BLW - not a great start, not sure what to do next

[anchovies]

Dd is dc3 and I have been offering food (whatever we have been having veg wise or some fruit or toast or similar) for a couple of weeks now. She is very interested however seems to dislike the taste of most things. She plays with it all happily though. So under pressure from family ("how will that fill her up") and thinking back to my two ds's who we weaned on purees and loved food from the beginning, I started to worry.

So I have tried spoon feeding her baby rice (which she hated) and some fruit purees (which she also hated!) and don't know what to do next.

I need some confidence in blw or I need to persevere with the purees, this half and half approach is stressing me out! So what do I do now?!

How old is she?

I would keep offering her finger foods along with spoons of fruit and veg and baby rice. She will eat eventually and until she does milk will be just fine.

Weaning often starts out a bit hit and miss IME, sometimes they seem to be loving it, the next week they won't eat anything.

Try not to get stressed out about it, esp if she seems happy with just milk.

Thankyou both, it is good to hear that you have been successful with a "just go with whatever is working" kind of approach! Definitely think it has been made so much harder by having 2 big hungry ds's first who got stuck straight into weaning.

She is only 6.5 months so only very early days yet and am breastfeeding, which I think is keeping her completely happy (although my mum would disagree "oooh she's just drank a 6oz bottle, I knew she was starving"!)

Sorry also meant to ask, do you think that mixing spoon feeding and finger foods will work?

NHS advice is to give finger foods from six months, alongside purees.

Some people spoonfeed some meals and blw others.

At six months food doesn't need to be a smooth puree either, just mashed is ok afaik.

With BLW it is really important to not worry about how much they are having. It is about self-feeding and allowing them to regulate what is going in. You might find some things they always wolf down though, and offer that when they don't seem fussed about what you've made them.

Yes, mixing finger foods and spoon feeding definitely works. It is not pure BLW though, so it depends on your view of BLW ie do you think babies should be left entirely to their own devices to decide what they do and don't eat.

FWIW I don't agree that babies should only feed themselves. My twins are spoonfed and regulate how much they eat but refusing to open their mouths when they have had enough.

They will only eat toast, rice cakes and apple as finger food - and I woudn't want them to live just on that.

It's true that at 6.5m you need only to mash food, I have never really pureed anything, just mashed it up (far easier!)

BLW books suggest that the average baby will not start eating as such for at least the first month and that actually it will be at about 9 months that they start going at it fully, although obviously every baby is different. Milk should be the main foodstuff up until a year so there's no reason to worry about DC being 'hungry'. If you're worried about vitamins etc you can apparently give them as drops, but tbh 6.5 months is nothing. My DD is on her first week of BLW and there's no way she'll be swallowing anything in the foreseeable future.

BLW is clearly for the very relaxed (I am already fending off palpitations and I'm only on day 3!), if you're worried about controlling how much the baby gets or are getting outside pressure then purees may be the thing to go for, not that your mother has anything to do with how you feed your baby by the way. And 6oz is hardly massive for a 6.5m/o surely, even if spoon fed DC would still be on full feeds at this stage, unless your mum is expecting DC to polish off a full roast?!

Yay this is thread is making me feel so much better. Weaning started at the weekend (mix of blw and purees) and is very slow as DD has no interest in food (yet!!). She has just turned 6-months.

I will carry on doing what I'm doing and hopefully she will start to like food soon - she is still guzzling her milk

Thanks!!

I did BLW in the end after a shaky start like you and trying both. My dd didn't like the taste of anything on a spoon at that stage and for quite a few weeks she didn't really eat much when we started BLW. But the difference between the two for us at your dd's age was that with purees she was crying and refusing and with BLW she was enjoying playing with the food, so it was a really nice experience every time, even if she didn't really eat much. And she was fine with her milk - if you do end up doing BLW put your fingers in your ears when your mum starts on at you!!

FWIW IME with BLW babies do that "yuck" face a lot when they pick up and taste new things at the start. It's hilarious, especially when they drop it like it's poison!! But then they start picking it up again and having another go.

I remember feeling sooo stressed out when I was in your position, I even slept quite badly for a few nights thinking about it, and the good advice given to me by kind folk then was relax, you've got loads of time for her to learn to eat food, ignore your mum/whoever, remember whether you do purees with finger food or BLW or whatever, food is meant to be fun and a learning experience and milk will give them all they need while they learn to eat. Hope it goes well!