Switch to BLW

[cantlivewithoutcoffee]

I was hoping for some advice for my 8 month old. We started weaning at 6 months with mashed veg and finger food and all was well for a couple of weeks. She then started teething and completely went off all solids so we were back to ebf for a few days then restarted solids.

I had planned to largely do BLW but she just throws all food on the floor without even trying it so I have gone down the path where I am feeding her (by spoon or hand) much more than I had intended to do so. In terms of what she eats, she only wants my food - tries a little mashed veg/veg sticks then refuses and will not touch a single pre-packaged puree (Ella's kitchen etc). Did however happily eat scrambled egg, pizza, pasta etc....

Until the last few days - she is now going through a phase where she will have the first couple of bites and then blow raspberries with mouthfuls of food and just messes about. I'm finding it exhausting trying to get her to eat only for her to spray it everywhere and I feel like I'm getting more and more focused at trying to get her to open her mouth to put food in which is exactly what I wanted to avoid with weaning.

Is it too late for me to go completely BLW? Will she eventually stop throwing everything on the floor and actually start putting it in her own mouth? I feel like I'm part of the way there in that she wants to eat proper meals anyway and no baby food but I'm not sure how to get her feeding herself...

You can go to totally self feeding now, I can't see any reason not to. The thing is though that you'll have to accept that you can't make her feed herself! Let her play and explore, and if she's hungry she'll eat. I just put the food in front of my DS and assume if he's hungry he'll eat. If he doesn't eat much I assume he's not hungry and just clear away. No pressure at all on whether or how much they eat.

I do find with mine that if he's tired he's more likely to play with the food rather than eat it.

That's the attitude I want to have - I had intentions of doing full BLW from the start but used a sleep consultant just before 5 months due to sleep issues from newborn and she advised not to do full BLW, advising it would affect her sleep at night l. I definitely didn't want to do the full traditional weaning so I went half way between the 2 but I can see myself getting more and more focused on getting more food inside her and I'm not liking it

I just wasn't sure if it was too late to go back to my original intentions or not - I'm thinking it should be fine as she's barely having any solids with me feeding her right now anyway

How old is your little one? How long did it take for them to start eating the food you put in front of them?

Are you eating as family with her at the same time? I did blw with mine and there was a LOT of mess and 'experimenting' but eating with the whole family helped them to learn how to eat properly and what was expected IYSWIM.

My youngest was later than others and didn't really get into eating properly until around 9 months. They all take a different amount of time. I always figured babies won't starve themselves so didn't stress about it too much and ensured plenty of access to boob.

I'm guessing the sleep consultant told you that you needed to get lots of food into her to make her sleep through earlier? If so I genuinely think this is rubbish. Some babies sleep, some don't. The calories they get from milk are far greater than from food-old mantra 'food is for fun before they're one' is right imo. It's really hard but do try to relax and go with whatever works for you at any one time.

My DD is 3-we did a combination of blw and spoon feeding. She didn't really eat properly until well after 1.

Yes we do eat together, sometimes me and her, others all of us. I don't understand why she puts every single toy/paper/keys etc in her mouth but throws all food on the floor.
I'm not worried about her going hungry but am not liking the way I'm feeding her and trying to get her to finish portions, I had always wanted it to be led by her and I feel like we have deviated completely from that.

Yes orange, sleep consultant advised 3 meals as early as possible if I wanted her sleeping through but I don't mind her waking to feed in the night so haven't pushed 3 meals (that wasn't the sleep issue that made me use the consultant in the first place). I believed her when she said they need to have the protein and iron from solids from 6 months because there isn't enough of it in breastmilk - in hindsight I can see that it isn't actually necessary.

Well I'm not sure about protein but they do start to need iron. And I think zinc. The "food is for fun before one" thing is a touch oversimplified: milk will be their main source of nutrition, but there are things (such as iron) that breastmilk is low in, so they do start needing some nutrients from food beyond the six month mark. "Food is mostly for fun before one, with a few exceptions" might be a better mantra!

That said, they certainly don't need three square meals a day.

I give a multivitamin with iron alongside breastfeeding and BLW. So I don't stress about the amount of iron or whatever that DS might be getting via food.

Agree with beauty. Multivitamin from 6 months, bf and food however it happens for your baby.