A question re BLW

[jojoisamum]

I have spent quite a bit of time looking into BLW. Husband is not keen and thinks we should go down the puree route which I really don't want to do.

I am going to show him a couple of clips I have seen on youtube but I don't know what else I can show him to read quickly (he's a shift worker and doesn't have loads of time) to put his mind at rest. He just doesn't have the time that i have to look through websites and MN!

Can you give me any tips or even better (if you have time of course) may be quickly put your own experiences here. He's worried about this BLW stuff!

Many thanks

[scorpio1]

I have a couple of pics on my profile, will link some more.

We love BLW and would never go back to pureeing!

[scorpio1]

BLW

My dd is 6mths, and eats ricecake, toast, banana, green beans, carrots, mango...loads of things.

They do gag for the first few days, but Millie soon stopped that after a week or so. Anything they cannot cope with they spit out!

[cmotdibbler]

Its great - you chuck bits of your food at them, and they get on and eat it whilst you eat your hot food in a leisurely manner. You don't have to drag little tubs around with you, or think about what to feed them when on holiday, and you just make one, healthy, meal for the whole family.

Whats not to like ?

We did BLW, and DS is a happy, healthy toddler who eats absolutely anything, and uses cutlery with no problems at all

[MamaHobgoblin]

I can't imagine that anyone could watch Archie eating his first BLW meal on youtube and remain unconvinced!

BLW is easy, not that I'm by any means a seasoned expert. Been doing it 6 or 7 weeks and he loves it, and we love watching him loving it.

[Neenztwinz]

I am thinking of trying BLW, just wondered how you make sure your LO is getting a good varied diet, with all the vitamins/iron etc they need. What if they only want to eat carrot sticks? Or does this not happen?

[cmotdibbler]

You give them the same as you are eating (the added bonus is that it gets you to ensure that you are all eating a healthy diet)and so they just want to be like you and will try all of it. Until they are about one, they'll be getting everything they need from milk anyway so you don't need to stress about it.

[pinkmunkee]

BLW is fantastic! Our DS shut his mouth on purees on day 2, but as soon as I found out about BLW our lives changed for the better! He is 1yo now and loves eating and like mamahobgoblin says, we love watching him.

Not only does it help with cooking, builds positive eating habits, and is fun, it also builds independence in your child and develops their fine motor skills. It provides a hugely beneficial tactile experience for your baby (similar to that of water and sand- but better!) and is a really natural way to learn to eat. Our DS has never done that typical baby thing of putting everything in his mouth and I put it down to him having lots of opportunity to do this at mealtimes. This makes trips to the park/ other people's houses much safer!

My DP and Mum were very unsure for the first 2 weeks, nervous of the gagging reflex etc, but after a few weeks they couldn't believe their eyes and have both said how pleased they are that I insisted.

HTH

[mummyc]

Another vote for BLW here, my DH was really sceptical too and I wobbled a few weeks in but with the help of the lovely ladies on Aitch's BLW site we got there and quite honestly it's about the best thing I've ever done for DS (and my sanity, started on purees and HATED the whole process of preparing and always feeling like I was doing it wrong).

It's been great for his co-ordination, self confidence and nutrition. And DH now takes all the credit when DS, who's now 15 months, eats better than his 10 year old cousin in terms of variety and all of his peers in terms of using cutlery.

It's how your DC's body is designed to cope with learning to eat imo, if you think about humans 'in the wild' it's not really feasible that food would be pureed up, more likely that infants would live from milk and when they were able to hold up food to their mouths on their own, gum off enough to try but not enough to choke on, unlike spooning lumpy mush into their mouth which is more likely to make them gag.

My DH's real objection (not that he admitted it until much much later) was that he wanted to do the spooning food in job, as I'd breastfed DS and he felt a bit left out, and BLW was too 'independent' for his taste. He changed his mind when he realised that BLW was the best thing for our DS, who'd been telling us that was how he wanted to eat by refusing all puree and only eating finger food for a couple of weeks before I started him on BLW properly.

So in my totally biased opinion, because it worked really well for us, go for it!!