Baby Led Weaning tips

I want to share some tips and ideas for baby led weaning (BLW a.k.a. BLS / baby led solids).  I'll do some more posts like this, as ideas come to me - and as experience teaches me!

• When I make my own porridge for breakfast (I love Carmen's oats, they are fabulously thick), I add delicious things like sliced banana, chopped dates, shredded coconut and chopped pecans.  I then pour some of the porridge into a square container (I use this one) to about 1.5cm thick, and leave it in the fridge to set into a sort of cake.  This can then be cut into squares or fingers, and eaten by hand much more easily than actual porridge!  This works best if the porridge is on the dry side (very thick) - you can pour out the baby's serve and then add milk to cook yours a little more.  NOTE:  You can add breastmilk, soy milk or cows' milk to the porridge, but when cooking it for Tabitha, I do as the Scots do and make it with just water, adding a little milk at the end.  It is still incredibly creamy, as long as you use good quality (not instant) oats.

• When eating something messy at home (porridge, banana, sardines on toast, rice), I pop Tabitha on the floor, sitting up on a towel, and give her the food in just her nappy.  I sit and eat on the floor with her, and when she's done, I simply whip off the nappy and give her a 'hose off' under a stream of warm water in the bathtub - no need to bother running an actual bath!  She really loves these 'messy floor picnics', enjoying the feeling of squishing the food between her fingers and all over her legs and belly.

Here is Tabitha eating her porridge fingers this morning (with banana, dates and coconut):

Avert your eyes if you are afraid of mess!

• When eating in a restaurant, I try and give Tabitha foods that aren't too messy, but inevitably a mess is made, even with plain bread.  A waitress friend told me not to stress about it at all, and just to leave a good tip!  So I clean up as much as I can with a napkin or two, and leave a tip and a big 'thank you'.

• When eating out, I tend to order a serve of steamed vegetables for Tabitha - normally there are lots of great things like snowpeas, beans, carrot fingers, broccoli stalks and zucchini.  I fish out any steamed Asian greens like bok choi, because, like lettuce and rocket, they seem to be a bit of a choking hazard.  Asking for steamed vegetables without oil or butter can be a good idea, as oily veggies are slippery and seem to make a lot more mess!

• Sadly, most children's menus are complete rubbish, but some good restaurants will happily prepare a 'child's portion' of fish, chicken or steak.  It's worth asking, and generally doesn't cost any more than an over-priced side of steamed vegetables anyway.

• Make your own meatballs with high quality mince (you can ask the butcher to mince a couple of steaks if you prefer), and add grated vegetables such as carrot, capsicum, zucchini, squash and even apple.  Add some chopped herbs to introduce new flavours, or even spices like cumin or allspice, and some fresh breadcrumbs for a nice texture.  Shape the meatball mixture into 'fingers' or logs for ease of eating, and freeze.  These can then easily be defrosted and baked or fried for lunch or dinner.

• Pasta spirals with sauce (pesto, bolognaise, chunky vegetable sauce etc.) are easy for baby to eat with her hands.

• Rice can be a messy finger food.  Try making risotto for dinner, and using the leftovers to make little arancini - just roll the cold risotto into balls (or logs, for ease of eating) and then crumb and fry them in some olive oil.

Tasmania Part One

Oh goodness.  I have so, so many photos from Tasmania.  It is quite overwhelming, trying to organise them and work out which ones to keep and delete - the curse of the digital camera, ending up with 48 photos of the exact same thing, trying to 'get a good one'.  We were never that wasteful when using film!

I'm going to break up the Tassie trip into a few posts over the next week, to preserve my sanity.  For now, here is Launceston...

The boat trip over was pretty shocking.  Apparently it was one of the rougher days, with even the most experienced staff lurching and tripping all over the place, and waves crashing at the windows and decks.  We went to eat lunch in the restaurant, but The Daddy was so ill that he had to go straight back to the cabin before the main course was served.  I was left to eat a steak and a chocolate fondant pudding with a wriggly Tabitha, all on a madly rocking boat!  I must say, the Leatherwood Restaurant on the Spirit of Tasmania served really decent food, with most of its ingredients sourced from Tasmanian producers.  My steak, cooked beautifully rare, was Cape Grim, and I finished the meal with a small plate of Ashgrove cheeses.

