Having a mini panic - please help me!

[Crimebusterofthesea]

DS is 28 weeks, been weaning for just over 2 weeks. Am trying to approach everything calmly but I'm struggling! Is it ok to do a mix of everything? Basically, DS is having a small portion of porridge for breakfast with some fruit - he is given a loaded spoon as much as poss but some of the time to avoid it hitting the wall etc, we have spoon fed him. At lunch, he is having something like spag bol or creamy chicken and leeks and we kind of do the same thing. He also has finger food like roasted sweet potato, rice cakes etc. I am panicking over whether I need to let him lead more IYSWIM and also over how much he is eating. When he has lunch he normally has about 10 small spoons of whatever is on offer - does this sound about right? I just get confused as you see the jars available and they seem massive! I just really don't want to balls this up! I love the idea of purely BLW but in reality I don't think I could cope with him not eating anything and this is why I have spoonfed him some food too. Sorry this is so garbled! Any words of wisdom??

And breathe!

I'm not an expert by any means but am in the middle of weaning my DD. Don't worry about how much he's eating as long as he's enjoying it - babies still get most of their nutrition from milk at this stage anyway.

Don't know why you seem to be so worried about spoon feeding - i think it's fine. If DD tries to grab the spoon and feed herself (which she does a lot) I let her do it (with a bit of guidance).

I'm also going to be doing a mix of blw and traditional but haven't started the blw yet.

Also as far as portion sizes go my DD sometimes has a whole jar and then starts on the next one! She is a big baba though!

Am sure some people with a bit more expertise will be along soon.

Spoon feeding with finger food is just traditional weaning. So no technically you can do BLW with spoon feeding, but I don't think that's what you mean.

As for those jars, just ignore the sizing of them. I think both the jars and Annabel Karmel are quite large. As long as you offer healthy food, it's fine. He will still need 500ml of formula if you are ff. if he drops below that, he will need multivitamin drops.

Don't worry about how much he is eating at the moment - DS is blw and didn't really start eating a lot until 9 months, that's when we noticed that there wasn't so much strewn around the room after a meal anyway. Even now, at some meals he hardly eats anything, other times he will eat everything we give him and then want more.

In terms of method of weaning, just do what suits you. We give preloaded spoons for yoghurt, porridge etc, as DS has always been pretty good at getting them to his mouth, but if he wasn't we would have been happy to spoon feed him. It's easy to get caught up worrying about the different methods and labels and whether you're doing it right, but really it's all a means to an end - getting him to eat the same meals as the rest of the family at some point in the future - and the best way to get there is the way that suits you and your DS.

Exactly Betty, I echo your post. Dont worry OP. DD3 has been introduced to BLW since she was 6 months. But only now does she eat - and she eat's loads! She tends to eat what we are having (spag bol, lasagne, tuna pasta bake, jacket pot with beans, sunday roast etc) without us having to mash / puree. She takes everything in fist fulls. Really relaxing and lovely to see her enjoying her food, and I can eat my food in peace with the rest of the family, without having to spoon feed her. It will come - just try and give her food on her tray. Don't worry if your baby won't eat at first, give him time. Food before 1 is suppose to be fun :)

The point of blw is or baby to feed themselves so to embrace it fully you have to not worry about quantity for the first few months. As pp says you cannot do a mix of blw and traditional weaning it is one or the other. That said you must do what you feel comfortable with. If you want to mix finger foods and spoon feeding (ie traditional weaning) so you know they are eating a certain amount then do it. Everyone seems to say the jars are much more than needed , I do blw so haven't tried them. You will be surprised at how much they have eaten with blw even though it seems most is on the floor! Keep up the milk feeds and baby will be fine.

Thank you everyone - I think I am going to see how we go with just giving him what we are having and letting him get on with it. I am breastfeeding so I'm just feeding him when I normally would. I really appreciate all of your responses, they are very reassuring and as you can probably tell from my OP, I'm a bit of of a worrier