BLW and a hungry baby - what if their appetite outwieghs their dexterity

[Bumperlicioso]

I am a complete BLW evangelist, I loved it with DD1 and she is even in the BLW book! However I am struggling a bit with DD2. Started weaning a bit earlier than you are supposed to (5.5 mo) with a bit of porridge as I hoped it would help her sleep (it didn't). But she is quite a hungry baby. She isn't big, but if I spoon feed her she will wolf food down, much more so than if left to her own devices.

With DD1 pretty much the only thing I spoon fed her was yoghurt (my tolerance for mess had its limits!), however DD2 is so impatient and hungry I find I am spoon feeding her a lot more, along with giving her finger foods. She is eating what we are eating, e.g. tonight was curry, but she didn't make any effort to feed herself, though she will a little bit with a pre loaded spoon. TBH I'm not that keen to be spoon feeding her, it means my dinner is going cold! But she is definitely hungry and growls when she doesn't have food in her hand/mouth. She will happily feed herself with actual finger food, but not so much with sloppier foods, whereas DD1 just got stuck in.

I appreciate the advice might be 'well just spoon feed her then' but I would be interested in the take BLWers have on this.

Similar to Flisspaps, Boy is a spoon refuser, but also a bit crap at handling food, at just shy of 7 months he eats really very little at all.

I wanted to BLW, DH considers it to be all hippy toss wanted to spoonfeed, but Boy chose for us really. DH is unhappy and considers Boy to not be getting enough at all, but its out of our hands, so i've stopped worrying about it.

My take is that if your DD wants to be spoonfed, then that is BLW really. I almost wish mine would. ho hum...

Ah not at all Bumperlicioso! All good debate I think. It is interesting that lots of people seem to see BLW as a 'reaction' to the old way, so NO spoonfeeding - I just never saw it that way at all, just the philosophy of letting the baby have control of the process. You sound as if you've naturally come to the same conclusion using the failsafe method of responding to your baby...I think it's automatic really!

Totally agree, ShoutyHamster, I think it's a big shame that BLW is just seen as anti-spoonfeeding by some when it's just about giving the baby control whether that is wanting to be spoonfed (although I do think it's very important to give them opportunities to self-feed whatever method of weaning you choose) or completely refusing to be spoonfed.

Like I said, I spoonfed the sloppy stuff that he just didn't want to pick up in his hands and let him feed himself the other stuff. My only rule with BLW was not to puree/mash foods which wouldn't normally be pureed/mashed, as he didn't need me to do that. Until he was dextrous enough to take in enough to satisfy his hunger properly, he had milk to fill the remainder of the hunger.