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Weaning

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

BLW- moving on from softer/mushy foods...

4 replies

cheesenpickle · 10/01/2012 18:07

Ive been now doing blw for six weeks and doing two meals a day. I have used Gill Rapley book and make things like croquettes, rissoles etc for him. He defintely has a preference for softer foods he can easily stuff into his mouth so potatoes, parnsips, sweet pots, lentil bakes, wetabix, possidge, fruit if its v ripe, toast, crumpets etc are all a hit. Any foods which require more chewing with a firmer texture like the meat rissoles, pieces of chicken,even pasta, firmer veg (that includes normal steamed veg) he puts in his mouth and spits out. He won't really eat much green veg either. Im trying not to but i end up giving him food i know he likes and will eat rather than making something or giving him some of our leftovers from the night before that I know he won't eat. (He has his main meal at lunchtime and not a bottle so he needs to get subsitence from solids-if he doesn't eat much I then offer him a bottle). Im worried that by constantly offer softer foods I know he will eat it will mean hes not getting experience of firmer foods. Do I need to offer foods I know he won't at the moment at every meal (at the moment it ends up in the bin!)or do i leave it a while, let him eat what he likes and then try again in a few weeks with firmer textures? Im a bit concerned if i continually give him foods he will eat he won't move on to other tastes and textures.

What do you think?

OP posts:
RitaMorgan · 10/01/2012 18:12

I think at 6 months I was giving ds things like toast and ricecakes that he could gum and suck, but he didn't really eat pasta or bits of meat til more like 9 months. I don't think you have to give certain foods by a certain point - I didn't give raw apple/carrot til well after 12 months and he manages it fine.

I would just give ds broadly what you eat, include a few things you know he likes at each meal, and let him handle or suck on the other things.

CosmicMouse · 10/01/2012 18:21

This is why, personally, I just offered whatever we were having within about 2 weeks of starting. I'd sometimes offer something "easy" as an extra if it was a new meal or something particularly tricky. Or I'd convert it slightly - so fusilli instead of spaghetti for the first month or so.

As much as I like Gill Rapley for the BLW idea - I don't really see the point in the Cookbook as I feel it encourages people to feel like they need to cook special things for their babies, which kind of

It sounds like you've fallen into the trap of thinking he needs the solid food or he'll waste away. When really, especially so early in, he just needs milk.

If I were you, I'd pull back on offering stuff to fill him up. And just offer what everyone else is eating, and that be that. Offer milk too and let him fill up on milk if he wants/needs to.

The only way he'll learn to eat firmer textures and get used to different flavours is if he's given the opportunity.

cheesenpickle · 10/01/2012 22:12

We eat our evening meal after DS is in bed and at the moment im giving DS his main meal at lunchtime. If we have something suitable for evening meal then i will save a bit and offer it to DS at lunch. However we sometimes eat easy bung in the oven meals which aren't suitable so i have made stuff from the Gill Rapley book and frozen it so I've always got something. In an ideal world we would eat healthy cooked from scratch meals every day but we don't. I guess if we have something ive cooked and i know texture wise he probably won't eat it i don't offer it and give him something I know he will eat. I guess I need to get in the habit of offering him those meals and if he doesn't eat it just give him a bottle.

OP posts:
babybouncer · 11/01/2012 21:02

If it helps, my DS ate very little before he was about 10 months. I tried to offer him something he liked and something new or that he was less keen on each mealtime, but he certainly didn't take to a whole meal until he was 11 months old. The experience of seeing and handling a food is as valuable as when he actually starts eating it.

PS I live in the hope that no one actually lives in a world where they cook everymeal from scratch and that everyone lives in a world where we have nights where we need something easy!

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