Starting BLW

Following

Your bestfriend will be Solid Starts app ! I’m not affiliated with them i just love the app and recommend it to everyone who is doing or starting BLW! It tells u how to prepare, cut and serve a variety of foods depending on their age. I also find most of my meal recipes on tiktok! There’s a bunch of mommas on there who post breakfast lunch and dinner ideas. Meal prepping will also help u a lot to! I like to pick a day (usually sundays) to steam or roast all the veggies that i’m going to want to serve my daughter throughout the day, any breakfast or dinner items that may take awhile to prepare such as omelette strips, pancakes, burger patties, veggie fritters, etc. So that way when it comes to meal time i’m able to just grab the foods from the fridge or freezer and heat them up instead of taking 1hr+ to cook her meals. Another thing is to learn the difference between choking and gagging, gagging is a very important thing that babies must learn to do in order to prevent themselves from

choking. They will sometimes gag when they are trying new textures or when they happen to get to large of a piece of food in their mouth. Trust your baby to learn how to move the food around their move with their tongue so instead of possibly choking, they learn to push the food out with their tongue or cough it out! “Loud and red, let them go ahead, silent and or blue, they need help from you!” Usually babies will cough and turn red when they may be gagging but this does not mean they are choking. If they are making noises such as coughing or gagging u do not need to intervene or do not try to sweep the food out of their mouth as u can possibly push the food further back into their throat. Another great tip is the finger pinch test! Whatever foods u are serving, make sure that u can smoosh the piece of food in between ur fingers lightly, if not, it is a potential choking hazard. Do not be afraid to take pieces of food away from baby if they become to small for them to pick up or

or if the piece of food is not super large but small enough for them to shove it in their mouth whole, u are able to take it away from them and swap it out for a new piece of food cut to the length that is designated for their age range and capabilities. Also, your baby does not have to have teeth to chew solid foods! Babies gums are extremely strong and can chew through many different foods as long as the food passes the “finger smoosh test”. A lot of it is having confidence in your baby and confidence in urself! Do not feel the need to rush it and it’s ok to take steps back from BLW or to go at a slower pace. U are doing great regardless!

The BEST advice I received was NEVER to get my fingers on baby’s mouth, even if she got a big chunk on her mouth, if she got it, she can handle it, must of the times, outside intervention is what makes food get stuck, if you don’t intervene baby mostly can get out gagging, coughing, etc, just be sure she/he are safe Get a first aid curse to feel safer, it helped me and never needed it I really recommend to start solids early, it worked like a charm for me and my now 1 year and 3 months old that eats everything in its original presentation