Just wanted to share a BLW story ...

[MerryXMoss]

I am sitting here watching ds eat his pasta and bolognaise (he can't pick up spaghetti with his hands so have to make it with pasta instead). He was sitting in his walker, as the high chair is rubbish, and his feet don't yet touch the ground.

Or so I thought. He has just "walked" backwards about two metres, and is now holding out pasta to give to the dogs. Luckily I have trained them well - they know they can only eat food that falls on the floor but not out of ds' tray, or his hands. However they are sitting on the floor watching him like a pair of Jackals just waiting for him to drop the food.

But ... baby led weaning & pet led cleaning go together very nicely!

[MerryXMoss]

Oh, ds is eight months old today.

[MerryLittleCarrotmas]

Hi Mossy

Lovely image! Glad he's doing well. I'll be stating BLW I think in January so will be coming to you fo tips!

[MerryXMoss]

Hi Carrot!

I found BLW hard at first because.... I didn't know precisely how much he was getting (I'm sure you can empathise with that concern!) but now I love it, it's so much easier. I can give him food and he eats it while I MN get on with housework, watching him out of the corner of my eye.

[callmeoverchristmas]

LOL! It is great isn't it! Wait until other Mums see him doing it, one of my friends still spoon feeds her DS everything at 15m. I can hear her holding her breath everytime DD eats something! You should have seen her face last week when she came over and DD picked up her spoon and started eating her Lunch from it - priceless

[MerryLittleCarrotmas]

Yeah, I must admit, although I get the ethos, my reservations are that with a pixie baby I desperately want to shove food down her gullet to increase her weight. I don't know if I'll be able to be patient enough.

I'm sure life would be so much easier with a normal sized bub. She gets longer and stringier day by day. Any high calorie BLW suggestions for when we start?

[MerryXMoss]

Yes I have gotten some interesting looks when I've given him stuff at Mums & Tots!

Carrot... you're going to hate me for saying this but it's my understanding that there's one thing you can give babycarrot that's higher in calories than the majority of solid foods... your milk.

I always try to milk-feed ds before giving him any foods, to make sure he fills up on calories and the food is just more of a taste. Judging by his nappies though now, it is a bit more than a taste now!

(He has had pan fried mushrooms fried in unsalted butter though! They must be pretty darn high in calories!)

[MerryLittleCarrotmas]

I know, I know about bmilk being higher in calories. But you can imagine how my mind works...other mums produce gold top milk, I clearly produce skimmed, going by the size of her! I can't help but suspect that something isn't quite right with my milk, be it quality or supply, else she wouldn't be so skinny.

(some days I feel this is nonsense, but others I have these doubts)

[MerryXMoss]

Carrot, I know exactly what you mean. I always think of my milk as semi-skimmed rather than whole milk. But hey it's organic free range milk, I'm only fed nice foods and I'm free to roam around!



BabyMossy loves mushrooms (fried), vegetables (steamed, but also roasted) and in fact anything I put in front of him; he's not refused anything yet.

I guess you could try her on penne pasta (lots of carbs for energy) with a nice cheese sauce or something?

[callmeoverchristmas]

Cheese Sauce and thin slices of cheese go down well. Use BM or Full Fat Milk to do the cheese sauce etc.

Also you can add butter to the veg. Although tbh unless your DD is off the bottom of the chart could she just be naturally thin?

[MerryLittleCarrotmas]

Hi callmeoverchristmas.

Yup, she's off the bottom of the charts. And probably naturally thin, too. I won't bore you with the details (on lots of other anguished threads). I would love it though if weaning time enabled a jump in weight. I'm not expecting that to happen though.

[CorrieDale]

I know what you mean Carrot. DS was long and thin and I did have some BLW wobbles as I saw him inexorably sliding down to the bottom of the chart. But we stuck with it and he is now 2 1/2 and is still thin despite eating high cal food in large quantities. I'll be starting with my dinky DD next month, who didn't so much slide down the chart as do a massive jump down from the 91st to the 25th centile over her first 5 weeks, and was hovering over the 9th when last weighed about 2 months ago. Some children are just small and some are just thin. Just like people really!

[MerryLittleCarrotmas]

you see, that's what worries me...I absolutely cannot afford for BLW to cause her to descend further. It must be hard enough holding your nerve with a normal sized baby who is still on the charts, but I can't stand by and watch her get further and further away from the norm. She grows in length faster than in weight, so just looks skinnier and skinnier.

Mossy - sorry for turning this into a highjack of your thread. I had intended to start a new one on this for aitch's attention when January rolled around!

[MerryXMoss]

Carrot, if it's any help, ds hasn't dropped any more centiles than he was already doing (iyswim) since we started doing BLW.

Also many, many babies, whether bf, ff, blw or puree, experience a drop in centiles around this time, simply because it's when they start to ramp up the activity.

But I'm sure someone like Aitch would have proper advice for you. Ha ha you could always ask your Health Visitor... I don't think!!

If you are able, of course, you could come and ask Nicki at Whiston Hospital (the mw you met that Thursday) as she is quite knowledgeable about BLW too (probably less so than Aitch but Nicki is available in rl, iyswim!) or of course you could see what your lactation consultant thinks.

You can always cook her foods in butter etc. as callmeover says, give her cheese, stuff like that, I suppose (although make sure always always after your milk)?

[jellybelly25]

Avocado and bananas are my personal recommendations... It won't necessarily mean a drop in weight though, no more likely than conventional weaning I reckon. Shame, it sounds like you've had a bit of a mare

[MerryLittleCarrotmas]

Thanks gals

Feel a lot more positive today - thanks for the support!

[PrisonerCellBlockAitch]

i don't know if it's more likely for there to be a drop than with conventional weaning, really, but i bet it must feel worse because you aren't as in control. think about stirring lots of lovely oils and nut butters (cashew, almond etc) into everything, cheese is good but watch the salt, as jellybelly said avocados etc.
and if by the norm you mean the median, well, someone's always going to be at the extreme, aren't they? who knows anyway, littlecarrot, maybe dd will take to it really well? maybe her weight will go up or maybe her weight will dip or plateau anyway because sometimes that's Just What Happens With Babies.