General chat thread for puree lovers!

[Neenztwinz]

Before I started weaning my twins, I read about BLW and thought it looked like an amazing idea.

When I tried it I found my darling LOs didn't pick up a single thing never mind get it into the mouths.

So now I puree food and spoonfeed them and they are eating massive amounts and loving it - and sleeping all night!

So I thought I'd start a thread for others who are doing the same as me - we can swap ideas for meals and say what works for us (ie what makes them sleep ).

I gave my twins four plums plus ebm and baby rice for breakfast and they have had a big bowl of sweet potato, haricot beans and brocolli for lunch. More of the same for tea (plus maybe some swede and parsnip). They are 6.5mths old.

What did yours eat today?

Well done neenz! Although be careful, you'll get short shrift on mn for daring to suggest anything other than purer than pure BLW

DS2 is 1 now so way past the first flush of purees. In fact he happily blwed me with a mix of purres and finger foods. One of his favourites was a carrot, lentil and chicken stock mush - literally all chucked in a pan and simmered for about 30 mins, mashed and spooned in. He still happily wolfs down his fruity porridge or weetabix of a morning and loves any sort of fruit puree. Another thing we found he loved was stuffed baked apple, just core a baking apple, stuff with any soft fruits, pop in the oven for 20 mins or so and it comes out ready purreed.

Other favs included:
parsnip, pear and pea
butternut squash and apple
lentils with anything
parsnip and carrot

I'm a great believer in doing what suits you and your babe whether thats purees, blw or a mixture of the two. I would encourage you to keep offering finger foods alongside purees though - well steamed brocoli and cauliflower are good starters. Even if they're just playing with it, that will be helping them develop the manual dexterity they need when in a few months you really will want them to start feeding themselves.

DS2 self feeds everything from roast dinners to spag bol but I still have to spoon in yoghurts, fruit purees etc, anything requiring a spoon - he's a lazy boy with his puddings!

can i make a tiny point about BLW?

if your babies cannot pick up the food, get it to their mouth and chew it, then they are possibly not ready for weaning anyway, and certainly not BLW...

horses for courses, but the point of BLW is it starts when the baby is physically ready to feed, be it 22 weeks, 26 weeks, 28 weeks or 30 weeks etc...

doing puree, BLW or giving finger foods and puree is absolutely fine. no-one should bollock you for choosing to wean with puree.

but BLW works when the baby is pyhiscally ready.

and of course , it is parental choice too.

Hi Lulu, isn't it just a theory that a baby is only ready for solid food when it can feed itself? It is an interesting theory and makes sense, but I would be BFing my twins every hour if they weren't eating food and that can't be right.

there are several indicators taht a baby is ready for solid food. victoriansqualor has posted some really good info and links about it

some babies feed so much more frequently than you could ever imagine. growth spurts are frequent. feeding a lot is normal .

i really don;t want to get into a puree V BLW debate. my point was that if a baby is physically able to self feed, then that is BLW.
that is all

True! If a baby can feed itself it is ready. But if it cannot feed itself is it necessarily not ready? I was just wondering whether it is theory or fact that's all.

Hi Neenz! How are you doing?

My DTs have been pretty much on purees although do eat some finger food as well (they are 10.5 months now though). Their fave foods at the mo are

Roast chicken with potatoes and veg
Fish pie (basically poached fish with potato and veg as well!)
Beans (mixed beans or sometimes the low sugar/salt baked beans) with potato and veg (do you see a trend here...) and cheese

They are now having it lumpy and seem very happy with it.

Also like sausage and mash whizzed up a bit with veg.

I do find if they eat purely finger foods they just don't eat enough, but I always give them finger food at snack time (fave is pears at the mo, also banana, mango etc).

kellymom has a good article about readiness for weaning, and the NHS weaning leaflet is good too

sitting unaided, good head control, pincer grip/ picking up food etc, & loss of tongue thrsut reflex are good indicators a baby is ready for solid food.

feeding more frequently and night waking are not

also, the NHS also recommends finger foods now

My DTs have always loved to pick everything up and stick it in their mouths, but would either gag and puke, or drop most of it on the floor.

