sophiechristophy

When my mum was 18 she went barefoot for a year. Apparently my Gran just rolled with it...

Hi Pickle - how long did you keep them in the first steps shoes?

Hi guys, Ok so my daughter is 14 months and is walking. She has just growm out of the soft clarks cruising shoes that she had been wearing outdoors. So, I need to buy her some new shoes, but I am confused. I have read on the american podiatary website that children under 7 really don't need shoes at all, and bare feet is best. However, the shoe shops all say she needs a hard sole and support now that she is walking. She also has really narrow feet. Anyway, I can't decide whether to get her some hard sole start rites, or something like this instead: http://www.robeez.co.uk/Product.aspx?ProductID=1299&PriceCat=3&Lang=EN-UK&RefID=gouk_robeez_toddler_shoes&STID=GB&SID=03384151-b3bb-4b10-a95f-86055dafbd06 What does everyone else do about shoes?!?!? Thanks!! Sophie

homemade is really easy, just a tin of chickpeas (rinse them), some tahini, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil and you are away!

Hi fabian's ma - on the protein front, are you giving him meat and fish? Also, hummus is a good one.

Supergolden - my otherhalf is greek cypriot, and I am frequently (very happily) overfed at his parent's house!! So I know first hand what you mean - there is a very definite investment in making sure that people are fed in Greek culture. My best advice for you on this issue is this: Trust that your baby wants to nourish itself. Babies want to survive in this world, they don't want to wither away. So, as long as you are providing the opportunity to eat, as you have been doing by offering food, let him decide what and how much he wants to eat. I would drop the spoon feeding for a bit and carrying on your finger food/blw tactics. This is not an easy thing. It is very hard to sit back and believe that your baby can just not need that much food right then and there, when you feel that it is time for him to be hungry/eat.But trust your baby. The more you are invested in everything he eats, the greater the tension between the two of you, and the less he will actually eat. In your post you said that you find it hard to go with the flow, but on this issue, if you can manage to take a step back and allow him to manage it himself, the benefits will be great. Find something to distract yourself with during his meal times, like your own meal, this will help to lower the tension. Even if everything gets chucked on the floor, and he doesn't eat a single bite, don't worry and try to resist trying to persuade him to eat something, just put that meal behind you. It sounds as though his milk feeds are plenty to be a safety net and give you peace of mind that he truly isn't starving if he does reject the solids. S x p.s. human's will always prefer a sweeter taste - when we were hunter gatherers, sweet foods were very scarce, like wild honey and berries. They represented instant energy, and so we are programmed to seek them out and consume them. The problem is though that now sweet foods are so readily available, and our desire to seek them out hasn't decreased!

I am confused - why should an adult get priority for a seat over a child? Does a child not deserve a seat as equally (if not more) than an adult?

I guess I would say that it depends on the age at which you are leaving your child with a nursery/childminder? If your child will be 12 months or so, they will probably have developed good independent self feeding skills, and plus by that age they will as crystal said most likely be eating food that can be easily eaten on their own, and spoon feeding won't be necessary anyway. If you are leaving them from 6 months, I guess that entirely depends on your child-minder's own approach, they might be into BLW and already doing it in their house (actually quite likely if they have had a number of children themselves as it ends up being a lot easier than spoon feeding).

Helena I think you may have misunderstood my post.

Hi Helena, To understand something of what I mean, you can do a simple experiment. Get someone to spoon feed you something, without knowing in advance what that food will be. I expect that you will feel apprehension, nervousness, some resistance to accepting that spoon. Putting things into our mouths is an intimate act. It is natural that we would be apprehensive to it, this is a survival instinct. Spoon feeding also turns what should be instinctive eating to nourish ourselves, into a control issue. It can be the case for the control aspect to have implications for children as they grow up, in regards to their acceptance of foods and the relationship between the person feeding the child and their willingness to eat. These are my opinions, based on my experiences working with families with young children as a community cookery teacher.

hi Yak, There are a couple of things to think about with this. My first question would what your reasoning was in wanting to introduce foods like baby rice? Baby rice is a highly processed food, lacking in nutrients, made from white rice and white flour, lacking in flavour texture and nutrients. I don't think it constitutes a good food for babies. If you do want to give your baby something that is best carried by a spoon, my advice is to make that food thick enough that it can be loaded onto a spoon, and the spoon given to the baby. The second thing to think about is the psychology behind the one of the benefits of BLW, which is about establishing the dynamic in your family regarding eating. This is to do with thinking about the psychological impact of spoon feeding. Spoon feeding comes along with overt expectation. By presenting a spoon to your child, you are saying to them that you expect them to open their mouth, eat what is on it, and then prepare to be fed again. If the baby doesn't immediately do this, you have a situation - do you verbally encourage them to eat it? Try to entice them? Just give up? Most likely, some tension will arise. Your baby may then accept the food, not because they are hungry or because they enjoy the food, but because you have persuaded them to eat it. This is overriding the babies natural ability to manage their own appetite. Alternatively, they may refuse the food all together, and this will probably be frustrating to you and worrying, as you will become concerned that they aren't eating enough. BLW avoids these situations. Ideally, you offer foods to your baby by putting them a few a at a time into the tray of their chair, and leaving them to it, just getting on with eating your own food. This totally diffuses the situation, and makes eating an enjoyable thing. Your baby is in control of what they eat and how much. I find that it is often the case, at a family meal time, that a baby will explore their food the most when others at the table are distracted by their own conversations and meals. This is pretty natural behaviour - how many of us like to be stared at while we are eating? Sophie x

