All those who did not do blw

[littleboyblue]

I weaned at 5.5m and started on babyrice and did the whole puree thing. I'm getting ds to eat on his own now and been speaking to people who did ble and have been given some great tips and advice.
I am thinking I'll prob blw dc2 (who is not due to be born until feb, but I like to forward plan )
So, if you did not blw, why not?
I'm not being critical of anyone's choices I just want to weigh up the pros and cons of it all.

We sit in both camps. Weaned DD at 6m as per annabel Karmel. She could not get enough She had been ex BF until then and was very ready for solid food. We progressed to BLW by accident. I had read Aitches blog on here and loved the idea so at 7m when we were out for lunch with Granny and Gramps I gave her a piece of Broccoli after her mush. She loved it. We had one incident where I got over confident and she got some mango stuck but after that she was away.

But that was DD. Every Child copes differently. There is a boy at Nursery the same age that has only just progressed to lumpy puree and he is 18/20m.

She eats soup, yoghurt and porridge by spoon even now - that is how you eat it. Difference is she does some of it herself and some of it I do.

I've always tried to give a bit of finger food with each meal too, so he can do it.
The reason for changing ds's eating now is that I personally feel that 2 size 3 jars is just too much and too heavy. For lunch this past week he has had pasta/sandwiches/crackers which he hasn't eaten too much of so I have increased his formula and he now has some with lunch whereas he didn't with jar IYSWIM.

From reading all these comments, will prob stick to a bit of both, and prob with dc too. But in a year when it time to wean dc2, I'll prob have changed my mind!

LOL at "rah rah rah", rapunzelle

The feeding side of BLW is far less work but, for me, and the way my family eats, the preparation side is far more work than purees.

I also feel like claraquitetirednow, that I want to know that DS is getting some food in him. I know that everybody says food is fun until they're one but

I have done both. Depends on the baby IME. Some babie slike being spoon-fed and prefer to start off with puree food. Other babies like to feed themselves and will try anything. I suppose at the end of the day its all BLW as long as you do what your baby seems to want.

I did it for 24 hours then figured it was way too much of a faff and went for a combination of spoon feeding +/- finger foods until ds decided that he didn't want to be spoon fed at about 11 months.

I didn't do it because I thought it would stress me out too much. I liked the idea of it and did some reading but as it comes down to trusting your baby to eat what they need I thought it would cause me too much worry (bit of background - I had lots of problems breastfeeding and my son lost weight and I had lots of anxiety over it). Purees seemed like the "normal" way of doing things and I thought I'd get more support from HVs and books.
He's 8 months old now and a great eater. Most of his meals are spoon fed but he usually has a chunk of fruit for pud. And sometimes whole meals are finger food - today for lunch he had pitta bread with hummous and bits of veg, followed by strawberries. BLW has given me the confidence to start him earlier than I probably would have with finger food (I started not long after 6 months) and not to freak out when he gags.
I'll probably do the same next time round. I like the reassurance of knowing that he's had a proper meal from a spoon, then can just have a play with finger foods.

I found blw far to stressful for me, SIL had to give ds1 toast etc as I was too much of wimp (long story).

So with some great advice from mn am striking a happy medium between finger foods and purees with ds2. he's 7.5 months and a great eater. To start with we gave him purees and baby rice then small (little finger nail size) pieces of toast that I showed him and popped in his mouth, then moved on the thin toast soldiers. Now I make purees and mix them with fork mashed veg/potatoes that we are having for tea or add some chicken or flaked fish. He's also now having yoghurts with fruit pieces in with no probs.

hth

Would defo advocate getting a steamer/blender and making your own. SOOOO much easier than bottles/jars, much more staisfying too and very easier to jsut whizz up whatever we're having (when suitable)

Hi Pheebe
I have a blender and was making home cooked, but he went off it and it was easy to use jars as he'd eat it. Now it's working out quite expensive and we have dc2 on the way and want to make sure everything is as easy as poss with 2 lo's under 2!
At the mo, he is now having most meals self-feeding apart from breakfast, but if I'm out I'm spoon feeding.

I've made loads of the annabel karmel recipes and ds will eat them but seems to much prefer jars of food I don't think my food is that bad but obviously he likes the smoother consistency of bought puree. sigh. I gave him mushed up weetabix today but he's still not impressed with lumps (he's 8 months)

Actually, I have a question (sorry to hijack!). How much solids is it normal for babies to eat? I still try and give ds 4 bottles a day so he's getting 27-30 ounces milk a day. I then really can only fit in 2 solid feeds. He will sometimes eat 2 bowls of porridge and a petit filius for breakfast but then sometimes only half a bowl and suck on a piece of toast. Whats normal? Am I giving him too much milk?

Although I think I know the answer - no such thing as normal!!

They are all different and I think you have to find out what's right for your ds. Mine at 6 months was only having 2 bottles and at 7 only 1, and although they should have more than what he was/is having, I did what I thought he was telling me to. I think they should be having about 20oz a day, but I think you have to do whatever you're happy with.

