Having my doubts about BLW...

[whenhenshaveteeth]

Morning,

DS2 has never been that fussed by food. I started weaning at 6 months, not because I thought he needed it but because I thought I ought to. He wasn't particularly impressed, he'd "chew" and spit out. Then suddenly I could tell things had changed since his poos were obviously changing: "hoorah, he was actually swallowing!". I wasn't fussed about him eating 3 square meals or anything, I'd read the book, things progress longer with BLW. Then he got a couple of teeth and started ripping bits and chewing. All very well.

The thing is, he's now 8 months and I feel things have been stagnating for a while now and I'm confused....

He really doesn't seem that interested in eating but his appetite has increased: he wants more milk, sometimes I give him an extra bottle in the afternoon, and he wakes up earlier and earlier screaming with hunger (5.30am this morning ).

Also, what he eats is mostly bread based. I've offered him lots of different food and he's tried quite a few but these days his diet mostly consists of bread sticks, rice cakes and toast, he ignores the rest. He also seems annoyed when I put him in the highchair so I often end up sitting him on the floor to eat...

So I'm getting a bit disheartened, am I doing things wrong? What to do when their appetite obviously increases but that they're not interested in satiating their appetite with food? Increasing the milk feeds feels like going backwards, refusing them feels like I'm torturing my baby.

Anyone else has gone through this? When did your little one start actually eating for the sake of eating?

Thanks.

[exoticfruits]

It isn't exactly baby led as he is telling you he doesn't want it. He appears to want the milk be because it is easier therefore I would give him sloppy food that is easier- on a spoon- get him used to the idea that there are different flavours and it is pleasurable and doesn't have to be such hard work! You can go in from there. Give him whatever you have- at the same time so that he can see you eating. The aim of weaning is to get them eating a normal family diet- how you get there is unimportant. Do what suits the baby and hard work chewing doesn't suit yours at the moment.

[FaddyPeony]

I'd introduce a spoonfed meal, tbh. You can always preload the spoon and let him feed himself? Agree with exoticfruits that the chewing of the bready stuff is probably tiring him out! I didn't want to do 'pure' BLW for the reasons you mention above. We did a mix of spoonfed and finger food and this is definitely the approach I'm happiest with.

[FaddyPeony]

Also do you do toast sticks with pureed or mashed food as dips? Dips could be: banana&avocado, humous, pumpkin...anything really.

[SoupDragon]

DD hated finger foods. She lost weight doing finger foods only so we did a mix of whatever she was interested in be it spoon or fingers or milk.

The aim of weaning is to get them eating a normal family diet- how you get there is unimportant

I agree with this. Also, it's not a race. Your baby is 8 month sold - as I understand the whole finger food weaning thing, their main source of nutrition should be milk until they are 1 so I wouldn't worry.

[SoupDragon]

I didn't puree the stuff she had from a spoon, she was happy with the food, just not the whole finger aspect. She was my 3rd and I"d weaned the older two on purees so I wasn't blinkered.

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

I'd try puréed to be honest. Weaning is weaning it doesn't matter how you do it, it doesn't have to be done one way and one way only. :)

[SoupDragon]

Pureeing may not be necessary. Just offering it on a spoon was enough for DD. Stuff like bolognaise, fish pie, banana

[SoupDragon]

You can always squidge it with a fork.

[adagio]

FWIW I am doing a mixture (6 month old) as I was worried that not enough is 'going in' with pure BLW and its a bit hard to always eat stuff ourselves which is suited (And I want her to see us eating the same stuff ideally).

So my plan is breakfast - weetabix/porridge, spoon fed but either hand her the spoon (messy!) or allow her to grab my finger and guide /pull me in (so her choice, or not as the case may be).

Lunch - couple of cucumber sticks, broccoli trees and and option of something mushy e.g. butternut squash goo on a pre loaded spoon. Pudding - lump of something sucky like melon, and nectarine or pear puree made at home and frozen so rather runny (this may have been rubbish cooking on my part) which she sips off the spoon like soup and seems to adore.


Hubby gave her a Heinz sachet of something yesterday (chicken casserole I think). It appears to be the pot noodle of the baby food aisle as she is now rather unimpressed with my loving prepared plain vegetable goo.
Almost as bad as the day I offered nectarine 'soup' when she was still holding a broccoli tree - the broccoli was flung and all attempt to resurrect it rejected. Sigh.

I figure its meant to be about variety, tastes, textures up to one year so I hope this works - would offer to report back in six months but that might be a bit late for you!

