Anyone done blw with a prem baby?

[sophie150]

Did all finger foods with my first and after getting over the initial gagging panic felt pretty confident about it quite early on. My toddler is now a very good eater so I've bought into the philosophy to a certain degree albeit I'm aware it's mostly luck rather than my amazing parenting 😀.

My second was 5 weeks early - so not a huge amount- but I'm a bit more nervous this time round because of that. The hv is saying not to wait until 7 months because of new guidance saying you shouldn't wait too long. Has anybody me done a blw approach with an early baby- did you notice they weren't quite as ready? Or was it ok?

[Whitelisbon]

Dd1 was 11 weeks prem, and was eating finger foods happily at 6 months, so 3.5 months adjusted.
She was the one out of them all who was the easiest to wean!

[minipie]

DD was 6 weeks early and I weaned at 6 months (actual not corrected as per advice).

At this point she was only 4.5 months developmentally, her coordination wasn't great and she would not have been able to pick up bits of food. She also wasn't able to sit unsupported so I used a bouncy chair.

BLW was not an option for these reasons. I did purees which she loved, adding in finger foods later.

DD2 (36+6 so not really prem) was weaned the same way. They are both excellent eaters

How's your baby's coordination? Will they actually be able to pick up bits of food and get them to their mouth? If not then that's that really!

[DiploCat1]

We have just started! My dd was also born 5 weeks early, And is now 5 months old (4 corrected). We are currently living overseas so having to do a lot of my research online. I was going to wait until she was 6 month corrected too but a lot of the research I have read online says that you shouldn't use adjusted age for weaning and that prem babies should be weaned earlier due to their falling iron supplies. Originally dd was on sytron supplements, but refused to take a bottle after a couple of months so stopped taking them. I am currently mixed feeding her, looking to phase out bf altogether in next month or so.

We have just started having dd sit at table with us, giving her a few bits of food to play with, and trying a spoonful of food too. This morning she sucked on a banana and had a tiny taste of porridge. I am not too worried about how much she eats for time being, just getting her used to sitting in high chair when we eat, playing with food and hoping that she will get the idea in next month or so. She has really good head and neck control, And loves to sit up on our laps. We will see how it goes!

[FlowerTink]

DD was 5 weeks early and I weaned at 6 months actual as the HV told me to start at 6 months regardless, but she wasn't ready in the slightest, her co-ordination wasn't there and so she couldn't pick up food, she also struggled with supporting herself to sit upright so I didn't do BLW. I did purees on a spoon and that took time too, it really is a whole different ball game with a prem baby. But we got there with purees in the end and I added finger foods when she was much older and more capable. She's 2.8 now and a fantastic eater.

[SparkleFizz]

DS1 was 6 weeks early.

We started weaning at 6 months actual age rather than 6 months corrected on HV advice. We started with purees as he wasn’t developmentally ready for finger foods (not sitting or bringing foods to mouth etc).

But he hated purees and being spoon fed. Hated it. Resisted all attempts at spoon feeding him purees or anything else as much as he could. Very stressful for everyone. So we switched to BLW as soon as DS1 was capable of it. We didn’t really get anywhere with weaning until DS1 was able to start feeding himself.

[sophie150]

Thanks everyone! Mixed experiences then- encouraged by the positive ones though. We'll definitely give it a go and see how we get on.

[FraterculaArctica]

DD was also 5 weeks early and I started weaning at 6 months exactly uncorrected. Because she wasn't as coordinated as a full term baby I did a mix of spoon feeding and BLW. Actually she was fiercely independent and wanted to feed herself pretty quickly. It was pretty comic for the first month when she could only find her month by putting the food/spoon to her forehead first! She's an excellent eater now at 18 months.

[RoryAndLogan]

I have a 4.5 week prem so not too dissimilar to you and we started blw at 6 months actual age, they've taken to it amazingly.
Barely gagged, no being sick (yet) and loving food. They're very small for their age but it hasn't seemed to make any difference. They are now 7.5 months and eating considerably more than the other babies in our NCT group who will manage a mouthful or two at each meal. My little one is brilliant at picking up all shapes and sizes and also feeding from a loaded spoon they've been handed.

So I'd go for it!!