Help with BLW

[monstermunching]

Could really do with some help. I'm suffering with PND at moment and just can't think straight. LO is now 27 weeks old and I am also mother to a 2 year old. Weaned my daughter with the conventional puree feeding and she is now a fabulous eater, will eat most things. Heard lots of positive things about BLW and was very keen to try it. Have been giving LO lots of bits and pieces but they just don't seem very well balanced, e.g. lots of starchy foods such as breadsticks, toast, etc. He is having such small amounts and I'm really worried that it isn't the right thing to do and maybe we should revert to puree feeding. Anybody got any advice?

At 27 weeks you wouldn't expect him to eat very much, its more about trying things, learning about taste and how to handle food. (and how to drop it on the floor) Milk will still be the main source of nutrition for several more months. We found that DS didn't really eat much till 9 or 10 months.

If you're looking for other types of foods to offer, try vegetable sticks like carrots, broccoli etc. For meat try strips of chicken, or meatballs. Fruit is good too, bananas, mango, anything that is easy for him to grab hold of. As his pincer grip develops you can offer things like peas, sweetcorn, blueberries.

With DS we just offered bits of what we were having, if you do this you may need to adjust what you eat a bit (reduce salt etc) but makes it easier than having to prepare anything separately.

The blw book (gill rapley) is good, it explain the reasons behind blw, which helped me when I had some doubts, and there are lots of recipe ideas on the baby led weaning website.

Do you offer veg and fruit? I started off giving things like well steamed carrots, broccoli (v messy!), sweet potato, courgette and so on. Very ripe avocado also went down well, along with quite ripe pear, nectarines, banana.

I also make lots of veg fritters by finely grating carrot, courgette or other "wet" veg. Mix with enough self raising flour to be able to shape into little patties and then fry. Protein wise, I started with things like hard boiled egg, grated cheese, tofu, quorn and so on (I'm a vegetarian).

Then after a few weeks I tried to move towards baby eating the same food as the adults. Now at 10 months he eats whatever we eat e.g. Shepherds pie, veg curry, enchiladas, homemade pizza, stir fry and so on.

Some people would say it's not entirely BLW, but I also give my DS things like yoghurt, porridge, semolina etc by loading a spoon and handing it to him. He eventually got the hang of getting it in his mouth, and now is beginning to try and load the spoon for himself.

At the beginning, it took my DS a good few weeks to learn how to chew and how to swallow effectively. It's best not to think about how much food they are eating, but concentrate on the skills they are learning. Once their hand coordination and mouth coordination get to a certain point they make a big leap in how much they actually consume. 27 weeks is very early on in the process - it sounds like you are doing fine!

HTH

Thanks for your help. Needed a bit of reassurance that it's just the start and does get easier. I'm such a control freak! Really appreciate your support.

Blw talk I went to said until 9 months most of the calories need to come from milk and they are fine playing with it, getting used to flavours etc That is the whole point, not how much they are eating

The baby led weaning book is lovely as is the baby led weaning cookbook , for lots of positive support and lovely recipes for all the family...

You may have to try and reduce your control freak tendencies for blw, as it's the baby who's in charge of what gets eaten. I found it hard not to worry about how much he was eating and to stop myself from doing the whole 'just a little bit more' thing, but I have learned to trust him, that he will eat to his appetite, which can vary wildly from one day to the next.

As others have said, at this stage it is just about them experiencing different tastes rather than the solids providing a completely balanced diet.

Even when he began eating a greater volume, DS often favoured certain food groups at different times. So for a few days he might be a carb fiend, then he might want loads of protein. When he was under the weather or teething, he just wanted fruit, vegetables and milk. And the quantities he wanted to eat could vary massively from day to day.

I was a PND-fuelled control freak in the early months but I calmed down a lot when we began solids. Seeing him decide which food groups and how much to eat (and maintain his centile position) convinced me that he really knew best about what his body needs. Also, don't forget that babies need much more fat and protein than adults so what they eat may not be in line with what we would consider a healthy diet.

Purées are about getting food into them, BLW is about them learning how to eat.

So a BLW baby will eat far less than a purée baby at the start, but be better at feeding themselves. It all evens out in the end!