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 everyone.
When he wakes at night he doesn't cry, no, he just complains / whinges / gets wide awake. I think I'll just feed him more, you're right, at the end of the day whatever gets him back to sleep is good (& I can knock those night feeds on the head very quickly in the future, tbh I think DS will just stop waking for them as he did before).
He also has a dummy problem Which doesn't help. He actually wakes for his dummy lots of the time.
Kate, we were also planning to keep him in our bed until he would consistently sleep until 6-7...but actually we thought he WAS doing so, it's just that this hadn't happened for that long. Maybe we should have waited, but tbh the co-sleeping hasn't been working out for ages now, DP & I are under pressure in many ways & felt it was definitely the right thing to do for us. The longer the co-sleeping went on, the more all 3 of us were getting used to it as an easy solution, & I don't feel it was doing any of us any good (including DS). I realize others do things differently, but for us this was the right thing to do. It's just- I'm so discouraged at the moment, I feel as if I'm not sure what the right course of action is.
As for the 6 or 7 am wake-up, generally I have no problem with that (it's what we're used to), it's just that I can't do it when being up all night. I guess I should start going to bed earlier...
Am just so discouraged, depressed, tired...you name it.

Sorry for hijacking the thread.

back to pureeing: chicken went down very well today.

Hope everyone else is ok...

Glad chicken went OK maria! I always make sure I am in bed by 10.30pm when I am having bad nights. Just do whatever it takes to get him back to sleep. It is when I feed and it doesn't get them back to sleep that it becomes hard. Also if they are waking an hour after feeding then it is obv not hunger. It is really hard, try not to get too down, just sleep when he sleeps. Does he have a good daytime routine? Can he settle himself to sleep? Have you tried taking the dummy away? We have been through this before on another thread - it would be hell for three nights but then he probably will forget the dummy. But that is easy to say and not easy to carry out when I know you don;t want to leave him to cry.

When I have done CC with mine I always just assume I am going to get no sleep for two/three nights and get a good book to read .

Maria S has a dummy at night and he used to wake us up for it loads. We now put a few round the cot so its easier for him to find one to put in himself and in the last month I've notice a dramatic decrease in the number of wakenings for his dummy. How old is your LO again?

BTW it will get better, I promise! You're right to do the right thing for you re: co-sleeping.

Glad the chicken went down well today, and Neenz so sorry that the tuna sandwiches didn't. Did they just play with them or chuck them on the floor? I'm sure I read somewhere that they need to have a food about 15 times before they can actually determine an active like/dislike. Failing that, you could give them some medised and do a bit of CC until they give in

I dont think this will apply to you Neenz cos I know you're made of sterner stuff, but I've seen a few mums lately at baby groups get really stressed out about what their baby 'wont' eat and from an outsiders point of view it look like they're not really giving them a chance. The mums in question seem really stressed out about food and if there LO wont wolf down the first few mouthfuls then they panic and start offering loads of different things until they eat 'enough'. It can't be promoting a healthy attitude towards eating.

I know its really easy for me to say given that DS doesn't really refuse anything, but I think the BLWers have a bit of a point when they talk about 'food being fun till 1'. Our babies will learn to eat different foods/textures etc eventually. And if they're getting enough milk and not losing weight not finishing some meals wont hurt them.

That's my musings on weaning today (which are just general, not aimed at anyone's own weaning dilemmas) I've been thinking about it a lot over the last few days after my stress about DS's weight.

I've thought about doing the CC to take away the dummy, but I couldn't bear the thought of the sleepless nights (like you I find it very difficult to function on little sleep maria) and I'm so glad he can just put his dummy in by himself now. I know we'll have to get rid of it at some point though.

ime the dummy removal only takes a day and a night - but maybe we were lucky. The earlier you do it the easier it is though like all these things.

