losing the will to BLW...

[Butterpie]

DD2 is 8mo. We are spoonfeeding her in secret.

We did all the BLW thing, but she just wasn't actually eating much, so we have started introducing a spoonfed element as well- eg tonight we had scrambled egg on toast, she fed herself the toast (ie rubbed it into her hair and shouted at it) and spoonfed the egg.

Otherwise she was on the boob all the time and it was starting to wear me down.

It is better to spoonfeed than to add formula, surely? We are obviously spoonfeeding actual food, not baby rice or anything.

Sigh. I really have no idea what I am doing with this children thing.

do what works!

i started off BLW ds2 and ds3, ds2 basically because he refused point-blank to be spoonfed

but with both of them we hit a point where they wanted to eat more but just couldn't get it in fast enough and ended up getting really, really frustrated and upset.
so we did exactly what you did, and introduced a spoonfed element

i figured that as ds3 could and had eaten broccoli by himself that indicated he was ready for it, so it didn't matter if i gave it to him on a spoon. and that went for any other food.

i think BLW is great in the early days, it gives you a really good idea of what they are ready for, and if, indeed, they are ready to wean at all. a little bit down the line i really don;t think that helping them along matters a jot.

we always loaded up a spoon and just held it near them, if they opened their mouth and craned forwards they got it, so there was no element of trying to make them eat if they didn;t want to

I did the same with dd at 9mo - took about 2wks of the spoon/blw combo till she realised these funny squodgy toys we were handing her were meant for eating not just licking and chucking on the floor

We did the same - parts of the meal were left "chunky" and parts were chopped up small and spoon fed. I never pureed with DS3 and it was a LOT easier i must admit! n fact - he will eat anything that you put in front of him now!

I would spoonfeed stuff like porridge. He never liked putting his hands in it, so I don't see why I should force him!

Erm - surely what you are doing is actually really baby led? Its what works, what she likes, so what's wrong? You're doing good, no need to be secretive about it!

Grr, I hate all these 'this way is the only way' type ideas. All babies are different, so no one way is the 'true' way. Being genuinely responsive to your baby (which I suspect most mothers are, whatever they choose to do) is the only right way.

I BLW and sneaked the odd spoon-feed in.
You have to be really patient and remember that it can take them 4-5 months before they realise that this new food satisfies their hunger.
DD bfed a lot more during the first few months of BLW as well. I think because the food they are attempting to feed to themselves makes them more hungry so they bf more until they realise that the food is to be eaten.

She played a lot with her food but we have found that she was comfortable with differnt tastes and textures and will now happily eat almost anything and is pretty good with a spoon.

Try not to give up as it is a great way to watch them learn to feed

You are just doing what sensible mothers do - doing what works for you and your baby.

BLW isn't the holy grail. Weaning is about getting your child to eat healthy solid food and you are doing brilliantly.