Has blw worked for anyone?

[Pyjamaramadrama]

I'm starting weaning with ds2 and I'm confused which approach to take.

I hated weaning ds1 it was soul destroying preparing mush and him point blank refusing it.

Realistically though what can I give him? I'm a bit skeptical about it. So far as I'm not sure what approach to take, I've given him baby porridge, mashed sweet potato and butternut squash. He refused all 3! I've put soft chopped pear on his tray and also a finger of bread. He just looked at it like wtf is that. Didn't even pick it up.

Has this approach really worked for anyone?

DS ate wonderfully until 9 months and then practically nothing until 22 months. SO stressful. And yet I'm about to take him to the doctor with worries about potential early puberty with one of the signs being a bottomless appetite Don't worry. They get there.

All five madthings were blw, though not sure it was called that with ds1(16) but I just waited til 6mths and gave them what we wrre eating, ds1 liked his food from the get go, ds2 took longer to get going, I don't remember with ds3 and Ds4. I think it was just what we did iyswim and I knew they would get there eventually.

Dd was a bit slower to get going like ds2. And it certainly wasn't till 8-9mths they started to cut down milk and that was very gradual. But it worked fine, the madthings are 16, 13, 10, 7 and 5 and all eat well, have had fussy moments but no food issues.

Am expecting no 6 in April and will do blw with them.

I wouldn't say it's hype, but I do think a lot of the selling points are based on a misconception of what a hassle traditional weaning is.
I think a bit of both is really normal weaning, I don't think it was ever suggested that babies should still be fed pureed food by 7 months, and I never met anyone that cooked meals for their baby, who would not give their dc a roast carrot alongside their spoon fed cottage pie or sausage alongside some mashed veg etc before BLW became a thing.
I was a nursery nurse in an under 12 months room 15 years ago, there was a puree menu because we were weaning from 4 months then, but the babies would only eat from that menu for 2 or 3 months, after that they would eat the same as the rest of the nursery, but we would fork mash some, and spoon feed the foods we would ourselves eat with cutlery (we would say lumpy and finger foods at that age), it wasn't a big deal, it didn't take long and that was with a room of 9 babies. When I heard about BLW I thought that's good because occasionally I have met people who would use jar food, even tho they cook for themselves because they like the reassurance of a baby brand, some people literally did think babies should really eat ‘baby food’ as in factory made. I thought it was great to have another way of doing things.

Then when my ds was a baby I spoon fed, my kid my choice and all that, but I really found the BLW people at the baby groups I went to patronising and derogatory about spoon feeding, calling mashed food ‘mush’ like it’s not actually real food or it’s something disgusting, tbh half the babies I looked after would squeeze and suck the life out of their finger foods anyway so I wouldn’t say mush was far from what they were eating. The patronising reassurance that my baby ‘wouldn’t choke’ like the only reason to spoon feed is because you are a nervous nelly was quite embarrassing. I think they really thought there was no finger food at all before BLW.

I did BLW with DD1 and am now weaning DD2. I'm actually finding it simpler with another child there. In answer to your question about what do you give them: exactly what the other is having.

DD2 today had, for example:

• 1/3 Weetabix sogged in milk, a finger of DD1's toast and a few chunks of banana
• a finger of DD1's peanut butter sandwich, chunks of avocado and cherry tomatoes from my salad, plus a ricecake dipped in hummus
• some of DD1's chicken stew and dumplings (I squished the peas a bit to make them easier to pick up) followed by a few preloaded spoons of custard and some strawberries

If you're feeding one you may as well sling some to the other at the same time

When you say you give them a bit of what you're eating when you do BLW, does that mean literally just put it out for them to finger feed? What about the textures of it?
What if you're having spag Bol? I just can't imagine a 6 month old coordinating those in their mouth?

I'm starting weaning my youngest. I didn't actively do "BLW" before, gave a mixture of purées, mashed food and what I considered safe finger food and have ended up with a toddler who is a great self-feeder.

I feel totally disinterested in detailed discussions about "which way is best" as it feels really intense and critical of different styles of parenting, but it would be nice to not have to prepare / process baby's food. BUT I feel anxious at the thought of just plonking say a fish finger down for the baby.

Yes you can give things like spag Bol to a 6 month plus baby. If you put some in a bowl they can grab handfuls and have a go. But large pasta shapes are a lot easier so I might have done those instead of spaghetti in the early weeks. I found I just slightly adjusted how I prepared things to make them a bit easier to pick up. So batons of veg/fruit, potato wedges, making sauces slightly thicker so they stuck to pasta/rice etc. Cutting up things like omelette or pancakes into strips. Nothing too complicated.

But how does a baby of that age chew and swallow mince?
And I feel worried if say a piece of pasta is slippy and then it might go down the wrong way?
Is it literally a matter of putting it there and then they may or may not swallow anything and that is that for the meal?
Perhaps I need to look for a leaflet I remember being given months ago ridiculously early by the health visitor!

They learn! That's the point. They get some in their mouths and try to move it around. Sometimes it falls out, sometimes it goes in unexpectedly and they can gag. If they get it in the right spot some of it might get swallowed. A bit of gumming on pasta quickly reduces it to an easy mouthful to swallow. The mince can be scooped up or squashed or just cling to the pasta. You wouldn't expect a 6 months old baby to eat very much anyway, if spoonfeeding.

