BLW - foods like shepherd's pie with their fingers. Really? I mean REALLY?!

[Tinkjon]

I know, I know, you can all chorus "it's messy - deal with it!" at me in unison... But I am just [shudder emoticon] at the thought!!

If he can take a cup? What about a straw?

well will persevere with a cup but wondered if mixing it in food might be easier / acceptable / possible / . Will he get enough food like that?
Its just that i find expressing a bit of a nightmare and thought if i could mix a bit of formula with food then he wouldn't want to replace bf with formula

give it a try, and remember there will be cheese and yog etc for calcium, nut butters (not peanut) for fats etc.

plus... a lot of babies suddenly find the bottle okay when faced with nothing else, so you might be okay yet.

And remember at the moment, when you at home with him, he can smell your milk, so you might find that when he can't smell you, he'll be a bit better.
A friend of mine had to leave the house whenever she wanted her dh to put dd to bed as she wouldn't drink bm from a bottle if she could smell her mum

PS re 'enough'... he won't starve in the day without your milk, although what he might do is feed all night to make up for it. i can see that you might want to avoid that, but it won't do him any harm is what i mean.

thanks all. he's 4 mths now and feeds all night as it is. he can sit up very well , is very alert /developed / never sleeps hardly ever!! and i am thinking of starting weaning a bit early to get a bit of routine. Its dh i think i feel more worried about

ps at 6 mths would they have 3 meals a day of slop / milky puree / with a bit of finger food and whatnot thrown in?

well, i do know of some babies who did blw 'early'. i've always been fairly convinced (as a non-medic, i must stress) by the thinking that if their outsides are capable then their insides will be too. it works for all their other developmental milestones, afaia.

so you could conceivably see what happens if you present him with some steamed carrot.

no idea about amounts, i never took any notice. it took us a while to get to three meals just cos i couldn't be bothered, though...

thanks Aitch, you're a really big help. I just think that if feeding takes all day then he won't notice i'm not there and dh is a chef so he'll love doing all the making stuff. ds just seems to want my cups of tea all the time, anyway, thanks again, i'm gonna give it a try at 5 mths i think

My ds was on 3 meals a day in just over a week. He loved his food before the dreaded teething. He'd have about 4/5oz of puree carrots and sweetcorn or mash and broccoli and then a pot of custard or something. He has pudding with every meal! But he has always been on 98th centile so needs alot of food

and boyblue did he have milk feeds with them aswell?

No, never gave milk at same time as solids. I looked at it like they should be completely different activities as the milk is still food. I wouldn't eat a shepherds pie and ash it down with a bowl of soup. That was my logic anyway

i never gave milk at the smae time either, littleboyblue. but equally i never fed dd solids if she was hungry hungry, iykwim, because by that time all she'd want was milk, quite rightly.

Know what you mean. I didn't think about it that much, just kinda took milk away without thinking it thru properly. Still don't know if I'll do it different next time though. I'm quite happy with our routine and feeding, just struggle with meal ideas at times.

When I started, I gave a milk feed to take the edge off, then about half hour later I'd try a few solids. Worked really well as neither of us were under any feeding pressure re solids. Gradually separated them more as the weeks went by. Now he seems to know what he needs- I can ask him, milk and if I get no reaction I say food. If he wiggles around and looks close to tears I know he's starving and needs broccoli IMMEDIATELY!!!

PS littleboyblue- have you been to the lovely BLW blog and forum, courtesy of the lovely aitch? LOADS of meal suggestions on there- it's been my saviour many fine day!

Don't think so. Mind's a bit all over the place, but don't think so.

thanks yeti... there are one or two there, aren't there?

i think it sounds like you've done a grand job, littleboyblue. he's enjoying himself, so are you, what's not to like?

Here's the links, for you to have a gander...

blog

forum

Thank you. Will look at it tomoz. X
Thanx Aitch, I get pounced on alot when I say I took milk away so eaarly, but did what was right fom him, I think

well from what i understand milk, formula rather than bm, is really just a very efficient way to get all the bits and bobs they need into them. so as long as those same bits and bobs are being replaced by something else (yog, cheese etc) in their diet then what's the problem? it's only more concerning if they're not, afaia.

i have gleaned this, by the way, from speaking to mums of babies with milk allergies (non-medical, remember?)

their dieticians seem to just give them a list of all the alternative sources of nutrients (and then they sigh and say 'oh bollocks, i wish my kid wasn't allergic to milk'.)

I took the BLW with ds right from the start. I used to just do food which he could hold easily. As he's got bigger (11mo) he now eats most stuff with his finger, including shepherd's pie, whilst waving a spoon in the air.

The one thing I have done, with particularly sloppy food, eg yoghurt, is load up a spoon and let him put it in his mouth. He has to take the spoon off me and then try to get it into his mouth. After five months of practice he's now reasonably accurate - although I agree about the double bib approach.

DS does end up with lots of food all over the place, including his lovely thick hair and my clothes, but it's all part of the fun. My advice is to get a dog - they are very useful at tidying up the mess .

I have another question.
Thinking about blw dc2, due in feb so got a while yet!
Too late for ds to change, so when I start weaning, do I still start on babyrice on a spoon? babyrice with their hands? or no babyrice?
Will have to google for a step by step plan of instruction!

no rice. just wait and give finger sized pieces of fruit and veg. it'll be handy for you, actually, because your other child will be well away with self-feeding by then. (say as an example, blw babies in nursery are on the toddler menu from the start, that sort of thing).