Does anybody else find BLW harder work than purees?

[Tinkjon]

Some of it is much easier, of course, but in general I find it much harder and I was wondering if anybody else felt the same? With BLW you have to cook each meal fresh (no making big batches and shoving them in the freezer as you can with purees) and I find that a bit tiresome in itself. I also find it (please don't shoot me for saying this! ) far more restricting than purees when trying to make a complete meal. Most meats are out for DS as finger food at the moment (he's only 7.5 months) so trying to give him something other than fruit & veg sticks takes a lot more thought and effort than just shoving it all in the blender and whizzing it up. And the mess! I certainly don't object to the mess per se of course, but I'm getting very bored with having to either wash clothes before they stain after every meal or, now that it's warmer and I can feed him with no clothes on, having to bath him after every meal! Maybe it's just my DS, but he gets so messy that he's way beyond cleaning up with a baby wipe.

I'm not anti-BLW at all - I think it's a brilliant idea and I have found it great with DS who refuses to eat much by spoon, but I just find it all SO much more work than purees.

I agree Tink. I do a bit of both. Lumpy puree I give to ds2, and where poss I give him something to eat himself as well ie soup and bread/carrot sticks with food if making them anyway. That way if we are out and about, I know I can give him things to eat himself ie slice of bread/cheese spread, but still have puree style food home made in freezer for when I am rushed.

I have started it with ds (6mths) and am finding it ok, but I do cheat and puree some things, just roughly. He tends to get bits of what we are having (I've found he loves little bits of flaked fish on his or my fingers, and he managed chicken that way too) and I'll give him something in his hand (eg baby sweetcorn) but also give him a bit of pureed veg too- usually from that night's dinner. He also loves mashed potatoes/ bits of poato from his or my fingers. I often keep portions of veg etc in the fridge from the night before and recombine them for lunch!

I'd say a bit of both doesn't do them any harm.

How about giving toast/breadsticks/ricecakes for sdnacks as well as fruit and veg, it's a bit less messy.

I found it easier when I did BLW with DD3, but gave her pretty much what I (and her sisters) were eating,

Breakfast - cereal, toast, scrambled egg, yoghurt.

Lunch - chopped fruit, cheese, cocktail sausages, sliced ham/chicken, crackers with cream cheese, breadsticks dipped in hummus/cream cheese/tuna mayo.

Dinner - whatever we had roughly chopped up - spag bol, shepherds pie, chicken with rice and veg, roast dinner, fish fingers, chips and beans, pretty much anything!

At the end of the day though you need to do what works best for you.

A bit of both is exactly what I wanted to do but it isn't working I don't see anything wrong with spoon-feeding whatsoever and I think it's an important skill for them to learn - but I also think it's very important for them to learn finger foods as well. So I was intending to use both methods but DS has other ideas He only seems to eat 2 or 3 spoonfuls and then he starts to whine and yell and turn away. Or maybe it's just my cooking He much prefers finger food and it is less stressful just letting him what he wants, rather than trying to get spoons into him - I just wish we didn't have to solely BLW as I really didn't want to.

Don't worry Tinkjon - he is still very young and spoon skills come later. My DDs started rejecting the spoon at that age, I think it's an independence thing. DD3 wouldn't be spoon fed at all from about 8 months I think.

Also babies are very good at self-regulating their food intake, which is easier for them to do when they are self feeding. So if he only wants 2 or 3 spoonfuls, or to pick at food, don't worry as milk is still his most important source of nutrition at his age.

My DD3 is now 20 months and uses a spoon and fork wonderfully, so don't panic, there's plenty of time for your little boy!

the mess, yes, but i'm not sure what you mean about not being able to freeze stuff. i used to keep leftovers for dd all the time, i still do. meat is fine at 7 and a half months, no reason whatsoever to be avoiding it and things like steamed carrots (if you're still on them, that is) can be kept in a tupperware in the fridge. tupperware was my very best friend in those early days...
remember the idea is that you're not making anything special, you're just giving them what you're having. and if you don't happen to be hungry then that's when you crack out the stuff from the freezer.

