Decided to do purees insted of BLW. Going well!

[messylittlemonkey]

Hi

Just wanted to offer my thoughts about weaning.

I have two DDs. DD1 is almost five and just started school. She was weaned at about 22 weeks on purees and is a good eater, although a bit fussy about veg!

When DD2 arrived, I was keen to explore the 'new fangled' BLW and bought GR's book. It all looked very exciting, but then as DD2 started nearing weaning age, I suddenly thought about the practicalities of this laid back approach (what with me being not laid back at all, we do the Gina Ford routine with DD2 as we did with DD1!) and it occurred to me that BLW was perhaps not right for us.

So, DD2 is nearly 26 weeks and has been having fruit/veg purees for about four weeks, just about to move onto dairy/wheat/meat/fish etc... It's all going very well, she loves her food and she's going to start having lots more finger food now too - this is my nod to BLW!

I just wanted to say, I don't think it's necesarily cut and dried with weaning and you have to think about what's going to work best for you and your child. Not only did we not follow BLW in the end, we also started at five months instead of the recommended six.

Good luck to everyone weaning their children right now!

"I just wanted to say, I don't think it's necesarily cut and dried with weaning and you have to think about what's going to work best for you and your child."

Agree with this sentiment as long as you follow your doctor's/ hv's guidelines wrt starting weaning age.

It's just common sense to tailor weaning to your family's make up isn't it?

fwiw we started out full blw but have gradually switched to some spoon feeding just to make our lives easier. It's no biggie .

Yes, I agree about the age thing - wasn't trying to push that on anyone! Not trying to push anything in fact, just wanted to slightly redress the balance in favour of traditional weaning.

I must be in one of those moods :)

It's all about degrees isn't it...

BLW in its purest form seems a right old faff (don't hand the food to the baby, place a freshly prepared selection in front of them two/three times a day, pick most of it up from the floor, continue milk feeds without reduction until quite a long way down the line, never spoon feed anything). Doing elements of it is quite easy.

Likewise Gina Ford - do it religiously and you'll go bananas. Introduce some elements of routine and it's quite straightforward.

Bit of both works well imho.

Now, what was the question???

Ah, no question WTW. Just my musings! Making the point that I was really keen to BLW, then swung right back to purees when it came to it.

Agreed, full on GF would send anyone over the edge!

'just wanted to slightly redress the balance in favour of traditional weaning.' - lol, you are aware that BLWers are in a minority, right?

Whatever floats your boat, I say :)

Well, jemjabella, I know BLWers are in the minority in RL, but I wouldn't say so on here, or maybe that's just my perception.

I think BLW is a great concept, particularly if you're BFing on demand. The thing for us is that DD2 is formula fed at fairly set times (as I said, we do the GF routine) and when I started thinking about how BLW would follow on from that, it didn't really seem like it would. I guess GR and GF are coming at things from entirely different angles.

I will def be giving DD2 finger foods a lot sooner than we did with DD1 and now she's almost 6 months and used to fruit/veg, I'm keen introduce her to as many new things as possible.

We're doing a combo of BLW and purees - as I imagine many people are. Same as anything baby-related, I guess - you pick and choose the bits of advice that suit you!

Hoorah, I love this posting.

I too have gone the purees route AND we started early (shock horroh!) but like you I am offering my DS finger foods. It just seems sensible to do a bit of both.

At first the finger foods were totally pointless and they did all end up dropped or mush in his hands but gradually he is improving and I know better what works as finger food. Its all a process is the way I look at it and hopefully he will enjoy trying new things for a long time to come.

I agree - I was massively keen to do pure BLW, right up until my DS was about 24 weeks.

Similar to OP, we have a routine-based life (I'm a bit of a control freak!) and my DH gets a bit funny about mess/food waste. Had it just been me, I think I may have done more BLW, but I think DH is 50% of this child-rearing lark so it was really important to take his views in to account.

However, I'm really glad I read GR's book and the threads on here as it's made me much more confident about early finger foods and introducing meat/fish straight away etc.

The funny thing is, in the real world, I have never known anyone go the BLW route. It only exists on MN you know And, having attempted to give my DS "finger foods" for fun, I am baffled as to what these poor babies actually eat! They have no teeth FGS, offering them a steak and "letting them get on with it" just seems cruel...

I know.

Gave my DD a piece of toast this morning - she gets it to her mouth but has no chance of biting any off and swallowing.

That was what made me do an about turn. I just couldn't imagine how long it would take for her to actually eat anything if left to her own devices.

I'm far too uptight and am sure I would have be getting very frustrated which would have been no good for anyone.

