When to 'Up' meals?

[MrsMagooo]

Hello ladies,

I should know what I'm doing as I have a DD who's 2.6 but my brain has turned to mush lol!!

I started weaning my DS just under 2 weeks ago at just over 21 weeks, I realise this is under the 'guideline' age of 6 months but IMO he honestly did seem ready & he is loving his food.

At the moment he has breakfast (pear or apple mixed in with baby breakfast) & then lunch (so far have tried him on carrot, sweet potato, brocolli carrot & potato, apple & pear. (I make all the purees myself)

Anyway I digress - my question is when would it be ok to 'up' to 3 meals a day??

DS is enjoying his food, he eats very well & still has bottles (he also still wakes in the night to be fed hence we wondering when I can increase to 3 meals) but as I have started weaning before the guidelines I'm unsure as to when it would be ok to increase his meals.

Sorry for the waffle - any advice welcome

Yeah, Libra those links are very interesting... they seem to say that you should introduce lumpy foods asap (I agree) and that you should try to give your baby control over what it is eating so it learns not to eat too much (a plus point to blw!). The lumpy foods thing is still relevant to spoon-feeding though, and I think if your baby is putting on a normal amount of weight ie you are not overfeeding it then I don;t think you are going far wrong.

Wenceslas, it is not purees that there is research on but nutrition eg offering the right amount of fruit/veg, protein, calcium etc. If you let a baby feed itself you cannot be sure they are getting the right mix, although it is also difficult to ensure the right mix with spoonfeeding. There is loads of research into what people should eat eg not too much saturated fat and advice about what to feed babies is just an extension of that.

I know 2 babies who would not eat solids until 14 months. One survived solely on ff, the other on breast milk. So it is possible that during the first year of life milk is more than enough. After that first year they do gradually start to need nutrients from elsewhere. We start weaning at 6 months so by the time they need these other nutrients they are well practised at eating solids. Until they are one food is for fun.

neenztwinz, you do know that the most up-to-date UK govt advice recommends mashed food (ie with a fork, not pureed) at 26 weeks and to graduate onto finger foods as soon as the child can manage? so, logically, if your child can eat finger foods at 26 weeks...?

did someone really say earlier on in the thread that people who feed their children with purees and hear about BLW in response to problems they are having feel 'embattled'? ye gods. poor mrsjamin, she was very helpful and yet here you're all taking your hobbyhorses out for a trot.

to the OP, sorry about these hijacks, people have axes (and carrots ) to grind as you can see. be careful about the food being anything other than 'complementary' to the food, according to the World Health Organisation it's important that milk is the main source of nutrition until they're one year old (presumably regardless of how nutritious the carrot). oh, and steer clear of gluten until the 6-month mark. good luck.

I think that when lots of us talk about 'purees' we really mean mashed foods - my casseroles definately look like casseroles and dd has been fine with that from the beginning (ie 26 weeks) in fact she wont take anything less lumpy -she was chewing (not just gumming) toast and the like from the beginning as well. Its not BLW but some meals are all finger foods and others are a mixture of spoons and finger foods and thats fine with me.

I do think that the AK stuff is completely pointless though - the recipes are completely over the top.

It would be nice to have a proper convo somewhere on MN about this - with the pros and cons of each approach properly discussed - I personally know people who IMO do spoonfeeding badly and blw badly and others who do spoonfeeding well and blw well and thats the point isnt it - whatever approach you take you need to be doing it in the optimum way

tbh, i don't agree with optimums and good and bad etc, there's really just what feels right to each parent and baby, and who can argue with that?

GKS - what do you mean they do it badly? Do you mean what they feed their baby is bad for them?

Aitch, even though I can see where you're coming from, I simply don't agree that 'what feels right to each parent & baby' is always the best / more healthy thing for the baby. I can imagine various scenarios where parents are doing 'what feels right' but that it happens to be inappropriate / unhealthy for their particular baby. I'm not for a minute implying that BLW falls into this category, I simply don't know enough about it (even after reading Gill Rapley's book) to be convinced either way. I'm just saying that the 'what feels right' argument doesn't convince me...

no not really just that some people can get stuck on the first bit and it never really moves on to family foods - I think its because it needs just as much thought and planning but sometimes people dont realise that.

Just as some spoonfeeders just feed out of jars etc which I know am being judgemental but I dont think is great either.

Aitch - that I think is what I'm trying to say - to me it feels right that some of my meals are totally finger foods if what I'm having is appropriate and others (especially breakfast) are spoonfed because it is more practical for us - and I know nappyaddict that you have really quick breakfasts but I cant see how I could make that work- all tips appreciated.

