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!!

Or do I stick with spoon feeding at lunch and he can self feed at dinner? Or does it really matter which? Maybe I should just leave everything the same until we do start sitdown dinners all together.
Oh I hate this thread!!!!!

I don't really hate it, there's just so many different ways and now I don't know what to do!!

just do whatever you want. which sounds like a mix, which is FINE.

Hey Aitch, I will. I have decided once and for all what I'm gonna do and not asking anyone else for more advice coz if I hear anything else I think my head will explode!!
Just gonna carry on aS I've been doing it but give him sandwiches etc to play with so there's no pressure for him to eat them right now, this way it doesn't change his meal portions too much and doesn't change his routine.
That's it!! Dc#2 will prob be blw though

"Today I'm going out for lunch and have made him some peanut butter sandwiches which I'll give with cucumber on the side and he can play with that while I eat my lunch, if he doesn't eat it I'll give a jar after and if he does eat it, I'll offer half the jar and some fruit.
Sound ok?"

Sounds fine

I would try self feeding at the beginning of both meals and then if he doesn't eat anything or doesn't eat much you can offer some mushy food.

You've probably given him his peanut butter sandwiches already but tbh if he self feeds what you give him i don't think you need to give him half a jar aswell. that will probably be filling enough. and don't worry about under/over eating. a baby will never starve itself or eat when it's not hungry. they're cleverer than we give them credit for sometimes.

Hiya nap, I did give him his sandwiches and stuff, he didn't eat them so just have to stick with it and see how it goes.
The thing with the not eating if not hungry etc, if I gave him a jar he'd eat it all and anything different he doesn't want.
And prob shouldn't say this, but I completely forgot to give him his dinner! I only realised when he was in the bath before bed. But he wasn't grouchy or anything, so he'd had a bit of food at 12, then nothing till 7:30 bottle! Whoops!

it is a bit different for you cos your ds hasn't yet got the coordination to put food in his mouth. it's not that he doesn't want it but that he's not sure what to do with it. after a bit of playing around he'll realise what to do and start getting the hang of it. once he does know how to get it from his hands into his mouth if he refuses it you'll know it's cos he's not hungry. the other day ds wouldn't eat much of his lasagne - we were in a rush so i spoon fed him. 2 mins after finishing he puked it all up. he was obviously full when he stopped eating but because i was doing the work for him he decided he'd eat a bit more. in that sense with blw they won't under/over eat. what they don't eat much of one meal time they will more than make up for the next meal time but they won't starve in a few hours.

oh and the reason he wasn't grouchy when you didn't give him his dinner is cos babies and small childre need remarkably little food compared to what we think they need. we are conditioned to eat 3 meals a day cos of society. i know most days i'm not hungry for 3 full meals and if i'm at home i won't eat them. however if i'm at work i will just because i have a lunch break and a tea break but not because i'm actually hungry for them. babies don't know that it is "lunchtime" or "dinnertime" all they know is whether they are hungry or not. adults tend to look at the clock, say oh its one o clock i'll have my lunch now. babies wait til they actually feel hungry. sorry i'm waffling. that's probably as clear as mud.

No, he can get food in his mouth. He has finger foods and things like cucumber, carrot, tomatoes, breadsticks, rusks, cheese, bananas the list goes on..... There's no probs with his hand-eye thing or his big old mouth, that's all fine. I'm just panicing about our new arrival in feb I think and wondering how I'll manage forgetting that we have plenty of time and new baby won't be here tomorrow!

oh sorry you said he couldn't get a spoon in his mouth not food. oops!! so he ate the cucumber you gave him just not the sandwiches? did he have a taste at all? perhaps he just didn't like the taste? has he had nuts before? there is a theory somewhere that babies won't touch foods they might be allergic too so at a bit of a long shot perhaps that's why he avoided the peanut butter?

He'll eat peanut butter on toast or off my finger so he not allergic, think he doesn't like the texture of bread. He tried it, got it in his mouth and pulled a OMG face and gave it back to me. That was cute, he just kinda held it out like, please take it away!

I actually find the gagging bit too scary.

Hi. Ds used to gag quite a bit, but can normally sort it out himself. I have held him upside down once and given quite a firm bash to his back, but all was well.

oh right so he did attempt to eat it - he just didn't like it. the fact that he attempted to eat it shows he was hungry which was why he still then ate the jar of food. the joy of blw is finding out what they do and don't like. i gave ds a bit of marmite to try once on some cheese and he liked it so i decided to do him a marmite sandwich. i think there was too much on it cos his face was a picture.

ps how about doing toasted sandwiches if he likes the texture of toast but not bread?

I tried that but toast tend to go hard as it goes cold. Also tried naan bread which worked well but can't find the little ones and I tend to est them all myself!

what about pitta bread?

Didn't go down too well either. Bit hard? He's only just got 2nd tooth, felt a bit bad when he had just the 1 as that tooth was getting battered!

did you give him the pitta bread cold or did you warm it under the grill?

btw asda sell those mini naan breads on the curry counter.

I dropped pitta in toaster but then the going cold thing.

hmmm i've never toasted them. i warm them under the grill til they are slightly warm to touch. never had them go hard. maybe try that?

well, since i blw'd ds3 through laziness and exhaustion more than anything else, i really cant rememvber what i gave him. but as hes by far the tidiest eater now (at 2.5) out of my 3 boys, i think the mess then was worth it. he was eating soup off a spoon by himself at 12m fgs!! either hes a fucking genius or theres something to be said for letting em learn by themselves...

Worth a go. I'll give it a try on sunday. He having a bit of cheesy pasta tomorrow, see how that goes.
Maybe my pitta's were a bit stale then? I don't think so though as am quite over keen at throwing stuff away if it been open more than 2 days

Amphibimum, I'm def doing blw next time!

You there nappyaddict?
I cooked up some pasta and mixed with tom puree and cheese, tipped it on his tray, got us both a fork (don't know what he's done with his) but after I ate half, he started digging in and is having a right old go! Most of it's round his lewgs, but he trying. I'm so pleased.
I warmed a jar of food too so there's no pressure for him to eat what I've made and although all the pasta now gone off tray think most of it is littered in the seat so will offer him the jar too.
Should I still follow up with his custard pudd?

OMG, he even eating the broccoli, I've just fallen down in shock!