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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

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Original poster

BLW nearly 10 months, little progress and loosing weight

19 replies

madam1mim · 27/12/2011 19:52

I'm sure there must be so many similar posts to this but I am starting to get really anxious.

We have been doing blw with my baby girl since she was 51/2 months. at first it seemed to be going all fine, she was picking things up and tasting them, sometimes biting a bit off then spitting it out etc but she is now almost 10 months and she has not really moved on from this stage! At her developmental check the HV found that she had lost a bit of weight but said 'it's probably due to her being more active'...the thing is my LO does not move at all, she doesnt even roll over!

I'm getting so worried that perhaps our baby just doesnt get blw and that its not working. especially as she is loosing weight.

She can use a spoon quite well to feed herself yoghurt and weetabix but even then she doesnt eat much and she will not even bother touching mushy type foods like casserole, bolognese, curry with her hands. does anyone have any advice or experience of this? does blw not always work?

OP posts:

Original poster

madam1mim · 27/12/2011 19:53

*losing

OP posts:

dreamingbohemian · 27/12/2011 20:02

I think generally it's good not to be too wedded to any one way of feeding, because they do go through phases.

My DS feeds himself quite well but will sometimes go through a phase of only wanting very mushy food (probably because of sore gums).

I think when they're like this you just have to offer lots of different things and see what they will eat. If that means they only eat mush that you spoon feed them, what's wrong with that? In a few weeks they will be on some other phase probably.

Original poster

madam1mim · 27/12/2011 20:20

hiya, thanks for the quick reply. I think it is probably a good idea as you say, to keep offering lots of different foods. Only problem is my little girl won't let us feed her, she gets very stressed out if we try. I'd like to stick with the BLW approach if possible but the fact that she is losing weight is starting to concern me.

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thisisyesterday · 27/12/2011 20:22

at 10 months milk should still be her main source of nutrition, so if she is losing weight then I would try and up her milk consumption.. it has far more calories than most food

Original poster

madam1mim · 27/12/2011 20:28

hi thisisyesterday, thanks for posting. I'm still on demand breastfeeding..usually about 6-7 feeds a day including one or two at night! I may start to offer her feeds more though.

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Original poster

madam1mim · 27/12/2011 20:29

p.s. but 6-7 feeds a day at 10 months old seems like a lot, doesn't it? I'd like to reduce them to be honest!

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lilham · 27/12/2011 21:02

I just look on my app and my 9mo DD did 9 bf yesterday. In addition she has 3 meals and 1 snack of solids. So 6-7 isn't that much for a 10mo I think!

lilham · 27/12/2011 21:06

She's also blw but eats a normal meal size I think. Like dinner she had a fish finger, a quarter tomato, a mini muffin sized sweetcorn cake and a rice cake. She's moving a lot, maintained her weight on the line. So I think if your LO aren't moving much that's why she doesn't eat either?

babybouncer · 28/12/2011 18:15

My DS was worrying me, but seemed to get the hang of eating very suddenly at about 11 months - a slight panic as we were away on holiday with friends and suddenly he started needing three full meals every day where he'd before been just picking at food and snacks! He's now 2 1/2 and eats as normally as any other child I know.

Original poster

madam1mim · 29/12/2011 11:46

lilham, your post has reassured me a bit! i think maybe because i dont know any other mothers with babies of a similar age still breastfeeding i don't have anyone to compare with, so thought i was feeding her loads! Is a good point about her not moving too. maybe once she finally decides to get going it will coincide with eating more!
babybouncer - is good to know someone else who has been in the same boat, thanks for sharing! sometimes it is hard to imagine a day when things will be different but i suppose all babies learn to eat at some point! just hope that doing it the blw way pays off!

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littlepinkfizz · 30/12/2011 11:07

hi my ds is 10.5 mths and is a very poor eater for anything savoury. I am still b/f. He has 1.5 weetabix for breakfast which i feed him.Lunch is disaster-maybe a banana which he will chew at himself(no teeth yet!) He just refuses any baby food homemade or not.He will take 1-2 petit filous and maybe a rich tea biscuit. At tea time maybe a few teaspoons of ready brek followed by some rice pudding. I've tried giving him bits of carrots,parsnip etc but he wont entertain them. Also tried with toast and cheerios, which he will take and the odd time some cheese. He gets big b/f in the morning and bedtime and one midafternoon.he screams during the night for a b/f but hv said to cut it out at this age. She also recommended vitamin drops which have made no difference.i am just finding it all soul destroying as i have 3 girls who all ate really well. I have posted before about this but things are getting no better and I am feeling stressed and down and not enjoying things. Should i just give him what he wants? I dont know any more

