Doubts about if I'm doing BLS right?

[@llli*elizabethr]

Does anyone have advice on if what I'm doing is enough? I know they say before one, food is for fun, but sometimes I worried I am too laid back about the solid thing. We are doing bls and lo is getting better/more interested in food, but I don't always give her something every night. DH and I are getting better at planning meals, but we don't always have something in our dinner I feel comfortable giving her. Whenever we make veggies, I cook extra for her and she eats that, or I give her some fruit, but sometimes it just ends up being pizza night and I don't want to giver her that.

Also, so far I've been sticking to fruits and veggies (although she has had a few piece of bread and a maria biscut) because I'm not sure when it is safe to introduce other foods. There is so much conflicting info about when to introduce carbs and specficially wheat, meat, citrus fruits etc. Or should I really just give her whatever we are eating, as long as it is home cooked (which most of our food is, minus the pizza )?

[@llli*djs.mom]

Your baby is 8 months old? I think by 8 months we were doing fruits, Veggies and some yogurt and cheese. Apple wedges were my favorite because they would keep him busy for hours without any mess. We didn't introduce meat or whole wheat pasta until between 9 and 10 months. But I do think I did bread crusts (Like toast crust to dip in yogurt) and tortillas at that age. Because I would do quesadillas cut into slices he could hold.
By 8 months I was doing a breakfast session every day. (And that usually included raw cheerios so I guess that is grain right?) Because cheerios would keep him happy and interested in his high chair for about a half an hour with very minimal supervision. So I could put him there and he'd practice grabbing them and I'd be in the same room but I'd be folding laundry or something. If he wanted more I'd give him an apple wedge. And by 9 months I was also doing lunch every day. Because of all the interest he was continually showing in mine. And that was usually fruit and yogurt. And by 10 months I was feeding him 3 meal a day and I was making a point of putting 3-5 things on every plate so that even if he didn't eat everything he would still get 2 healthy things. And that let him feel like he had choices. And we would just break our meal down. So if we were having Cobb Salad I would give him chicken shreds, cheese shreds, and lettuce. No eggs because we waited on eggs until the year point and no olives because of the salt. But something like Spaghetti he would get whole wheat pasta and turkey crumbles and shredded parm. So we broke it down so he always had AT LEAST 3 things on his plate. HTH!

[@llli*auderey]

we didn't do anything resembling regular meals until after 12 months. DS loved solids from the get-go, but for many months (definitely till 10 months at least) he often went some days with solids and some days without. sometimes, still, when i have him myself for the whole day (DH usually stays home with him) he'll be grumpy all morning and i keep trying to nurse him, put him down for a nap, etc until i finally realize he wants FOOD! i was just so in to only nursing him for so long, it doesn't occur to me! bad mama moment.

but anyway: to me the gist of BLS is that you just really stop worrying about all this crap and rules and everything. if you have a generally healthy diet, give your baby whatever part of that he wants/you want to give him. that's it.

[@llli*djs.mom]

I feel like it's important to work toward the goal of 3 meals a day plus snacks. Because at a year I wanted to move towards not being his sole source of nutrition. And I think a lot goes into planning and PRACTICING as a family healthy. I worked really hard at the three to 5 things a meal on his plate so that he learned that he could continue to self regulate. But in order for a child to make healthy choices, the only choices available need to be healthy AND balanced. There should never be a phase where all your child is willing to eat is cracker and cheese or only pasta ect. But that happens because those choices are put in front of a child as options. I am not saying never put pasta or cheese in front of your kid. But they should always among SEVERAL other choices. At 6 year old my child still eats 4-5 servings of fruit and 1-3 serving of veggies every day. Regardless of what else he eats, he always gets those staples. That is not something that just happens. Because I certainly wasn't eating like that before I had him.

[@llli*mumtothomas]

Offering choices is definitely important, but they do tend to go through phases of only actually eating one or two things--pasta, or cheese, or blueberries, etc--and that's ok. Don't freak out if your baby suddenly eats yogurt like crazy but won't touch anything else--just keep offering a variety. Your job is to put it on the plate, and hers is to choose what/how much to eat.

[@llli*auderey]

I feel like it's important to work toward the goal of 3 meals a day plus snacks. Because at a year I wanted to move towards not being his sole source of nutrition. And I think a lot goes into planning and PRACTICING as a family healthy. I worked really hard at the three to 5 things a meal on his plate so that he learned that he could continue to self regulate. But in order for a child to make healthy choices, the only choices available need to be healthy AND balanced. There should never be a phase where all your child is willing to eat is cracker and cheese or only pasta ect. But that happens because those choices are put in front of a child as options. I am not saying never put pasta or cheese in front of your kid. But they should always among SEVERAL other choices. At 6 year old my child still eats 4-5 servings of fruit and 1-3 serving of veggies every day. Regardless of what else he eats, he always gets those staples. That is not something that just happens. Because I certainly wasn't eating like that before I had him.

i hear what you're saying, especially about the only eating cracker and cheese thing. we feel that way about juice: DS doesn't really know that it exists, and he LOVES water. but DH and I don't get 3-5 different things on our plates every meal. we have pretty healthy diets, with lots of fruits & veggies, but any given meal is usually just 1 or 2 things. i see no reason to suddenly change the way the family eats just to provide more options at one for DS. i guess the idea of BLS, to me, was about givng me permission to not worry about all that. i suppose it depends on family disposition and how close one's ideal diet is to one's actual diet, too.

