Advice on BLW please?

[Starshiptrooper]

I really want to try blw with my baby. I know it takes a bit of patience and at first it's 'just for fun' but at what stage do they start dropping bf's? How many bf's will a 12 month old blw baby be on? (I'm trying to get my head round how it'll work when I go back to work).

my 9 MO DS is only just starting to drop milk feeds, the main thing is when do they learn that their hunger can be satisfied with food rather than milk. If my DS is really hungry he only wants milk, but if I time it ok he's hungry enough to eat solids but not ridiculously hungry enough to just want the immediate 'hit' of BM. By 12 MO they should definitely have got the hang of it though, and you will probably be only on morning and nighttime BFs - that's what I'm hoping, as then I'll hopefully going back to work and I won't need to express or use formula. Plus at 12 MO you can use cow's milk rather than formula.

BLW needs a lot of patience though, I nearly caved a few times as it's difficult not to get in a tiz about quantity and feeling like you should be makimg more progress. But now DS is 9 MO he is just eating what we're eating, and his puree-eating friends are having huge problem with lumps - so I'm so glad we stuck with it.

At 12 months my DS was still having a daytime feed (plus morning, evening and in the night), but if I'd gone back to work at 12 months, I would have prob gone for a cup of cow milk in the day rather than starting expressing then (FWIW he gave up his nursery EBM at 14 months).

Some babies get the hang of it straight away and shovel the food down from the start - DS was one of those and loved eating right away. He's 2 now, and has never been a problem with eating at all and will eat anything.

Thank you - I forgot they can drink cows milk at 12 months! Think I'm going to give it a go as it seems like a natural way to go about things. I have another question if anyone knows the answer; what's the deal with food allergies? I've read you should consult your hv if there's a history of allergies in the family if you want to use this method. I can't really understand why because you can surely just introduce things gradually in the same way you would with mush?

It will happen in his own time without too much effort on your part.

No need to do the one food a day thing, if you restrict the foods that are most likely to allergenic or are a problem in your family, you should be ok. Gill Rapley said in an interview that babies seem to reject foods that they're allergic to when they're allowed to feed themselves. From stories I've read on different BLW groups it seems to be true for most people.

That's interesting! Right, am just going to let her get stuck in when the time comes.

The allergy thing can't be tested, it's purely anecdotal so just make sure you add in a dose of common sense too

The allergy thing is really interesting! FWIW my DD tended to reject food to which she was allergic (tomatoes, strawberries, eggs) - wouldn;t touch them with a barge pole.

To answer OP - my DD was a puree baby until it went so wrong I did blw. She dropped her one feed (mid-morning one) at 9months and from then on had three feeds a day (morning, bedtime and post-lunchtime nap). At 16 months she has stuck to this nursing pattern.

I was watching a programme about senses and they were saying that the reason things taste different (ie five different types of taste) is so we can tell when food is bad or poisonous.

Yes, I'll be a bit cautious with the wheat and dairy, just because my nephew is allergic to these.

It's best to hold on with those anyway.