AitchTwoCiao, I know babies can have meat at this age, what I meant was that my DS can't yet cope with it. Carrots left in fridge lose their nutrients - far more nutrients stay in frozen food. As for freezing, for some reason whole cooked veg just isn't very nice when defrosted. Also it would take up so much room in the freezer to freeze a few weeks worth of veggies, which I used to be able to do with frozen purees.
I see that the idea is for them to share your meals - but we often don't eat the sort of foods that would be suitable for a young baby. I know we should do, but I'm trying to diet at the moment so the low-fat foods we're having often aren't the best things for him.

Sidge, what about my 5-year old DD who still won't use cutlery? We had to LOL the other day - there was me spoon-feeding 5yo DD, whilst 7mo DS fed himself

Ah I'm afraid I agree with justabout regarding your 5 year old - that's behavioural manipulation and I wouldn't go along with it, but that's me! I wouldn't feed him, and if he won't at least try and use a fork I'd take his dinner away. But I'm a meanie!

Also when you say you're having low-fat dinners what sort of stuff do you mean? Because even if you are trying to lose weight you can eat 'normal' food. Low fat stuff is usually just as high in calories and sometimes even has more calories as it's got added sugars to add flavour. But that's a whole other thread!

Message withdrawn

I use a lot of frozen veg for both dd's. Things like broccoli, where I only want a couple of small chunks at a time. Tis far more convenient and much quicker. Frozen veg is great, and so much easier to clean up than pureed veg.

With BLW, you should just give the baby family food. It shouldn't be any more work.

With my kids, we had them sit at the table in their highchairs, and when they reached out for food, we figured they were ready.

With BLW, you should just give the baby family food. It shouldn't be any more work.

With my kids, we had them sit at the table in their highchairs, and when they reached out for food, we figured they were ready.

Boob?

I found it much easier to be honest - mostly when we went out. I've never had to worry about what to take for DS3 as he has always just had a bit of whatever we were having. It had made me buy and cook more veg which is obviously a good thing and, like Aitch, I ofrtn had little tupperware boxes of cooked carrot sticks and baby corn in the fridge. A couple of those, bit of toast, some cheese - perfectly balanced meal!

I think it is really important to sit down together for your food. It is something that gels families together.

If your DH is home late, and you obviously want to eat with him, then you can still do a good job at teatime. The older kids need to eat, and you can have a healthy snack or pretend to eat.

There are so many social cues that they develop at mealtimes - it is really important to start on a good footing.

Sorry to just barge in here being thick, but what is BLW? Baby-Led Weaning was my best guess..?

Beautiful, yes blw is baby led weaning- you basically skip pureeing and go straight to finger foods.. there is a website if you are interested, babyledweaning.com (thanks to Aitch!).

In answer to the original post, I know where you are coming from, it does appear at first to be easier to puree as you can then see that your baby is getting all the meat/veg/carbs etc in one meal where as with BLW they may chomp on the banana but reject the piece of chicken. But the trick is to get your head around the concept of blw and that the baby by not taking the meat is simply not ready to have it. To be honest, I found it most difficult especailly when you see similarly aged babies neatly wolfing down their purees whislt my ds was rubbing his steamed carrot into his hair. But the trick is to persevere and repeat "food is for fun until they are one" and remember, it doesnt matter if they are not eating three jars of puree a day, as long s they are still having their milk, that is all the nutrients they need until they themselves finally "get" food and eating!

For me, I found it helpful to visualise a pre-blender society where families would congregate for meals and mummy would pluck off a bit of bread for the baby to munch on or a few small pieces of chicken to have a go at until the baby would start to eventually help themselves and then voila, baby is weaned!

My ds is now 15 months so is well away but I can't tell you how satisfying it was to go to a restaurant and not to have had to think about bringing food for him, he would just have nibbles of mine and DP's as he wished, no stress, no pressure and more importantly no cold dinner for me!!

Good luck!