They are all different and I think you have to find out what's right for your ds. Mine at 6 months was only having 2 bottles and at 7 only 1, and although they should have more than what he was/is having, I did what I thought he was telling me to. I think they should be having about 20oz a day, but I think you have to do whatever you're happy with.

I am not doing BLW with my DD who is 6 months now. I do offer lots of finger foods though. 90% of the finger food goes straight on the floor and gets wasted, 90% of the pureed food gets eaten. Seems a waste to me. Also she much prefers the pureed food and gets fed up after a couple of mins in her highchair if she only has finger foods. She wants her food and wants it now! lol. She hates waiting around or having to "suck" it to get anything.

I just like to be able to give my DD a mixture. Yes I would like her to be able to feed herself with finger foods etc. BUT I would also like her to be able to eat off a spoon.

Because it would have been too much hassle for us. The food that dh and I were eating at the time would not have suitable for a young baby. I prefered to make something with no salt or nasties in etc.

it wasn't the 'in' thing whe i weaned. i did purees at 4 months as per the advice then and they did wonderfully well and were eating cheese o toast with their fingers by 7 months or so, so kind of blw. and ds2 could feed himself with a spoon at 8 months.
they are both eaters now-not picky at all and very enamoured of veg and fruit so i think i did ok my way!

it's all fashion.

in a couple of years it'll be something else.

Same as TMMJ here...the term blw didn't exist when DD1 (12yo) was a baby. We did purees at 4mo and finger foods at 7/8 mo.

I've done the same with all of mine and DD1 is a great eater, DD2 (2.10) is as parky as hell and DS (10mo) is the best out of all of them, he never refuses anything .

Try not to get stressed about weaning. This who blw thing confuses me. Maybe because it's new fangled and I'm old but I would advise to try whichever way you want and just adapt it as your baby dictates...if they love purees off a spoon give them it...is that not blw aswell?

Similar to tmmj.

Feeding a 3 year old and a baby at the same time can be ridiculously time consuming and can test the patience of a saint ime.

I have 2 ds - 4 and 11 montha and still ahven't got a clue what blw is! Purees with me and have 2 great eaters

I don't even know why I opened this thread as I have done BLW with DS, with great success, he's loved it.

But I would say if it's quick and easy you are looking for, with BLW a meal is much much slower I think. Most of my friends did purees and several of them tried moving on to finger foods but fell back on purees because they felt their DC were not eating enough. With DS, he always ate loads, but we had to allow at least an hour for meals, especially his main meal. My friends who did purees were obviously spooning it in themselves which got a meal down them much quicker, which is why they thought their DC were not eating enough with the finger foods I think.

I do highly recommend BLW, especially for eating out, it's very sociable, and it makes me smile when I get faces from waitresses when I order side of veg and children's pasta or whatever for DS aged 13mo, and have done so for months.

But the speed thing worth bearing in mind if that's important to you.

I hadn't heard of it when dd was weaning.

I would give it a go with hypothetical dc2 though. I hated faffing with blenders and ice cube trays but I perservered with them as I found jars tasteless and sludgy (although handy at times admittedly).

I was bought an Annabel Karmel book for Christmas by my MIL (!) and started weaning DS at 5mo very slowly. Chose that route mainly because I just didn't trust the concept of BLW and I didn't think it would work.

I have changed my mind now but I still think I would have done a 50/50 sort of approach rather than completely blw. Mess doesn't worry me tbh and I let DS, now nearly 10mo get a messy as he likes and he's a pretty good eater generally. He's good with finger food and can handle quite chunky textures now despite the fact he's still toothless!

I have to say I enjoyed the cooking and blending malarkey. I have weekend cooking sessions and I like the idea that meals are only a trip to the freezer away. I am starting to give more of what dh and I eat now.

My only grip with Annable Karmel is the amount she says they should eat! DS must eat about half of what she claims and is still happily on the 75th weight centile!

I didn't set out to do it because, like others, I hadn't heard of it. But ds1 didn't like being spoon-fed so after a couple of weeks I was picking bits off my plate and putting them on his tray for him to feed himself. Which is blw, isn't it?

I'm about to start weaning ds2. He is nearly 7 months but was premature. The look on his face says he'd love some food, but he doesn't have the muscles/co-ordination etc to sit up and pick things up and put them in his mouth. He does grab things and shove them to his mouth but its all very inaccurate. Not sure how to blw a baby who is developing at different rates (his head and stomach are ready I think but his back and hands are still catching up!).

So I'm thinking I'll feed him some puree, and chuck some food on his tray as well, and see where we go.

It'll all be history for me this time next year.

I don't need a Feeding Programme (tm) to feed my children

I just errrr fed them

Thinking about it, with dd I weaned her at 4 months with purees. By 7 months we were doing finger food. With ds1 I weaned him at 7 months with finger food. So basically I just skipped 3 months of faff with a blender. Result!

what Bundle said