[@llli*elizabethr]

Your baby is 8 months old? I think by 8 months we were doing fruits, Veggies and some yogurt and cheese. Apple wedges were my favorite because they would keep him busy for hours without any mess. We didn't introduce meat or whole wheat pasta until between 9 and 10 months. But I do think I did bread crusts (Like toast crust to dip in yogurt) and tortillas at that age. Because I would do quesadillas cut into slices he could hold.

Can I get some clarification on dairy. When did you start? I hear so much about delaying cows milk to a year our two I was thinking the same for ALL dairy, but obviously that is not the case. I think she is ready for more and it might help with my sudden dip in my pumping supply if she ate other food more regularly, but I don't want to jeopardize the nursing either.

[@llli*djs.mom]

i hear what you're saying, especially about the only eating cracker and cheese thing. we feel that way about juice: DS doesn't really know that it exists, and he LOVES water. but DH and I don't get 3-5 different things on our plates every meal. we have pretty healthy diets, with lots of fruits & veggies, but any given meal is usually just 1 or 2 things. i see no reason to suddenly change the way the family eats just to provide more options at one for DS. i guess the idea of BLS, to me, was about givng me permission to not worry about all that. i suppose it depends on family disposition and how close one's ideal diet is to one's actual diet, too.

We didn't eat nearly as healthy before we had a kid. We didn't move to all things brown vs white until he started eating (Bread, rice, pasta). And I certainly didn't count servings of fruits and veggies and I do now. Because that is how I gauge nutrients. And even in a meal where we are only are having one thing, like Burritos we can break that out so that my child has choices. Tortilla, beans, meat cheese, and lettuce. I also keep stand bys in the fridge. Veggies that can be eaten in place of things like Tomato sauce or chard. So that he understand that you eat veggies at every dinner. Period.
And it does seem important to me that they have choices because if eventually your breast milk isn't going to be filling in the gaps and your child is going to be allowed to choose and they are only given 2 choices and they reject half of that then what? Half of their opportunity for nutrition is gone? That is too scary for me.
And I disagree with Paula and always have about phases where a child only eats one or two things. If the only thing my kid eats off a plate is pasta or cheese that will be the only serving of said food. Hungry kids eat. If there is only something ELSE on your plate and you are hungry you will eat. This isn't really something that you need to worry about with an 8month old. But in general I think nutrition is one of the most important things that we can influence and control as parents. The habits they form around it and the protection we offer their growing cells for the years of damage they will undoubtedly do later. I do think that for me anyway really focusing on nutrition ends up being really important. I understand What you are saying Auderey. TOTALLY. It did the same thing for me actually. The 1st year. But I always kept my eye on my long term goal. Which was to replace perfect breastmilk nutrition with nutrition that I was totally responsible for by the choices I made and the examples I set. And it's worked out pretty well. He eats. He eats fruits and green veggies and brown rice and chicken and lean beef. He will try new things. He will eat Tofu. But again I don't think that happens on it's own. It takes putting choices in front of him that I don't always like or eat. So that he can make those choices. (Tofu, squash, chicken legs and shrimp are examples of things he likes that I don't).

[@llli*djs.mom]

Can I get some clarification on dairy. When did you start? I hear so much about delaying cows milk to a year our two I was thinking the same for ALL dairy, but obviously that is not the case. I think she is ready for more and it might help with my sudden dip in my pumping supply if she ate other food more regularly, but I don't want to jeopardize the nursing either.

The recommendation is for actual milk. We introduced cheese and yogurt before the year point. There is stuff in milk that is hard for them to digest before the year point that is not in cheese and yogurt.

[@llli*sch.mommy]

We did it pretty much as dj's.mom described. Actually, there's a really good thread here somewhere from years ago that was bumped for me when I started solids with ds2. Shelly maybe you know what it was called? It was you and nolamama primarily I think. It helped me a lot.

I offered healthy variety at each meal. What he ate was up to him. Sometimes it looked like random things on a plate (which seems odd to US but to THEM it doesn't ) like pear, grated cheese, beans, a few whole grain crackers, and a handful of peas... and other times it was a disassembled meal - broccoli chicken casserole became shredded chicken, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, and grated cheese. Toss in a few blueberries and a handful of cheerios and you have options from each food group.

At 4 years old he still sometimes prefers to eat a bunch of snacks on a plate - and I'm perfectly okay with that. He self regulates. Eats when he's hungry and stops when he's full. He's been exposed to a wide variety of foods, and is up for trying new things. Because of the habits we've created I never worry if he's getting enough of a particular thing. I can't speak highly enough about baby led solids because not only did it help HIM, it helped us as a family. It forced me to meal plan, and when I meal plan in advance we ALL eat better.