11 month old BLWeaner still eating VERY little

[SuperScribbler]

My DS is now 11 months old. He was exclusively bf until about 28 weeks and then I started BLW. He will eat tiny amounts, but not enough to sustain a fly really. I know I don't need to worry until he's over a year old because he is still demand bf but the time is looming when I know he will need to start to eat more. So how do I encourage him? I don't want to wean him from the breast - I would be happy to continue until he's at least two years old. I've tried waiting for an hour after a bf before offering him food but he still won't eat much. He's only just cutting his first tooth but has always managed to chew stuff just with his gums anyway. Just about everything I offer ends up on the floor/in the dog. When will he start to eat? When did your BLW children start to eat more substanitial amounts?

My BLW DD is one tomorrow still hardly eats any solids, I think it is quite common for BF babies nothing to do with BLW IMO. By this age most children are starting prefer finger food.

Its just unfortunately that we are in the minority for BF for so long. If you ask HV/dietician/nutritionist they will say to BF less at this stage they "should" only be taking milk morning and night - my DD still feeds 4/5 times a day although successfully just night weaned her again. I would like to feed less in the day but haven't worked out how.

Hope somebody can enlightened us - hoping a miracle will happen tomorrow on her birthday and she will start eating bucketfuls!

I started to give my dd juice instead of milk with her meals when I wanted to cut out bf's.
I didn't do blw, but ime babies will eat plenty of food well before a year old and even before 6 mths old, and doesn't have anything to do with whether they are bf or ff.
DD1 was ff after 3 mths of age due to problems out of my control, DD2 finished bfing at about 14 mths altogether, so I have done both.

I should probably have said that DS will not take food from a spoon in any quantity either - I tried just in case it was the BLW which was stopping him eating. After a few mouthfuls he will clamp his mouth shut and get quite cross if I try and force the issue. Or he will grab the spoon and throw it away.

I'm sorry but not ALL children eat lots of solids before a year old, we are not doing anything wrong - the guilt us mothers feel if our babies don't eat well is enormous.

I have a friend with 3 children all BF, two ate lots of solids one did not eat solids well until 14 months. Babies are different.

Superscribbler I've found giving DD a fork and spoon so she can start feeding herself more successful. She tends to like picking things off a fork.

Read by LLL "my child won't eat book" - reassuring to some extent we are not alone. He explains why BF babies tend to eat less solids than FF. Is your DS a good weight, has lots of energy etc?

Please don't take the "until they're one" as being literally the first birthday!

I am 26 and will say I'm 26 until I'm 27, in the same way they're one until they're two.

The first year is getting the idea, the second year is starting to eat. The third year they should be eating properly, not the second.

Anyone who tells you not to breastfeed in the day before one is working from an old school. You should still be following your child and allowing them the safety of milk to learn to eat solids.

SuperScribbler -- My ds is 10.5 months and only just started to eat a small amount of solids, an improvement from the tiny amounts of solids that he usually eats! I know all babies are different, but mine started eating more when his top teeth came through, joining the bottom two and enabling him to take little bites off of large pieces.

He also grabs the spoon and throws it on the floor. But, I've found that if I put sticky food on the spoon, like greek yogurt or oatmeal, and lay the spoon on his tray he will pick it up and lick the food off. Do you want ideas for finger foods to try? We've definitely had more success with some than others.

I've also been very relaxed about when I offer him food. I give him something that is not too messy to snack on when he's in the pushchair just to give him practice. I also let him taste whatever I'm eating (he usually just touches it with his tongue) even if it's a chip or something "bad". The other day I was in a shop and the owner handed him an ice cream cone (just the cone) and he happily chomped almost the whole thing, which I thought was great progress!

I think you just have to have faith that at some time he'll start eating more and I don't think that it has to magically happen at one. But I really understand how hard it is - honestly, it's only been in the last few weeks that I've been given hope that one day my ds will actually eat anything close to a "typical" portion.