BLW and nurseries......and a question about puddings!

[cheesenpickle]

My DS starts his settling in in 2 weeks. He's 9mths and ive been doing blw, hes taken to it really well. I will be discussing it with the nursery but i wondered if it had caused any problems for anyone at all. I have looked at their menus and for 6-12 mths the food is chopped/ semi purreed. Im going to see if they will give him food they give the toddlers. I have also noticed that they give them puddings such as fruit fool, trifle, sultana sponge and creme anglais (they say they have reduced their sugar in puddings recently)- ive only given ds fruit and yoghurts so far and im not really 100pc about those sort of puds as they can't really add that much nutritionally can they.... or am being a bit precious! (First time mum so a distinct possibilty!)

My DD is BLW and is a spoon refuser. She started at 7mo and probably struggled with the cottage pies but ok with hole in the tiad. By 9mo she can eat everything on their normal menu. From beans to mince to peas. There was never anything that's very hard to chew, like a piece of steak. It's the mushier stuff that's harder. The hardest is probably tomato soup, but the dunk pieces of bread in it for her.

There is only one menu for everyone. I assume purée babies will struggle a lot more. How many of them can handle very lumpy food on a spoon at 7mo?

Also don't worry if your LO doesn't have a pincer grip and can't do beans and peas type of things yet. Food is fun until one. As long as he will drink his bottles, he will be fine. And he will soon have a good pincer of not already!

Oh and I let DD have all the puds even though we don't do any at home. I feel it's very mean to deny the the sweets when all the other children are having it.

Last message. My DD nursery is very small and only have around 20 children. That's probably why it doesn't have a baby menu. Hopefully they allow your LO to eat the toddler or preschooler meals. Good luck.

Thankyou.......im really am in 2 minds about the puds, he won't notice at this age if hes having something different will he!

My nursery just gave blweaned DS at 9mo the food the older kids were eating. He had a bit of an egg white allergy when he was a baby which he grew our of by a year but I forgot to tell them and they didn't give him any of the puddings or cake till he was two and I realised but I don't think he noticed at that age tbh!

Food is not exactly the nursery's forte but I've kind of let them go with the flow with DD and let her have everything, pudding and all.

In my nursery we promote blw but not many of the parents have taken it up. We offer the younger children the same food as the toddlers and pre schoolers as all the children eat together. We mash or puree at the request of the parents. We also offer fruit alongside every dessert. Speak to your nursery I can't see it being a huge issue for them to work with.

I had exactly the same worries as you when DS started nursery last month. My DS's nursery only offers sugar free puddings and snacks, even the ice cream is sugar and dairy free (ugh, but DS likes it). They also seem to understand BLW and have never offered DS puree. I made a big point of saying at settling in that we don't spoon feed him and they assured me that he wouldn't be given puree. It helps that at 12 months he is the youngest in the nursery. I would say you are entitled to request whatever you want and if they comply, that's great. If they don't, you hopefully have the option of moving on. I don't know where you live regionally but in Herts and surrounding counties we have Monkey Puzzle which is where DS goes. It's known for having an in house chef and emphasising nutritional balance. Good luck!!

My DS was blw and a spoon refuser, but the nursery offered all babies finger foods alongside their pureed food (and tea was exclusively finger foods), so he mainly had that. I did once pick him up early and found him happily taking a fruit puree from a spoon (never did this with me) and I thought that as he was happy and healthy it didn't matter if he sometimes had a puree if he wanted it.

I thought that nursery sometimes offered too many puddings in a day - ie angel delight at lunch and cake at tea - so I asked that he be given fruit for at least one of his puddings. However, I didn't feel mean because TBH he doesn't really eat any other puddings and these days he often has two fruit puddings. I've been around at food times and there are plenty of kids getting something slightly different due to dietary restrictions and parental wishes.

And 33 is right - ask for whatever you want and they'll be happy to do it.