Anyone else a bit disappointed with BLW?

[Bet01]

DS is almost 14 months and we've done BLW with him from 6 months old. He's still bf on demand but I'm using a 'don't offer, dont refuse' approach and he's definitely cutting down.
However, he's still eating virtually no solids really. He's not fussy about flavours (at least that's a positive) and will eat a bit of things like homous, marmite, mild curry, etc, but he just eats hardly any of it. He either spits it out or throws it on the floor. At first I thought it was because he's full of milk, but even if I make sure to leave a good few of hours between bf and lunch, he's unlikely to really swallow anything except a pot of fromage frais.
He used to be a bit better than this, but never consumed much volume.
He seems to find texture a problem still; he crunches something and then seems unable to swallow so spits out. I thought this was what BLW was good at preventing?
I just wondered if anyone else had this experience with BLW and when things improved? Really want to stop bf but not if he won't eat anything except fromage frais!
Thanks in advance...

Also meant to add, on the odd occasion when I've tried in desperation to give him fork-mashed food (shepherds pie for example) he'll eat about two mouthfulls then stop. Gah!

I was going to suggest trying spoon feeding, but then your second post said you have already tried it. Maybe he just hasn't clicked with food yet? I have no advice but want to just say don't despair. Have you seen any teenagers who are still bf and eat nothing? As for the bf, will he drink milk from a cup? If he's not eating much, maybe a follow on milk, instead of cows milk, is something to try since it's fortified with vitamins and minerals? (If you want to stop or reduce bf).

I haven't got problems with feeding, but for sleeping with my 1yo. She's eating truckloads (BLW too). But she often wakes up every 3-4 hours for milk. (She also eats every 2-3 hours during the day, but is off bf). Everyone says they should be sleeping through, and it's hard to not feel let down that your LO isn't conforming to the norm. So I can understand where you come from.

Thanks for the reply. He doesn't like cows milk but drinks water very well from a sippy cup. Follow on milk might be a good idea actually...
I know I shouldn't worry really as I'm sure he'll get there one day, but it's hard not to when other much younger babies are having a whole Weetabix for breakfast, etc! It's not doing him any harm, he's 75th centile and a picture of health. I think it's really texture/gagging/spitting out that's the issue, and he's just quite slow at getting over it.
Ah sleep, that's terrible too. Always has been. Waking every hour most nights.
Shattered is not the word...

My DD sounds very similar to yours. Also 14 months and eats very little and very fussy with what little she eats. Between 6-9 months mosts things got tried but very little swallowed. Since then she has become very fussy and only likes pasta, bread, yoghurt (also likes homous though and smoked salmon of all things!). My carpets are horribly stained with all the things she thows daily.

Ha, Kate, my carpets are too. I bought a plastic mat to go under his high chair but I still have to cover an extra-wide area with newspaper and even then he can throw further! I've even got some gravy on the curtains at the moment!
He's actually got a bit better just yesterday, as I made a real effort not to bf him too much (just 6am, 11am nap, 3pm and 7pm bed) and it really seems to have helped. He's spat out much less. Maybe he just hasn't been hungry this whole time? We'll see how it goes...

5 times a day sound like a lot to breastfeed - they need about a pint a day at that age IIRC.

I stopped BFing at 10 months and went onto formula because I felt he was asking for it for comfort more than food. It was also much harder to tell exactly the volume he was getting... Now he (also 14mo) has two sippycups of growing-up milk at breakfast and yoghurt/ some other milky thing at lunch or tea.

He also woke frequently at night but in tandem with cutting BFing I stopped feeding him at night and did controlled crying, which was an absolute godsend sent from Mumsnet to make me sane again..! Slept through after a week and has only woken since with really bad teething.

It does sound like a lot of bf but then every baby is different. My DD was down to 6am, 6:30pm and one through the night from around 10mo. I'm still bf at 12mo.

But then she day weaned herself. She isn't a boob monster so I think I have it easier. When she wakes at night, she makes it very clear when she doesn't want milk. She'll cry if I try to cradle hold her. Sometimes she humors me by having a couple of sucks. So it's very easy to work out if she's genuinely hungry or just wants a cuddle. (She does want extra bf at night during growth spurts).

How often do you give him the fromage frais? Maybe you could try cutting that out and see if that pushes him to try other things, perhaps if thinks there's always a fromage frais coming at the end of the meal there's no incentive to eat anything else. Also, if he likes smooth stuff how does he get on with soup, maybe with some fish crackers in for him to fish out? Weaning is a recipe for anxiety whatever way you do it I think, he will get it in time.

Thanks all. I do agree he still bfs quite a lot but he is a bit of a boob monster and this is actually much better than he was! I'm trying not to let him get upset about dropping bfs and at the moment it's really the minimum I can get away with without complaints. I'm going to try and drop the 9am one next week by making sure we're out at that time.
Dragon, he tends to have two pots of fromage frais a day (baby portions) so not loads. He sometimes has banana mixed in. I think you're right about him preferring smooth food, especially if he's not that hungry. Great idea re: soup, I'm going to try that.
Miracle of miracles, he ate half a Weetabix for breakfast this morning. Perhaps it's getting better!

Meant 11am not 9am!