BLW vs purees - or a mixture? Clueless!

[CherryChoc]

My DS is not quite 4 months yet so I am really just musing at the moment but I'm not really sure what we will be doing come April, when he gets to 6 months.

I know the basics of BLW - that it is giving them finger foods etc instead of mush for months, and it seems to make sense as I can see the puree route is unnecessarry now we wean later, but do you have to do one or the other? Or does BLW involve giving a bit of mush (ie roughly mashed up food from messy adult meals like shepherd's pie or curry) as well? And if it is so messy (I have heard you need to buy lots of shower curtains) how do you manage in public/at other peoples' houses?

I am lazy so the path of least hard work would be best for me - I was hoping we could just give DS bits of what we were eating without having to mess around with blenders and things - but then I gather there are things you have to avoid like salt (in cooking water for vegetables & pasta - really??) is there a list anywhere? Are herbs allowed, and strong tasting things like curry or chili? A friend's DD eats curry sauce with mashed potato but it is one of those cook with baby heinz curry sauces. Obviously if we had a takeaway or something really processed one night I'd have to find him something else to eat (although at what age is processed/takeaway food acceptable?)

My NCT friends - one had her baby premature and another has started weaning early - swear by the Gina Ford weaning book. I quite like the sound of how it tells you what to feed them each day (Despite being hideously disorganised I find timetables have a novelty value) but being hideously disorganised, shopping tends to consist of DP buying a load of rubbish from Lidl we only just manage to fit into the fridge/freezer (and barely any fresh veg) or me doing a Tesco shop about once every 2 months, so the likelihood of having sweet potato or baby barley or pears in the house is not very high - except for the fact I know if we are going to be eating with DS we need to forget the processed crap/ready meals/takeaways for a bit and cook from scratch which I am perfectly capable and willing to do, if I can only remember to do the shopping

Is there an example (in a book or online somewhere) of the kind of things (including amounts) a BLW baby would eat at say 6 months, 7 months, 8 months, up to when they are on solids full time and milk is just a drink?

First of all, forget the shower curtains, I tried that, but they didn't clean in the washer. Table cloths, on the floor and then you can hand bits back for less waste.
When we eat out, I get him drier/less messy food, and at home he has messier food for dinner, then it's straight in the bath. At the pub, for Sunday dinner, we just scoop the bits off the floor up and wipe down the highchair.
We are eating loads better now because we're BLW, I'm off to cook us a curry in a mo.
As far as salt goes, you can add it to your food when you've served it up, and you get used to less salt which is a good thing.
You'll need to cook healthy when they're bigger anyway, so why not start now?

I've been doing some reasearch now and I think I get the idea a bit more but am still a bit unsure - I like the idea in principle but I'm still not sure how it would work in practice - do you just give your little one a smaller plate/bowl of what everyone else is having? That's what I meant by a list really - maybe someone who is doing it could give me an example of what their whole family eats together during an average week? I guess jar/packet sauces are out as well?

And just a couple more questions (sorry!) - do you still breastfeed them directly before a meal? (How do you time that - my DS is rubbish at bf if he isn't hungry) and also, what is it that's wrong with conventional weaning techniques - I understand they're now unecessary as they stem from earlier weaning, but is there actually something damaging about "here comes the aeroplane"? My mum did that with me and my sister and we don't have any food issues and aren't fussy eaters at all (though we were when younger).

I think I will order this book on amazon (there seems to only be one) as I am a bit confused!

It's not an either or thing and both methods are equally valid. We personally started on spoons at about 5.5 months(yes, I know...early but I was told this was a good idea by apàed cos he was born 4 weeks early....anyway) he didn't take much for aaaages and then after a while got funny about spoons so we switched at about 8 months.

Why not have a look at Aitch's BLW blog an d forum for help about what to give as first foods.

We were similar to you that we ate crap before DS was weaned but it doesn't take much to get organised and I find it easier to just make things the baby can eat at the table with us, you can just season later if it's salt and they can eat spicy things too. We had lightly spiced morrocan chicken the other night and DS loved it. As far as a takeaway is concerned, we would have that in the evening, say 8pm or later and DS has "tea" at around 5pm, so we can eat non baby things too. Tea for him is usally a repeat of lunch or fruit perhaps.

I found you soon get into the habit of shopping more often and I'm feeling much healthier and eating much better. i think about the types of things I want to cook that week and then shop accordingly. (Not as organised as it sounds! )

Look at the link I posted above, it has loads of stuff you can look at NOW and has a forum.

Ok, DS is nearly 10 months and has been doing BLW for a couple of months. Here is some of what we've eaten this week organised in breakfast lunch and tea

buttered toast and sliced pear
moroccan chicken (chicken, onions, tin toms, tumeric, cinnamon, cumin, black olives, chickpeas)
cheese tortellini

moistened weetabix smeared with pureed prunes
roasted veg and penne pasta
avocado and rice cakes

tinned pineapple and "biscuits" of baby rice, flour and apple juice
salmon steaks new potatoes and brocoli
stoned cherries and grapes

a banana and toast with philadelphia
mushroom, ham, peas and cream pasta
pear and cheese (babybel)

Hope that helps.

If you're disorganised, BLW can be quite good. You can spoonfeed and give finger food - spoon-feeding takes some of the self-feeding element away, so it's not technically BLW - nothing wrong with any way, it's just horses for courses.

Personally, once I'd got over the leap of faith of understanding that this child who'd eaten nothing but milk her whole life could chew, swallow and enjoy a broccoli floret pretty much straight away, I loved BLW. I liked not having to think about how much she'd eaten (I occasionally counter how many pieces of pasta were in the debris, but that's pretty much it, and it was rare), and I don't think I could have got to grips with all the numbers of cubes, nor the combinations of flavours the books suggest.

Mind you, both Aitch and I discovered we're not terribly fond of pureed textures anyway, so that probably explains why we weren't so keen.

dd is 2 now, and I can't really remember what she ate - mostly the same as us, but porridge pancakes for breakfast, and sometimes pancakes with veg/cheese in, stuff like that. The blog is really good, and will tell you all you need to know.

We don't add salt to veg or pasta water anyway - don't think it makes any difference, tbh. Herbs, spices, the works, all great. DD loves a good curry.

and often at first they don't eat anything really for a while, they just mumble/suck it, but it doesn't matter! That for me was liberating. They'll do it when they are ready. Like I say, I don't think you need to be monstrously organised, they just have what you have and if it makes you think a bit more about your own diet and eat a bit better, so much the better, no?

You can do a bit of spoon feeding if you want.....yes I know it's not strictly BLW...or loaded spoons that they wipe all over their face use.

The blog is fab.