Is my baby led weaning going too slow?

[Doughnut100]

My daughter is coming up to 10 months old and still only really plays with her food. She nibbles and sucks a bit but generally not much food actually disappears. I'm offering a variety and 2-3 meals a day. She is happy and healthy. I'm probably comparing her to other puree fed babies as I only know one other mum doing BLW. Have any other mums had a slow starter like this? ShouldI be worried about her iron levels?

Do you not feed her anything from a spoon? It doesn't have to be a puree, anything chopped up into bitesize pieces is fine. But something like porridge or scrambled egg might be an easy place to start.

Is she actually hungry at mealtimes?

Sounds like she’s doing a great job exploring food but at 10 months you would probably expect her to be consuming a bit more. What’s her milk intake like and any chance she’s just filling up on milk so isn’t hungry for food? Also have you actually tried spoon feeding? I think you have to be guided by your baby- my eldest would not feed herself until she was 1 so was spoon fed everything but my youngest did almost exclusively finger foods from 6 months because he preferred it. You can get baby vitamin drops that contain iron but I’d first look at milk intake and then spoon feeding rather than going straight to supplements.

I did BLW and spoon fed things like yogurt if he wasn’t getting it/we were in a rush. It’s best for them to play with their food first, they learn about all the different textures and flavours and it makes them less nervous of new foods. Just keep offering a variety of foods and give her enough time to play/eat at meal times. Babies eat surprisingly small amounts, especially before being fully weaned. You can find portion size guidance per age group online.

My youngest didn't eat much until he was a year old. He was a total boob monster instead. Then suddenly took to it.

We did a mixture of feeding with purees and finger foods/BLW/whichever social media friendly title it has this week.

By ten months I think they should be able to manage something that's not entirely pureed but is soft and you can spoon feed them. So something like bolognese, chilli, mashed vegetables, yogurts, porridge and weetabix mashed up in yogurt. Personally, I'd be encouraging them a bit more by spoon feeding them at least some of their meals.

Thank you all. She doesn't let me feed her with a spoon she just grabs it! Sorry I also missed a critical piece of info (I blame sleep deprivation) which is that she has always had a really over active gag reflex. So she still gags on most things she gets in her mouth and often vomits during eating. So maybe that is slowing her. As far as I understand she will grow out of it. Anyway I will take your suggestions and persist with adding in some spoon feeding and then think about vitamin drops. Oh and to answer your questions @De88 and @RandomQuest no I don't think she is hungry at mealtimes because the BLW book I read says she should be fed milk first. I actually find if she's hungry she fusses and has even less patience with food, and just wants boob...

Thanks @Wnikat that's reassuring to hear. I'm quite keen to let her take the lead so it's good to know some babies are just slower starters.

If you’re still on milk first then it’s probably time to reassess that as she’s never going to eat more when she just isn’t hungry. Obviously you don’t want hangry but you do want hungry. I’d play with the timing of meals and milk feeds to find the right balance. And since you mention she’s still gagging on a lot of food and vomiting whilst eating I’d also call your health visitor to get their advice and/or make a GP appointment.

Give her her own spoon to have whilst you feed her with a second.

She will get there though, they all do! She’s not going to be starting secondary school (or even primary school) only consuming breast milk and sucking on the odd bit of broccoli.

Have you tried giving them a spoon whist you feed with another? Also agree that if they are full of milk they won’t want much food. How much milk are they getting?

If you're FFing she only needs 400 ml a day now. If she's having more than that, I'd consider cutting down. Once you've reduced the milk (if you need to) she should have a better appetite

Mine is 15 months

Is their weight and development ok?

Just to explain, mine (DD3, the others ate very well) was exactly like that. Now she eats a little more but still not even close to what her sisters did at her age.

She enjoys yogurt, banana, bread, orange, scrambled egg, pasta. And not much more..... but her development is great! And her weight is fine! (We checked)

None of my 3 really started eating significant amounts of solid food til they were about 10 months old and they are now adults/older teens with perfectly normal eating habits. I was besides myself with anxiety with baby number 1, especially as that was back in the 90s when purees at 4 months was the norm, but by the time we got to number 3 I was just leaving food on his high chair tray and letting him get on with it or not, as the case may be. I effectively did BLW by default with the first 2 though it didn't have a name then, and by number 3 I did it deliberately.
So I wouldn't be too worried. I know quite a lot of babies who were similar to mine and they all ate fins eventually.
However, the gagging/vomiting should probably be discussed with a health care professional, just to rule out any medical problem that might be causing issues.

I did blw with all mine and my eldest gagged and vomited whilst eating for several months after she started weaning but did grow out of it and was eating well by around 1 year old

Absolutely feed milk first, though if food is too soon after she may well be too full for it. Ditto above have a play around with timings and see if it makes a difference? Our feed times (3children -2 breastfed 1 combination fed- all BLW) were all somewhere about 7ish, about 10ish, about 2ish and about 6.30ish. They didn't have any night feeds by the time we were weaning.

So meal times were lunch to start off with and the 2ish feed reduced naturally once they started taking in more food. Then dinner about 4ish, the bed time feed stayed the same. At that point of those two meals, milk was still on waking, then mid morning, and bed time. Once they were happy a while longer jn the mornings without milk on waking, we went straight onto breakfast with milk in breakfast. Then the 10ish feed reduced naturally depending how much they ate at breakfast.

Once they reached bedtime feed only I found my supply naturally reduced anyway and that coincided with them just having milk in a cup with dinner. They were all different as to when they got to each stage/dropping feeds.

Food before one is just for fun.

Your baby should still be getting a full and complete diet from breast milk or infant formula.

Take your time, she is learning all the time. Eating is a sociable event for humans and it sounds like you are doing a lovely job of introducing her to new foods, textures and flavours.

I think the "food is for fun until they're one" has been abandoned now as people were taking it a bit too literally. The advice now if you're FFing is definitely 400 mls if formula a day between 10 and 12 months.

This guide from the Caroline Walker Trust might be useful as it gives sample menus and suggested portion sizes.