Sorry - should also have mentioned to avoid sugar. x

Hi Sally, On the choking issue - blw is actually a really good way to help protect your child from choking. When we are born, our gag reflex is closer to the front of the mouth, and as a baby grows, it moves back towards the back of the mouth. When you offer foods in BWL, your baby gets to understand about his gag reflex while it is still closer to the front of his mouth (ie further from his windpipe). He also learns how to move food in his mouth safely, as he is manipulating larger pieces rather than supping liquids. He will gag in the early weeks. This is totally normal, and does not mean he will choke - he is just testing our his gag reflex. Choking and gagging are not the same thing. Choking is when the wind pipe is blocked, and is silent, where as gagging is our bodies way of helping us to avoid choking. The key things to watch regarding what foods to introduce are salt, whole nuts (children under 5 shouldn't be given whole nuts as they present a choking risk), whole grapes, things with pits like whole olives and cherries. Aside from that, if you are eating a healthy diet yourself, you can offer him pretty much what you eat. There is no reason to limit this to fruits and vegetables - protein and essential fats (like those in olive oil and avocado and oily fish) are really important for growing babies. A lamb chop bone with some of the meat left on is a great thing to offer (just remove any gristle). Although there isn't a major problem with it, I would personally only occasionally offer foods that aren't nutrient dense, such as bread and other wheat products, rice cakes, crackers, breadsticks, pasta, rice etc. This is because they don't really offer your baby anything great nutritionally, and so seem a bit pointless to me when meat/fish/vegetables/fruit are a more nourishing alternative. In the early weeks (or even months) he probably won't eat all that much. This is ok because he will still be getting what he needs from his milk feeds, which should continue as usual (are you breast or bottle feeding?). Over the months to come, he will gradually eat more and more, although expect this to fluctuate and will be affected by things like teething, colds, hot weather etc (things that affect our appetites too, well, apart from the teething!). This is totally ok - the idea is that through BLW your baby is given the opportunity to respond to his own hunger cues, will eat when he is hungry, and will not when he is not. It is really important to allow this, as overriding a baby/childs natural hunger cues can cause longer term issues with them being able to know when they are full. This can then have implications for overeating. Sophie x

A really yummy dip for crudite is 50:50 natural yoghurt and mayo, lemon juice, crushed garlic and a little seasoning.

Ruth! Snap!

Hi Sally81 - it sounds from your post as though your son would really enjoy baby-led weaning. It essentially means just allowing him to explore his curiosity in the food that you are already eating yourself, like the pineapple and banana that he has already tried. You would allow him to hold himself and chew on pieces of food big enough for him to grip easily in his hand. It is likely that he probably won't actually eat all that much, and the focus isn't on what he is eating, but more on him playing with and exploring the food. This will naturally lead into him feeding himself more and more over time, and building a healthy relationship with food. This website is useful: http://www.baby-led.com/ I followed BLW with my daughter who is now just over a year - please feel free to PM me if you want any tips. Sophie x

This is a problem with the subject of baby feeding, there is such limited current research available.

Early weaning can mean the displacement of nutrient dense milk with less nutrient dense foods. So essentially, your baby may not be getting as many nutritional benefits from what it is consuming.

How about something like this from Tiffanys? http://www.tiffany.co.uk/Shopping/Item.aspx?fromGrid=1&sku=GRP02982&mcat=148204&cid=563629&search_params=s+5-p+1-c+563629-r+201432137-x+-n+6-ri+-ni+0-t+-k+ It sounds from your description of her that she might get a kick out of the little blue box, it's in budget and pretty classic so will last her forever.

Hi everyone - my husband is a wedding videographer, and he has just had a cancellation which has freed him up a bit this summer so he can take a last minute booking. If you want his details, just PM me. Thanks, Sophie

Hi everyone = I am planning on doing a cross stitch for a christening present, and I was wondering if anyone had a fabric frame that I could borrow for a few weeks? Sophie x

ClareC - you might enjoy reading this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Real-Food-Mother-Baby-Fertility/dp/1596913940/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309186206&sr=8-1

lying in a cool bath? xx

Can I also be nosy and ask how much it was?

http://www.hookandson.co.uk/