"These poor babies" "Cruel"- LOL! They have a LOT of fun with food, and get all of their nutrition and energy from milk still. Of course you don't just give them food that they can't handle easily, although you can get quite a bit of good stuff from just sucking on beef steak.

I know LOTS of people in real life who have done BLW. BLWed babies learn very gradually, messylittlemonkey, one piece of toast won't complete her learning process. Don't you routiney uptight people see that you need to learn to relax when introducing food?

Lol, rude, yes!

Makes me want to say something mean about BLWing but not going to :O

All I will say is that thanks to the uptight routine, DD2 has two good naps each day and since last week now sleeps 7pm to 7am. People often remark on how happy she is too.

Oh, and I'm quite aware that one piece of toast doesn't complete the learning process, MrsJamin. DD2 is only just 26 weeks so we are just starting to offer finger food.

What would we do without your helpful advice?

And another thing, I think we're all aware that milk is the main source of nutrients in the first year and don't think anyone is doubting that food is fun. Honestly.

Did I say I wasn't going to react? Ooops.

Was a bit fed up with the BLW bashing when you'd hardly given it a chance. You can't describe it as "cruel" and "poor babies" without getting someone's back up, sorry. And yes, when it comes to food, you do need to relax.

The way I see it is that there are many aspects of BLW that are relevant to weaning

One is that weaning is a developmental stage like any other, and like the others we should be 'baby led' rather than doing it on behalf of the baby. That's the one people tend not to like.

The other is that there are no rigid rules about weaning. Once the baby's 6 months thay can have (with a few exceptions) anything and everything to eat. There's no need for this "week 1: 2 cubes of carrot; week 2: 2 cubes of carrot and a cube of courgette" approach. Babies can try new things and can try them in lots of ways - plenty of people I know who did 'traditional' weaning but at 6 months still gave their babies bits of toast, for example. I think this is more widely accepted now, whether you're choosing mush or BLW.

Many, and I have described two of them. That sentence in itself was clumsy, sorry pedants!

No-one is BLW bashing. Well, I certinly wasn't. All I said was that I could see it wasn't going to be right for us and having successfully weaned DD1 on purees I was happy to do that again with DD2.

Perhaps 'cruel' is a bit extreme though!

Good, I'm glad you decided to wean your baby a month before the recommended age. Have fun deciding whether or not to use a car seat. I'm sure your "Maternal Instincts" are far better than any expert advice you could recieve. After all, you know your child best.

We've gone down the BLW route though not what someone called the "purest form" I suppose. I've never let DS sit on my knee and pick food from my plate, as he's more interested in the plate. And I do hand him stuff etc etc. There have been plenty of times when I've thought "sod this" as it is sooooooooo messy. But, a really positive thing is I've been able to stay very relaxed about how much / little DS has eaten, unlike alot of mums I know who've gone down the puree route.
The book really reinforces that it's fine for them not to eat much until they're nearly a year (though DS has been pretty enthusiastic), that a week is more important than a day, to keep BF on demand etc. Also as we have no food alergies in our family, I liked that it encouraged us to give him completely normal family food from the start (albeit baby hand shaped).
It's not for everyone, especially if you have an issue with mess. But if you can deal with that then it is lovely watching your little one eat, and squish and cover himself in porridge, stew, whatever, and eat food that you probably didn't have till you were a teenager (for me things like curry, chilli, olives etc).
Each to their own I say

ooh and there's also the gagging issue. My DS has gagged alot over the last few months. The first time was terrifying, but only to me, didn't bother him in th slightest. Since then it's just something that happens. But when it's happened to my puree feeding friends it's seemed much more traumatic as there isn't the same, how can I say, "trust" that it's just a normal part of getting used to eating lumps. Some were put off finger food for quite a long time after an occurance. BLW does seem to encourage you to trust that your child is genetically programmed to eat lumpy food from a much earlier age than most people think, which again means that "normal" food can be introduced much earlier. (and teeth don't necesserily make a big difference)

seeker there really is no harm in introducing fruit and vegetable purees at 5 months it isn't the same as not using a car seat.

I researched the issue thoroughly and found no compelling evidence to suggest that introducing food earlier than 6 months posed any health risks. Lots of evidence that suggest that weaning prior to 17 weeks can be harmful but not after.

I weaned ds1 at 21 weeks (he had already tripled his birth weight). Ds2 is almost 22 weeks and showing no signs of being ready, he hasn't doubled his birth weight yet so I will hold off introducing solids until 6 months. When I do introduce solids it will be a mixture of purees/mashed up food and finger foods because it makes sense to do it this way. Each to their own like most things in life there is more than one way of doing things.

Seeker jeez you always appear spouting that [rubbish] opinion on these threads. That wasn't what the OP was asking.