BLW and purees

[Azura]

Hi everyone - I started weaning ds at 21 weeks and we started off on the conventional puree method. However, for a number of reasons I wasn't sure this was great for him and having just started the Gill Rapley BLW book I have realised that it makes a lot of sense and now at 28 weeks I have started to let him try feeding himself from a selection of fruit and veggies. He took to it like a duck to water (albeit a duck who gags a bit and is covered in broccoli) but I am just wondering if anyone else has any experience of transitioning from purees to BLW - did you just switch over or did you ease your lo off purees slowly still offering some at mealtimes. I am just wondering if he has got used to eating a certain amount at meals and suddenly changing to a method where he does eat less will cause any problems. Any and all opinions and wisdom gratefully received :-)

If he's eating lots of high calorie purees, I mean fish / meat / protein ones, then decreasing the volume by moving to self feeding might be an issue. But if he was eating mainly fruit or veg ones, i doubt it would be that much of an issue as they are not high calorie. I gave my DD purees and finger foods and with her the finger foods rapidly took over as she liked to self feed. She spent ages eating each meal time and really enjoyed it. Possibly if the volume reduces a little, he could increase his milk feeds to make up?

Both my DCs made a fuss if you tried to take them out their high chairs before they were full. I'm sure he'll let you know if he's hungry!

Although we did lots of finger foods, we also fed both DDs mashed up food in the early weeks - perhaps you could do a bit of a mix of some lumpy food along with the finger foods? So when we were having lasagne, for example, which you can't really serve as a finger food, we'd just mash some up for the baby and feed it on a spoon.

In any case, unless you are a completely strict BLW sort, your baby will presumably be having porridge, weetabix, yoghurt, soup and other pureed sorts of foods along with the finger foods.

How much was eating in purees? As others have said, if he's having a lot (and has eased off on milk) you might be best of doing both alongside one another. A sudden drop in solids might be a bit of a shock, and he might find it hard to adjust his milk intact up sufficiently/suddenly.

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for replying - I have only just had chance to sit back down at the computer since I posted that message, which is why it has taken me so long to respond :-) Thank you all for what you suggest - @anthonytrollopesrevenge - you are quite right - he makes a right fuss if he's not ready to be taken away from his food!

I am not being crazy strict about BLW to the extent of no "mush" - after all things like hummus and porridge are basically mush and we quite often eat those. So, as you all seem to suggest I have been reducing the purees and he seems to have dropped them quite happily but I have made sure to make sure I make plenty of milk available in case he gets extra hungry (he is formula fed). I don't think he was that keen on a lot of the purees to be honest - I think he got rather bored. So far everything seems to be going rather well (long may it last!). This whole BLW approach is a lot easier than purees if you ask me!

Thanks again for your advice everyone - much appreciated! :-)