Another BLW question...

[crazybutterflylady]

Sorry if this is repetitious of other threads but am slightly anxious about PFB's eating habits. We weaned her early since she had teeth and was grabbing our food/sitting up etc and all went well. We started on purées with the odd carrot/bit of toast to encourage independence.

She is now 7 months and has decided she will not be fed by us and can do it all herself thank you very much. She now has 2 teeth at the bottom and 4 at the top so BLW seems like the answer.

Which is great, except I have a freezer full of bloody purées and our meals blended and portioned out for her and no idea where to go from here, really.

So I am looking for help please. I made the blw cheese and spinach muffins which she ate a few bites of then chucked. I have tried loads of 'good' stuff including omelette, cheese, veg, chicken, prawns, all of which she turns her nose up at. She likes (no judgy pants please ): toast with various toppings, breadsticks with houmous, philadelphia, dried fruit, fishcakes, potato wedges, chips, orange, apple, banana, cheerios...she adores yogurt although it gets messy as she tries to feed it herself. She also loves smoothies and I have started giving her the little innocent cartons - only as a treat as she goes mental for them. The main problem I can see is texture. She will pick something up and throw it down again without even trying it, just because of the feel of it. Has anyone had a similar problem? Any tips on overcoming this?

I don't know what to do when she refuses this stuff as I am giving her a good selection at each meal but fen she won't eat much at all. Should I be offering alternatives until she eats? I worry she will then be living on yogurt and fruit!

Lastly, she really likes the premade pouches of food...but only if she can have them herself and squeeze them into her own mouth. Is that bad? On the Ella's pouches it does say 'older babies may like to squeeze me directly into their mouth', but I feel a bit weird allowing her to do it, like it might be teaching her bad habits. Any views?

Thanks in advance.

I did BLW with both of mine (now 4 & nearly 2). Both of them fed themselves purees from those pouch things, and with DS I've used the Tesco slurpers (aimed at older kids) too.

Re the purees, spread them on rice cakes and give them to her that way? Or use them as an alternative dip to go with the breadsticks.

The food you listed that she likes sounds pretty good tbh. Just keep offering her a variety, sooner or later she'll pick it up and actually eat some of it. You don't need to offer different stuff until she eats something, presuming that she's getting milk on demand. The milk can meet all her nutritional needs until she's 1 ("food is fun until they're one") so don't worry. Have you tried eggy bread? Both mine used to love that, and again you can spread stuff on it as well before serving it to them.

Have fun :o

I stopped BFing gradually, then completely at christmas and now she has 3 bottles of formula a day. She has a pint a day in total which is what the HV told me to give her. She said any more could make her too full for food and she seems to be ok with that; some days she'll gulp it all down but other times will leave an ounce or so in the bottle.

I think I'm worried about her having the same stuff every day and having a really limited diet. I am quite a fussy eater and I'd hate for her to be the same...I guess she's only young so I should just play it by ear.

Eggy bread is a good suggestion. Is fried food ok for them? I am useless at this stuff!

Thanks for replying, really appreciate it :)

Just keep trying with the different textures - it's all a learning experience.

You could use the puree as ricecake toppings or dips as suggested above, or even mixed into some penne pasta as a sauce.

Don't worry about the pouches, you're not teaching her bad habits. I think the advice on there is probably because most people still follow 'traditional' weaning and so would be squeezing the pouches into baby themselves.

If you're giving her too much of a selection or too many pieces of food at once, you'll probably find she leaves it. Try giving just one or two pieces at once to begin with, see how you get on. At 7mo she's doing well to be getting anything much into her at all

I tried mixing a veg purée into some pasta yesterday but it was fusilli and she didn't like the texture of that either...sometimes if i manage to feed her a little bit of something she refused you can see her thinking 'ooh nice' and she'll pick it up and eat it. Its so rare she will take something directly from me though. I find it so frustrating!

I guess if she is really hungry she'll just ask for milk earlier or she would eat what was on her tray, so maybe I should chill out.

You can really relax about what and how much she's eating. Assuming she's okay in herself, you don't need to worry about quantities particularly - my DS ate very little until he was about 11 months.

The things she is eating sound fine - DS mainly lived on bread products, fruit, shreddies and yoghurt for a long time, but he's now 2 1/2 and eats as normally as any other toddler I've ever met.

At 7 months she can have almost anything you eat. Be careful about salt and sugar and don't give whole nuts or honey. Apart from that, pretty much anything goes - just keep giving her a bit of what you're having and she will try some bits and throw other bits on the floor (and that is entirely normal) until she works it out for herself.

It may amuse you to know that DS angrily refused any help with eating at that age, but now he thinks it's great if we spoonfeed him!