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.

mrsTH, the thing about BLW is that you're not trying to get cals into them, you specifically want them to take things at their own pace and not intervene.
where they'll get their calories from (in an infinitely more expedient fashion) is milk, which is why it's terribly important that you are demand feeding rather than working to a milk schedule. that's really the whole point of BLW tbh, but it is a bit of a leap of faith for a lot of people.

Point taken Aitch, but surely the best thing is to work out what's best for you and your baby at the end of the day? My DS was quite big and so my Fabulous Power Milk (TM) () was definitely not enough to satisfy him. I had already worked out a happy feeding schedule based on his demands, so it wouldn't have made sense to increase the milk feeds in order to fit in with a purist approach to BLW.

My approach to weaning worked brilliantly for us and now he eats all sorts - olives, fish, chicken, asparagus, avocado, just about every fruit, chocolate cake...the list is almost endless!

With dd I very rarely cooked anything specially for her, other than the odd scrambled egg or bit of pasta. When I cooked veggies I'd just do extra so she could have some at her next meal, I'd put a bit of meat from my plate aside for her etc. Mostly she would have the same as me for lunch and then whatever we'd had the night before for dinner. We eat a lot of rice and from about 8 months she would pick up handfuls of it and put it to her mouth. She barely ate until 13 months though so it was easy to just feed her our scraps and I can see it might be a bit trickier if your baby goes straight to wanting a 3 course dinner!

I'm so happy to have found this thread - my DD is 7 1/2 months, & I've been stressing about if she's feeding ok - I try to give her a mix of pureed my food and a few finger foods, but she just seems to hate my cooking and will wolf down jarred food which makes me so frustrated. Also, she has no teeth and i get a bit worried about her having things that she might take chunks off, as she goes into a whole melodramatic heaving/vommiting routine that scares the crap out of me! I really want her to try loads of things, but i'm worried that she eats like a bird, although she loves her milk, so i guess that's ok. She also despises veggies....i had no idea weaning was this hard!

But, I've just raided this thread for tips, and i think i'll take away the food is for fun until they are one, thing and try to wind my neck in...thanks guys!

Nooschmoo! Don't worry. It takes quite a few months before they really settle into eating solid foods. Then before you know it you'll realise that it's been months since those problems you had at 7 1/2 months.

Also don't be afraid of adding herbs and spices to add flavour to your food. Not peppery spices unless you ate lots during preg - in which case you could try introducing a little chilli after 10 months.

With veggies, keep trying a little bit of the same thing every few days. She'll most likely eventually get used to it - my son did. With some foods it's flavour - it takes 15/ 20 tries before you get used to a food which you don't like the first time. She prob won't take that many tries.

Another thing is texture - I'm assuming the veggies you give her are soft at this stage. If not, try cooking them until they're soft (not soggy). My DS never got on with grapes or raisins until he was about 15 months old, but I kept trying. I think he found them tricky to chew.

Good luck.

thanks MrsTH - I think it helps just knowing this isn't just my problem. I think you're right about the texture thing, but the other way round for DD - she seems to hate soft things but likes mouthing and chewing hard veggies/fruit (ooh, actually maybe it's a teething thing -? why didn't i think of that before?!) but obviuosly with the harder stuff i have to watch her like a hawk. But you're right, I have to just be patient...after all, we've only been doing this about 6 weeks i guess (even if it feels like a lifetime )

Now that's interesting. From 7.5 mo onwards my DS rejected all my purees as he was teething, too. So I fed him textured foods, including canned mackerel, which he adored. From then on he never, ever went back to purees or mashed foods. Now he eats better than most kids I know. He adores olives, fish, meat, wholemeal bread, beans, pulses...and also fruits, veg and chocolate cake!

Perhaps you could offer her crunchier foods such as baby rice cakes or the big, plain ones (check ingredients as many of them have added salt!). You could spread a bit of banana, mango or avocado onto a plain one to jazz it up. Or even homemade salt-free houmous (takes 2 mins to make in a blender)

Also dried apple rings, apricots, etc (Holland & barrett do a dried fruit salad bag) - DS loved those at that age. Breadsticks - not sure about salt content, though.

Things will improve!

ooh, ok...that sounds like a positive thing then! i managed to feed her baked beans this afternoon, which was a first, and a small piece of toast. I'll definitely try rice cakes and dips - thanks for the tips, much appreciated!

Anytime