Puree to BLW...can this happen?? (plus some bf clarity needed)

[Mustmakemarmalade]

I'm sorry if this subject has already been covered but I need some reassurance (or even a good firm no if necessary). Dd1 is 6mnths old on saturday and I have been giving her assorted fruit and veg purees sucessfully for the last 3 weeks (stupidly giving in to pressure from dh). Whilst she is quite happy eating from a spoon I get the impression she would be even happier picking up food herself (lunges for fruit I am eating). I have held off trying BLW yet as she is still not 100% sitting upright all the time but I do want to try when I feel she is ready (I admit I wasn't convinced she was ready for puree either but she seems to be really enjoying it).

Have I ruined it all by giving her purees first?

Also I fully intended to breast feed until she is atleast 1 as I want to skip out the bottles and formula stage if at all possible for a variety of reasons, however some of the threads on here have given me the impression that this is only possible with BLW not with feeding purees.

If the answer to my first question is 'no you can't switch from puree to BLW', then please can someone clarify whether my breast feeding aim is still appropriate/relevent??

Well I do a bit of both. My ds had delayed visual maturation and couldn't see the food to pick up so I had to do purées . He pretty quickly went on to lumpy food and now I let him feed himself off the tray and spoon him done food too. He also like to feed himself with the spoon. I'm not an expert but thought I'd share.

You can move to BLW anytime. I would highly recommend reading the BLW book by Gill Rapely. It will give you (and your DH) a better understanding of why BLW is beneficial and the basic principles - which is basically leaving the baby to feed themselves and trusting that they will eat what they need (that's hard for some parents to do).

But it's easy (the lazy way to wean) as baby eats whatever you eat as long a you eat a healthy diet and being mindful of salt content.

There are only two things to avoid: honey before 1 years old and whole nuts (due to choking). If there are allergies in your family, slowly introduce foods such as eggs, berries to see if there is a reaction - otherwise cook a dinner and put some in front of dd and see what happens! mess, more mess and lots of fun!

BLW does get confused with giving finger foods alongside purées as purees/ spoonfeeding is parent led not baby led. You need to consider if you want to stop purées altogether or begin offering food that you're eating each meal time alongside purée and then perhaps slowly phasing purée out which would mean going down the BLW route.

Given that you dd has only been on purée for a couple of weeks, i imagine she isn't on a lot, so you could easily phase it out. You'd be surprised how quickly they pick up new coordination skills eating.

If she isn't quite sitting up, I would be very cautious and watch her carefully when giving her food. Have a look on YouTube for gagging videos. Gagging isn't choking but can be confused.

As for BF'ing - even if you stuck with purée you can still bf for as long as you want. Haven't heard that before.

You need to get your DH on board with the choice to wean. If he has put pressure on you to wean earlier than you wanted then he may not be 'with you' about BLW - it is a scary concept for some. That book really helped - I just read snippets out to DP. He said to me yday (dd is now 10 months and we did BLW from 6 months) that I should be proud of the choice I made. I told him "we" made the choice to BLW but he said I did the research and gave him the info and I've been at home with dd and followed it through. It was a nice compliment as he wasn't so keen at first.

There is a good BLW Facebook group: Baby led weaning - let your baby feed themselves with loads of tips and ideas.

Good luck.

Haven't read all the thread so sorry if I am repeating. You can continue to bf whichever way you give solids, there is no right or wrong way.

We weaned DC1 with purees and he happily continued to bf. We weaned DC2 with BLW and she also happily continued to bf so both are possible.

If you go along to your local LLL they sometimes have talks on weaning which are really useful .

You might also find the information on offering solids to bf babies on Kellymom useful.

this has made me smile. OP you don't have to do weaning in any particular way at all. Just let her eat food if she picks it up and is interested, if not then spoon feed her. It's only eating afterall even if it is called a fancy name. Doing a 'method' over complicates it.

oh and WRT bottle feeding, it is just the same as breast feeding. You give the baby some solid food and feed milk on demand inbetween. Makes no odds where the milk comes from

You have not ruined anythin at all - dont worry.
We started off on purees as we weaned earlier than 6 months then just moved on to blw when they were ready.

We found this website really heplful www.babyledweaning.com/
Beware it is messy - most of it will end up on the floor.
BF should be fine I fed my DT's while they were on pureed food and blw weaning.

Thank you everyone for all the advice; I've managed to do everything else baby related without a method so I don't know why I'm getting my knickers in a twist about this one! WRT bf/bottle feeding it does matter to me where the milk comes from and I couldn't be bothered to express milk every day for the next 6 months, clean bottles, heat them up etc when my boobs are right in front of me.