How would you start blw when breastfeeding.

[pinkyp]

My last ds was mixed fed and fed purees so this is all new to me. My baby is exclusively bf and i'm hoping to do blw (he's only 6 weeks so were not planning to do it for a good while yet, just doing some research). My questions are:

How would you first start this?

Would you try it before a bf or after?

Do you just do it gradually (i.e offer food at dinner time only for a few weeks or would you offer breakfast, dinner, tea time?)

What would you try for first foods? would you just stick a piece of brocolli infront of him?

Do you offer water too?

Do you reduce the amount of bf's? and do you need to do anything if you drop a feed or do your boobs get use to it?

Any examples of your feeding routine?

Thank u in advance

I just stuck some brocolli in front of him After a breastfeed - best not to do it when they're hungry imo.

Two weeks in and he hasn't really dropped any feeds - you can keep feeding on demand, you don't have to make them drop feeds.

I always made sure DD had had a bf within about an hour or so of offering solids.

Just started handing her bits of carrot etc while we were eating.

Bf'd on demand so she decided when she wanted to drop feeds. At 7.5 months (started blw at 5.5 months) she's dropped from bfing every 3 hours to every 4-5 during the day and no night feeds.

As has already been said, we offered a bit of semi peeled banana about an hr after a BF.

Just over a month in to BLW now and she still BF a lot. Food Food is offered in between BF.

Would you offer water aswell?

DS has water on the table, and although he does drink some, it's not much, more for just playing with. If your still BFing then there's no need for water at the beginning...

sorry that was meant to be BFing on demand

It's generally a good idea to offer bf an hour before solids up till 12 months. Kellymom has some info.

There was a period with DD, around 7-8mths I think, where every single day just seemed to revolve around her eating something or being BF! It calmed down eventually, but she was still feeding quite often, then I'd plonk some solids in front of her (think we started 1-2 times a day, then 2-3, etc), then once you'd cleaned up the mess she wanted a feed again...

BUT it was well worth it imo, fed on demand with both bf and BLW, she has always eaten well and self regulated etc, now a toddler with a hearty appetite and I think reasonably healthy eating habits. And have very rarely had to spoon feed her, which is great if you are lazy like me!