Help with baby led weaning please!

[coconutstrawberry]

My daughter will be 6 months on Monday and is EBF. A few days ago during a lunch with extended family we started BLW a week early. She really enjoyed playing with the roast potato and brocolli and cauliflower. We had planned to do BLW anyway as we like the idea of it.

The past 5 nights she has been waking up for 3-4 feeds per night (was previously just on one 3am feed which I could cope with). They are proper feeds too, not just for comfort. I am so so tired and my Mum says "well obviously she's starving". She thinks BLW sounds ridiculous (she has had 5 kids but it was 30 odd years ago!) and I need to spoon some mush in to keep her going through the night. This week I have been trying her with various things BLW style but obviously most is going on the floor rather than being eaten! She is enjoying it though.

I can feel my resolve weakening for BLW..obviously it'll take a few weeks for the food to go in more reliably and I don't know if I can keep up 4 night feeds for that long (well obviously I'll just have to!). I suppose it could be just a growth spurt..........or could I do pureed stuff and BLW at the same time? Would be most grateful for any advice. I am one grumpy tired mummy.

[OneLittleToddlingTerror]

Puree + finger food = traditional weaning. But there is nothing wrong with that!

[BettyStogs]

Can you increase her milk feeds during the day at all? She won't be getting many calories from either blw in the early days, or from a few spoonfuls of pureed veg, at least not necessarily enough to help her sleep through.

DS was about 9 months before he started eating significant amounts (blw) and was still feeding at night till a week or 2 ago (he's 12 months now)

[gemmeg]

Unfortunately beginning the weaning process doesn't always mean your LO will start sleeping better.....I also pinned my hopes on this and it made no difference to the night waking but then every baby is different, it might work for you. As with every aspect of raising a child, you have to do what's right for you. If you find LO does sleep better after a bowl of baby porridge in the evening and you need the sleep then give it to him. I was also interested in BLW but found myself getting stressed about it all so did things the traditional way and now at 11 months
my ds eats what we have. Of course BLW takes a bit more patience as I've heard from many mums that it their babies didn't start eating any real amounts until the age of 10 months. As I said before, it really depends on how you feel....BLW and traditional weaning both have their advantages.

[gemmeg]

Sorry give it to HER

[Chocolateporridge]

I used to offer my dd half a bf before a meal and then offer her the rest after the meal, so that eventually she needed less and less milk but her sleeps weren't affected because she was still consuming the same (or more) as before.