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?

Thanks for the wise words GKS.

She's refused porridge, broccoli and carrot (which she ate previously). Perhaps my timing is all wrong. I only have bread in the house with seeds in so will have to get some white to offer her a bit of toast. Perhaps I should try some fruit also.

I was eating a banana this evening and she was very interested so I gave her a mushy chunk to hold. She did gum a bit off but pulled such a face. I don't think she liked the taste cos she isn't pulling faces when I am spoonfeeding her, just the tongue thing.

Bread - use regular brown loaf and cut the crusts off.

Yes, we spooned it in. My MIL did it and I was really annoyed with her. But when she left, I tried it too... We discovered he liked it, and so we gave him a bit of hummus to trick him and then a bit of carrot (or whatever). We haven't been doing hummus this week.
Iestyn seemed to like my sausage casserole more than the sweet potato - and that had worcestershire and mustard in it.

essie - lol at the worcestershire sauce etc- is the hummous and veggie sausage ok for salt though? mind you he's not eating that much of it I suppose.

Amberc - my dd loves the crusts the best - or maybe I do as they dont wad up at the top of her mouth like the inside bit can sometimes do.

Jingle have you got an hour between any milk feed and the solids - they need to be a little bit hungry so that they can eat but not so ravenous that they are going to get frustrated.

My dd hates jars - especially savoury ones. It can help sometimes to give it some enthusiasm - better with older babies admittedly but make sure you're eating when they are and give it some clapping etc. Well it will either help or you might get that 'mum, I'm embarrassed for you - will you just have a look at yourself' look.

It was the salt content that got me annoyed at MIL. It was Waitrose (so fine, then! ) and seemed low in salt. But like you say, he was eating hardly any.
Quorn sausage was also low in salt, but I picked a bit of casserole that was mainly potato and veg, and saved all the sausage for meeeee!!!

I give the DTs Allinson wholemeal bread and also wheat-free rye bread (that is quite hard though but I think some of it goes down!)

Thanks for casserole tips.

Amber, is there anything DS likes? I used to just mix everything with milk and baby rice at first so it tasted like milk. Pears and sweet potato (not necessarily together) were popular and they love butternut squash. I am sure he will get the hang of it. Is he wanting more milk feeds? Is he still sleeping through? Maybe he just doesn't need as much as you think yet? Just keep offering him finger foods as well.

I read in the BLW book that babies don't understand that hunger and eating are related so don't worry too much about making sure they are hungry before feeding them. Saying that, I always gave mine a milk feed an hour before solids cos I thought they weren't hungry enough if they had milk any nearer. Like a lot of things in the BLW book, just cos Gill Rapley says it, doesn;t mean it is true! (I love it that we can slag off BLW here without fear! )

Jingle was it the first time she's tried banana? I think my DS pulls faces whenever he has something new as it comes as a bit of a shock to him. He had a brocolli concotion the other day and wasn't happy, but he ate it all up earlier. You could try the banana again but mash it up with loads of milk, and then reduce the amount of milk next time etc.. Sorry, you've probably tried that!

On timings, I dont leave an hour between milk and solids but maybe worth a try if you haven't already. DS gets milk and breakfast 7ish, milk lunch milk between 11.30-12.30, milk 2.30, tea 5.30, milk at bedtime. He should drop the milk with lunch once he gets stuck into protein.

Jingle/Amber, the DTs went through a very depressing (for me) stage of refusing to eat. It was horrible, I was always throwing food away and they were not sleeping well at all! But as they got a bit older (8mo now) it all fell into place and now they are eating loads so hopefully it is just a stage for your LOs and all will be fine in a few weeks.

Hi there. this is my first ever post...! Just started weaning 2nd daughter on 1st Jan at, shock horror, 19 weeks after not getting a wink of sleep on Hogmanay and not for the usual reasons of excessive amounts of partying and booze . My wee one had slept all night after cluster (breast) feeding from 8 weeks, then she started waking up for food every 2-3 hours at 18 weeks. I gave her some rice mixed with breast milk (as I did for my allergy and asthma free 11 year old in 1998!) and have introduced different fruit and veg over the last week. Guess what? Sleeping all night again. Yippee!

She likes apple, pear, butternut squash, sweet potato, turnip, carrot (after a few attempts especially mixed with neeps which bodes well for Burns night!), baby rice and baby porridge, and she had apple and mango with a bit of porridge this a.m. which she devoured. I just peel (a bit young for roughage), boil with a little water then puree. I bought the little 50ml squares from Lakeland and they are about the right size for freezing. Sometimes one is enough, sometimes two. She is dying to help and takes the spoon at every mouthful. I also give her a 2 handled cup with a spout of boiled water to wash it down which she likes to hold and especially to pour all over herself.

She is sleeping 12 hours again. I don't think this is a coincidence a and baby, older daughter, partner and I are all much happier. I find the pressure put on new Mums to be 'perfect' and do everything by the book oppressive - follow your instincts because noone knows your baby like you do. I am just glad that I am not a first time Mum now; things were much more laid back a decade ago.