Excellent thread. I'm stumped sometimes by what to feed for supper, I try to give a main meal at lunch (casserole and veg type thing). So far I've come up with cauliflower cheese and scrambled egg which go down well. Does anyone else think this is harder than looking after a new-born, or is it just me?

Hi all, thanks for the thread. I totaly take on board all info on blw but have decided to go down the puree route with my dd,we are only just strting at the moment my dd is 25 weeks and my question is when can I introduce chicken, turkey, fish etc? Can i just whizz some up on the magic 26 weeks and give it to her? Or does it have to be a bit slower thn that?

I have been giving her tastes for a couple of weeks and she seems to be taking too fruit and veg ok.

Liking the thread too, good idea to share exchane recipes and our worries etc.

So my Lo today has had Porridge with apple for Breakfast, tomato,beans and mince for lunch followed quark with pear and prunes with baby rice for tea

She has wolfed it all down and loved it.

QUESTION As she is now 6mths can i try her with anything as longs as no allergies in family except obviously salt honey etc.
Things are different here in Spain ie no meat til 8mths no cows milk at all til 12mths,,,

And when you use yogs which brand to you use looked in supermarket today and i couldnt find a natural yog with full fat milk all skimmed, In the end got baby danonino ones to be on safe side but they are made with baby follow on milk and have added sugar!

Oh and lulumama without getting into debate i too would like to know if a baby still has no pincer grip past 26 weeks and still doesnt seem to be eating anything when would you stop cause you can also wait to late to wean. Just something that i had been thinking bout

sitting unaided, good head control, pincer grip/ picking up food etc, & loss of tongue thrsut reflex are good indicators a baby is ready for solid food.

Paro we use Rachel's First Yoghurts (or something similar) for our babies as they are one of the very few brands that have NO ADDED SUGAR but are sweetened with fruit juice. They don't have them everywhere so not sure you would find them in Spain! I was using Yeo Valley whole milk plain yog and adding fruit puree but it worked out more expensive!

I started grinding up a little bit of chicken and fish at about 6.5 months and adding it to the veg mush.

With DS1 I waited until he was a year before giving peanut butter but with twins they got it much earlier as DS1 left his toast within reach. Various sources say different things on giving foods like this so I am not sure what the "official" advice is.

MadameCheese I usually give them the same kind of meal for both lunch and tea/supper! I used to give DS1 small sandwiches (philadelphia went down well) sometimes if I had no time to prepare anything, with some cucumber sticks or something, but obv not a pureed type of food! Cauli cheese sounds a good plan!

can you wait too late to wean? there is no 'window of opportunity' , historically , later weaning was the norm. some children won;t self feed until 8 -9 months and go straight onto eating normal food, chewing and swallowing chunks and lumps etc..if a child shows no interest in self feeding and has problems with fine motor skills then you would need to see HV/ GP.

it is not like a bell goes off at 26 weeks exactly and each and every child is suddenly ready .

there is a range of what is normal, and milk is the primary source of nutrition for the first year anyway, so even if a child does not eat much, they are still being nourished

if there are signs that indicate they are not meeting the milestons as you would expect, as far as fine motor skills, and gross motor skills are concenred, then you would seek medical advice.

i am not an expert, by any means, but i think it is eminently sensible that you look at your baby and know the rea;l signs of readiness for anything other than milk.

It's one thing to say that frequent feedings aren't a sign of being ready to eat and another thing to cope with that as a mother breastfeeding twins! Guidance is just that - guidance!

My wee boy is just on apple and parsnips or sweet potato at the moment but we're only one week in. I'm a bit concerned about introducing dairy in his purees as his older brother has a dairy allergy (And I don't want to pump every day!) so I'd love to hear favourite dairy-free recipes!

Thanks for that egg will have to search around a bit i think.

Re the waiting, thanks for input lulumama and agree that knowing own baby and signs are primary to weaning,

Anyhow I cant possibly imagine explaining BlW to a country that thinks veg should be introduced at 7mths, meat at 8mths, no cows milk at all til 12mths and lumps well certainly not til he/she has a full set of teeth!!!!!!!and is about 18!!!

When looking around a few weeks ago I found this site for weaning recipes if anyone's interested.

