Please help me with traditional weaning!

[FolkyFoxFace]

DS turned 6 months on the 16th, and we've been doing BLW ever since. The gagging has been horrible but tonight he choked properly on a piece of poached cod.

I can't do it anymore. It's making me a nervous wreck. Every finger food I give him ends up almost the same way. I'm now thinking about just mashing up food in varying textures with soft lumps and going from there.

Has anyone done traditional weaning and could I please have some advice on how to do it going forwards, including when to introduce more chewable food, etc?

He has two bottom teeth so he's already tearing off chunks as opposed to gumming things I give him.

I don't want to do BLW anymore, so please respect this in replies. I know it's advised and babies can choke on anything etc. but I'm not watching my son turn blue again if I can avoid it.

I could not think of anything worse than BLW so went down the easy, traditional route for my two.

Week 1 - pureed veg for one meal
Week 2 - pureed veg for two meals
Week 3 - pureed veg for three meals

A few weeks later they had some lumpy food and a couple of months after starting weaning (7-8 months?) they were on roughly chopped versions of our meals. Job done 👍

Oooops, no pureed veg for breakfast! 🤢
We bought packet porridge which was very smooth (and qite nice TBH!)

I did traditional pureed food for my eldest two, I followed a very detailed weaning schedule by (whisper) Gina Ford. I did BLW for my third child, but only because she refused to take anything off a spoon. They both have pros and cons, but if you have had a choking trauma then I would deffo go back to smooth purees for a month or two!

Blw wasn’t a thing for me… spoon fed (usually had 3 spoons on the go as dc tried to use one, would Chuck it, grab mine, I’d clean spoon from floor rinse and repeat 😂) . Just move from mush to mash at a reasonable rate or they can get fussy on textures,

OP how many adults do you know who can’t eat solid food and feed themselves? I bet none. Seriously don’t worry about it. Build your confidence with purées and then move on to mashed and finally the lumps will come

You're all so lovely and helpful, I'd tag people individually but my phone seems to be having a moment and I'm typing one handed!

I've ordered the Annabelle Karmel book and a few different spoons and things. The ones we have are a tad annoying as they've got a stick thing on them to stop the end touching the surface, so they poke into his little hands when he tries to help.

He did actually have a very severe tongue tie, we had it snipped but his latch remained shallow. We did manage EBF in the end but it took an extremely expensive lactation consultant to manage it. 🤦 She didn't believe that they could reattach so I suppose it's possible that it has.

Tbh, I feel daft looking back on myself trying to reach EBF when he was perfectly happy being combi fed. I think I've somehow ended up going down the same road with BLW/TW, probably to make up for whatever imagined shortcomings I had at the beginning. A good dash of PND, loads of allergies, and awful reflux probably haven't helped.

Sounds daft but I can't tell you all how much I appreciate these posts.

Tonight I made him fish pie. Dairy free cheesy mash, cod flaked in there carefully, and blitzed up broccoli. He scoffed the lot! If it wasn't so outing I'd post a photo of his joyful little face afterwards!

Thank you all so very much!

Ah, your last post made me smile . My youngest child (9 months) is a particularly enthusiastic eater too. I have 4 children and have always preferred traditional weaning too. I think mashing up our own food for our babies, as well as offering finger food to explore, is a very natural and intuitive thing to do. I'm pretty sure this is how it's always been done. My baby, in the beginning, would often grab my hand holding the spoon and propel it towards his mouth. Can't get much more baby led than that.

P. S. Well done on the BF after a severe TT. My 4th also had a severe posterior tie, snipped at 1 week old. It took ages to get properly back on track after weeks of pumping.

Solid starts on Instagram and online has some good tips on combination weaning too - and I second using whatever approach fits your family best.

Sorry you had a choking scare!