Totally confused by conflicting advice

[HoneyMumandSon]

Hi all, DS was born at 33 weeks and is now coming up to 6 months and is definitely showing signs of being ready for food and on one hand I've been told that fit maturity means he should be ready at 6 months actual so can start soon. We want to doable blw but he's not sitting unaided and couldn't reliably do the banana test so we were thinking of introducing soft foods that we can feed him like porridge etc and offering finger food too. Does that sound like te right thing to do? Is there a reliable list of suitably foods anywhere? We don't want to go down the purée route and from who I understand rules now say just introduce 'normal' food (within reason.) can he have scrambled egg for example?

I'd just wait a bit more till he is sitting unaided. They get all the nutrition they need from milk until they are a year old anyway so there is no rush.

Have you checked the bliss website? I think there is some good information on there about introducing solids with a premature baby

Thanks- I did look but their advice contradicts most things the health visitor said...

I think that BLW isn't advised with premature babies - I'm not sure for the reasons behind this.

I would probably go with Bliss over what the HV says as HVs often seem to have out of date information in my experience.

If you want to do BLW then you wouldn't start with porridge as the baby can't feed that to him/herself.

However it may well be that it makes sense in your family to start with porridge (just making the point it's not BLW).

There's a book about BLW which explains the method in a very straightforward way. I'll link to it when back on my computer.

I agree with the poster above, Bliss are almost certainly more knowledgable about feeding premature babies than many HVs. I agree that HVs can have out of date, and they're not specialists on premature babies.

I have no idea if BLW is for premature babies btw!

Premature babies are often a little slower in meeting milestones like motor skills necessary for feeding, but need extra nutrients earlier than regular babies because their inborn stores are generally poor. So I'd tend to advise against BLW for that reason. If you really want to do it, I would suggest talking to your dr. about some nutritional supplements/iron drops.

Don't know if your HV usually gives good advice or not but I've always taken everything mine has said with a huge pinch of salt. If it was me, id trust the Bliss website much more than my HV.

There is no reason you can't start with purees if you think he is ready for solids now or if you have been advised to introduce solids. Then you can move to finger foods or baby led weaning once he reaches 6-7 months corrected age. I think the BLW guidelines might be more appropriate for babies that were full term. What did your HV say?

We started DD on bits and pieces at 4 months and she's now 7 months and we still probably do 1/2 jars / pouches / purees and 1/2 bow / finger foods. Works for us as DD does not get annoyed trying to feed herself when she is hungry and can't work it out but does get to enjoy it. I go with the approach that if you do pure BLW (with a few exceptions) they can eat anything you do so DD always gets bits of what we are having unless if chucked salt or booze in!

This really no reason why you can't start with one and move to the other - or indeed combine the two.
On the sitting up front - DD has always been very strong and could sit in the highchair / bumboo comfortably at 4 months but can only just now (at 6 1/2 months) sit totally unaided (on the floor / sofa etc).

I would wait a few more weeks until he can sit better. When you say unaided is that on the floor he will fall back, but he can sit up proped in a highchair?
Once he is at the prop up in chair stage from 6 months then wean. So add a cushion/ blanket if needed. He basically just needs to be safely sat upright so any food can be swallowed properly.

I wouldn't give purée just because he can't sit. If he is slouched over etc it isn't really safe to give them anything except milk.