started on purees but now want to BLW - is it too late?

[mangomilkshake]

i touched on this on my other post but thought i'd try a new thread to make this a new seperate topic.

basically, i started weaning my ds at around 6 months and he had a variety of purees etc, which initially he was fine with, then started rejecting and now is very hit and miss with whether he will eat the purees or not. he seems to like ellas kitchen stuff but that's another issue.

anyway, i have been giving him finger foods to play with and he seems to be enjoying that - he is now 7 months by the way - he has finally made the connection with holding food and putting in mouth, but is now totally rejecting the purees, i.e. when i try and feed him with a spoon he squeezes his lips tight and cries, but is happy enough with some steamed carrot sticks, slices of avocado, or rice cakes.

so what i wanted to ask was, as he has figured out how to put food in his mouth, can the purees be dropped completely? i want to just let him get on with it with feeding himself and am gutted that i didn't go for it with blw from the start (lack of confidence i think, and also partly peer pressure that he should be eating properly by spoon and eating 3 meals) - but am i too late to do it? and also, what do you guys give for breakfast? as he was eating the hipp organic porridge (that i was feeding him by spoon) but now he refuses it and holds the spoon but not that bothered about putting it in his mouth. he is totally bf, if that's relevant.

would lovelove your views! xxx

I am kind of in the same boat as you. Ds is seven months next week and he has started to reject purees. He does however seem pretty keen on finger food. I just need some reassurance that firstly BLW will satisfy his hunger and that the finger food I am giving him are ok. So far he has nibbled at:

broccoli
pasta
cauliflower
advocado
banana
toast
falafel (loved this - is this ok?????????????)
dairylea triangles ( this is probably bad but he liked it)
dried apricots
baby crisps/rice cakes

I think I am going to scrap the purees as meal times are getting a bit stressful and he seems happier feeding himself. Surely this can only be a good thing?

P.S does anyone know if I can give cows milk on weetabix/porridge etc at 7 months?

Cow's milk is fine from 7 months.

I would say you can definitely move to BLW - there might be a shortfall between how much he was eating as purees though and how much he can feed himself, so you may need to up his milk intake for a while to compensate.

Breakfast - ds has things like mini weetabix/oataibx soaked in a little milk, toast, croissants, bagels, fruit, pancakes. You could also try scrambled egg.

If you want to still give some purees, he can feed himself from a pouch - ds loves this. Also spread puree on toast or rice cakes, or use it as a pasta sauce (fusilli is good as it is easy to pick up and holds sauce in the spirals).

Mini weetabix sound slike a great plan in the mornings!

Thanks x

thank you guys for your replies...jjj34 - same here, the purees thing is getting really stressful especially because ds is sometimes eating what i make (but mostly NOT) and i just find the whole process a bit crappy trying to feed him with a spoon and him just looking at me in disgust and not opening his mouth - can't remember where i heard this, but someone said that you don't actually teach a baby to breastfeed, so why should you be spoon-feeding a baby when they can figure it out for themselves...

so anyway, yay, i am also going to scrap the purees from today and see how it goes.

ritamorgan - that's a really good idea about spreading the pouch stuff onto toast or as a pasta sauce, as i was starting to wonder what to do with all those ella's pouches i had stocked up!

regarding cows milk, i take it that it can't be used as a substitute to bf/ff but is ok when put in cereal etc?

i can't tell you, i feel like a weight has lifted off me now that i am going to ditch the blender, mealtimes were becoming a battle and now i just feel that i can stick some bits on ds's tray and let him get on with it!!

ooh one more question - would you give white or brown/wholemeal bread toast? or does it make no difference? i was also thinking about the salt content in shop bought bread and am thinking of getting the breadmaker out from the back of the cupboard!

Well, ds has had both brown and white bread already! I didn't think of salt content...I reckon it is ok though. Annabel K lists toast in her breakfast/meal plans from 7 months so it must be ok!

I also feel liberated. Think it will be soft cheese finger sandwiches for tea..

I also had a thought when walking beack from the park. Maybe stopping the spoon feeding for a while could make him more interested in a few weeks time..maybe..

Bread is really salty - about half a gram in a slice of white bread, and babies can only have 1g of salt a day in total. I limit it to half a slice a day.

I've also heard too much wholemeal isn't great for young children either though as it fills them up and is hard to digest.

You're right about milk - not good enough as a "main drink" til 12 months but fine in cooking/cereal/yoghurt etc.

wow that is a lot of salt in one slice of bread - i think i will start ds on half a slice of white bread and see how he gets on.

jjj - i hope it goes well for you, do post back and let me know how you get on, i will do the same, its nice to find others that are ditching the purees as i initially had the feeling that once you start on purees you are basically doomed to stick to it till they eat adult food (or become fussy eaters or whatever). going to give ds some pasta tonight with maybe some sliced avocado and see how he gets on - interestingly the rice cakes that he was happily scoffing yesterday, today ended up flung on the floor without even a lick of the surface...i guess each day will be different

I have just read this - maybe I shouldn't have given him sandwiches for tea! Most of the bread went on the floor though so no real cause for concern.
Although, ds is starting nursery later in the year and they told me they normally give them a roll/sandwich for afternoon tea...

I noticed he drank a few extra ounces at bedtime - possibly making up for the smaller amount of solids consumed.