Maria - I would get the cot sorted out as Neenz says and then research which sleeping method you're happiest with and do it consistantly. My ds was cc'd at 7 months and has woken literally 4-5 times in the night since- well apart from toilet trips iyswim (he's 5), my dd has had 'gentler' methods - pat/shh or pupd etc and is a much worse sleeper - this could just be in their natures though who knows.

hope you have a better night tonight...(am going to bed now - dd teething again and woke up last night)

(Bitofadramaqueen: he's 6 & a half months. Thanks for the tip. And thanks Kate & Neenz for your ideas too. Will discuss this on FB or other thread! Hijack over! I promise).

I was going to suggest putting loads of dummies in the cot too. This is what my sis did, and your DS will be old enough to do that soon maria if he is not already.

BDQ, I know what you mean about relaxing about food. I def need to do that and I think I have been getting there the last few days. The DTs are eating a lot better at the mo, I think it really is a case of expectation. They are sleeping really badly at the mo so I don't worry so much about the food cos it doesn't seem to be making a diff to their sleep anyway. I cut down from 5 to 3 BFs recently and started giving them finger food tea and now they are waking twice each in the night so I am going to reintroduce one BF and try to get more sweet potato down them at tea along with finger food! The tuna sandwiches were a bit of a disaster cos they disintegrated. DD got a bit of tuna in her mouth and her face was a picture - she def didn't like the taste! But I am going to try them again tonight cos I didn't use the whole tin last night so I have some left! But you are right about trying them again with stuff. I don;t mind so much chucking stuff away either now. You have to accept it's going to happen. They had tuna, sweet pot and butt squash for lunch and ate loads so that was very satisfying .

Hoping for a better night's sleep tonight [tired emoticon]

neenz - you can make little fishballs with the leftover tuna and some mashed potato - my dd loves them - in fact you could make them with tuna and some sweet potato - just combine it all together and then fry...mmm.

I give my dd some spoonfed food first and then some finger food - that way I know shes eaten enough.

and we're still on 4 milk feeds a day - dd very resistant to dropping the one midmorning which i thought would go quite soon...

Glad lunch went well neenz!

Like the idea of fishballs. What kind of size and do you need to bind them with anything?

I would make them sort of meatball size...

And no as long as the mash is cold they dont need binding - you dont want mash with anything in it like butter or milk though obviously as it will go too sloppy.

If you really wanted to you could roll them in flour and then beaten egg and then breadcrumbs - they stay together better like that and you can fry them in less oil.

I will try the tuna fishballs - thanks Kate. Not much tuna left actually cos they scoffed so much at lunch .

Please please please let them sleep tonight! They both slept through twice last week so I don't know why they have regressed so much.

Interesting that so many of us are having sleep problems... Neenz, maybe it's the fact that you reduced the bfs? Maybe you'll see an improvement when you add the 10 am feed again? Of maybe it's something completely different, e.g. teething. By the way, can I ask, do they wake each other in the night? e.g. if one is crying, does the other wake too?

So how often do you give milk feeds girls?

Here's our schedule as it stands at the moment:

6-7 am bf
8 am breakfast
9.30 (very rarely) brief bf before nap. Usually no bf
11.30 or so lunch (without a bf), just some water after
2.00 or 2.30 bf. Here I often use an EBM top-up as well as he seems very hungry
5.00 pm supper (again, no bf here)
6.40 pm BF & usually also a top-up (either formula or EBM)
11.00 pm or so bottle of formula (usually big one! about 230 ml)

So basically he's having 3 full bfs a day & 1 big bottle of formula at night. Is that too little do you think? Too much?

BTW Neenz, speaking of the face your DD pulled when the tuna hit her mouth... I LOVE watching DS's face when he tries new tastes. One thing he definitely has hated is papaya! And also- (for some strange reason) he doesn't seem to like Rachel's organic yoghurts (the ones with fruit).

What is sweet pot btw?

sweet potato

we are 9 months now and still stuck at the same place as ever:

6.30am bf
7.30 breakfast
10.00 bf
11.30 lunch
2pm bf
5-6pm dinner
6.30 bf

I think your milk feeds sound fine Maria...

oh yes yes sweet potato. The twins' favourite!! My DS's favourite is pear (by far). I'm kind of getting sick of steaming pears .