[whenhenshaveteeth]

Thanks everyine, I have tried purees. I actually did purees with his brother and it worked very well so I'm not an evangelical BLweaner IYKWIM.

He's never ever wanted purees though, the minute he sees the spoon he clamps he mouth shut. The reason why I decided to do BLW as opposed to purees was because he seemed so uninterested in eating and so I thought I'd go with the flow instead of spending hours trying to spoon feed him. I think he'd be eating even less if I gave him purees, which is what's confusing: I think BLW is the right "method" for him and yet I'm not sure it's working...

[ChunkyPickle]

DS didn't really get into the swing of eating much more than fruit until he was about 10 months, when suddenly our dinner became very interesting and he started eating actual meals.

It's up to you - purees won't do any harm, but leaving him to it a bit longer probably won't do any harm either (from what I understand)

DS (almost 3) now eats just about everything, and will give anything a try - that might just be him though.

[Wishiwasanheiress]

I'm not suggesting this every day but try a pouch? Plum baby or Ella kitchen maybe?

Could you whizz up what your eating? Spaghetti Bol etc and make quite sloppy? I also used to boil the hell out of veg so it squished rather than bit at that age. Worth a shot...

[Wishiwasanheiress]

Of course maybe he's just not ready yet? I'd go with your instincts tbh. A full milk diet at his age isn't an issue. Maybe take a month off and try again?

[Lavenderloves]

I would'nt offer a pouch, they are always sweet and not that nutritious.

I blw two babies, the first ate loads, was always hungry. The second not so interested in food, drank lots of milk. Years later they are the same. As with everything child related they are different and both are healthy.

Relax, keep at the blw offer soft foods well cooked cauliflower and carrot are easy to eat. Don't fuss and baby will get there.

[whenhenshaveteeth]

I did try pouches and you should have seen his face: he looked totally offended!

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'm going to keep at it, making sure I don't rely on bready things just because he eats it, and see how it goes.

While I was browsing the net for tips, the little rascal ate half a slice of toast with peanut butter...

[exoticfruits]

Maybe he just isn't ready- try and relax- they pick up on attitudes and he will know you are anxious!

[adagio]

Have you tried putting him accidentally in reach of your dinner/snack?

In my very limited experience the baby has so far nicked Daddy's spicy poppadum, a suck on a Fab and Jubbly lollies, banana and thats just what he admitted to - god knows what else has been kept a Father-Daughter secret.

[dizzy77]

My DS1 seemed to go backwards when he was teething - it was just too hard/uncomfortable to "eat" much and the balance tipped to milk again. It is disheartening, particularly when you're racking your brains to come up with 3 varied meals a day and most of it gets scraped into the food waste bin.

I second the suggestions about what's on your plate - even a few bits just to play with while I'm eating helped me relax a bit as I hadn't gone to any special effort and DS still got to experience the food, even if he didn't swallow much. I got round his dinner/our much later evening meal by saving a bit of ours for his dinner the following day, again relaxing the pressure on me to identify and prepare something special. If I wasn't eating, I'd just get on with something else in the kitchen which again relieved my stress.

[leavesalmondoutofit]

Good Luck whenhenshaveteeth the early wake means less sleep for you. It will all come good in the end. Is he looking for more milk or extra fluid in this warm weather, just a thought. It would be nice to have a simple explanation.

[CornishYarg]

Around 9 months seems to be a pretty common turning point with blw, when they start to "get" food. So you may find things improve soon.

And as someone said, teething can really knock things out as they often eat less and become very fussy, so if he is teething that may explain things.

I agree with you that it would be a good idea not to go down the "he eats bread so I'll keep giving bread" route. Volume of food is pretty unimportant at this stage but variety is important, so I would just keep trying different bits from your plate and not worry if it isn't eaten.

[whenhenshaveteeth]

Oh bum! I thought I'd replied but it obviously didn't go through on my phone.

So I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to reply to me, it was really useful. It's funny how when it comes to your own kids it's sometimes difficult the see the wood for the trees...

Salmon, I hadn't thought of him being thirsty because of the hot weather but it'd make sense.

Dizzy and Cornish, thank you sooooo much for mentioning teething! I'm slightly ashamed I didn't think of it myself tbh. It's got to be it as he used to be more adventurous with food, he's drooling for England and he's doing those watery poos that smell like sick. The last few days he's also been doing some weird chewing on the teat of the bottle and he's been uber grumpy. Damned teeth!!

Anyway, I'm going to go with the flow and keep offering him as many different food as possible. Surely, one day he'll eat like everyone else.