Yep, I will keep posting. Let me know how you get on, and any extra successful finger foods. So far my most successful have been baby crisps, dried apricots, pasta, broccoli and falafel. He really dug the falafel (but i am concerned this may not be the best for him)

I am still a bit nervous about all this so i need the moral support! x

Is it homemade falafel? I'm sure it's fine if there isn't loads of salt.

Tonight ds mainly pulled some courgette apart and ate almost nothing

well last night's dinner time had mixed results - ds had a couple of steamed carrot batons which he liked, totally ignored the tiny pasta shells (i am thinking that as the pasta is no longer going into spoon-fed purees i should give him the bigger pasta spirals which he can hold as the tiny shells are a tad fiddle-y...and broccolli florets which he attempted to put in his mouth but gave up possibly because the florets were too big.

he then proceeded to wake up every 2 hours for bf (i don't begrudge him that too much to be honest....well not yet anyway, because i have always suspected that his night wakings are not to do with food as even with the purees he would still wake up at least every 3 hours sometimes, or sometimes stretch it out 6 hours - erratic to say the least).

and this morning i made his cereal, gave him a spoon and he put the spoon in his mouth himself and sucked off the cereal, so eventually all i was doing was loading up the spoon and handing it to him!! yay, i am well pleased even though he only had about 4 spoonfuls himself, followed by a couple of slices of plum

anyway i feel that i am waffling but just so pleased that i wanted to describe it all in detail - will report back if i have any more success with other bits

I make the porridge fingers from the blw cook book for breakfast - ds loves them with some grated apple in, but they are very messy!!

cosmosis - that sounds pretty good, when it comes to brekkie i've previously been giving him the hipp baby cereal which he is since today attempting to feed himself but i fancy trying something else- would you recommend that blw cook book? i get the concept of blw is just let them eat what you're eating but i am struggling to get inspired!!

yes I would, it has some god ideas. I'm ok with dinners but lunch and breakfast I just have cereal / toast and a sarnie, so was a bit stumped as to what to give ds. Today he has had the bean spread from the book on a rice cake and some pear.

Broccoli florets went down a storm at lunch today - he even lets me put bits in his mouth with my fingers (not sure that is technically BLW)

He also loved dried apricots for breakfast. I might try loading up spoons.

I checked falafel and it is 0.4g salt per falafel ball. Interestingly, there is also 72 calories per ball.

He woke up early this morning - 6.15 instead of 7 but that could have been the poo..

JJJ also put bits in his mouth - sometimes he just stares at the food till I do this, and then he starts picking it up himself.

dried apricots? did you mix those with cereal or did he just chomp on them? and did you put them in water first to soften them? also, without sounding alarmist, doesn't dried fruits have a lot of sugar in them? blimey this feeding marlarkey is a real minefield, i feel like i am really bumbling along some of the time

All fruit is sugary - dried fruit can be an issue as it's chewy and gets stuck in teeth.

My ds will often feed himself from my fingers - if I try to hand him something he'll grab my hand and pull it to his mouth. I think sometimes he doesn't want to get his hands dirty!

They are soft dried apricots - he sort of sucks them for a while and then pulls them apart and sucks out the insides - a bit like a monkey :o)

Oh and I just give them to him as they are (not in cereal)

I gave him potato with cheese and butter for tea and he ate it from my fingers as well as a yoghurt. I think he is just spoon phobic. He also fed himself one of those baby rice crackers.

ive yet to try potato with cheese and butter did u do a jacket potato or mash? Ds had brocolli frenc beans and pasta spirals tho he kind of choked on the pasta and puked it back up. He food this with some other foods hes fed himself too...is this expected? Cos maybe hes taking in too much in his mouth?

I have done both - I don't think it makes much difference. Apprently, sweet potato baked in orange juice is also good.

Had a terrible day today with regards to feeding - refusal to eat anything and major meltdowns until 6.30 tonight when we were having our tea and he decided he wanted what we were having. He nibbled at quite alot of white bread and pastry from our chicken pie. I am not sure that the pastry was very good for him but I was pretty fed up at this point!

aaw jjj i feel for you i think sometimes they just have days when they dont want anything...also could he be teething as thats meant to put them off eating? It is frustrating but at least it wasnt homemade purees that he was refusing as when ds was doing that to me it felt really crappy

Yes I went through the home made puree refusal thing too. I still have tons of little pots frozen in the freezer! I had a good experience at breakfast with him where he let me put tiny pieces of toast into his mouth as well as the usual dried apricots. I am going to try him on cheesy scrambled eggs at lunch. I will let you know how it goes!

Great stuff...i've had a relatively good couple of days, ds has been interested in the various veg that i've put in front of him, and has had some pasta too which is all good, though quantity-wise its still little little bits and pieces, going to try eggy bread tomorrow and see how that goes down, as he finally munched on a strip of white bread toast this morning.

was thinking though about the fact that iron stores start running low from 6 months onwards and, for eg in the annabel karmel book it says to ensure that iron-containing foods should be given - not sure how this fits in with the self feeding thing - i did steam some baby spinach leaves for ds the other day and he put a couple in his mouth but is that enough??

ooh and also what about vitamin drops?

xx

If you give a drink of watered down apple or orange juice with solids it maximises iron intake.

Also - I think there is enough iron in breast/formula milk? that is what i am counting on anyway..

I had a good day today - I made some chicken and apple balls that are in the annabel K book and he did pretty well with them. Worth a try? He then had some pasta dunked in tuna/cheesy sauce for tea.

He is not eating great amounts but to be honest i am just relieved he is happy and the stress of spoon feeding/faff of making puress has disappeared x