So is there enough iron in breastmilk to sustain baby till aged 1?

[ThomasTankEngine]

DS is 5 months and I'm considering the whole BLW vs conventional weaning.
Is it truly correct baby could survive off BM for a year with no worries, an dthe odd bit of fruit and veg, or do i have the wrong end of the stick?

If it weren't true then the human race would have died out a long time ago.

you are what you eat, so if your diet is good, then yes.

just trying to get my head around BLW.

It seems so random. This is a mum who had a weaning spreadsheet for DS1 BTW!

But it also seems so simple.
Is there a book / explanation anywhere?

I've tried Aitch'swebsite but can'y find my way around it. I think I need it spelling out.

um, everythingI've read suggests that babis do need additional iron at 6 months, and wold have health problems if exclusively breastfed until 1 year. who says otherwise? did they really keep babies off solids for so long in order to find out?

sweetkitty: no it wouldn't. the human race has weaned babies for thousands o years. since the very beginning of the human race in fact.

but otoh, fruit, veg and cereals do have quite a bit of iron - you don't have to eat meat, if that's what you're getting at.

there's lots of iron in all sorts of foods, esp veg. less likely in a jar of mush. so i think you are all right.

When waening conventionally, its easy to know what they;re getting and when. With BLW, surely it can be tricky to know what nutreints they need. And I know the baby should know and then choose. But if DH had his choice, it would be beer and chocolate all the way.

this is interesting

as is thisand this

Hello again! I don't know if it's right or not but I offer all food groups in a 24 hour period. I.e. some carbs, protein, fruit and veg etc.

e.g. today, DD had:

Breakfast: Porridge with strawberries cut in to it (I spooned some in and she picked up fistfuls and crammed it in too)

Lunch: Tapas style....Mozzarella balls, melon chunks, strawberries (again), toast

Dinner: Cheesy pasta vegetable bake.

Tomorrow she's got some meatballs in tomato (+ other veggies) sauce with baby potatoes......

essentially anything she can pick up and if she can't (e.g. yoghurt, I spoon it in.

oops! and this

the WHO paper says that solid foods should be complementary until one, that's where the 'food is fun until they're one' thing has come from i presume. it's not a blw thing, i was told it at a highly pureetastic Sally Army weaning talk.

complementary does mean that you want them to eat something, however, in those later 6 months. most do, easily, and if they don't, crack open the spoons, who cares, don't get your knickers in a twist about it. plus, the iron doesn't switch off like a tap, it falls over time.

this is from kellymom, and worth a read. www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/iron.html
"In Conclusion...

My interpretation of this information is that there is no problem with (and lots of advantages to) continuing with exclusive breastfeeding until your baby is truly ready for solids. At some point toward the end of the first year, your baby will gradually begin to need more iron than that provided by breastmilk alone, so offer your baby foods naturally rich in iron and vitamin C as he begins to eat solids. If there is any question of anemia, get a blood test - if baby's hemoglobin levels are OK then there is no reason for additional iron in the diet. "

you'll not find much research into BLW, nor will you find any into purees. however you could say 'well, look at all of us, we're all fine and we were all fed on purees', and so long as you believe that we as a population are all healthy and well then that's fine.

personally i'd say give it a try, if it suits you and your child then you'll know soon enough. some people love it because they find the mess etc less stressful than making purees, some people won't like it because they'd feel more comfortable having some control over what's goiing 'in'. it's horses for courses.

Depends on your baby too. I did purees all the way with dd but with ds I started off on purees but he just much preferred feeding himself so I moved over to a more blw approach.
And I do find I end up with some idea of what he has eaten, so it's not really random.

Thanks loads guys. I shall read all these articles in detail now.

I really appreciate this. Think i'm beginning to stress. Everyone but everyone is pureeing.

But then most are also not breastfeeding, and I've never been a sheep.

Oh no - don't stress!! You could (for e.g.) do puree for a couple of weeks (or as long as you want!) until you're relaxed with the inevitable psychological difficulty with your LO having more than just milk, and then try some finger foods in addition. Stress is not good and totally unecessary - you must do what is right for you and that may change over time which is fine too!

For a while, meal times in our house were known as 'messy play'......

That is a gentle way forwards Pipe. Sounds very sensible. And I'll do my level best not to stress.

Funnily enough in RL, I'm known as being very laid back I just have these private worries occasionally.

I think it's normal! I know I twittered about for the first 3 weeks or so. Once I 'found' my groove and saw that there was no choking and that she didn't lose weight or start looking pasty or peculiar, then my confidence grew and now I'm 100% fine. Basically, any solids they do eat are a bonus as they're still having their milk. That doesn't get dropped or reduced (they will start to take less when they're ready but that doesn't happen for a while). Lots of babies don't really get going with solids until 11 months or so - that seems to be very common. I think it's fine to be cranial about it and worry and think things over and back and then read everything and ask everyone and then worry some more - I'm that sort of person about anything I do, so the weaning wasn't going to be any different! If you're anything like me, you'll feel happy once you've gone through the process and have done what you need to do!

TBH TTE I would say that once your baby needs the extra iron that this is when you'll see an upsurge in the amount of food he's taking for himself off your plate. I did BLW with my DS and at about 8 months he suddenly started taking more and more solid food. I think this was because he needed it at that time.
I'd just go with the flow and let him up the food as and when he's ready.
The DOH would advise vitamin (with iron) drops after 6 months if you are still exclusively breastfeeding but you don't have to follow this - I didn't.

Thank you for yor advice.

Gave midget a piece of apple today which he enjoyed sucking an then munched.

Bit of a choke but then ok. Am amazed how well he did!

Here goes

IMO everyone gets hung up on the iron thing, but then you absorb iron best with vit c, and also if you get too much it hampers your zinc absorbtion and vice versa...

surely as long as they're being offered a good, all round, healthy, preferably organic diet with loads of fruit, veg and the right proportions of carbs and protein, they should be fine ? well i hope so anyway !

lets face it, you could wean him onto chips, crisps, pizza etc, then there would be a real issue with iron and loads of other minerals too..

most people who BLW find that they alter their own diet to be healthier as well, so it can only be a good thing i reckon ! BTW we're about 2 weeks in

Dd2 refused to take anything other than breastmilk until she was over a year old, and she had and has no health problems whatsoever.

I know it's only anecdotal, but my nephew really didn't eat anything until he was about a year old, so was pretty much exclusively BF until then. He's now 16, well-built and super-athletic.

so what have you fed minilovett so far and how has it been?

anecdotes are good.

have a lot of work pressure to go back now, but that'd really knock breastfeeding on the head, and that seems to be key in BLW.

no it isn't, tbh. it's just that the research (which by the way was a tiny project) only dealt with BFers, so couldn't really comment on any other method. here is a thing i wrote about my bfing exploits, if you get down to the bottom you'll see a comment from Gill Rapley which says that she hasn't any doubt that formula fed babies will be fine with BLW just the same.
the important thing with BLW is not to limit milk. a baby is of course better off with BM than formula (although my child seems highly robust to me ) but i just wanted to clear that up anyway.