TruthSweet · 02/01/2012 08:59

littlepinkfizz - if your baby isn't eating a lot why on earth would your HV tell you to restrict bfeeds?? Have you tried all eating as a family and having DS on your knee so he can eat off your plate? At 10m he should be able to manage to pick up and eat/gum most adult foods (salted foods/whole nuts/honey/etc excepted) at his age the concern is really to get him used to the diet his family eat and to boost iron, zinc and Vit D levels (strips of slow cook beef are good for iron/zinc, or broccoli for iron and dairy for vit D).

I keep posting this so apols. if you have seen this before:-

6-8m need 130 kcals of complementary foods and 485 kcals from milk (approx 650ml of bm at 75kcals per 100ml) total 615 kcals a day

9-11m need 310 kcals of complementary foods and 376 kcals from milk (approx 500ml of bm at 75kcals per 100ml) total 686 kcals a day.

12-23m need 580 kcals of complementary foods and 314 kcals from milk (approx 420ml of bm at 75kcals per 100ml) total 894 kcals a day.

Full details here on page 18. Pleae note that there is different values for industrialised/developed countries and developing countries. I have listed the industrialised/developed countries figures.

littlepinkfizz · 02/01/2012 15:42

Thanks truth sweet.think she thought his tummy was filled with milk so he would not be hungry for solids. I put wee bits of all sorts of food you have mentioned on his high chair tray. He may just try and reject or like Cheerios, eat them. I really can't do any more than offer him things and let him decide, otherwise he will get stressed. We do give him wee bits from our meals but usually won't touch it. Maybe when he gets more active he will eat more. He isn't really crawling yet. He's not starving - just eats what he wants. I. An on,y keep offering him the foods. Thanks for your reply :)

TruthSweet · 02/01/2012 21:38

The trouble with the advice to cut back (or even stop bfing!) to encourage eating of solids is that some babies/toddlers then still don't eat but haven't got the safety net of bm in their diet (or as much of it if feeds have been heavily restricted).

There is a fabulous book called My Child Won't Eat (and I don't use fabulous lightly) that's well worth a read.

AitchTwoOHoHoHo · 02/01/2012 21:44

the thing about BLW is pretty moot, though, isn't it, if the baby actually won't be spoon-fed. all you can do is either a. wrestle with the child to get them to be fed rather than self-feed, b. keep doing what you are doing and wait, or c. get some multivits+iron and keep doing what you are doing.

what kind of foods does she like the best? if she just doesn't like mushy stuff (which is more common than you might think) then we need to think of ways of getting drier stuff to pack a calorific punch. would she eat cashew nut butter on toast do you think?

ilovemountains · 02/01/2012 21:47

Alternatively, some babies are so full of breast milk that they don't want solids. The WHO guidelines are almost half calories from milk, half from solids, at this age. It may be worth reducing the milk feeds for a couple of days and see if his appetite for solids increases. Your milk supply shouldn't diminsh that quickly over two/three days but you could always express if you wanted to.

littlepinkfizz · 03/01/2012 11:32

Will try that book truthsweet. My other 3 girls had no problems at all eating and I haven't been doing anything different. Going to the baby clinic tomorrow so will see what hv says then. Dont like the thought of cutting down bf's as he only gets 4 a day.babies! Who'd have them! Will keep you updated and thanks so much for your replies. It's great just getting replies at all x

AitchTwoOHoHoHo · 03/01/2012 11:42

i can precis the book for you, i have it. it says 'don't force kids to eat'. good advice, but if the baby is losing weight you will have to think of something imho (although i'd be inclined more towards more bfs than less).

TruthSweet · 03/01/2012 14:00

Is you DS actually losing weight (e.g. has gone from 8.6kg to 8.4kg) or is he dropping through the centiles (e.g. dropped from 50th%ile to 9th%ile) but is gaining weight albeit slower than previously?

Could you offer very calorific foods so that if he does eat then it's been worthwhile, if he doesn't then offer a bf (also worthwhile). Foods could the nutbutters Aitch mentioned, avocado (slices/mushed), olive oil on everything, cheese chunks, anything with a naturally high fat content (perhaps not deep fried pizza though).

My youngest went from 91st%ile to 2nd%ile (prob due to reoccurring bronchiolitis) and she went on the double cream diet (at least a pint a week in her food) but she (luckily) ate anything put in front of her.

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