BLW advice desperately please!

[oceantides]

I need advice desperately. My DS has just turned 7 months a week ago, I have introduced weaning since he was 6 months. Tastes of things, foods to hold. Broccoli, carrots barons etc. He nibbles tiny tiny bits of them and most of it ends up on the floor. I expected that with a BLW. I’m doing a mixture of BLW and traditional weaning.

I expected that we’d do puréed foods for a few weeks and then we’d move on to rougher textures. But he js gagging with anything that’s not puréed. Not just little gags but full on sick every single meal time. I can’t imagine it’s pleasant for him and I don’t want him to associate meal times with being sick. It’s horrible to watch him gag until he’s sick. I don’t know what to do. He’s absolutely fine with the puréed food, eats bowls and bowls. But if I try to offer him something a bit chunky he just gags and gags, until his eyes water and he’s sick. I’m still offering him things along side the puréed main at meal times to try and encourage him. But I’m worried he’s going to be on purées forever. How do I wean him off them? I’m so stuck.

I wouldn’t worry so much about it, my DD is 9 months and only really takes chunker food in the last few weeks I would say! Naturally she has built up a tolerance to it - she was being sick too because she just wasn’t ready for that texture yet. I would persevere with purée and offering some finger foods and it will naturally progress from there!

Is he gagging on finger foods or is it just the chunkier purees? I would carry on serving the finger foods alongside the smooth purees and not bother with the chunkier ones, you could give him things like toast fingers or bits of veg to dip in homemade soup, hummus, mild lentil dhal.

Keep with the puree,BLW isn't for everyone. You'll find in another month or so the chunkier textures will go down better. I had my baby on puree because anything finger food or chunkier he was sick like yours. Literally overnight at about 10 months he refused the spoon completely and now just feeds himself. It'll get there and don't worry.

@NannyR He is sick with everything. Toast fingers (he'll bite some off) and gag and be sick. Same with vegetables, scrambled egg, fruit. Every single thing that's not puréed bless him.

Stick with puree for a month or so and gradually make it thicker after a while. See how he goes, if he's sick go back to smoother.

Gagging shows he hasn’t really learned how far to take the food into his mouth or is taking mouthfuls that are too big for him to manage. Babies fed on purees often find it hard to judge either. You should probably pick one method (in your case I’d choose purees) and just work up to chunkier textures / finger foods.

He might have a sensitive gag reflex or he may have tongue tie. My DS could only really manage super smooth purées for months but he had a massive tongue tie which had been missed.

Its probably from the mix of blw and traditional - they learn totally different skills from each so some babies struggle with doing both at once. I would drop one and either stick with blw - no purees at all just let baby feed themself - or stick to traditional weaning and gradually build up to textures. Makes very little difference in the long run how they were weaned, I've got one of each and both fab eaters now.

My baby was like this. Everyone goes on about blw but really just follow your child- he is telling you what to feed him! We did purée with that baby and he was fine, and now eats healthily and a balanced diet. Second one was fine with whatever we gave her and she eats well too. Do whatever works :)

Ds1 was like this! He really improved at around 12mo and we could introduce more finger food then. Until that point we did puree and very soft foods to try. He is nearly 3 now and eats everything with no trouble. Ds2 is so different - he's been fine with finger food from the get-go and he is 6mo! Just go with what works for you.