101 questions about starting weaning - feeling stressed!

[jcgo]

Hello, sorry this could be a long post - eveything suddenly seems to be overwhelming me (a combination of mastitis/cold/tiredness/stress!)

My son will be 6mo on Sunday. He has always been a big, healthy, alert boy and is EBF. He was on the 90th centile for the first 3 months or so of his life, then dropped to the 75th and now has dropped to the 50th (and actually lost 2g in the last month.) I feel he is ready for weaning, he sits well with just a little support, is very interested in food and has been sitting with us at mealtimes for a while. He doesn't sleep brilliantly at night, because he is still (and always has) woken up really hungry in the night. He is normally awake about every 3 hours (max 5).

I was very keen and feeling enthusiastic about BLW but I'm having doubts... A couple of weeks ago at a friends house I dipped my finger in some pureed mango and pear and he sucked it off my finger but about 30 seconds later he vomited it up along with quite a bit of milk. Then on Saturday he had some steamed carrots and sugar snap peas (finger food) which he seeemed quite happy about but did gag quite a lot and vomit a couple of times. On Sunday we offered him some banana (finger food) which he really tried to eat but gagged and vomited a lot so we eventually took it away from him :( We haven't tried anything else since.

Both the health visitor and my Mum say to give him some baby rice with breastmilk but I don't really want to go down this route and don't want to spoonfeed really. He has had a cold and a cough but is getting better. He seems to want lots of breast feeds at the moment (growth spurt?)

I'm just not sure what to try next? Should I just wait a bit? Should I try baby rice? Should I just try purees and forget about BLW?

HELP!!!

Deep breath :)

Gagging is normal, so don't worry about that. The vomiting might be down to him gagging - he needs to learn how far to put food into his mouth so that he doesn't gag and then that should stop him being sick (I would think)

Why not wait another week or two until he's over his cold, and try again. If he's gagging when trying pureed fruit then I don't see that he'd gag any less if you were spoon feeding him baby rice!

Have you had a look on this site?

Hi I'm no expert and I'm finding my way myself with weaning at the moment but I was wondering why you are so against spoon feeding. From what I have read it takes quite awhile to up the food intake with BLW and maybe as you little one is losing weight it may be worth considering getting some solids in him a bit quicker. You can do it combined - purreed/babyrice&milk spoonfed and then give food to play with aswell. Then you get the best of both worlds. I am doing this and although this isn't straight down the line BLW I think you have to be a bit flexible and find your own way as to what suits you and your boy.

Apparently babies gag just the same whether BLW or purée and spoonfeeding but it is bloody scary to watch!

benne81 Milk is the most calorie dense thing you can give to a baby, so in fact if they are losing weight then the best thing you can give to them is MORE milk, rather than solids.

Solids (pureed or otherwise) might make baby feel fuller, but they do so for fewer calories which actually means they gain less weight :)

I agree with bennie81! Spoon feeding isn't all bad! U can start with that and when they get the hang of it BLW can then begin!
Milk is high in calories, but we wean for a reason don't we???

I started with spoons and purees, added in finger foods as well. Now, at 11 months, DS mainly self-feeds with hands (he tries the spoon but it's hit and miss!) and he's happy to be spoon fed as well.

The best advice I was given was that you don't have to stick rigidly to one method, try a few things and use what works for you both.

I would wait until he has fully got over his cough and cold and then try again. I made the mistake of starting BLW with DS while he still wasnt 100% and it just wasnt working. I was seriously about the reach for the purees, but stuck it out for a bit longer and now a few weeks later he is doing brilliantly!

However, I would also say dont worry too much about how you do things, exclusive BLW is not the be all and end all! - maybe try a bit of baby rice and see how he gets on. If he keeps it down ok, then maybe introduce a few more purees (maybe let him use the spoon himself if you really do want to go down the BLW route), and a little bit of food to self feed. If he doesnt get on with it, then perhaps hold off food for a bit longer and then try the BLW again.