Not gonna get into BLW vs Puree debate here because all weaning threads seem to end up with exactly the same arguments. And the OP states this is a thread for puree lovers, not baby lead weaners.

Penguin agree with you, every weaning thread always seems to get into a debate and I just steer clear. Mush works best for us so that's what I do . I saw this was started by Neenz who I like so I joined in!

Great thread - adding to threads I'm on. Glad to see that milk is the primary source of nutrition until 1 as I think I may struggle getting my LO to eat anything! General Question: When my baby goes full time at nursery they give a meal at 4.30 but not enough to fill up on and they suggest that parents give a meal before baby goes to sleep but I will only get home around 6.30 and am worried that's a bit late. Any suggestions? Before/after bath? Should I just give milk at this time of night? Should I give a simple veggie puree or baby rice?

Thanks Egg . Hope the twins are well!

Amber, def before bath! They get into a right mess with food all over their faces. Something quick to make as they are likely to be quite tired. Just try stuff and see. Add lots of milk and baby rice to some veg and something starchy like sweet potato (I should have shares in sweet potato) so its quite filling.

I am following Patrick Holford's guidance on what to introduce when. He is a nutritionist (of GL Diet and Optimum Nutrition Bible fame) who I really respect. He says no meat till 9mths, but can introduce fish from 4-6 mths. Pulses, beans, rice, millet, buckwheat, quinoa, most fruit and veg also from 4-6mths. Oats, corn, barley, yogurt and eggs from 9mths, citrus fruits, other dairy and wheat plus nuts and seeds (but not peanuts) from 12 mths.

I think that is erring well on the side of caution, I think most HPs will say meat and yogurts OK at 6mths.

Flourybaps, I found introducing fish etc easier if you put it on the side of something you know they already like and sneaking it in with each spoonful. Then if they don't like it you haven't wasted all the veg etc.

Lulumama, you know I love you, you are one of my fave MNers and we are practically neighbours in RL , but you can't seriously be saying that even after six months old babies are only ready if they can pick food up themselves and eat it. Babies need more than just breast milk then IMO and in the experience of millions of mums. But yes it is a debate that always happens and perhaps we shouldn't get into it .

Theo picked up a bit of bread today - then dropped it on the floor! Esther is still not interested in finger food.

I use Yeovalley natural full fat yoghurt.

DD (6.5mths) today ate
Breakfast - porridge with apple
Lunch - chicken casserole (pureed chicken, potatoes, onion, carrot and swede) wih pea, brocolli and cauliflower. Followed by a little bit of mashed banana

Dinner -baby rice with pear

All her purees are really thick and gloopy now. Will start nashing next week gradually moving on to finger foods by around 7mths.

yum Pudding, I'm coming round to yours for dinner!

Pudding, that sounds yum.

Question about avocadoes - what do you mix it with and how much do you put in one meal?

Thanks neenztwinz this thread is really helpful. im finding looking at what everyone feeds their babies very helpful.

Have couple more questions if ok.
How much food shall I give dd at ech meal time? Shall i just give her as much as she wants?
How does everyones routine go? What times do you give food, milk etc?
My dd was on 3 hourly bottles but has dropped one bottle and there dosent seem enough hours in the day to seperate milk and food.

Our routine changes every day but generally it is:
7.30ish 9 oz bottle
9.00 til 10.00 nap
10.00 breakfast cereal and fruit
12.00 till half one nap
13.30. 9oz bottle
15.30 half hour nap (v hit and miss this)
16.30 veg and lentil puree and as much of 9oz bottle as she will take
19.30 9oz bottle and be

[stands up] my name is giantkatestacks and I am a puree lover...there I've said it

yesterday we had:

6.45 bf
7.30 quinoa porridge with fruit puree and ebm
10.30 bf
11.30 broccoli, swede and potato - about 4 ice cubes (from trays so quite small).
2.15 bf
5pm cauliflower and carrot, tiny bits of cheese and some non wheat spaghetti to play with - possibly three cubes
7pm bf

she also has yeo valley plain yoghurt with fruit purees and bananas and avocados - which i just smash up and dont add anything to btw, she can eat almost half a one at the evening meal.

am going to add chicken in a few weeks time I reckon when I am absolutely sure shes coping with it all.