In my house BLW equals Breast Loads Wants and he doesn't know how to spoonfeed either.....

[Rosylily]

My ds3 is 10 months. I've been doing BLW but he doesn't eat much at all. He likes to throw all the lovely food on the floor.

Then when he is crawling about he eats all the wrong stuff...half eaten chocolate biscuits left around by his brother, a beetle, green watercolour paint....

When I try him with a spoon he purses his big squashy lips and sucks the end of the spoon.

Sooo I'm just breast feeding loads and loads and loads and loads....

Any ideas?

can you go out and leave him with dh and his lunch? perhaps if you're not available in all your milky gorgeousness?

Yes, I am gorgeously milky, I'm a victim of my own success. Dh is only here for a few days every fortnight.

I feel a bit stuck. With my other three babies I stopped breast feeding at this point but I was hoping to let the baby choose when to stop this time.

perhaps you need to plan trips with your other two on the days when dh is back next, and leave him and ds3 some time to bond? how did you stop the last two times?

Last two times I reached desperation and stopped feeding, just cuddled them and put them on bottles It was very upsetting for everyone.

I've just had a nosy at your blog Aitch and found some reassurance there that it won't be like this forever.

My iron is low and I'm a bit run down so I've just started on iron supplements and I'll persevere.
I really really can't bring myself to reject him from the breast, I don't know how I did it before.

Dh is a bit of a disaster babywise but I'll see if I can get him on board.

och no, i can imagine you don't want to go through that again. i wonder if dh on board will help, it must be very tiring. is your child really immune to spaghetti bolognese? that seems to be a tipping point for loads of kids, and why not, it's blooming lovely stuff. or pasta and pesto. ricecakes as well, obviously.

He does love pasta and anything tasty but he doesn't seem to get much down, most of it is on his face/clothes/tray/floor

He probably gets more than I think

I also probably need to be quicker to offer him interesting things to eat and subtly try other things a bit more before he gets the boob.

It is usefull to see on your site that other babies can be slow to eat proper meals and I'm hoping that in the next few weeks he'll start eating more.

I haven't done it this way before so new ground!

My eldest is 16 and in those olden days they were weaned at 3 months and he loved his spoonfeeds at three months old

i found shells and penne pretty useless in the beginning, but fusilli were good. good luck!

oh, and only put a couple of bits on the highchair at any one time, i found that discouraged dd's urge to 'tidy' by flinging everything onto the floor.

Rosy, Ronnie is the same. Sometimes he'll be helped to feed himself, but is still really crap at putting things in his mouth. He also has no teeth which doesn't help matters.
Like Hassan he loves to hoover up dregs from the floor
At least Hassan isn't a skinny baby like Ronnie. All our feeding efforts have not put on ANY fat but he has suddenly grown in length so now he looks even more skinny. Heaven knows what the HV will say next week

we arm ourselves with two spoons a baby fork, Finns fingers and mine. If he is busy examining a toy or one spoon he'll let me pop things into his mouth using my fingers. Other times he'll love things stabbed on fork end and feed himself. If he tastes something he likes he'll then tuck in himself. Failing that, if he is in one of the " let's turf everything off the table" modes. We let him crawl around afterwards and he has another go

hi rosy, i am also doing blw and as you might remember from my whinges my dh is always at work.and I can't get him up at night when he works 17hrs in the day..

i offer follow on milk in beaker first thing, and a bit of yogurt. he usually has spoon of yogurt. a bit later on he eats weetabix with normal milk warmed up.

he eats lunch which is grated cheese and little squares of bread, and veggies which he can pick up. I have found just putting the food in front of him leads to him mesing about and then eating it. I just eat my lunch next to him and help a bit. same for supper-whatever I am having plus followon milk- . he drinks it, but he will only if i don't help!

he does insist on sucking to help sleep, and he wakes once in the night this is the only timoes back to sleep without sucking though- i let him suck as am not sure he is getting enough grub. he g he wakes up at 8 and not hungry, and has a bit of yogurt

during the day I avoid bf- i whisk him into his buggy for walks straight after lunch, or do something to distract him. it seems to work.

I need to stop the 4.00am feed, but no sure how as can't ask dh to get up and get him off me as a habit, but think he is doing quite well and if i rush it and stress him, sure he will go backwards. think he will give up himself as he has got this far blw...

sorry re long post btw

rosy - it sounds similar to what i've had at times with Samuel... couldn't face the idea of refusing him the boob and didn't have the energy for the battle that i knew would ensue when i offered a bottle. My oldest 2 were defo just on bottles by now - and i found myself giving him so many little suckles during the day he was never too fussed by solids!

1 trick that works for me is giving him something interesting to fiddle with whilst i shovel stuff in - food/spoon/fork or easily wipeable book etc. he can then choose to help feed or not. If i rely solely on letting him take control the vast majority of it goes on the floor and he is hungry for boob half an hour later

... if it's any encouragement - i've now got him taking 2 bottles (bloomin'miracle) in the day and the boob bar is then open from approx. 7pm to 7am (of couse it's not a strict licensing law and sometimes there's a lock in!)

Have to say i feel better and more energetic as personally i feel ready to start cutting down on the boob feeds.

How do you feel about reducing the breast feeds though? You always come across as though you're happy to continue.

Thank you
It is great to get an idea of what the other babies are up to foodwise. i'm definately going to copy all the ideas!

I am a bit worn out with the constant feeding now. I think I could go on longer if I could cut it down.

I've done BLW with a breast fiend
and have found a few things which work for us.
As Aitch says, only put two max bits of food on the highchair tray/table at a time.
I also let my DS feed himself to start and towards the end of a meal I help him along, putting bits in his mouth (only if he is happy with this, which is usually is).
I feed him easy things to pick up (he is almost 9 months), so sticks of steamed veg (including homemade oven chips which he loves), pasta, toast and butter/cheese, bits of meat to chew on and soft fruit, banana, peeled grapes etc.
I do still feed him every 3-4 hours but am sure I could cut back if I wanted and he does seem to be eating quite a lot and enjoying his grub (as well as decorating the floor).

They do get the hang of it, seem to remember DS1 getting good at eating at 11-12 months and not before.

Also Rosy, Ronnie will only take one sort of bottle, it's the tommy(sp?) one, it looks like a giant nipple and is very soft!!!

Ronnie likes it but hates the avent one that dd3 has. Well at least I now know that my little boobs look and feel like nobbly latex teats

Kitty I've tried one of those , he just chews it.
I have an avent sucky cup that he sometimes drinks fruit juice from so I will try a bit of milk in that too.

Rosy, how often do you think he bf's during the day? Do you think all of them are full-on hungry feeds iyswim? Or do you think some are comfort feeds?

Please note it's not that I am saying there is anything wrong with comfort bf, but if it's wearing you down these could be the ones you drop and replace with another source of comfort, e.g. extra cuddles, singing songs, playing games etc.

Also, I know this might be a stupid question, but what do you wear around the house? I find that if I am wearing something low cut or where my gorgeous milkies are on display, I am pounced on often. But if I cover up in a huge big jumper ds seems to forget a bit more that I am available for milk.

As for food, I'm not sure. What Aitch says is so true, if there is lots of finger food available it tends to be used for play, but just little bits here and there get wolfed down.

HTH!

Reverssy I wear button up easily accessible tops! and I'm sure alot of the feeds are comfort ones. I hardly go anywhere unless I have to because I'm so tired but getting out and about more would help I think. Distract him!

I have been putting heaps of food in front of him so I'll try smaller amounts.

Rosy, it makes no difference to Ronnie what tops I'm wearing, he's ALWAYS after a slup