Baby led weaning- to continue or just do purée?

[Cleanqueennot]

My baby turned 6 months old last Thursday. We want to do baby led weaning so have been giving him one new food per day. So far he’s tried broccoli, cauliflower, parsnip, pasta, potato, natural yogurt and today was chicken. We are first time parents and don’t really know what to expect but it seems very slow. I know with BLW you are supposed to just put the food in front of them and let them feed themselves but if we did this the food would just sit there or end up on the floor. So we have tried to help him eat and taste the food.

Mostly he licks it and scrunches up his face and then that’s it! Anyone here done the BLW route? Should we just stick at it? I don’t want it to be so slow that baby eventually loses interest in food and prefers to just stick to breastfeeding. I’ve read that there is a window of opportunity when they are more likely to try new foods. I don’t want to waste the opportunity window by being too slow or is this just normal? If I preserve will we reap the rewards later on?

Sounds like he's doing great 😍 mine didn't actually really swallow anything until 8 or 9 months - it's exciting when that first bit of food appears in their nappy! 😂

Give him what you're having as far as you can (even if this is just some of the veg you chop to put in a spicy curry or something) - just so it takes the pressure off you as much as anything. We also had a mat that was cleaned down before each meal so that if they dropped stuff we could just give it back to them, that helped a lot with our sanity...

And giving him some rice will be lovely to help him work on that pincer grip.

Sounds like you're doing well! It is a bit of a slow process but we did it with my son and he's a cracking eater now (14mo). He's been able to eat all sorts since quite young, he'd happily eat a chicken drumstick himself from about 9 months which was a bit crazy to watch 😂

Have a look at the Solid Starts website and/or get their app if you don't have instagram, it's a goldmine of information.

We didn’t want to do blw so bought pouches and jars. The range is amazing and found it an easy way of introducing loads of different flavours. Both DT’s easily moved onto normal meals once we’d worked our way through the different pouches and meals for different ages.

Neither we’re fussy eaters and have only offered one meal for the family each day. No separate meals for individual tastes.

That's normal, food is just fun before 12 months old, they don't actually need it.

You're doing the right thing, right now they're just exploring the different tastes and textures. It can also take a baby up to ten times of trying something to decide whether they like it or not.

You'll find over the coming weeks and months that they slowly eat and swallow more.

We had no system sometimes puree or mashed or cut small sometimes finger food we just fed what we thought for each meal at the time

OP, you say you will adapt your own cooking so you can eat together when your little one is eating - but your little one is eating now, albeit slowly, so now is the time to adapt your meals and just give DC a smaller helping of yours. That is by far the cheapest, simplest and most stress free way to wean. Literally just give them some of yours, and let them decide what to do with it. If you want to add more salt/chilli/whatever, then spoon out the portion for DC, and while that is cooling down, add it into yours to finish cooking. Honestly, children eat better in the long run if they see food as a family occasion with everyone enjoying the meal. Yes, a lot goes on the floor at the start, or it might be rejected, but that's the point - they're learning

If you'd prefer to do purees then do that.

I gave DD a single pureed veg a day for the first month of weaning. I'd occasionally also give her a stick of whatever was in the puree to try but that was only every so often.

I then moved onto mixed purees of the 2-3 of the veg she'd already tried plus some additional.

Then from there i just gradually moved to her eating whatever I was cooking for me.

It wasn't following the current advice at the time and definitely not the trend but it worked for us.

DD is the least fussy of her peers by a very long way and really enjoys food and mealtimes.

I did solely BLW with no purées, partly because the pouches are expensive and partly because I CBA to do my own pureeing. DD mainly gummed stuff for ages and ages but started eating really well at around 14 months when I was back at work full time. I just gave whatever was appropriate from what I was having, I adjusted how I cut things but that was about it.

If money is tight BLW is definitely the way to go as you only need to take a little bit of what you're going to eat for them. A flake of
Salmon, a spoon of rice, a baton of carrot cooked a little bit more.

You don't need a new array for each meal/ day. One piece of fruit can be used over several meals. Small 'portions' of meals frozen.

@Bettergetagin or you just have two very different kids? DC1 is super picky and DC2 really isnt, both BLWed.

OP, one isolated thing a day isn't really BLW and it's playing the long game.

