Couple of early days BLW questions....

[alabasterangel]

DS is 6 months and 2 weeks. I started weaning him about 3 weeks ago. However he is clearly not enjoying pureed food with the exception of baby rice or baby porridge both of which are wolfed down. Anything else received a very sour face and was ejected. Tried things repeatedly and tried not to over-do new tastes but basically pureed carrots, sweet pot, squash, potato. I also tried apple and pear - they got the sourest face of all. Tried them at different times and more than once.

So I bit the bullet and offered him one of his sisters mini breadsticks. He gummed it to oblivion, and another 2. Only the 'tails' were left and dropped that I presume he is too young to shove in his mouth.

So moving on I tried cooked pasta twists, thin slices of ripe pear, fingers of toast with unsalted butter scraped on. All of which he sucked a tiny % of then rejected the rest. He seems to struggle to pick things up and chases them round the highchair tray. is that normal?

Do we just keep on like this? Me cooking/making different things and him eating basically about 2% of it? Does that sound normal? I guess it just goes against previous weaning for my DD where she 'consumed' her pureed food with vigour from day one. This feels like he's not eating anything at all really (I know its about tastes and textures, but obviously I'd like him to get the hang of it!!)

Does that all sound normal for the first week of BLW to you more experienced folks?

Thanks!

I think it sounds perfectly normal, my dd only eats a small percentage, the rest of it goes down the sides of the high chair or onto the floor. But the more she practices the more she will eat.

I tend to give my dd finger foods to munch/suck on then I give her a yoghurt or some fruit puree for pudding, that way I know she has had enough.

For one week in, that's certainly normal. You might find things like banana and avocado (once he can pick them up) are easier to swallow, but one week is really early and I don't even think our DS who was a BLW poster child and ate absolutely everything from the very early days was actually eating much at that stage. Basically the more practice they get, the better they'll become at picking things up and swallowing. If he's getting food in his mouth and eating anything at all now, it sounds like he'll get the hang of it fairly quickly.

Have you tried handing DS food rather than making him pick it up? DD seems very eager for us to hand her things as we're transfering it from our plates on to hers. Especially when she's very eager at the start of the meal where she gets frustrated picking things up. Then later when she's more relaxed she tends to pick up more.

Also found the slightly rough surface of a chopping board on top of the high chair (an Antilop) also seems to be easier than picking stuff up directly from the high chair - although she does try and pick up the board too which tends to throw stuff everywhere.

We've only been going a few weeks now and she's already getting better, although avocado is a real struggle to get a grip of as even when she picks it up it seems to slide out of her hand before it gets to the mouth often.

I would say you aren't BLW and it sounds like your ds would like to

would you fancy trying just putting a portion of whatever you are having in front of him and allowing him to eat it if he wants?

Hello - it sounds normal to me. Mine eat everything now but for the first 2 weeks not much was actually consumed. Handing food over worked for us and cutting it with a crinkle cutter helped.

Thank you all

We've totally ditched purees now the only spoon food I'll keep going with is porridge as he adores that.

Yes, he will take things hand him but invariably only literally tastes the food, drops it, then for the most part won't then take another piece or pick another up. He tried a homemade scotch pancake earlier as we made some this morning and were sitting eating them, but again he just sucked a corner of the bit i'd torn off for him then dropped that and a wouldnt then take another piece or pick another up. If I just leave him to play with the food he turns his head away from it and whines and strains like he wants to get out of the chair. Think over tiredness is a major (and whole other) story for a start.

But on the whole then, as long as that sound average then we'll just carry on....

Yep that all sounds normal we're just over a month in! It's great fun keep at it!!