BLW - does it only work at family meal times?

[holytoast]

Hi, DD is 24 weeks, and we are keen to give BLW a go, have tried her with the odd bit of broccoli and she seems keen so far! Question is, everyone I have spoken to so far has mentioned the importance of them eating at the same time as the family, however, I am back to work in three weeks, Dh gets home late - our mealtime is after her bedtime - the only meals we would have together would be at the weekends, and I guess she would have lunch at the childminders with the other children, snacks and things during the day too.

Is this going to be enough to encourage her to eat if we do BLW - I understand that some of it is copying what the adults are doing.
We would do the odd puree as well, I'm not going to be a stickler about it, but I would like to use BLW as much as possible.

any experiences/advice welcome - also about managing to do BLW if at work - not sure if it will go down well at the (busy) childminders.
Thanks!

Hi holytoast

I have found so far with BLW that the only thing to do is try it and see!! I have had a few times when I've wondered, can she manage chunks that size?, is it better to soak this in milk before I give it to her?, how will she pick up mashed potato?... and you just don't know until she tries it.

I have also found that it doesn't really work for her to eat at the same time as us except sometimes at the weekend as she tends to have a milk feed first thing in the morning while DP and I have breakfast together, she has a long nap at lunchtime, and is in nearly in bed when DP gets home so eating all together just doesn't work. That doesn't seem to have held her back at all, she seems quite happy eating to her own timetable, although it does sometimes help if I have a little bit of what she's having at the same time.

I'm not sure about childminders and BLW - although I think some can be quite resistant because of the mess, not understanding about choking/gagging, and worry that the child isn't eating "enough". Does the CM have older children as well? If yes then maybe she could sit with the toddlers who are self feeding?

Anyway, good luck with BLW, it's brilliant fun. I've also found this forum very helpful.

Thats great, thank you so much, the forum looks good - I guess we will just have to try it and see, maybe I will have to eat a snack with her in the evenings! Will have to see how it goes with the childminder too..will have a couple of slightly older babies there I think, I suppose its the time thing too, will be a fairly busy day there I should think - hence some purees too, which she has been really keen on - grabbing the spoon and getting very annoyed when it's not coming fast enough!

Main problem we have at the moment is that she is a scrap of a thing, and too small for the highchair still! oh well..

I had similar issues. When I wasn't at work I changed the times I ate a little bit, so we had breakfast and lunch together (rather than me eating while he was napping), then I'd sit and have a cup of tea (and a biscuit!) while he had tea about 5pm. When I'm at work, DS eats with the other babies/toddlers at nursery. For quite a while, DS didn't show all that much interest in food, though, so missing a meal here or there, because he'd been asleep when we'd been starving, for example, wasn't a big deal.

Mine was / is too small for the highchair too, we just rolled a towel up and stuffed it round her. Although she could sit unaided from before we started weaning so I guess that helps ( beams with pride).

Or I think you can get highchair cushion thingies, not sure where from though.....

Thanks, did the rolled up towel last night, seemed to work ok, her short little arms dont quite reach the tray properly yet though! Going to have to wait a couple of weeks I think. Babybouncer, thats a good plan I think, will try and make sure I eat with her, at the weekends we tend to eat earlier anyway, and an excuse for a biscuit is always a good thing!