Neenz, it's not that he is rufusing things because he doesn't like them as once we actually get them in the mouth he eats them fine. he just won't open his mouth! He has never slept though so nothing has changed there and he has milk every 3 hours. He did open his mouth just now for lunch which Mark fed him. Perhaps it's just getting used to it and we need a breakthrough custard mument like Essie! One thing he can do though is drink from a spouted cup on his own!

PS am knackered which must account for all my vowels being replced by 'u's which i've just noticed. I can spell honist

vixen77 - 19 weeks? you're brave to admit that on here - I for one was really proud of myself for waiting til 26 weeks - my dd started waking up more at 18 weeks as well but it was definately developmental with us -she was learning to roll etc and so wasnt tempted to wean.

She eats far more enthusiastically than my earlier weaned ds as well...

ooh - just had success with yoghurt!

well done - you can add pears/apples/bananas to it and then reduce the level of yoghurt maybe - or add the yoghurt to veggies - as long as its natural yoghurt and not petit filous or some such - that would just be odd...

Well like Essie and her Banana custard, mine was Rachel's Organic raspberry so prob wouldn't go with brocolli!!

Hi everyone, dd is loving her purees and has been weaned for a month now! Tomorrow I am going to puree pea and potato and make some fruit puree for her.

Am I right in thinking that I boil the apple and pear in a little water until soft? Is it ok to freeze the same as veg?

I made spag bol last weekend and after 4 attempts she is still not too sure!! She is getting better so I will keep trying!

Don;t puree potaotes, they go really glue like! DS really likes peas boiled with a glove of garlic and then pureed with a bit of the cooking water.

Lauraloola if the pears are ripe you wont need to add water. Just heat in a pan for 3 or 4 mins.

On the potato front goingto.. - I pureed some with watercress and something else (cant remember, so not actually very helpful) and they were fine. I only blended them a little though - the puree is actually quite mash like IFSWIM.

Welcome vixen! We're a nice friendly open bunch on this thread, but watch out for some of the other feeding threads - they'd give you a hard time for weaning at 19 weeks. I suspect lots of people still wean early, but they're just not as voiciferous (sp?).

Amber hurrah with your success!

We gave DS leek and potato soup for tea tonight with some rice cakes. He was a bit confused by the rice cakes at first, but was soon grabbing them and munching away on them.

Well done on the yoghurt, Amber - Iestyn manages yoghurt (sometimes!) too.

We had another of the 3-hourly feeding nights last night, so determined to get some tea into him (lunch wasn't a big hit) I offered a variety. He eventually took banana and rice puree. He ate an entire jar (after a long pause halfway). Anyhow, then he had a bath, and as I was drying him off I called DH in because I was sure something was wrong - he was sort of breathing in a funny way and coughing. Nothing happened, so I bfed him both sides, and he finished, and was playing on the bed with me. I decided to wind him, so picked him up, and he vomited copiously. (ugh, banana vomit)

I swear he's going to bed on an empty stomach now.

Do you think it was the timing of the bath after feeding? Or had I forced it down?

LOL at vixen and her early weaning. Keep it quiet on the weaning boards.
Does anyone else have the devil in them? I keep reading posts on the weaning board like 'how can I get my BLW baby to eat more' and 'BLW not going well' etc. I'm desperate to respond 'try purees'...

at your 'try purees' Essie!

Sorry to hear Iestyn threw up. When you say you offered a variety - did he have a taste of lots of different things before settling on the banana and rice? Maybe something disagreed with him?

Not sure if the timing of the bath affects anything, but we do leave S about half and hour after tea before bath. That's because we're trying to get him to stay awake past 6.30pm though.

No, he'd refused everything. It was quite a struggle to get him to eat the banana rice.

He doesn't seem to be sick now, and he'd had a funny sort of day - up late (for him!), we tried lunch a bit later than usual and so he didn't take any, naps were odd to. Maybe he was tired and overstressed.

Oh, but I can't begin to describe the horror of the banana sick. I doubt I'll eat a banana again...

Thanks for all the tips! I offered DD porridge in the middle of her milk feed for the last 2 days and after doing the tongue thing to start with she has then polished off the whole bowl. I guess I keep doing it this way and wait until she starts displaying hunger between meals.

DramaQueen it was her first taste of banana. I guess I'll try some bananababy rice concoction at some point. That's got to taste nice surely.

Essie I hope your night was ok and your LO is ok. At least it wasn't broccoli sick

I have a question about yogurt....cows milk is ok in sauces (at 6 months) but yogurt is ok straight from the pot?

Can I just moan about OP on another thread.....No us puree feeders do not force feed our babies

Am too chicken to do it on original thread.

what thread is that? I always think its funny on mn how everyone says that you should do whats right for you and your baby (within the guidelines of course) but yet some ways are more 'right' than others - its all a bit Animal Farm for my liking...

saying that with my ds when I wasnt very clued up and he was too young to be weaning in the first place I think there were times when I used to persevere when he wasnt hungry

This time, having waited til 26 weeks, my dd is desperate for the food - and we're doing a mix of purees and finger foods and so yes the whole forcefeeding thing is annoying...just ignore.

Ha ha IamLeticiaDean I started reading that thread too! What I like about this thread is that it's non-judgemental. Off to puree some parsnip now...