Despite the rough passage, Tabitha seemed to have a good time on the boat, with both of her parents a captive audience in the cabin for 11 hours!  Our brilliant Phil&Teds portacot fitted neatly in the limited space of the cabin for her naps, and I managed to put it together, with the lurching room and no floor space, in just a few minutes.  I really am thrilled that we chose the P&T.

Here is Tabby having fun in our cabin:

When we arrived, we stayed the night in Devonport, and left for Launceston first thing the next morning.  We had lunch at Stillwater, a fabulous restaurant / winebar / providore, housed within a beautiful 1830s mill building, right on the water.  I had a really incredible squid salad with crunchy toasted rice powder, and Tabitha had some of my capsicum with the spicy lime dressing:

From lunch, we went to visit the incredible Cataract Gorge, home to the world's longest single-span chairlift, a large flock of peacocks, and surely one of the most picturesque swimming pools in Australia.

It's funny to see such majestic birds just wandering around drinking out of puddles and stealing chips off the outdoor tables, like boring old seagulls...

Look at the pretty backdrop for the swimming pool!

The Daddy convinced me that it was safe to take Tabitha on the chairlift, since she was snuggly secure in her Ergo - however I somehow forgot, until we were out there a million miles up, that I am a little nervy about heights myself!  So I started to freak out just a bit, and had to be convinced of the merits of catching the chairlift back (as opposed to walking for over an hour back to the car).

Tabby was completely nonplussed about being so high up in the sky:

I am really fond of hydrangeas, and Tasmania seems to be the Hydrangea Capitol!  Everywhere we went, there were enormous bushes of really colourful hydrangeas.  They made my little bush at home seem quite pathetic:

At the Gorge, we saw this cute little guy wandering around.  He was quite friendly and wasn't shy about having his photo taken:

In Launceston, we stayed at a marvelous apartment called The Terrace at TWOFOURTWO, located on Charles Street in a beautiful quiet little neighbourhood, flanked by a French patisserie Tant Pour Tant, a homemade pasta shop, a gourmet greengrocer and a few great restaurants.  There are a few apartments as part of the TWOFOURTWO building, each quite different in what they offer.  

I cannot recommend TWOFOURTWO enough - to list a few of the great features:

• A picnic basket with a handwritten guide to all the good local picnic spots
• Little touches like a hot water bottle with a knitted cover, real art on the walls, top-quality shampoo and conditioner, a cheerful red umbrella, childrens' toys, a great DVD library including Ratatouille, Strictly Ballroom and Amelie, two years' worth of Gourmet Traveller, Donna Hay, Jamie Oliver and a few architecture magazines, a CD player with a range of CDs and an iPod dock, a range of different pillows in the wardrobe, a large, clean BBQ in our private courtyard, and even potted fresh herbs!
• The laundry was fully stocked with washing powder, fabric softener, two types of Napisan and clothes baskets.
• The kitchen was excellent, with a Gaggia espresso machine, a bowl of apples and lemons, loads of muselis, breakfast provisions, fresh juice, free-range eggs, freshly ground coffee, local yoghurt, home-baked biscuits, little details like a citrus reamer, measuring spoons, baking tins, alfoil and clingfilm, as well as an incredible selection of Tasmanian wines (the owners also run a wine store) and a few good recipe books with a focus on local produce.

The apartment from the courtyard:

The BBQ area:

The fabulous kitchen, complete with sharp knives!

Tabby and The Daddy playing in the living room:

The upstairs bedroom, which meant we could put Tabitha to bed, then go downstairs and not be tiptoeing around her:

My beloved Phil&Teds Traveller:

It makes me laugh that I still care about HER clothes, making sure they are nicely hung up, when I personally look like a complete bag lady on holidays...

Tabitha has learnt to really love shoulder rides:

The view from the upstairs balcony:

While in Launceston, we had lunch at Josef Chromy winery, which I really recommend - it is a pretty historic building set on the edge of a manicured garden, large dam and overlooking the vines.

While in Tasmania, we drove a fair bit, so we timed all of our activities and car trips so that Tabitha had her naps in the car (most drives were 1 - 2 hours).  For example, a typical day was:  Wake up at 7am, have breakfast and play for 2 hours, nap in the apartment from 9-10am, go do a local activity, nap in the car from 12-2pm, visit some wineries and walk around a town, nap in the car from 4-5pm, then have dinner and play until bedtime at 7pm.

Still to post from our Tassie trip - photos of our catchup with Melissa and her four beautiful boys, our time on the East Coast around Freycinet, and our time in Hobart including visiting my aunt's lovely little farm.