Anyone ever introduced solids early and now wish they had waited? Advice please.

[thatdarncat]

At DH's suggestion (and DMs sheer bloody insistence/guilt-tripping) we introduced baby rice at 23 weeks. After a few days she seemed to be more interested and was trying to feed herself which was enjoyable and fun but now I'm angry at myself for not putting my foot down. Do many others are singing the praises of BLW and I feel I have denied DD of this. HV also told me that now she may not cope with textured food at 26 weeks because of the early introduction of purées. What do I do now? Do I keep giving her titbits of rice and then start textures/finger foods at 26 weeks? Or stop and wait til 26 weeks? Feel totally clueless here.

Your hv is talking rubbish and scaremongering unnecessarily. Lots of babies 'can't cope' with textured food at 26weeks - weaning is a on- going learning process for them.

In the nicest possible way, you are also getting yourself far too worried about it all! At 23 weeks you have not introduced food massively early and you will have done no harm. There's also absolutely no reason why you can't blw your baby from 6 months if you want to. I would suggest that you and DH decide how you would like to wean (purées and finger food or blw or a mixture of the two) and do that. So if you decide you want to blw then stop the purées, give it another couple of weeks and kick off with blw. If you want to do a bit of purées and a bit of finger food, then do that.

(Fwiw I don't hold with the whole 'purist' a blw-ed baby must never have purées/be spoon fed thing. Sure, the parents' wishes should always be respected, but however baby eats it's all about exploring tastes and textures and enabling baby to move gradually from a milk diet to one based on a range of solid foods. It's just as important for a baby that starts out on purées to have fingers foods too and eventually move onto solid food as it is for a blw-ed baby to eventually learn to eat from a spoon).

A little bit of baby rice will not have affected her appetite for milk so food (whether finger or purée) is really just for fun and introducing her to the wonderful delights of taste and texture that await her. Enjoy it!

Ok well first of all take a breath and don't panic. You haven't actually started solids 'early'. Pre 17 weeks is 'early'. There's no magic process that happens at 26 weeks and introducing solids is in any case a process not an event.

So - you've started her on rice puree type stuff. That's appropriate for her age and in the pre baby led weaning days - say a bit over a decade ago - EVERYBODY did that and usually a lot earlier than you have. All those dc are eating textures happily now.

So what i would do is - keep going with the stuff that you and she are enjoying. Is she having any fruit or veg puree? You can get a lot of baby food out of a sweet potato I would then introduce finger food in a couple of weeks if you think she is ready for it. Finally and most importantly - people get very competitive and evangelical over what a baby eats. Try and ignore this. Food is fuel that's all. It's not about what kind of mum you are or they are. It's not about who's done the BEST, it's not about who's baby is ging to have better life chances because they could gum a broccoli spear to death when another baby was still embracing a spoon and mush. It's just food.

And tell your mum to back the heck off!

good luck - baby sounds gorgeous and you're clearly a lovely mum (and daughter)

From what I read whilst researching blw, it's not so much about a fixed age ( although is advised from 6 months) but about certain abilities - mainly, can your baby sit unaided? If so, I can't see it being a big issue if you slowly started blw either alongside the rice or stopped the rice. Steamed or roasted veg sticks and banana were great for us to start with, or a weetabix softened with a little bit of milk and my DS absolutely loved gumming away on a broccoli head! Tbh, it took at least a month before anything went down properly (judging by the nappies) and then it was still a very slow but very fun process. So if you are keen to move to blw, I can't see anything stopping you at least trying - good luck!

23 weeks is not ultra early and if you want to give finger foods just offer them alongside what you already give. You could offer finger foods right now if you want as there is not a magic switch at 26 weeks that makes them able to pick up food and get it to their mouths.

You will be fine! My DD had purées that early and by six months completely refuses to have purées and will only feed herself. It is a nightmare because we don't know how much she eats, she chucks a huge amount of food on the floor, and keeps waking up at night, and we don't know if that's because she is hungry. Honestly it is much better to do both purées and BLW, exclusive BLW is over rated

Thank you both for your advice, you've been very helpful and I'm feeling more positive about it xxx

And to the others thank you too (your comments appeared there just as I was writing my last post xxx

You HV is talking nonsense!

Both my boys started having baby rice from about 20-odd weeks and have thrived re:food.

DS2 is now 9 months and is eating almost everything! He can happily feed himself - from about 6 months I started giving him things to nibble on and so we've deffo got a bit of BLW in there. Ultimately though, he eats A LOT and is satisfied.

