Confused about weaning my DD, please help

[Mareta]

Hi all,

In a few weeks time I will start weaning my DD and I am not sure which way I will use to wean her. Last Wednesday the HV came to introduce me to weaning. TBH I didn't think it was very useful . I asked her about BLW and she told me that she has not been trained on the subject so she could not give me any information.

How do I introduce food to my DD if I decide to use BLW? I understand the diference between SLW and BLW but I am not sure how BLW would work.

Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance

If you fancy the idea, the Gill Rapley book is v useful, plus all the threads on here!

To start, place baby upright in highchair next to you while you eat, or hold her on your knee.

Let her look at/pick up the food if she wants to.

At some point she will put it to her mouth and taste it, all goes on from there really

Green beans were DS's first taste. Choose long pieces/chip shaped things initially, try cutting a pear with a crinkly chip cutter for better grip.

It's great fun. Is that the sort of thing you wanted?

Thank you for quick reply,

Yes it is what I am thinking of. I already sit my daughter by my sidein her highchair when I am eating and she is not having her nap. At the moment she just follow the spoon/fork from the late into my mouth as if it was a tennis match which I find really interesting and fascinating. I really love her face looking at me and I wonder what she will be thinking.

She has been doing this for quite a while now and I don't know if it means she is almost ready to eat or just interested in new things. She is 22 weeks now and HV told me to wean her at 24 weeks which make e a bit sad because I love BF but at the same time I like the idea of seeing her growing and being a it more independent than she is now.

I will check the book. I also thought that (according to HV) I had to cook apples and and pears before giving it to my DD. I thin I really need to read a bit more about BLW as it is something really suit me.

There's a great forum - just google 'Baby Led Weaning' - where you'll find lots of useful advice, recipes and like-minded folk.

Apples would need to be cooked, or at least microwaved for a bit and cooled down to soften them. Or you can grate them.

Pears are a great first food.Just a bit slippy to pick up!

At 22w I'm sure DS was starting to pick it up a bit. Weaning as in starting solids is very compatible with continued breastfeeding, I'm still feeding DS and he eats loads/drinks water too.

My locals HVs don't seem familiar with BLW at all, it was the threads on here that got me interested to start with, then I got the book and was hooked. Did purees with DD and this is much better for us.

I second the book and the forum. Offer anything you are eating (unless it's salty or sugary- although you may find that quite quickly all food you're eating is demanded, which is why chocolate is now for nap times!). DS initially enjoyed banana from the skin like you would eat it, I just held it and he bit bits off, carrot, pear and potato. The only problem I have found at this time of year is fruit is generally not very ripe when you buy it, so I tend to buy it well in advance.

I wouldn't worry too much about missing the bf, it is likely that you won't see a noticeable reduction for a while. DS cut down from 6 feeds a day to just morning and night over a period of about 3 weeks at 10 months, before that the food was just a taste.

You don't have to give up breastfeeding now! (especially not if you enjoy doing it). Actually the official govt advice is to continue breastfeeding alongside solid food until at least 1 year. By "weaning" your HV probably just meant "starting solid foods" (this word is confusing, people use it to mean different things)

I believe the old advice that solids should replace milk is no longer given - the reason being that even at 6 months, babies absorb nutrients much better from milk than other foods.

I definitely recommend reading Gill Rapley's book on this as she makes it much clearer how it works - but basically, rather than replacing milk feeds with solid food, you are adding the solid food on top. The baby often doesn't seem to eat very much for the first few months, but that's ok, they will still benefit from it.

I had to go back to work at 6 months (so appreciate what you say about independence) but managed to carry on BF alongside BLW - I expressed at work, but had friends who also carried on just BF morning and night.