So Kate- from what I see you offer one more milk feed than I do (at 10 am).

Thanks kate!

Our routine (but different to you guys in that DS is FF)

7am - FF followed by breakfast (no gap between the FF and breakfast btw)
10.30-ish - yoghurt
12 - Lunch
2.30 - FF
5.30pm - dinner (plus finger foods and 'pudding')
6.45pm-ish - FF

Yes there may be one more feed but dd is hit and miss with the bf amounts to be honest - I get the feeling that she is just using it for thirst and comfort rather than food but its hard to tell isnt it.

I would say she is only having about 4oz per feed though and 4oz would be the absolute most - so nothing like the last big feed of the day for you so done worry about it.

Am going to drop the 10am feed soon as well and replace it with a banana or some such - am just going carefully because my supply really dropped off at this stage with my ds and want to continue for a bit longer with this one and just swap over to cows milk for the day feeds when she goes to nursery 2 days a week in april

The BFs the twins have seem small too (5 mins tops) - I think your milk feeds sound fine maria. At six months he should be pretty much having the same as what he was having before starting solids. He will probably have a bit less, but I would offer the same number/amount and leave it up to him whether he takes it.

They have had a great big bowl of sweet pot for tea so I am hoping for better sleep tonight. Last time I tried to drop from 5 to 3 BFs they started waking so yes it could be that. I am on same feeding schedule as Kate.

I did the fishballs and they went down OK - a bit slippery though so maybe needed a touch of flour or breadcrumbs or something. E seemed to like them best.

They have been fast asleep since 7pm so here's hoping for tonight.

The DTs don't wake each other at night cos they are in separate rooms. I could not cope if they woke each other!

I am just new to the world of purees and this thread looks great. Haven't had time to read all through it yet so forgive me if I'm repeating an oft-asked question.

Mouli or not mouli? That is the question.

DS has been on the usual 'starter' fruit and veg and is happily gobbling away. I want to start introducing other tastes and eventually chicken etc. I am following AK's book and she says you have to have a mouli for peas, beans, chicken etc. Is that right? I usually whizz everything in a Magimix so do I need to buy something else too?

Hi Arthymum, I never used a mouli. I never even really pureed food, I just mashed it, including peas and corn. Or put it through the food processor. Similar for dried apricots, I just boiled them and whizzed them. I think the mouli is a bit of a con really. And a faff!

Hope you find some good advice and tips here!

No mouli here. Unless you think you'd use it for normal cooking afterwards I wouldn't bother. I couldn't be bothered with the faff or getting the food processor out all the time so bought a new stick blender that also has food-processer type blade and a whisk and it's been brilliant. We use it all the time now for normal cooking and much quicker (and easier to clean) than the big food processor. It wont be too long until you can just mash stuff up anyway.

Oh, did we decide on whether dried apricots were ok for finger food? I will go back through the thread sometime soon for all the recipes and suggestions soon!

Do we think the fishballs could be frozen btw?

Oh Maria, if you leave your pears till they're really ripe you dont need to steam them - just puree them raw. After 6 months that's completely fine.

I don't see why the fishballs coldn;t be frozen if they are made fresh from scratch ie not with anything that had been previously cooked and frozen.

I think apricots would be OK but obviously be careful in case they bite big bits off that could be a choking risk? Not sure really, I haven't tried them yet but I might do today.

Hello everyone! I see I missed the whole discussion on sleep. I'm about to move dd into her own room. Then again, I've been about to do it for ages Just waiting for her sleep to be more consistent.

Maria, I am on the same bf schedule as Kate. I dropped the 11pm bottle nearly 2 weeks ago and dd didn't even notice! Having protein at lunch will help, as neenz knows!

Arthymum I used to sieve peas but now I buy petit pois, which are thinner skinned. I just mash them now. But I've been giving dd lumpy food for a couple of weeks now. She happily ate half a clementine today. Peeling them is a right faff though, but she really enjoyed it! Tastes like Infacol I reckon