I know it's not popular to say it, but many friends who've only done BLW have ended up with babies that continually graze because they're never full from a meal. Bit of both if perfect, IMO.

HV is talking bollocks (and should be told that). You're not early, baby is fine with the introduction of finger-food whenever you like. Might not be pure BLW (but who the hell cares so long as baby is fed).

From 5 months my DD was primarily spoon-fed homemade purées (though just mashed veg now, not blended) and still manages to devour a wide range of bread products, fruit, veg and anything else she can put in her mouth (including the cardboard price label from a t-shirt in Gap last week!)

Just wanted to say that I felt the same as you. From quite a bit of pressure from friends and family I started weaning at 22 weeks as I had a bad sleeper 'who must have been hungry'. Anyhow I started him on pureed veg and fruit which he liked some days and others less so. After a few weeks he completely refused anything and I panicked that Id made a mistake too but it turns out he was teething! I started letting him have a go and some finger foods (rice cakes, steamed veg, fruit etc) so essentially a mix of purees and BLW. It took him a few weeks to master feeding himself but he is now amazing at 8 months. Very dextrous and eats almost anything! He also eats tonnes! Despite really stressing and doubting myself a few weeks in I now look back pleased that we started then. It takes awhile for them to build up to eating anything substantial and to get into '3 meals' that starting at 5 months worked for us. So...if it feels right to continue/introduce finger foods etc then carry on and be confident in your parenting instincts. Good luck!

I started mine on baby rice at 5.5 months (sorry, don't know how many weeks that is) and tried BLW from 6 months. He did not like BLW at all but I kept offering him things and now at 8 months he eats everything I give him and is getting so good at feeding himself. He has no problem with different textures at all. Your DD will be fine!

23 weeks isnt excessivly early anyway, ds4 started weaning at nearly 7 months and woukd not eat any type of finger food until his first birthday so they are all different.

The only one who was weaned early was ds1 at about 16 weejs on advice of hv and that was 19 years ago when advice was 4 months.

He is the only one who has food allergies and intolerances.

Oh and the hv is talking crap, none of mine took to blw straight away and non of them have problems with textured foods.

After all you dont see loads of us older people who were weaned at for months on pureed carrot refusing to eat different textures

What a load of crap. You can try whatever you want and your baby will be fine either way and won't have trouble with textures just because u used baby rice. Weaning is weaning you do what suits you and ur be it finger food, purée, or a mixture, don't get hung up on a specific title :)

I started around 4.5months and ds wasn't interested at all. It took ages for him to get the hang of it and the HV said that I should carry on since I'd started. I got in a real flap about following the schedule for how much and what flavours but ds2 and ds3 just got anything suitable offered on their tray when ever they were intereseted. Some days it was purees, other days it was finger food.
Just do whatever your baby is happy with, and what ever works for you.

DS1 was BLW at 23 weeks without any problems - banana, roast sweet potato etc. Though I didn't stick to BLW and started spoon feeding him youghurt or porridge later too. I doubt you need to do baby rice at 23 weeks tbh.

Sorry I haven't had time to read the other posts but I wanted to say don't beat yourself up. I swallowed the whole breastfeeding/BLW rhetoric whole for DS1. He has been an appalling eater from the start and I now find that perhaps I should have started weaning at 4 months instead of 6. The Feeding Unit at the University of Birmingham have done studies and there is a link between later weaning (ie 6 months) and reduced variety of accepted foods. The key seems to be frequent changing of flavours to increase the chances of your child accepting a wider variety of foods later. BLW is touted by many people as the panacea weaning but it is NOT. It can actually make things worse for about 10% of babies (those who have sensory issues or are sensitive types who can be traumatised by choking incidences and reject food entirely afterwards - don't worry this is quite rare but worth being aware of as the book fails to mention any risks at all). You can still let your child play with whole food - but be aware that whole food that is not appropriate for all children and that feeding children food that they are not developmentally ready for can do more harm than good. On the other hand it suits many children down to the ground..... Pay attention to your child's cues and follow their lead. Have structured meal and snack times with only water between. Serve meals buffet style so that everyone serves themselves. No pressure or encouragement - noone has to eat anything that they don't want to and the aim of mealtimes is to have a pleasant family time. Forget one more bite and if you don't eat X you will not get a pudding if you want to raise a good eater. Consider reading Ellyn Satter's Child of Mine Feeding with Love & Good Sense which is full of sensible feeding advice - it is about how you feed, not just what. Good Luck!