BLW - Please help before I give up.

[LuckySalem]

Hi all,

I'm trying my hardest to persevere with BLW but my god is it depressing when you cook them a nice meal and it goes on the floor.

I bought some puree stuff to take with me when we go out and ended up giving her one this morning for breakfast (sweet potato and carrot - really not breakfasty)

I have a problem in that we don't eat very healthily so its hard to make something healthy for her.
Also I just dont know what to make (and am crap at cooking)

This is what we've tried.

Breakfast - She's had eggy bread, toast and small amounts of an english breakfast (except sausage)

Lunches - Slices of bread, Jam butties

Dinner - Chippy dinners, roast dinners (at a carvery), cottage pie (my dad cooked) chicken and veg.

Its just really hard when she picks it up and throws it on the floor. I just don't know what to do - I know she should still be relying on her milk but I've heard about babies of her age (6 months 2 weeks) cutting out a bottle (which today we've managed to cos she slept through it) and eating proper dinners and alsorts. I can't help but think its my cooking (or lack of) not helping her.

Please help - or tell me it'll get better soon?

I think I probably need to work on my cooking - I've done steamed veg for her but she just sucks on it abit then throws it on the floor. The only thing i've ever seen her finish was the cottage pie that dad made and I think that was cos I put some on the spoon then gave her the spoon instead of her picking it up herself IYKWIM

she's 6 months and two weeks? then she's doing exactly what she should be doing with blw...ie sucking stuff, and throwing stuff on the floor. it's all ok. what or who are you comparing her to?

with regards the cooking thing. go to the library and get some children's cook books. seriously. dead easy, pictures for each step, nothing complicated.

it doesn't have to be complicated anyway. eggy bread is fine for breakfast. what about fresh fruit with yoghurt poured over it? that's easy too. and for lunch a sandwich is ok. try cheese, cheese spread, tuna mayo. and then for dinner you can roast some veg, again very easy. chop the veg, pour a little oil on top, maybe sprinkle mixed herbs on top. bung in the oven for about 45 minutes. lovely juicy sweet veg.

one of the good things about blw is that it does make you think about your own diet. think of it as making nice stuff for you to eat, and she can have little bits, rather than it being about you making special things for her.

Ok - I'll see if I can find my library card (god knows when I was last there! lol)

Would it be ok to give her some of what we have and then give her a pot of puree after (or half?) I often give her dinner and then pot of plum custard (again heinz) for pudding. Could I carry on doing this and then give her whatever she wants for brekkie etc? (kinda like stella)

I didn't know they cold have cheese now or tuna () lol Looks like i'll have some more stuff I can do then.

slices of cheese
batons of cucumber
sandwiches
chunks of fruit
steamed veg - broccoli, mange tout, sweet potato, baby sweetcorn, green beans, carrots, courgette.....
for breakfast try mini shredded wheats soaked in a bit of milk

DS didn't drop a bottle for ages, don't worry about that.
Try putting one or two bits in front of her at a time, so she doesn't feel overwhelmed and sweep the whole lot on the floor.

why are you wanting to give her the puree after? you absolutely can, but you don't need to. i think you probably don't have full confidence in blw and are maybe expecting too much of her at her age. i mean that in a nice way

pudding can be anything you like really, but no need to physically feed her it. a banana is a blw meal, as is cheese on toast.

this doesn't mean you should never physically feed her, just that there is no need to.

at 6 months they can have anything except honey and whole nuts. and they shouldn't have too much salt. so no ready meal type things or adding salt to cooking.

it's a shame to have to persevere with blw as you say if it isn't something you're confident with. it's early days, no need to persevere. do purees if you're more comfy with it. or do puree plus finger food, or just go with the flow with blw and see how it goes over the next month

It's not that I don't trust BLW - well I spose it is abit. It's just she doesn't seem to be getting much in there so I feel that I should "help her". This is probably wrong I know and that with her being so young I should let her get on with it.

I spose I just want to make sure that she's getting at least 1 full meal a day.

Remember - food is for fun until they are one - milk is the main constituent of a baby's diet.
I struggle a bit too with BLW and I do spoon feed a bit - mainly cereal and yogurt though I often load the spoon up and allow ds to feed himself.
Every baby is different so try not to compare your baby with others.
Have you been to Aitch's BLW Forum?
Lots of great advice and experience on here - and lots of older BLWers who can tell you how their los started off.

what is making you think she needs full meal a day though? and what would you consider a full meal? seriously for a lot of people a meal for a blw baby aged 6 months and 2 weeks would be a mouthful of banana, maybe a bit of toast and a lick of a potato.

you fill them up with milk, not food. you don't try to get food into them. you just put it there and they have it if they want it. 6 months and 2 weeks is nothing at all. lots of babies show no interest for months.

the only thing you make sure, is that she has plenty milk. she leads the food bit

My DS is a week older than yours and he's just about getting the swallowing bit. Remember to have fun and it's not about quantity, it's about them learning how to eat, what foods have different textures, flavours, how to pass food from one hand to the other, how to move lumps around the mouth, so many things! Once they have learnt this they will be going great guns. I am loving BLW this week but last week I was getting a bit tired of it all going on the floor - now I have the opposite problem in that DS doesn't seem to know when to stop eating and seems like he'd just keep going if given half the chance! It makes life so much easier if you stick with BLW, you just need to trust 'nature' if that doesn't sound too tree-hugging to you!

Ruddy - I have no idea why I think she should be having one proper meal a day. Maybe its the waste? I mean like one meal where she eats at least half of it.

ok. so it's not waste then if you make something for you, and she has a little bit of it. don't make her special things at all. no waste, no worry for you, plus you eat better.

Luckysalem - I had a similar dilemma recently cos I compared my DS with a puree fed baby and also older BLW babies and if anything my DS seemed to be demanding more breast milk...Anyway I posted on Aitch's site, got some support (and a gentle telling off!). At 8 months my DS wolfs down most things you put in front of him and expects titbits of everything I eat. She will get there, have faith!