Weaning

[NbCH25]

Advice needed

My 11 month old has three 8oz bottles of formula a day. One at 7:30am, 2pm and the 7pm and he usually drinks it all or leaves 1 ounce. He has 3 meals a day and 2 snacks but I’m finding with finger foods he picks them up chews them then ends up spitting them out doesn’t swallow much finger food at all. So I’m finding I’m having to offer puree (chunky puree) to make sure he is actually eating something. Has anyone got any advice on how I can encourage more finger food? I have been letting him do messy play lately with his softer foods like pasta and he does grab it and put in his mouth and has some of it but still no where near what we can eat if he has puree from a spoon. I’m scared to drop anymore milk yet too or cut out puree incase he goes hungry 😞

I never bothered with finger foods or blw. Can't stand the mess. So I always spoon fed my babies until such time they could reliably handle a spoon and fork themselves. They just ate what we had pureed at first at 6 months, then just chopped up. I never allowed messy food, and they had fantastic table manners from a very young age.

I would drop the first bottle to make sure he’s properly hungry for the solids. I think the current advise is 13.5 Floz a day at 11 months anyway

I spoon fed. I went back to work at 6 months, I couldn't afford for him to have 2 bites of broccoli all day.

I didn't do purees, that's for the very early days only. We do chicken curries, stews, lasagnas, pasta, basically everything we eat. I do naturally offer finger foods i.e. fussili pasta, meatballs or banana etc without trying as they are normal foods.

He's 16 months and is suddenly becoming quite good at grabbing the spoon and feeding himself!

If I had done BLW, I would pat myself on the back thinking it's thanks to my efforts and all the instagram BLW shite.

When in reality, you absolutely do not need to fuck around with finger foods and messy play. Their dexterity improves naturally, they exercise those little fingers all day long.