doing a mixture of BLW and purees?

[rainbow83]

dd2 has now been exclusively breastfed for 7 months. I tried some solids earlier but she rejected everything, everytime, si i thought to wait a bit. but recently she has been going mad at mealtimes, wanting everything off my plate. I give her bits off my plate but it ends up sqaushed in her hand or dropped and she gets really angry. i tried some puree , feeding her whilst letting her chomp on some steamed veg chunks and she seemed alot happier as she was able to consume more AND get to experiment with diff things herself. I am really desperate to start some solids because she has been breastfeeding 24/7 for about a week now and i am exhausted, also have a 2 yr old to take care of. am i doing the right thing by giving her some purees as well? i really wanted to skip the whole puree thing.

then skip the puree thing. keep up the milk and just offer the food. have you read into blw? no need for puree.

rainbow - I had to do a bit of both but she can now eat almost anything by hand. I do still give her some meals by spoon but that is more so she can practice with a spoon too. She is 11m now.

Everyone comments on her munching away on her roast chicken and veg, or a sandwich

I use both as dd likes to chew but can't hold food for long enough to eat enogh before going on the floor. i've been doing the soft and hard food to keep her happy otherwise she just gets so hungry, she's having a lot of milk too. i don't know a lot about blw but it suits dd and so thats what i guess i'll keep doing till she's able to eat more before losing it. i too have other dc so don't have the luxury of spending all day preparing food to be dropped on the florr and then making more as she's still hungry.

calm that's good to know it will get better

I did both - frankly becuase i wasn't quite ready to trust dd would get enough (she is very, very very small ). After a few weeks, we ended up doing total blw as dd turned compeltely anti-spoon.
Am completely happy to believe that this was stupid of me/irrational, etc, but that was how i felt at the time. 'Officially' it isn't blw if you use a spoon, I think - but if you can be baby-led in the spooning (eg encourage them to come to the spoon, watch for signals they've had enough & take head of those signals, i can't personally see that it'll be a disaster)

If she's happy & you're happy - what's to worry about?

I did a bit of both but now at 10 1/2 months ds mainly feeds himself - he is really good with finger foods e.g. sandwiches, fruit, rice, mashed potato, etc (anything can be finger food - it doesnt all have to be chunks). He tries with the spoon too but tends to flick food about the place and rarely gets it to his mouth

the thing is, though, that the more practice they get at self-feeding the better they get at it, so there is a case to be made for upping her milk so she's not hungry at all before mealtimes and then letting her get the hang of it.
otoh, the main thing is clearly for you to be happy so if you're frazzled with a two-year-old then you absolutely must do whatever suits. there is a conflict there, however, because you want her to eat so that you are bfing less (which i can totally understand btw) but the thing about BLW as a principle is that the milk shouldn't be cut back and they should 'up' their solids at their own pace.
personally i wouldn't puree stuff just because there's absolutely no need to if your baby can get food to her mouth, but maybe you could have some yoghurt or something on the go as well? less hassle for you, certainly. or what about something that's super-easy to hold onto like a rice cake or big crust of bread (assuming no allergies)?

oh, and get a pelican bib. amazing what they can fish out of there when they've dropped it...

thanks all, and aitch, i really do feel a bit flattered that a pioneer of blw has answered me in person .

Anyway i've decided not to do purees because she has a horrid tummy ache today after i gave her some puree (is this normal?- it was only fresh organic potato and carrot which i made myself), she cried and passed wind for about an hour. which she hasn't done in months.

don't be daft... i just started a blog cos i couldn't find any info on the subject, that's all. i'm not any sort of an expert or pioneer. (but i will allow that i'm a bit of a freaky geek who likes reading about it all).

anyway, who knows if the puree caused it, i wouldn't really have thought so tbh. but maybe if the baby's not used to eating from a spoon they might take in a bit too much air, that's the only possible explanation i can think of.

look, the thing is that if you are getting worn out by bfing then you might have to shimmy things about a bit so that you can come up with what works for you. if that means cutting back gradually on the milk feeds, maybe during the day, if it will encourage the baby to eat something calorie-dense as a replacement then so be it. BLW isn't a religion, it's a suggestion, really there's no point being run ragged as you'll be no use to anyone.