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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Original poster

Help! How can I get my puree happy 6.5mth DD to move to finger food?

30 replies

Fidgetsmum · 02/06/2008 22:31

I WISH I'd learned about blw before now! My DD is happy with all the first stage weaning foods (from Annabel Karmels book) but as I have made her purees more lumpy, she has got less happy. So, I just gave her a piece of banana yesterday and she nibbled it. But I had to hold it for her. I got v excited at the prospect of moving her to blw finger food rather than bothering with purees. However, she won't pick anything up herself (she will pick non food things up without hesitation). She looks like a baby bird, arms far back, mouth wide open etc! . I planned to just keep putting foods in front of her but am worried she won't eat enough if I wait for her to learn to pick them up. Question: If she doesn't eat much with her hands, should I top up with puree or would this just encourage her to wait for the puree each mealtime? She is bf 4 times a day too. Thanks!

OP posts:
RGPargy · 02/06/2008 22:37

Fidget - no advice but just wanted to say that my DD also has her arms pinned firmly to her side when eating!! I tried her on some melon the other day which she seemed to like but like you, i had to hold it for her lol. I'll follow this thread with interest!

ArrietyClock · 02/06/2008 22:41

You can't get her to. (Sorry!). She'll do it herself....eventually. I had this so continued with the puree (lumps had to be introduced vvvvery slowly!) and dd messed about with finger food and snacks in between. Eventually she discovered her mouth at about a year when inadvertently left alone with chocolate money left over from Christmas. And yes, she manage to unwrap it too! I guess if they want something enough.....

Tbh blw would have been hopeless for us. Up until the chocolate money incident dd didn't put anything (except her thumb) in her mouth. We've made slow but steady progress since, and she has just started fighting me for the spoon.

V. familiar with the baby bird thing. We have just (at 15 months) got to the stage where dd doesn't do an impression of a baby bird when she sees a banana!

LolaLadybird · 02/06/2008 23:17

I posted on your other thread Fidget and have also just discovered BLW as a result. I too tried to get DS today to hold some finger food himself but limited success even though he is v dexterous with toys, teethers etc. I know one of the ides behind BLW is that they will regulate their own intake but if DS had to rely on feeding himself he'd hardly eat anything. He too is v happy with smooth purees but quite unimpressed with lumpier stuff. I think I'm going to continue with the purees/cereals etc but keep giving him finger foods to 'play' with when he's sat in his high chair.

LolaLadybird · 03/06/2008 10:25

Success this morning with dry toast. I cut him a really chunky finger of toast and then held it for him while he got a taste for it, he then ate about half of it holding it himself - hurrah!

RGPargy · 03/06/2008 16:32

Well done Lola!! I also had success with toast this morning!

Tinkjon · 03/06/2008 22:20

Fidget, babies under 1yo don't actually need anything much other than milk, so I wouldn't worry about topping her up with purees. Having said that, I find it impossible to relax about this and feel I have to get some food into ds somehow, but that's the official line anyway They do learn to pick food up quite quickly - it was only a few weeks ago that I was posting that ds (8mo) couldn't pick anything up and today he managed to pick up a pea!

Original poster
Fidgetsmum · 04/06/2008 11:28

Thanks All. After checking out Aitch's blw site and saw lots of babies with broccoli,I tried it last night and to my delight, she picked it up (after 15 mins!) and some of it went in. She then did the same with some pear. it got stuck, she gagged, I DIDN'T panic this time, just put my hand on her back and calmly said 'swallow it honey' a few times, and down it went. I think it would just have likely come back out with all her tea but I was lucky this time!

Lola, with toast, no butter or anything? DD has projectile vomited (as you know from my other thread) with cows milk and formula. Am concerned butter may do same thing as all from cows. Could I use an olive oil spread... or indeed just some olive oil if it is too dry?

Trying roasted peppers at lunchtime. Good for colours and nice and sweet. Might be a bit too slippery though.

Sorry one more thing... she's 6.5 mths now, can I put some olive oil on things that I am cooking? I have steamed everything so far, but often I roast stuff for DH and me, so would be easier.

OP posts:
KnickersOnMaHead · 04/06/2008 12:12

Message withdrawn

LolaLadybird · 04/06/2008 12:33

I think olive oil is fine - I roasted some sweet potato the other day for DS (tossed in olive oil) a la Aitch's site but he didn't eat it so it ended up being pureed. (I also used to use olive oil in his bath and for massage when he was weeny on HV's advice so can't think it can be at all bad).

I've just given DS dry toast so far but I know others mash up things like squash etc to put on it as a spread.

