question about weaning, from what i read here so far

[jabuti]

hi,

i only started weaning my DD and i have been reading all the posts here just to have an idea about other babies, how much they eat, and how mothers do it.

i noticed a massive emphasis in not pushing food down, not making it stressful, going easy since for the first year the baby is only tasting, and milk is still the main source of nutrients. i like it, but i wonder... so lets say my baby becomes fussy about her food and then she turns one... is that when the stress starts, if my baby is not eating enough? so far so good, but im trying to understand what happens if she turns out not to like food so much. i actually know a 1 year old in this situation.

[VictorianSqualor]

A lot of your questions will be answered here on Aitch's blog.

FWIW, It is very rare to have a baby that wean themselves in this way to become fussyeaters. I don't know why, but Aitch has said previously that she gets thousands of hits on her site and no-one has ever had a 'fussy' eater.

As for not liking food, all babies will like something, BLW allows them to taste everything and you will learn which foods they like best by the way they react to it, babies that learn to eat when hungry and listen to their bodies will eat when hungry, and if they aren't eating tremendously at a year old they probably don't need that m uch food.

Try not to worry too much.

(I haven't 'done' weaning for a while as my youngest is now 3 so I'm sure some people experiencing it now will be along soon)

[Ineedsomesleep]

We've got a 3 year old and i've never worried. A child will not starve itself to death so we are pretty chilled about the whole thing. Some days he eats very little, some days he won't stop eating and on the whole he has a fairly good diet.

He will even try new foods willingly 'cos he knows that if he doesn't like it he doesn't have to eat it and 9 times out of 10 he will ask for more.

Don't worry about the 1 year milestone, relax and enjoy your meal times together and you'll be fine.

[jabuti]

alright! will relax and see

('ineedsomesleep' is a damn good name that i could use too)

[Aitch]

actually we do definitely get children goiing through the usual stages of exerting control over what they eat, so asking for one thing over another etc which you could call fussy, but it's a phase like any other. there was a woman on here a few weeks back who said she did blw and her child is very fussy but she also said (as i recall) that he had reflux and illnesses so that might have put him off his stride.
thing is, i suppose you can either make it a battle or not, whichever method you choose, but the definite emphasis of BLW is no battling.

[Aitch]

and tbh by the time the babies are a year old they've been feeding themselves for so long that their parents aren't as bothered anyway, which also cuts down on stress. some people do, nevertheless, get stressed about BLW, it seems to be hard-wired into some people's natures.