Anyone do Traditional weaning?

[Headlessbond]

If so, when did you change to BLW?
When and what did you give as finger foods?
when did you start adding more texture?

I started mostly on smooth purées at 6 months and started making them a little lumpier gradually from around 7 months. I used the Ella’s kitchen first foods book as a guide on what to offer and when. I did offer some finger foods alongside the purées from about 7 months but DC2 didn’t really eat any of them until much closer to 10 months. DC1 ate finger foods much earlier. Some of the first finger foods I offered were pasta, soft cooked veg such as carrot sticks and broccoli, melty puffs, omelette and banana pancakes. Just make sure you cook and serve foods appropriately and baby will be fine.

As for when we changed to BLW, I wouldn’t say we did as such, more that we got to a stage where DC could eat more independently so I stopped having to whiz everything up. He started feeding himself things that could be picked up and now at 13 months, I’ll sometimes spoon feed him and sometimes pre-load the spoon/fork for him to feed himself. I think you really have to follow baby’s lead. How old is your little one?

I never allowed my kids to eat with their hands. They went straight from being fed by me, to using their own forks and spoons. Can't bear messy, smeary, hands in food. No blw at all. It made not a bit of difference to their fine motor skills or their love of food. They are what we ate and all things weird and and fearful. No kids menus foods either.

Obviously dry things like bread, or things you would usually eat with your hands as adults like friut, fine. Anything else, just no.

As above started with purees, then got lumpier as they got more teeth.

She is 7 months now and also following Ella’s cookbook. I just made a 2 week batch from the 7-9 month section and wondered whether I could be bothered to carry on. But it actually doesn’t take that long to prep - minimal ingredients and quite tasty. I found Annabelle’s recipes more complex so sticking to Ella’s.

Did you made your own purée’s @HostaCentral @OopsieeDaisy ?

When did they start to eat what you ate if so?

I made the purées myself, I only ever used pre-made pouches for out and about. I still batch cook and freeze meals now so doing purées was no extra effort. My DC have always eaten separately to us, but I’d say closer to 10 months I could give more of the types of foods we have and started to make more of our usual meals for them just without salt.

How did they take to lumpier textures?
first day of given her a lumpier texture meal and she had two spoons and stopped wanting any more.

Yes, I made my own. Tried to use as much of our own dinners pureed up and frozen. So to start with just the basic vegetables and potato etc. Made stewed fruit purees. Then adding extra bits like pasta Bolognese. Anabel Karmel was useful at the time for when to introduce what at various stages.

Definitely make a batch of something, I would purée half of what I made and mash the other half, freeze it with labels on (smooth/lumpy). And then keep trying the lumpier stuff. Some things I made, the baby would refuse for two-four weeks (I froze small portions to start off with!) and then suddenly enjoy. Equally other foods baby would love (raspberries and Greek yoghurt) and then scream blue murder about for a week or two - and then go back to eating.

I have the Joe Wicks cookbook, a lot of the recipes are a faff. I have a 1990s baby vegetarian cookbook that's actually a lot better! Also fun to see how guidance has changed - makes me feel less worried about obsessively following current rules...

My DC1 took much more quickly to lumpier textures. DC2 took longer and I would end up further blending his food during mealtimes sometimes if he was struggling too much with the texture. Around 10 months he just suddenly seemed to get the hang of it. Perseverance is the best thing. I always tried to offer at least one finger food per day which was consistently mushed up and dropped in the floor until 10 months when he suddenly ate everything!

This is exactly our approach too!

I don’t understand why we want to normalise eating with fingers and throwing or smearing food everywhere. Also I want to know how much DS has eaten.

He pretty much eats what we eat - I just whizz or mash it down. He is able to take the spoon from me and put it in his mouth (sometimes!). But 90% of the time I control the spoon haha.

Also I batch cooked some of our meals and whizzed them down then froze them into ice cubes. He’ll have one ice cube plus a second ice cube that’s just veg. He loves it!

I moved from purees to purées on batons of toast and then onto using the purees in pasta and rice dishes then started added whole foods alongside the dish like adding peas and sweetcorn. We have a potato ricer which we used in place of a blender. We moved up the courseness scale as she got bigger. Due to allergies and difficulties with making sauces - no tomatoes or dairy amongst others so we still make pasta sauces out of veg purees.
We tried blw as well but she broadly wasn't fussed. She got on better with large whole foods. She was very slow to wean and was about 9 months before she ate bites of food and 13 months when she ate her first meal. We generally did puree and pasta/rice for meals and then half an apple or chunks of cucumber for snacks things that are more typically eaten by hands to give that balance

I tried to spoon feed her but she clamps her mouth shut after 3 spoons as it’s lumpier?
how do I stop myself force feeding her?

Or she's just not in the mood today. If she clamps her mouth shut leave her for 5-10 minutes and try again.
Spoon feeding or whole food leading can be baby led. If they aren't interested in opening their mouths food stop and give them so time and space then try again.
Early on I wouldn't worry about meal times as such so offer food through out the day and find times they are more receptive "Breakfast" might be any time between 8 and half 10 it doesn't really matter. Getting into stand off battles of will means its not an enjoyable experience for all involved.

There was no change, finger foods is part of traditional weaning alongside purees. Mine had purees alongside sandwiches, fruit pieces etc from the start. There is no changing to blw

I wouldn’t get into a battle with her. I was told to look at what they’ve eaten over the course of a week rather than worrying day to day. So long as they are getting something, learning new skills, still getting plenty of milk then try to keep it fun.

Mine eats much better than I did as a kid!

I just did a mix, sometimes she had a puree, sometimes she had scrambled egg or omelette fingers or bread with butter/cheese spread or a chunk of banana. There was no real plan or methodology it was just whatever was convenient at the time and it seemed like she liked or she was showing an interest in.

I did spoon fed purées and then lumpier purees alongside handheld snacks like breadsticks.

DC1 was prem and was ready for weaning well before her motor skills were up to BLW.

Also I’ve never really understood how full BLW is supposed to work as most dishes adults eat aren’t well suited to eating with fingers - especially with baby levels of dexterity. Trying to eat spag bol or a casserole with tiny clumsy fingers is just going to be frustrating, as well as messy.

However I was lucky as both of mine took to food very enthusiastically. If they hadn’t, I’m sure I’d have done whatever seemed to go down well!

I didn’t do fully traditional weaning as I never bothered with purée - went straight to soft textured food, but gave it myself alongside some finger foods.

What are your thoughts about BLW? I wonder if you give her some soft sticks of steamed veg for example that she can pick up and play with, it might not feel like you are force feeding her?