Feeling realy frustrated with weaning, can someone give me a push in the blw direction please!!

[jillandbea]

Hello
I have a 7 and a half month old daughter who I have been weaning since 6 months. She initially ate the purees I spent ages preparing but is now refusing them all with the exception of pear and yogurt. Its getting very frustrating now trying to get her to her to eat anything. She is still consuming about 40oz of a milk a day! She has good hand mouth co-ordination and will eat/bite toast and ricecakes and I am thinking because of this blw is the way to go, I just need a bit of a nudge in the right direction, I guess the age she is she can have pretty nmuch anything?
Thanks!!

You may want to check with HV (if you have a sensible one) but my DS 2 was v similar and would eat anything as long as it was fingerfood, and was getting through strips of chicken/toast/cheese/pear/avocado at about the same age. I found an excellent book called Finger Food for Babies and Toddlers (sorry have lent it, so can't check the author, but it is on Amazon), which had great ideas and from an author with the same problem - a child that resolutely refused to be fed. I was really nervous about the choking risk at first, but my very patient stepfather sat with us for the first few times and showed me that babies have very strong gums designed for nearly anything. DS2 is now 18 months and still only has 8 teeth, but will eat nearly anything as long as he can do it by himself and still freaks if you try and put a spoon in his mouth. I would go with it if you can - there are a lot of parents out there who cannot get their children to eat anything but purees and that has its own problems long term too. I hope this helps! Good luck!

you could have a look at my blog here

there's lots of stuff about gagging and choking, and plenty of recipes and ideas for finger food. good luck with everything.

aitches blog is marvellous. allays all your fears.

FWIW my 10mo eats anything and everything, all by himself. there isnt really anything he doesnt get given (but theres no allergies or anything in my family so i think all the stuff about things not being 'allowed' for babies doesnt apply to us. he is perfectly healthy happy little chap!)

LOVING your name, louche.

Thanks for the advice, were going to try fish, potato and baby corn tonight.

very bold... how did it go?

Sorry taking so long to reply I have been cleaning squashed potato up for the last 24 hours off the floor! She took to the baby corn really well and gave it a bit of a chew, she squished the potato and fish but did try a little mouthful. I am not entirely sure she ate anything but it was fun watching her do it all herself. I think it blw for us now.

Hi - don't know if anyone still watching this one but have today come to exactly the same conclusion as Jillandbea. DD2 is 7 mths. Weaned her at 4 months as sooooo desperate to get a let-up on the incessant BF and majorly interrupted nights. She initially took ok to solids but not exactly mad keen TBH - far prefers BF. Or very expensive Ella's purees from Waitrose. Ended up near to tears today at yet another rejected lovingly prepared puree. Gave her toast and banana to eat on her own AGAIN which she got ever so excited about and really chowed down. In desperation checked out Aitch's blog - had been reading another thread with interest a week or so ago and thinking BLW - worra messy nightmare!! Blog very inspiring as so many suggestions for easy self-feeding nosh. Am too lazy to do much in the way of the yummy-sounding recipes at the mo as am too knackered and we are moving house so majorly stressed and not feeling terribly virtuous mummy. So - have no probs with the thought of long-term BF as long as DD enjoying something solid too so here I go on the BLW path to salvation... Only problem is we have a trendy blimming Stokke highchair which is rubbish for this malarky. Need something naff and plastic with a tray. Ebay here I come. Must register on Aitch's site and maybe see you there jillandbea!!

sparkletastic- aitch recommends the ikea plastic high chair, only costs £11 or something, so no need for ebay! i have an overly fancy highchair that cost over £100, was a gift, but would love to swap it for the ikea one, if only the givers wouldn't know!

Bless you for that top tip Dizzy! Will be scurrying about IKEA with a haunted expression soon anyway for stuff for the new gaff so a bargain highchair will get added to the lorryload of other crap...

i think they've gone up in price now to £16.80... that's a shame you can't make your stokke one work... i thought that was supposed to be a good brand?

trouble with the Stokke (guess it's the Tripp Trapp) is it has no tray, so peas etc roll all over the table...

There is a tray available for it though - it's called the Clic Clac and there are usually a few on Ebay - one here . Doesn't have raised edges though, so peas are still at risk...

jillandbea am new to the weaning lark myself so not speaking as a know it all... maybe cut down milk intake to try and enourage apitite for solids? Dunno if that's an obvious thing you've done and still tearing hair out anyeay! I find that if dd has more bottle first she will slowly chew thro some food but if she has less then she takes food much better and can always be topped up with some more afterwards if you're worried re intake. By 7 moths they only "need" 12/20oz depending on who you talk to and that's for protein but when that is introduced into the diet then it goes down again.

Hello, thanks all for the advice and I really hope that it works out for everyone else feeling similar to how I have been. Alibobble I have tried cutting out a bottle of milk completely and no longer give milk and solids at the same time as that really didn't work for us. We have made some progress over the weekend with a combination of blw (especially cooked pasta bows) and mashed potato which she seems to really enjoy. Hope to see you on the blog sparkletastic but I had better register too!

Sorry - disappeared for a while into 2 poorly DDs hell... Thank you MrsBadger for the Clic Clac tip. Might go for that as will make the useless but visually appealing Trip Trap earn its keep again! Although all I can now think of with all this trip trap / clic clac nonsense is the three billy goats gruff. BLW going well here - strangely breakfast of the usual Oatibix mush delivered via spoon by me was still acceptable but lunch was full-on handfuls of green beans, jacket spud, cheese and cucumber. Now feel guilty for taking a bastardising approach and probably causing endless confusion for Babytastic. Roast chicken, asparagus and toasted tortilla wraps for dinner!

hello again! i think you do need a tray with a 'lip' round the edge. it helps your baby with picking things up as much as keeping the mess on the floor to a minimum. dd will chase a piece of banana round her tray for ages! if you want to make use of your stokke perhaps a joiner or handy relative could make something or add a lip to that tray you saw on ebay?

Good point! My DH isn't that handy in the woodwork department but I'm sure my dad would have hours of fun customising the Trip Trap.

i agree with dizzie, i think you may come to regret not having a lip. i know this is a bit ridiculous but you couldn't just cut a baby-sized part of the side off a wooden tray and put it on the table, could you? then just slide the tripp trapp under the table as usual?

and i don't want to hear of anyone feeling guilty about spoon-feeding... whatever works for both of you. my personal opinion is that as long as you aren't trying to persuade the bub to eat more than they want then it's still BLW.

Hi jillandbea

Your situation sounds very familiar as my 7month ds will only eat pear and yoghurt too! He'll chew on toast but spits out anything that comes off in his mouth. I'm also debating giving up on lovingly prepared purees too.

I've also got a tripp trapp and I'm currently trying to work out how to stick a plastic tray (with a lip)to the table so he can eat finger food off that. It's either that or he just brushes everything off with one sweep of his arm! Going to try blu tac first!

what about those clips that you get which screw upwards onto bits of wood when you are doing woodwork to hold them in place? they are a similar design to those screw-on highchair seat things...
(i've not described that very well, i know).