BLW - Not sure now, so confused, advice appreciated!

[Dotty38]

I thought I felt fairly confident about weaning and would wait until 26weeks and would do BLW but now I'm not so sure.

I'm constantly asked, why I'm not weaning her yet because she's a big baby and is she not hungry. DD is now 24 weeks. I explain that I'll wean her at around 26 weeks and will do BLW (not many people know what BLW is!), at which point quite a few people think I'm a bit barmy judging by the reactions I get.

I also keep hearing the advice that if I do wait until 26 weeks I'll have to move things on very quickly. My HV has said this on several occasions, plus a few friends with older kids. What on earth do they mean?? How can I move DD on quickly when doing BLW, I thought the point was to let DD lead the way and my role is to offer her the foods to feed herself.

I'm so worried that I'm going to get it wrong, I already feel like I failed with bf I don't want to cock up the weaning too. If I do BLW will DD not get enough is that what people mean when they say about moving it on quickly? I have read Gill Rapely's book so have got a fairly good idea of what I need to do.

I don't feel there's any reason to wean her early as she's satisfied with her milk, sleeps through at night and still can't sit up by herself, plus she's gaining weight (sticks to her curve).

Any advice much appreciated.

Stick with it. She's satisfied with milk and sleeps through, what more do the nosey fecks want? Move her on quickly? Eh? What on earth for? Follow her lead. And how would you 'move her on quickly'? Do they suggest at 26 weeks on the dot you tie her down and force food on her?

My dd was around 7 months when she started pinching food from us, we went at her pace and now at 2.4 she'll eat anything that's not a tomato.

What's the point of having guidelines if even the HCPs are frightened of them?

Ignore the advice and stick with it! At 8.5 months, my LO is doing brilliantly with BLW. I just used to be vague if people asked how we were getting on with weaning. Luckily our HVs in my area are too busy to get involved. I've had to use forums for support and to reassure myself that I'm not mad as I don't know anyone locally who's doing BLW. www.babyledweaning.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=12 is good.

But - two friends who have older babies have both said how well he eats, and commented on the fact that he can handle finger foods. A friend with a baby the same age asked me 'does he have lumps yet?' as her baby won't eat anything lumpy; I racked my brains and said 'well he just has food'!
And all I do is put food on his tray; no spoons, no worrying about how much/what he eats.

The 'anyone about to start BLW? care to join me?' thread is a good read as well.

Definitely stick with it. At this age she doesn't even need real food, it will be all about slowly introducing her to different flavours. I started my DD at 24 weeks on some cereal every few days, then on to purees, got fed up with purees and gave her finger foods that she couldn't really master for a couple of weeks, but now at 7months she's quite good at it.So I wish I had just waited a bit and just started her on BLW from a start. You really can relax and let her take the lead, it will be much more relaxing for you both and you don't really have to worry yet whether she's getting enough.

Thanks everyone. Feeling back on track now!

Will stick to my plan and I might adopt a similar vagueness as Showofhands, as these comments people make to me are really unhelpful.