Also, just a thought but are you sure it's the cows milk and formula that causes DD to projectile vomit and not the baby rice and something vaguely solid? I only ask because if I feed DS after a bottle and he gags on something too lumpy (this morning it was apple that wasn't pureed as smoothly as master would like!) he then vomits up all the milk with it.

Oh and liking the calm reaction to the gagging! I'm also trying to do the same with DS rather than whisking him out of the chair like a woman posessed! You'd think I'd be a lot more relaxed given that I've done all this with DD but I'm amazed how much I've forgotten in two and half years.

Tinkjon · 04/06/2008 13:22

Olive oil is absolutely fine.

helpafriend · 04/06/2008 14:22

what about mashed banana on toast?

i did blw with ds. i waited aaaaaaaaages for him to pick any thing up and then a bit longer for him to put it in his mouth. i think he was about 9 months before he ate anything solid. he just relied on milk until then.

Original poster
Fidgetsmum · 05/06/2008 22:41

Thanks everyone. Not much is going in, but she's giving it all a go. Today was broccoli (a firm favourite), cauliflower, pitta and houmous and banana! I felt a lot better trying new things after hearing your comments. So Thanks!

OP posts:
RGPargy · 05/06/2008 22:52

Oh i'm soooo frustrated!!! I really really want to do BLW but i've not got a bloody highchair and cant even afford to buy one for £15 from Ikea as we are just so broke this month!! I'm so frustrated!!!

Sorry, rant over.

WilfSell · 05/06/2008 22:56

just a quickie on the picking up thing, DS wouldn't for ages either, so I started handing him stuff. If I tapped him on the back of his fingers with the food (gently, obv ) he seemed to 'notice' it much more and work out that was what his fingers are for! He'd just reach out. He's still better like this at 9months rather than picking things up, though he will.

Worked for us, might be worth trying...

TinkerbellesMum · 06/06/2008 00:01

RPG, don't worry about a highchair! We didn't have one till she was 15 months. Do you have a car seat? You can put one on a dining chair. I used to use my wrap sling. Eating somewhere other than a table can also help, try having a picnic in the living room!

TinkerbellesMum · 06/06/2008 00:01

You could also post on Freecycle.

RGPargy · 06/06/2008 07:14

Thanx TinkerbellesMum. We dont have a dining table as such (we dont have the room for it in our dining room so it's in the conservatory and is used as a dumping ground).

Might try the picnic thing.

helpafriend · 06/06/2008 09:06

RPG - you can always just sit ds/dd on your lap if you haven't got a highchair. or just get a bit of material to "tie" him/her to the chair.

helpafriend · 06/06/2008 09:09

btw i totally can't work out your 37 week scan pic

RGPargy · 06/06/2008 09:42

Help - yeah i'm sure i will sort something out. I dont think DD is stable enough to tie on tho as she's not sitting on her own just yet so she'd be all over the place lol.

I couldn't work out the scan pic either when they first showed it to me. When they pointed out the features, i was like "OH WOW!!! "

helpafriend · 06/06/2008 10:01

oh if she's not sitting on her own yet she's probably not ready for BLW. ds didn't sit til he was 8 months which probably has something to do with the fact he wouldn't eat until 9 months. they say the gut isn't developed or something until they are able to sit and actually have the skills to pick food up and put it in their mouths. so 6 months is an average but some will be ready at 5 and others not til 9 like my ds.

RGPargy · 06/06/2008 10:18

Do you think i should hold off on the BLW for a bit then and just carry on with purees/mashed stuff??

I gave DD a bit of rusk while she was sat on my lap and she shoved a large bit in and a bit had broken off so then she couldn't get it out of her mouth and she started to panic and salivate excessively! I just spoke to her calmly and patted her back a bit and eventually i suppose she must have swallowed it! It did scare her (and me!) a little tho, so maybe she isn't quite ready.....

RGPargy · 06/06/2008 10:19

Oh i should add that she sits very upright etc but still needs support all the time, so she's not a total floppy rag doll, IYKWIM.

helpafriend · 06/06/2008 10:22

personally i would just carry on with milk until she shows more signs of being ready to wean but it is up to you of course. with ds when he wasn't sitting i could have just done puree but i wanted to do blw cos it made sense to me so i waited - but a lot of people would think 8-9 months was too long to wait. what do you think? you know her much better than i do!!

AitchTwoCiao · 06/06/2008 10:30

oooh, isn't the salivating cool? i think it's amazing what their wee bodies do to control their food. if they have a really bad gag BLW mums have noticed that they sick up a really mucusy puke, as if their body has instantly produced a lubricant to clear the obstruction. see, to me, that's BRILLIANT, and really comforting. and all stuff that you just don't get to know if you won't let them try finger foods. they really are capable wee things.

have you tried freecycle rgpargy? my friend gave away her highchair on there recently, i think they come up a lot.