Oatcakes and BLW equipment

Today's meals were toast for breakfast with marmite and jam, then oatcakes with cream cheese, hummus, and boursin for lunch followed by a fig. I was amazed that Hannah actually went for the boursin, I thought the taste would probably be too strong but she continues to surprise me with what she's willing to eat.

A bit of oatcake was the cause of the first proper full on gag today, she got a big chunk to the back of her mouth and coughed it forward, it fell out along with a puddle of spit/mucus/something fairly grim. No harm done though and she carried on as if nothing had happened.

Someone was asking me the other day where we got our splash mat from for doing BLW, and I had to confess that we didn't have one - we do have laminate floors though! In fact thinking about it we have very little equipment for weaning with, and I've listed it here:

• A high chair - we have the Antelop chair from Ikea, cost about £20 inc the tray and the only one we could find that was completely hard plastic so it could be cleaned really easily. The benefit of waiting till 6 months or so to wean is that you don't need a highchair that reclines or supports the head or anything like that, and this highchair is as basic as they get.
• Painting aprons - bibs that cover as much of the body as possible! We got ours from the Early Learning Centre, I've also seen them in Ikea and Asda before, and I'm told that Mothercare sell them too.
• A free flow cup, we have a Tommee Tippee one from Asda that cost £1.
• Muslins - I wrap a muslin around Hannah's legs in the highchair as the painting apron doesn't come all the way down her legs, it helps avoid having to change her after each meal! I also keep one handy for wiping my hands on as I'm picking up bits of her food.
• A baby sized spoon - I've just been using the plastic one that came free in the Bounty pack I got when Hannah was about 3 or 4 months old. Only used when I'm giving her fromage frais or similar.

That's it, I can't think of anything else that we've found really helpful - apart from lots of flannels and hot water to clean up with! I'm mulling over whether a splash mat would be helpful or not, but we've done without it so far so I think we won't bother.