BLW - did no one else have trouble with it??

[SoupDragon]

Is it really just BabyDragon who was (and is) shite at this??

soupdragon. I just wrote a post in agreement with you on the other thread but then deleted it as I didn't want to get into a row because I'm not doing things in one prescribed was or another. Like you I do it the babybeast way or rather my way. I've read the BLW stuff, I've read the bliss guide to weaning prem babies, I've read the mushy stuff guides. I do it my way I follow my instincts thus ds gets a mixture of spoon feeding and things to munch himself (which really he just sucks and tastes but never actually eats anything) but I make most of his meals as lumpy as I think he will take it (got it majorlky wrong today though) with the occasional organic jar or pot chucked in. If he's fussy I ignore him and try again another day, if he doens't want to eat he doesnt' want to. I refuse to get wound up about it.
Don't let anyone make you feel bad about it.

my dd is 8 months,and was hopeless at first,now she has brilliant hand co-ordination and gets to grips with pretty much anything I give her.took a good month to get to grips with it.Fabulous when they do.

I had more trouble with it than ds, tbh. He picked up food, put it in his mouth, even ate some of it but got bored extremely quickly and at the time he was being weaned he went off milk (formula) completely during the day. He ate much more when I tried spoon feeding so I just decided to do pretty much what bewilderbeast describes.

Although I can completely see the logic behind blw and not stressing about amounts, just letting them have milk to fill them up etc, I just couldn't do it - if he were bf possibly I would have felt more comfortable with it but I just felt he was better off having food than me trying to get him to drink enough formula. He seemed to enjoy spoon feeding as well, so it was more fun for us both.

Am really glad I tried blw anyway as it made me confident in giving him lots of different kinds of finger food and he has never had anything pureed - just mashed/ lumpy food from the start.

I think you just need to trust your instincts and do what works for your baby. Mine were tiny prems and there is no way they could have fed themselves to start with. Now they are one I am glad I persevered with finger food as they eat a wide variety of foods on their own - I now only spoon the odd yoghurt or pudding. I think you just need to go with the flow and not get to worried that you're doing something "wrong".

just do a bit of both imo

Soupy, what do you mean by 'shite'? My dd is 8.5 months and whilst she picks up a lot of stuff and chews it, most of it is then bit by bit pushed out of her mouth. I find some bits of veg in her nappy but I don't think she's getting a lot out of it really. I am so when I read about babies eating whole bananas one week into BLW, the only thing mine really loves is yoghurt (on a spoon wouldn't you know it, but she's the one shoving it in her mouth). There's a recent thread on the bfing/ffing topic and a few people have said their babies weren't really interested for a good 3 or 4 months which gives me hope.

So yes at the moment, BabyManic is also pretty shite but I'm keeping calm by silently chanting (one day it will all be fine, one day it will etc etc....)

By "shite", I mean she can do it, she's quite capable of picking food up and putting it in her mouth and has been for a long time but chooses not to. It's because she's bloody stubborn and contrary I think and what she will or will not allow to pass her lips and how changes daily

I have no problem with the idea of babies feeding themselves at all but it sure as hell didn't work with BabyDragon. It's the smugness of some and the "all babies will do it" comments that annoy me (and not every BLW enthusiast is like that).

Oh, her latest whim is that she will permit herself to be spoonfed but you actually have to scrape the food off the spoon using her upper lip. She will not take the food off the spooh herself. Before I get accused of force feeding her, she'll wolf down the food and open her mouth enthusiatically but you have to get it off the spoon for her. I mean WTF???

Oh, and she's nearly 16 months old now. really ought to have got the hang of it by now Luckily she's a neglected third-born Dragon so I know she'll be fine. It's just soooo dull and annoying.