Oh God... DD 6 mo next weeks... do I really HAVE to wean her?!

[you]

She's not ready!

Planning to do BLW with her, and have offered a few bits over the last couple of weeks, which she loves but I'm not sure she's swallowed anything yet.

She's 6 mo next week... am I going to have to step it up a gear? Do you offer food every day at that stage? Every meal?! What happens if I forget to feed her, will she be okay on milk only for the whole day?

Oh, I don't want to do it!

you will love blw cos you really don't have to do much at all. just share your food with her really and keep up the milk.

Hello - my DS2 was fully breastfed up until 6 months and was totally not interested in solids. He would have the odd bit here and there (also did BLW, which I found terrifying to begin with, he was a very chokey baby!) but absolutely refused to be spoonfed. It has paid off now, as he still wants to do it all himself, and at 12m now he uses a spoon and feeds himself quite well. I would say he has only really started eating anything like a decent amount recently. Have you read the Gill Rapley book? It's really good, just take it easy and go at her speed. She knows what she's ready for, and the odd day with virtually no solids will do no harm. I had a lot of these with DS2 and he's ridiculously tall, so it's not done him any harm!

Good luck.

Oh good, thank you.

I've read the book and done all the reaseach and all was grand until I realised that I'm actually supposed to start for real next week .

It seems so soon! And she's so happy on milk. Gah.

"food is fun until they're one"

you have ages yet before you have to get serious about it!

Started offering bits and bobs to my youngest at 26 weeks but to be honest, she was 8 or 9 months before she was really showing much interest. My older child wasnt much interested in food until after his 1st birthday. Go with the flow.

That's interesting leonie. You hear so much about early weaning but not so much about late weaning.

Ideally I'd carry on with just the milk feeds and offer food 'every now and then,' say every few days until she was showing a real interest in it. Having said that I'm currently fasting (ramadan) so it's very easy not to think about food, and DD doesn't ever see us eating so she doesn't want it iyswim? Maybe she'll show more of an interest when she sees me eating lunch.

3 weeks to go and I feel the same as 'you'. Mentally preparing for all the MESS and the interesting poo. I mean, I gave her a fingerful of mushy banana to taste yesterday, and strings came out the other end.

Question for the BLW gurus - should I introduce a sippy cup of ebm around this time too (given that she's never wanted to take anything from a bottle)?

Or does that defeat the object - as I'd have to be the one holding the bottle?

Just do what you are doing. Offer food and follow BLW guidelines and she will start to eat and swallow when she is ready. However you talked about forgetting to 'feed her'. I would try and make mealtimes a regular part of your routine and both of you eat together. It's pretty unlikely you'll forget to eat in the day!
BLW really emphasizes the social aspect of eating so by eating together she will learn from you and mealtimes can become a time for sharing and conversation.

On the sippy cup thing, she may well be able to pick it up and start to use it herself but if you need to give her the ebm I would personally not worry to much about the BLW principles. You will usually be offering it outside mealtimes anyway.