BLW odd questions!

[munz]

just wondering as we've swopped to BLW now instead of me feeding, but I have a couple of reservations.

1. boy goes in the highchair and I put the food onto the tray - should I do this or put it in a bowl? if a bowl which is the best bowl for sticking to teh bottom?

2. he doesn't seem to be eating a right lot, tonight for example we had chicken mash carrot and swede, he had chunks of the veg and mash with strips of chicken, he ate a little but next to nothing - yet blended/chopped he'd eat it all up.

3. even thou he didn't have much of his tea, I still gave him a banana which he ate all of, surely if he was hungry thou would he not have had his tea?

today he also had a slice of bread with a bit of marmite on, a yoghurt and mixed fruit for lunch then that for dinner so I guess it was a lot, just not as much as he would normally have had iycwim. also do you let them do their own feeding with the spoon? - cos that's what we've ben doing he can sort of load it up but mainly I do but he feeds himself. any help greatly appriciated

1. it's up to you! DS would throw the bowl until he was nearly a year old. Now he always gets a bowl, plate and cutlery. Took a while though.

2. maybe he's just controlling his own appetite - I think a lot of spoon fed babies will eat more than they want because they aim to please! Or maybe he felt a a bit lazy - it is harder work for them.

3. he just preferred banana! DS has to be pretty unwell to turn down a banana.

just put it on his high chair tray. why would you want to use the bowl? honestly?

how old is he? still having plenty milk? don't worry about the amount he eats. if it's new to him it may take a while to get used to the idea of him feeding himself. try him with all kinds of things, see what he takes to best.

blw isn't about eating through hunger it's about eating through exploring. i don't know if that makes sense but it's like he may have found the banana more interesting than the chicken. it's not about hunger cos that's still dealt with through his milk.

he can use a spoon if he likes, no problem! but the idea should be that he controls how much he has etc, so if you're loading the spoon just put it back on his table and let him get it. what sort of things are you using the spoon for?

lol. you're probably right! DH say's it's just cos the textures are differnt, and I guess if he was starving/hungry he'd be crying letting me know right? it's just I worry he's not getting enough to eat, or the right things to eat. and to cap it all off, i've dropped a BF today so my norks are hurting! lol.

we tried a bowl yesterday but a normal one he picks up and chucks about! lol. hence asking after the sticky down ones.

he's 9 months.

I was just wondering on him getting used to things, or I suppose it will come in time as we're only on day 2 now of full, BLW.

have you looked at aitch's blog? she wrote about the tommy tippee stick down bowls and said they were rubbish. www.babyledweaning.org

dizzy - I put the mash on it tonight and held it out, he grabbed it and then did the whole mouth thing, most of it was spat out but I was pleased he actually did the spoon bit iycwim, as I wasn't expecting that at all - at least not properly.

he's having approx 20 oz & one BF per day - althou 6 oz of the milk is in his brekkie.

yes i've looked a couple of times at the blog - in fact will be looking again, tomorrow we're having brasing steak - normally he'd be fine but should that be blended up or just cut up into little bits for him?

dd loves braising steak and casseroles, but the best thing i've found is to pull quite a big piece off so that she can chew and suck at it. smaller pieces she's more likely to gag on.
and you can have my tommee tippee place mat thing if you don't want to waste your own fiver ... i posted on here about them a few weeks ago and everyone came on to rage about how crap they are.
i do sometimes give dd a plate but it's more to get her used to the idea than anything else. she always turns it over at some point.
the spooning thing sounds fine, as does hte 'not eating very much at tea' thing. for example, dd is teething at the moment and therefore completely refused lunch but later had extra milk. i made some pasta, peas and pesto for tea as she has never refused in it her young life - that and banana are her comfort foods for when she's not feeling well.

munz - that sounds exactly like my dd (except she is 6 months), ie eating if a spoon if offered but not really eating much if the food is just there.
aitch, i know every baby is different, but how much do u reckon gets eaten per meal? daft tricky question i know

by big i mean the size of his fist, approx. or bigger.

i'm surprised at how much dd will eat. she's 6 months and literally grabs at the highchair table before the food's even on it she loves it so much. she'll easily eat a whole courgette,leaving the skin, as well as 2 small potatoes. or at lunch she'll have something like half a pear plus half a peach. i know this is what she has by the amount that's left over.

totally depends on her mood. sometimes literally nothing, but that's quite rare.
often she'll eat a couple of porridge pancakes and a banana for breakfast (and on the odd occasion has demanded more and made me root about in the fridge for leftover roast chicken).
she doesn't eat a big lunch, mostly, just a bit of a sandwich for example, but she'll snack on raisins and moon biscuits and rice cakes and scrapes of apple. she's normally a good eater at dinner time, but it depends on how tired she is and how sore are her teeth. tonight she was hungry after having no lunch so she ate probably twenty or so fusilli and loads of peas and grated cheese.
but it's a. horses for courses
and b. really difficult to say as it varies so wildly.
and c. it doesn't frickin' matter so don't give it a second thought. if they stop drinking milk start getting worried.

thanks dizzy. dd will easily eat a whole banana or piece of bread and butter holding them by herself, but will then eat other things if i hold them? shouldn't get hung up about it i know...

do whatever works for you! do you hold them to help him because it seems like he can't do it? or are you worrying he's not getting enough?

cheers aitch.
erm both i think dizzy, and also cos i think she would just eat the same thing otherwise maybe??

i have no idea if this is true, i'm just thinking about it for the first time... but say i was a Roman emperor and i was full up and then a slave came along and dangled grapes near my mouth, would i eat it? probably. i am greedy, so perhaps it's a Pringles 'once you pop' thing and the effort of picking the food up and eating it actually serves a purpose?
must stress that i am not stating that as fact, just musing while i wait to see if the McDonald Bros get back in again.

anything that is put in dd's hand she will put straight in her mouth. so i don't put food in her hand cos it'll just go straight in her mouth whether she's hungry or not. however, if she's really struggling to pick something up, usually banana cos it gets so slimy, then i will help her pick it up.

oh banan used to be such a faff for us, i ended up cutting them in half and peeling them back like two baby nanas. she just did not like touching the inside bit becasue she wasn't skilful enough nto to smuch it with her hands. it's all fine now, that motor control thing sorts out very quickly.
i'm including 'lifting to mouth' as an effort, by the way. i'm just hypothesising as to why babies might eat food off a spoon that they can't be holed eating if they have to do it themselves. i suppose the effort of chewing must be a factor as well...

yes. lots of mums who see dd eating are shocked to see she chews. i think because they are spoon feeding puree they don't realise a baby can actually chew. they say 'oh she must be teething' but she isnt.

i will try the mini banana thing btw!

lol. thats guys, will try him with big chuncks of meat then - I can always make them smaller I didn't think about the teething thing tbh, he's just cut a tooth this last week so is still a bit groggy form that. he has a big breakfast fair lunch and dinner

j's alwasy been fab with banana, althou my h/v says I should be giving him smaller bits - I normally just break 1/3'rds off so he has the pincer motions now - and give him rasins etc, he's doing ok thou i'm not fussy about teh fineties as it were at this age of controlling his actions.

glad we seem to be getting on ok with it thou

baby munz

I SAW DD3 CHEWING CHICKEN TODAY

god it was funny

i love seeing babies eating real food and chewing it. my relatives were all amazed and amused by dd eating peaches and chunks of meat recently - they think she is a child prodigy not realising all babies can eat non-mush given the opportunity to learn......

please feel free to send pics to the blog thing that i write, dolly and enid.

oh i'd love to -