BLW but nothing going in

[copperbeechtree]

Can anyone help? My DS is 26 weeks and we started BLW 3 weeks ago. At first he was enthusiastically picking up the sticks of veg/fruit I offered him and shoving them in his mouth, making a face and taking them out again. I thought that was fine as I understood they don't eat anything at first. But he's now still not actually chewed on anything and has stopped even putting it in his mouth now. He occasionally bangs is on the table and smears it around a bit but I'm concerned that we're not making progress. He's bottle-fed - does that make a difference to BLW? Is it only suited to breast-fed babies?

BLW is fine in bottle-fed babies. However, it may be that he's simply not interested at the minute and that's OK. You don't need to get babies on to 3 meals a day by 6 months, weaning is a gradual process.

Are you eating at the same time? Sharing food? Have you tried a range of foods cooked to different textures etc?

He'll take to it in his own time. Providing you're not dropping milk feeds he will not stave.

I'd say banging & smearing is indication of interest. :) Stick with it, he'll get the idea again. 26 weeks is tiny in weaning terms.

It's very very early days. Make sure you eat at the same time so he can see what you do with food. DS2 (7 MO) is just about getting the idea of picking up food and putting into his mouth, 1 month into BLW. A lot of it is play. Remember play=learning! If he is totally uninterested just give at different times and give different foods. Plus vary where you give food, sitting on your lap, different rooms etc. He might be a bit bored if he doesn't understand what food is about?

Hi - sounds normal to me!

We sort of BLW-ed (mix of our food smooshed up a bit and sticks of things). It took some time for our baby to figure out that food was, well, food, and how to deal with it - his actual eating was pretty on/off for quite a while until he seemed to realise that some things were actually edible, and not just interesting to chew on! Two and a half months later, he'll give most things we feed him a go, but still has times when he treats any food apart from breadsticks with the deepest suspicion, then a few days later, it's all hands to the plate again. I think that it depends on how much milk he's had (he's bf, so I can't tell how much he gets - at least you know how much of each type he's getting!), also on his mood, and teething seems to put him off as well.

Like everyone's said, it takes time, so persist and don't give up!

Thanks so much guys, that's really helpful, he usually eats with my 4-yr old daughter who's very keen to show him how it's done, he's having quite a lot of fun with his scrambled eggs this morning so we'll see how things go!