Baby Led weaning, week 2.

At the beginning of this week I was ready to throw in the towel. I was so stressed out about trailing Charlie on foods Harper is allergic to, that I wanted to give up. I began worrying about not spoon feeding Charlie... was I making the right decision? Did I have the time and patience to keep up BLW? It is so much easier to just get a spoon, grab a puree and feed your baby, no mess, done. 

I thought about it some more and it became clear the real problem was my anxiety about giving her milk, so I ripped the band-aid off and just did it. And the best news, everything was fine! Charlie is not allergic to cows milk. We are so, so happy.

This week I've made sure Charlie is having one meal each day, breakfast. As soon as she wakes up she eats, then I get her dressed for the day and wash her with a face washer. 

Charlie's eating more this week and it's showing in her nappies, I'll spare you the details, but she is definitely managing to swallow food. Charlie gags most days, sometimes more often than others. We had our first gag and vomit this week, I shock myself at how calm I've become with trusting that Charlie will not choke, with Harper I was so worried every time he gagged. For me what helped the most was reading about choking, in the BLW book there is some great information explaining choking and the way our body works, providing the food is safe. It taught me gagging is good, it means your body is working as it should, I wish I had have know this when Harper was younger. 

Sweet potato: roasted, spread on toast fingers. Also given as a finger food (skin removed) Charlie loved the flavour of this super food, but it was hard to hold.  Next time I'll try rolling it in bread crumbs or corn crumbs to make handling easier.

Tomato: roasted, again hard to hold, I spread some on toast.

Toast fingers: A great easy stable, I've been giving Charlie the crust of my toast each morning. This week I've topped it with avocado, sweet potato, banana and mashed carrot, all worked great. When giving bread to a baby Charlie's age (just 6 months) make sure its toasted, fresh bread can become a choking risk. 

Steamed carrot sticks and broccoli trees: this week I steamed a big batch and froze them in single serves in zip lock bags, if I'm busy I have something ready.

Cows milk: I gave 1 ml on day one then doubled it each day, (we are on day 3) this is the safest way to trial high risk foods if there is an allergy in the family.