Mixing BLW and purees

[slowlearner]

DD is 5.5 months old so I'm planning to start weaning soon. Really like the sound of BLW but also a bit of a traditionalist at heart - is it OK to give a mixture of finger foods and purees or will this just confuse her? Also once I start weaning do I need to give her water to drink? (She's currently fully bf and hasn't learned to take a bottle.)

[soremummy]

I would let her have what she wants food wise. I have struggled to wean my dd nearly 10mths. She was/is b/f and tried blw but she is very little and struggled to pick up hold food unless it was a yorkshire pudding. You dont have to give her any water but if you want to try thats ok. I have just in the last 10 days got my dd to finally spoonfeed and what a relief it is to see her getting something inside her. I would go with both tbh and see whats best for your lo.

[snowleopard]

Well, we did (though I hadn't heard of BLW at the time - it was just what seemed right). I tended to use a few jars when out, as it was easier and I didn't have to worry about whether they'd go off, and at home DS had some home-made purees and soup etc and lots of other bits and bobs like avocado, banana, cheese and later on things like toast and breadsticks. Seemed to work. If you think about it, we all eat all kinds of different textures - eg mashed potato, soup, yoghurt, ice cream whatever as well as solid things - so it should be a preparation for a normal diet.

Shockingly, I can't remember about the water! (it was only 2 years ago!) - someone else will know.

[SoupDragon]

Oh don't start the whole "It won't be full "BLW"" b*llox again.

Mixing is fine so long as you're not forcing your baby to eat anything. Offer stuff on a spoon (mashes or just cut up is fine, purees aren't necessary) and if she takes it, fine, if not, fine.

[snowleopard]

I definitely fed DS with a spoon at first, as well as letting him hold finger food himself, but I wasn't forcing food down him. I don't think spoon-feeding equates to force-feeding - of course you let them go at their own pace and take it or reject it. I also let him hold the spoon and feed himself - which made a mess, but meant he learned to feed himself with a spoon quite quickly, which was great as by 12mo or so I could give him a bowl of soup, yoghurt, stew etc and he'd eat himself with a spoon. Nowt wrong with spoons imo.

[TheHonEnid]

god that 'full BLW' thing STILL irritates me and I am long past it now thank the lord

[TheHonEnid]

Every single baby I know in RL has a mixture of spoon fed mush and finger foods

[snowleopard]

Obviously I meant to type " he'd eat it himself with a spoon" not "eat himself with a spoon"

[TheHonEnid]

admittedly that is only 3 atm

[TheBlonde]

I mixed finger foods and purees on a spoon with mine
I also offered water in a cup from about 8 mths

[snowleopard]

Exactly Enid. What tends to happen is they mess around with the finger food and you use a spoon to make sure they get a bit of soup/mash etc actually in their mouth. Practicalities do come into it.

[TheHonEnid]

yes! practicalities!

god don't get me started

I can honestly say the irritation about the ridiculous arguments I had on here about BLW is the only thing that has ever stuck with me after the baby stage

[snowleopard]

Anything that becomes a cast-iron rule can become a rod for parents to beat themselves with - whether it's strict routine regimes, 100% breastfeeding to 6 months, 100% BLW or whatever. I happen to think BLW is great but it it doesn't happen 10 of the time, that doesn't invaildate the good it does. And if you're meant to do something 100% or else be considered a failure, that's just going to mean in practical terms a lot of parents will just feel like a failure and be put of. I have no idea why people get so all-or-nothing about so many child-rearing issues.

[slowlearner]

Lovely. That was what I was hoping to hear, but thought I'd read somewhere about purees making them more likely to choke on the finger foods. Thanks ladies!

[Tinkjon]

My HV made the very good point that any form of feeding is BLW to some extent, as the baby will just refuse to eat it if they do'nt want it so they are leading the eating even if you're giving it to them on a spoon. It's only when you start doing the whole "just one more spoonful" thing and trying to force it into them.

[Aitch]

actually, the NHS is recommending a mix from 6 months.

of course people do their own thing with BLW but as it happens i never did spoon feed dd because i never needed to, so it's not a given that everyone will use spoons any more than it's a given that they won't. if you need to, do so. if you don't, well, i can't see why you'd bother given that the point (of BLW at least) is that they self-feed.

it's like everything else with being a parent, read the guidelines and do what suits you. but lapin is right, if you're doing a mix it's a mix rather than BLW which is self-feeding, but that is semantics. and it may comfort you to see, as that leaflet demonstrates, that a mix is already what parents are being advised to do by the NHS.

[B1977]

Well I am a grown up and I like to eat jam and apple sauce and fruit fools and so on so I can't see any reason for a baby not to have similar consistencies too. It's all just food!

[Aitch]

is that all you eat, though? no sandwiches ever? no steak? no-one is against purees, as such, there's just no point if you've waited til 6 months. i think that nhs doc says mashed family foods and finger foods from 6 mos.

[Aitch]

although actually, my mil will not eat any food that she has to chew, the silly mare (nightmare at our wedding, i tell you) so maybe it is a bigger problem than we think...

[B1977]

lol I was trying to say that a baby of 6 months up can have a mixture, the balance between mush and finger food will vary by family but hopefully all of us are on the same continuum!

I have a friend who was spoon fed until she was 7 but she is quite normal now, honest!

[warthog]

absolutely fine! i did that.

[onepieceoflollipop]

dd2 has been eating a mix for 4 weeks. (she is 7 mths old). She is happy to switch from breast to bottle and will accept formula/ebm/water in a bottle. I tend to offer water only once a day, between lunch and tea (no reason, other than it suits us) she has several b/feeds the rest of the time and occasionally formula. She drinks maybe 3-4 oz of water.

I mash rather than puree - no problems at all. Occasionally she tries to swipe what I am eating - and I let her to encourage her. She ate a normal biscuit (i.e. a standard non-organic one from a toddler group ) on Monday - no harm came to her! . She saw it and nearly fell forward with her mouth wide open asking me for it.

Advice from Aitch and others has saved me a fortune in "proper" baby food - thankyou. You can mash all kinds of stuff with just a fork and plate. Anything she wants to try as finger foods (within reason) I let her try.

[B1977]

Basically babies are not stupid. They just want food. I think up to 12 months most of the nutrition still comes from milk anyway so weaning is more about introducing them to different textures and flavours than it is about getting solid food into them.