If you mix BLW and Puree feeding, how do you do it?

[GrumpyBear]

Hi,

Basically above, how do you mix the approaches if you do?

Thanks

I don't think you can really mix the approaches. Spoonfeeding purees is kind of the opposite of the BLW philosophy!

Lots of people give purees/spoon feed alongside giving finger food if that's what you mean though? I never bothered with purees but I do spoonfeed some things (yoghurt/porridge/cottage pie). If things are suitable for finger feedings (like a roast dinner) I let ds get on with it himself though.

I started weaning ds2 when he was 23 weeks old on purees. By the time he was about 27 weeks old we had moved onto purees and finger food. Hes almost a year now so its mainly finger food but going back a few months ago a typical day would look like this:

Breakfast - Spoonfed porridge and feeds himself a banana.

Lunch - spoonfed chicken casserole and feeds himself buttered bread

Tea - Carrot batons, strips of cheese, vegetable samosa, chunks of bread that he feeds himself with and then I would spoonfeed him some greek yoghurt mixed with a fruit pot.

I used to give baby rice or ready brek for breakfast, finger food for lunch and then a mixture for tea. I would puree what were were having but put a bit of veg maybe on her tray.

I do a mixture of spoonfeeding and finger foods, but I wouldn't call it BLW as that is a very purist term - the baby can only eat what they choose to pick up. A typical day's solids for 8.5 month old DS is as follows:

Breakfast - one weetabix (spoonfed) followed by bits of fruit (plum, clementine, whatever we have) as finger food
Lunch - portion of whatever we had the previous night either mashed up a bit and spoonfed or if there are any handily sized chunks I give him them as finger foods, followed by more finger food bits of fruit
Tea - finger food, often something like cheese on toast or omelette and bread and butter, with chunks of cucumber/tomato, followed by spoonfed mashed banana and yoghurt

So I try to do a mixture at every meal. I've never pureed anything, started off by mashing and he was happy with that.

Hi, we give mashed foods on loaded spoons that she feeds herself alongside finger foods like toast and rice cakes. She's not so great with chunks of fruit yet, as they just seem to slip out her wee hands, but I'm sure she'll get better. We mix and match spoons and finger foods too. For example, today she had porridge and fruit (spoons) for breakfast, cream cheese sandwich for lunch (fingers) and veggie pasta and yoghurt for dinner (spoons). We were out for lunch yesterday at an Italian and she eat soldiers of pasta and garlic bread, brocolli florets and chunks of courgette. Bit random, but she loved it!

With my 9 mo D, I do the following:

Breakfast - spoonfed Weetabix or readybrek
Lunch - spoonfed mashed food (usually what we have the night before) plus yogurt or fromage frais
Dinner - finger food. Something on toast, veg cooked and raw, fruit, pasta twists.

She also has 3 bottles per day at 7am, 3pm and bedtime 7pm, and finger food snacks during the day.

It seems to work well for us. I am comfortable that she is having a well balanced diet in the meals that I spoon feed her, and she is developing her skills when eating the finger food.