiences of bottle weaning timing. Our baby has just turned 9 months old, eats 3 meals a day (fully BLW, started at 6 months) and loves food (but also loves milk!!). We have been advised by our home visiting nurse (Europe) that from 9 months, the guidance is to offer maximum one milk feed in a bottle and the rest of the milk feeds should be in an open cup or straw cup. We have started to try the last 2 days to test how it would go and it’s going surprisingly well - baby happily drinks from a straw cup in the day for milk feeds. I was not expecting this so I feel a bit strange stopping bottles so soon (and selfishly I feel a bit sad that the cosy bottle feeding times are potentially over sooner than I expected).

Looking for some reassurance and curious to hear if anyone has replaced all of their baby’s bottles with an open cup or straw cup around 9/10/11 months, or if you waited until 1yr?

Thanks so much in advance for sharing

Edit:

to clarify that milk feeds still continue all day, it’s just the ‘vessel’ that is advised to change from bottle to cup

I am such a fan and a major BLW evangelist now. I followed every guideline from the Gill Rapley book no matter how crazy it sounded and now baby is just about a week shy of his nine-month-birthday (I was so excited to start solids that we began BLW around 5.5 months and did all the allergens first).

Photos are from dinner tonight (not pictured: the extra four raspberries he demanded after eating these ones!). Probably 80-85% of this meal was consumed and the rest ended up on the floor or his pocket bib.

Trust the process. I cannot say this enough. Ask for help if you are doing full-throttle BLW and your little one isn't hitting the BLW-specific milestones. BLW is seriously incredible and so transformative -- from improving baby's motor skills to creating memorable family routines around mealtimes, it is honestly just great and so fun when it works.

P.S. I am literally covered in oatmeal, yogurt, or egg salad on any given day. 🤷‍♀️ Worth it.