We had spag bol today lilipot, dd is 7months, so had a pile on her tray to grab and eat. A bit messy but she was satisfied, then spoon fed custard for after as she likes to be spoon fed when she's tired
She also enjoys fish finger chips and beans.
I think a lot of the initial stages is them watching you eat and figuring out that the stuff on the tray is food. Dd took a good week before anything went in the mouth but 6 weeks later and she will give anything a go (even jelly and ice cream
And if time is short there's no reason why a baby can't self feed a jar of baby food.

Yes mine had whatever we had, spag bol etc, all mine had teeth at four Ish months but only the front ones, they chew with their gums.

Mine liked pasta tubes or spirals. Some stuff would get mashed with a fork but they always had their own spoon from six months though mainly used their hands to begin with. I put bits of what we wrre having on high chair tray or in a bowl. If wr had soup they had bread to dip in and I made soups like butternut squash etc so nice and thick.

They literally just ate what we had, but as I said my eldest is 16years so wr didn't call it blw. I just didn't see that purees etc were necessary at six months and figured he could have whatever we had. It's not like there have always been blenders and jars of baby food etc... Yet babies have eaten.

DS ate spag bol! IIRC most of it ended up on his head... They just grab handfuls and shove it in their mouth. DS did have teeth but they don't need teeth because their gums are really hard from the teeth below the surface.

Just found a video of 7 month old DS most definitely chewing on bits of mince I can't share the video because it's got his name in it, but you can have a photo.

Thank you!
I think I need to wind in my anxieties about it.
One more question (and sorry for hijacking the thread OP but I think we are seeking similar advice!) - if you are doing BLW, do you give vitamin supplements containing iron if you are only breast feeding? I worry about low iron if not much food is being eaten (I appreciate that in the first month or so most purée type food would be quite low in iron as well though) - I just remember a conversation with a friend who works in a specialist feeding clinic who was extremely negative about BLW from its nutritional point of view.
My baby will take a bottle but I tend to BF more at the mo as it's easier!!

I gave vitamins with iron, although I'm not convinced by the theory that breastfeeding might result in low iron. The iron in bm is more bio available than that added to formula/vitamins, so I don't know if it's a clear cut thing. So I did vitamins with iron as a just in case type thing.

I did not because it wasn't (quite) recommended when DS was that age, it came in just after.

From what I understand the iron in breastmilk is very quickly absorbed so it doesn't matter that there's not very much of it. And I fed iron rich foods immediately, I didn't start with cereal and then move slowly to fruit and veg, I just gave DS whatever we were having straight away so it was meat and green veg and stuff from the start.

I found a video of somebody else's child eating spaghetti! (It's long but the commentary is quite amusing - bit like Gogglebox ) And you can always skip forwards.

There seem to be LOADS on there - worth a watch.

I did blw. Ds started to be interested at 8months, dd wouldn't even look at food till after 10 months. Neither really ate until after a year. They were both as fit as a fiddle, stayed on their centimes, walked early, etc.

Love reading about people's experiences with blw. Re 'chunks' of avocado/jacket potato, are you sticking with a general rule of adult finger size? Also how soft/hard should the vegetable batons be to allow chewing and to avoid breaking off? Can't wait to start at end of Jan. Did a mix with ds1 and he was flying on his own by 9months. He didn't sit independently till 8 months tho. Am I ok to slightly prop a 6mo to a sitting position in high chair??

Yes propping is fine. As long as they are upright and not reclined and don't keep falling over. I don't know if I'd be alright with using something like a bumbo where it basically uses their own weight against them to make them sit when they can't yet sit. But sitting reasonably with support is okay. DS was 9 months when he could sit, too. He crawled first

DS had spaghetti yesterday, he's nearly 7m. He grabbed fistfuls of it and shoved them in his mouth. Some fell out, some got gummed into bits and went down the hatch. He had spaghetti hanging off his toes at one point

Thanks bertiebots, yes ds1 was the exact same! Flying around the place by 7 months!

I did something resembling BLW (life's too short to be purist about things). DS never really got hungry for food until he was 9 months, so it was totally hit and miss until then. He was still a big baby and flourished - "they eat when they're hungry" and all that.

Back then he was best at eating bananas. He had a good go at strawberries, and raspberries were a good shape and texture for him. He soon got good at eating messy pasta dishes cut up like spag bol. He didn't get into dry food like bread/toast/rice cakes (apart from Organix carrot stix ) until he was over 1.

He has always been happy to explore different tastes, even spicy foods, though that might just be luck. One thing I will say though now he is a toddler is that his fine motor skills are excellent, I don't know exactly how much all that early practice with finger food helped but I'm sure it must have contributed at least a bit.

Well ds is still refusing to be spoon fed. Tonight I tried to spoon feed him mashed potato but he was having none of it.

In the end I chucked a lump on his high chair tray and a lump on the spoon and he fed himself. He was happily sucking it all off the end of the spoon.

Made a right mess though.

They way ds is going I'll have no choice but to do blw.

Gotta love these independent babies. I had already decided to try BLW with DD but as it turns out, when other people tried to help her, she had NO intention of being helped, if she could speak she would have said 'I'll do it myself thanks' :) The giant penne is easy for them to pick up, and if you're doing bolognese strip him naked first, it gets everywhere.

In all seriousness I loved it, my NCT friends spent their evenings pureeing and I just cooked a low salt regular dinner and plonked it on the high chair tray. Going out was much easier too, no need to carry little jars and little pouches, she could just have some of whatever I was eating. She's almost 18 months now and a great eater, very good with cutlery.

I'm traditionally weaning my twins with puree and will start offering finger foods also. I don't really believe the saying food before one is just for fun. From 6 months they need more nutrients than formula can give, I'm not sure if that's the same if breast feeding though.