twin weaning

[KJTWINS]

i have boy/girl twins of 18 weeks 4 weeks premature and the subject of weaning has come up what is the best thing to do and do i have to allow for them being premature think the girl is more ready than the boy any advice appeciated

The advice is to wean at six months so a while to wait yet, I think with preemies you're supposed to go on the corrected age though.

I did BLW with my DD and that might be handy for you too, it saves a lot of faf and extra cooking (no need for purees). Also because the babies would feed themselves they wouldn't have the frustration of having to take it in turns to get the spoon.

Oooh, this is interesting. Norktastic, you've just made a lightbulb go on in my head. My boy/girl twins are 2 next week, so I am past the weaning stage. However, this baby lead weaning thing is what I did, except I had no idea that that's what it was called and had never heard of it before.

I found my 2 weren't interested in baby rice and hated pureed vegetables and all that mush. I spent hours cooking up various delights one day and they refused every single thing, much to my frustration. They were however, very interested in what I was eating. As I haven't used salt in my cooking for years, there was no reason why they couldn't have what I was eating, so I used to give them bits and they loved it! We've never looked back since. With twins, it is so much easier if they can feed themselves rather than you trying out your ambidextrous skills at dual spooning. Mine were 6 1/2 months when we started, and by the time they were a year old, we would eat out in a cafe or pub without fear of embarrassing ourselves or food being stuck to the ceiling!

Good luck KJTwins.

Ah, glad to hear it does work well with twins in practice! It was just a hunch! I've really enjoyed doing BLW with DD, she's 13 months so probably also past the weaning stage now. She seems to enjoy a much wider variety of tastes and textures than her puree fed friends. Olives and curry are favourites (not together, obviously).

My mother BLWed me too, long before the research was even done...

whats BLW?

It stands for Baby Led Weaning (an awful term IMO), it's just giving finger foods / foods they can hold from six months and skipping the whole puree palava.

With BLW babies are allowed to explore a wide variety different tastes and textures right from the start. They also learn to eat to their appetite, both of which are real bonuses for the chances of them developing healthy eating habits!

Because the advised weaning age is now 6 months, an age when babies are capable of picking up food, putting it in their mouths, chewing and swallowing, there is really no need to puree. Obviously a 3 / 4 month old would never be able to feed themselves.

Hiya,
just to put the other side of the coin, I did normal weaning and had no problems at all. I think that as they are twins, they have to wait for something to happen to the other one any way. I used one spoon at first and they took turns. Meals were very quick and simple affairs.

I didn't ever really do special food for them, just wizzed up whatever leftovers we had (again cook with no salt and add on plate if needed). I don't think BLW has exclusivity on variety of food eaten. Mine also love curry and mild chile! Sprouts at christmas were also great.

They have a spoon each now and feed themselves with an extra spoon from me to help as needed.

Good luck!

thanks all will wait and think the blw sounds a good plan make life a bit easier must admit the thought of purees is a nightmare not sure how would fit it all in hope it all gets easier!!!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did

Aitch's blog and forum are great for BLW info. Gill Rapley, who did the original research, has recently published a book. I've not read it myself but I've hard good things about it.

Baby led weaning is much easier! We sort of did it, again, it wasn't called anything back then! Definitely wait until 6 mths, esp. as they were a little bit early.