Neither of mine really ate anything for months. I think DC1 was 9 months when she finally ate a bit and she was still piling one weight (increasing in percentiles) anyway, glad I never gave her purée because I honestly think she'd have got stuck on it (long story). DC2 I made a referral to the feeding team at 9 months because he couldn't swallow, happily chewed them had to let it fall out but he just figured it out within a few weeks of referral, he had some weight struggles but they predated weaning, he's 17 months now and not a big eater but he will basically try whatever.

Oh and we were in a food rut when we needed to start solids with number 2 so started hello fresh, they aren't particularly bland foods.

What does too rich even mean?

I adapt our meals for the week to include BLW friendly foods. So we won’t have peas for a while for example but more broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sweet potato etc. So the first time he had broccoli by itself then you can give broccoli and sweet potato for example. It’s doesn’t have to be loads of exotic fruits.

It’s been like a week! It takes months, it’s a totally new skill for your baby. First few months most food ends up on the floor. Adjust your expectations, like everything else they develop at different paces and your baby doesn’t know they’ve turned 6 months. I wish someone had of told me it’s ok to just offer food and not worry as much!

My DD refused a spoon or pouch (she'd angrily grab it and throw it!) So we did blw but she didn't actually ingest more than a few crumbs until about 13 months and she was at nursery full time and wouldn't take a bottle! She is just as stubborn now.

THIS!!!! I've never read any proof of this but it's certainly a thing.

Not all babies are slow to get started. My DD2 was on three meals a day within a couple of weeks of starting weaning! The girl knows how to eat. (Different story with DD1…) With both my DDs I did a mix of mashed or blended food and finger foods. I have found that babies physically struggle to feed themselves enough so I think a mix works best. My HV told me they now recommend a mix as babies were malnourished with exclusive BLW.

The whole ‘food before one is for fun’ is really, really not true.

Too rich means Mac and cheese with cauliflower as a side so I ended up just giving the cauliflower. Surely Mac and cheese has too much salt because of the cheese? Plus gluten in the pasta. Thought that was too rich for bub but maybe not?

My son is 8 months and I’ve been doing a mixture of spoon feeding and BLW. Definitely did more spoon feeding of porridge, baby rice etc at the start. Then slowly started offering him things to eat himself with his hands. Now he’ll take food from a spoon and have a go at feeding himself things with his hands too

Mac and cheese is great weaning food! As I said in my post OP, just serve a portion for DC, and while that is cooking down, add extra salt to your own portion as it finishes cooking. And why are you worried about gluten? I'm not sure you quite understand BLW - it's literally just giving baby your food

*that's meant to say 'cooling down'

We did blw exclusively. I did not puree a thing. I just gave a wee bit of our dinner. Some things were easier than others but I loved it. I certainly didn't introduce one thing at a time. We were having curries etc. I bought the blw handbook and cookbook, 2 different authors. Both were really great and I cooked a lot of the recipes, which we all ate.

BLW is what you did with your first 2 children, minus the blending. That's all. You just don't purée it. I find it impossible to believe that that one single step caused fussy eaters

I’m not worried per se, but people/babies can have intolerance to gluten among other things. I don’t think this is the case for my baby as he has tried pasta already but he tried it on its own. If I gave him Mac n cheese and I noticed a reaction I wouldn’t know if it’s the pasta or the dairy IYSWIM. So my idea was to try giving these main types of food one at a time.

Now he’s had pasta I would feel comfortable giving him pasta with something new tomorrow for instance. I actually didn’t think cheese would be good because of the salt content. I know too much salt can be dangerous, but then with most of the food ending up on the floor I don’t think there’s much risk just yet 😂

In a way we all do BLW. I would purée a veg for them but also give them finger food. By 9 months they had what we were eating ie home made lasagna and finger food. I didn’t use ready meals. I used a book that had recipes suitable for babies and adults. Mine eat everything now.

I think most people end up doing a bit of both.

Pop a of whatever you're having in front of him for him to play with and learn about bringing food to his mouth. Touching his food is a primal instinct for babies and is a sensory experience for them.

But then you'll offer foods like fromage frais, weetabix, ready brek etc using a spoon.

It's slow going and more about letting him experience the different textures and flavours for now. All of his calories will come from his milk and he'll gradually pick up how much he eats and then drop his milk naturally.