Baby led weaning

[Flossierules]

Hi, I have been doing BLW with my 6 month old since last week but am a bit worried he is not eating anything. I know it takes time but I don't know anyone else weaning this way so would love some support and reassurance.

I have mainly been giving him a bit of what I'm eating, so have offered him porridge, some steamed veg, some veggie muffins I made, banana, etc, but he just isn't interested. The closest he has got was with a Greek yoghurt and a little steamed carrot I added to it and put on a spoon. He grabbed the spoon and chewed it, inadvertedly chewing the food as well.

Am feeling a bit disheartened and would love to hear some success stories. When did it click for your little one and is there something I should do differently?

All babies are different. My first child HATED food. Tried blw and he threw everything on the floor and cried. After 9 months old and he still wasn't eating anything (but bf every 40 mins day and night) we had to resort to distracting with toys while feeding purees. He gagged at lumps, screamed constantly around food and only in the last few years (he's now 7) will try loads of different foods and pretty much eats anything (especially spicy food).

DS2 on the other hand is LOVING blw. He is 6 months old and will eat crumpets, melon, mango, blueberries, raspberries, steamed veg, pasta...if he's near someone eating he'll grab it and shove it in his mouth. He chews food and swallows it - he loves new textures/flavours.

I guess my point is that whatever way you feed your baby, there's no guarantee that they will necessarily agree with you! My first son would even attempt food with lumps/finger type foods until aged 2 - always led to full on projectile vomiting. There is no way blw would have worked (the HV insisted on purees as he was not eating anything). He now eats anything.

My advice would be keep offering food as long as he's interested, or why not offer purees alongside? It really does depend on the baby, as I've discovered!

Second the above, try a few things as all babies are different, and it's not baby led if it's not what your baby wants! My dd1 wouldn't eat finger foods such as toast until she had teeth at 10 months, and wasn't remotely interested in steamed veg etc but did like purées. Dd2 is still not quite 6 months but is eating pretty much anything and won't accept a spoon unless she puts it in her mouth herself - she picked up broccoli and put it in her mouth at 5 months and is fine with chewing and swallowing now.

At 6 months food isn't essential so don't feel you need to give puree yet if you dont want to, just keep offering bits and eat so he can see you and he'll hopefully get the hang of it soon, babies all progress at different speeds 6 months isn't a magic number he may not be ready yet but might decide he wants to in a few days/weeks/months

It took DS a few weeks before h worked out he was meant to swallow, and now at nearly 8m he's finally eating more than I'm throwing away!

It takes time, don't worry and just keep going - he will get s nutrition from milk until he begins to eat.

Ds just seemed to play with his food and twirl it around in his mouth before spitting it out for ages before it looked like he ate anything. Certainly longer than a week. But he 'enjoyed' mealtimes so I wasn't too bothered. Your Ds is still on milk so he'll be fine nutrition wise for a bit yet, so my advice would be not to stress about it; unless there are other problems, he'll eat if he's hungry. I treated the whole thing as more of a social occasion - mealtimes were just times we hung out together and 'chatted' while we ate. Gradually, he ate more. I'd try and stick with it for a bit longer; ds is now much more adventurous food-wise than his non-blw sister and I think it was blw that made the difference.

DS2 took a while before he was eating enough to start dropping milk. I think he was about 9 months before we dropped a bottle. At 1 year old he's now eating more than his 2.5 yr old brother. I even spoke to the HV when he was 11 months because he was eating so much he wasn't getting his 'recommended' formula intake!

Okay I'll stick with it a bit longer as I really wanted to do it this way.

The thing is he doesn't even seem to enjoy mealtimes. He doesn't like touching the foods and pulls a disgusted face, then ignores it and usually turns his head or starts to cry.

He's a big boy, on the 98th centile, and loves milk feeds. I'm still breastfeeding generally on demand, maybe I should start feeding him less so he's hungrier?

I wouldn't feed him less but try and work out the best timings, so he is hungry but not upset because he is starving. Even if that means odd timed meals! If he doesn't like the feel of food then make I'd make that your goal to get him interested in the food but not necessarily eating. Maybe by being silly, you eating/touching it etc. Maybe also limit the time of meals so he doesn't get upset or let him just sit with you whilst you carry on eating so he is having a positive mealtime experience.

I find my DS often eats more if I don't sit right there with him looking at him! Sometimes he's ravenous and wolfs down anything I put in front of him/spoon into him (I'm doing purées and finger foods) but on days where he's less interested I tend to stick with finger food and leave it on the gray and potter round the kitchen unloading the dishwasher etc. Invariably he'll then start eating something - it's almost as if he doesn't like too much pressure!