GKS - how do you know I have quick breakfasts?

why not? what difference will it really make at the end of the day? i like blw, will deffo try it with dd2. but she may HATE it, so then i'll try spoon-feeding her. what's the biggie? none of this is religion. food's food.

a lot of what feels 'right' is cultural, so in the UK the culture is very much towards puree feeding (AK just got an MBE fgs, for persuading women that a pink grinder is essential to wean) and HVs are available for advice on same. they're going to mention to a parent feeding their child coke and bubble gum that this isn't appropriate nutrition.

i'm not going to argue with someone who wants to wean along healthy puree lines, so long as they#re happy. what i think happens a lot on this board is that people say 'little johnny won't eat lumps' and people who've done BLW (which sidesteps the lumps business) offer a solution. just one solution, that's all. how this is seen as 'embattling' puree-feeders smacks to me of over-sensitivity.

nappyaddict - i think we were on a thread where I said I didnt have time for a finger food brekkie and you said it would be quicker cos you didnt have to feed you and then dc? Oh god maybe it wasnt you - apologies if so...

Aitch - I think it can be seen as oversensitivity but its also about not being seen as child centred - that bothers people when they think they are doing the best they can...and granted that may not have been said to anyone but I think thats the feeling people get.

kate, i'd say well over 50% of people on my boaard do a bit of spoon-feeding and spoon loading, they still do blw imo. (for me, blw is the 'i will let him self-feed' mindset, but let's face it, that's just not always possible for everyone). it's a broad church.

the thing to remember i think is that it really doesnt matter if they eat what you consider to be a 'good portion' iykwim, cos they're supposed to be making up any deficit with milk anyway. so often if i needed dd to be somewhere on time, we skipped meals no problem and had oatcakes and a banana on the run. in fact, i think she was a good 11 months before she ate 3 square meals a day, and it was 13 montsh before she dropped any milk feeds. i was really happy with that, it worked fine for us.

i don't think anyone's said that, although if people start talking about distraction techniques and sneaking spoonfuls in (they haven't on here) then that does make me go a bit .

tbh the name imo does us no favours. there is an implication that it's impossible to be led by your child without doing it this way, which is clearly bollocks. i'd change the name in a heart beat. self-feeding, easy weaning, whatever, just not baby-led as it gets people's backs up.

Oh yes it was me. I do find giving DS toast for breakfast much quicker than when he has cereal though. Sometimes he even eats it in the car or buggy if we are running especially late for something

I think you're right about the name - self-feeding would be better.

and I can see where you're coming from - I have had two very different weaning experiences with my dcs - the first was too early (as was the recommendations then) but this one (now 8 months) will chew anything and try anything.

I do have a problem with the self-feeding and going back to work - I think it can be tricky with childcare if they are not on three meals a day - I personally want my dd to be on three balanced meals a day by 12 months because I dont want her having formula at nursery but thats a different kettle of fish entirely...

GKS - she doesn't have to have formula she can have normal cow's milk if she isn't going til she is 12 months.

nappyaddict - thats the aim but cows milk doesnt have everything she needs does it so I would want her meals to provide enough protein etc...and then I would just bf her first thing and before bed.

well if she doesn't get sorted onto 3 meals you can always send EBM - don't fret about it

I know - its early May but its already at the forefront of my mind all the time - having gone back once I know how knackering it is and am dreading it(and its only two days)...ho hum...

what is it that you do? if you are really dreading it do you have to go back? Is there any chance you could SAH a bit longer with dd?

Peace has broken out! Is it just me or is MN getting more and more like this now, where people just have their different opinions and accept each other without it getting into a slanging match? I like it

Aitch, if you are saying that most BLWers are not 'pure' BLWers at all, it seems to me you agree with me that pure BLW is not really all it's cracked up to be, because it is barely possible for a baby of 6/7/8 mths to get a decent amount of food in from what they can feed themselves, so most people offer some spoonfeeds because they do not want to be BFing every three hours. I love BFing and Bfed my twins exclusively but it is nice now they are older that they are eating proper food and are not so reliant on me.

Aitch, do you have a link to the WHO saying that milk is the main source of nutrition for a year? Like I said previously, I can well understand that breast milk could be the main source of nutrition as that is what is designed for! As for mashing foods, I for one never pureed anything cos I couldn't be bothered, I just mashed everything with a potato masher and that was fine, never had a problem with lumps, so 'puree' is just a catch-all word for food that needs to be fed with a spoon imo.

Also Aitch, you say move on to finger foods when they are able which I assume you mean 'just offer finger foods then' but what I am saying is finger foods are fine but not everything that is good for them eg spinach can necessarily be given as finger food and I want my DCs to have good foods like that so I will mash them into other foods eg potato and spoonfeed it to them. That to me is preferable to not giving them some foods at all until they can pick it up themselves.

It's not about getting a decent amount of food in though, it's about them learning how to feed themselves. That's my understanding of it anyway.
And I'm not trying to stoke up the fight-fire Neenz, but if your babies are spoonfed, they are reliant on you to feed them.

Why can't spinach be given as a finger food? Or mashed into something that could be given as a finger food?

I think 'finger food' is a misnomer for blw, as shepherd's pie wouldn't be classed as a finger food, but my boy can pick it up and eat it!