Am I wrong? DD 24 weeks on Monday and I've been offering her food this week

[Mareta]

Hi everybody,

DD is 24 weeks on Monday and this week (after seeing her trying to take my food from my hand) I have decided to give her some food. I am trying BLW which it seems it works perfectly at the moment. She takes the food that I am offering her from my hand and put it straight to her mouth. At the moment she has only had pear, carrot (which appeared the following morning in her nappy) and orange which she sucked it very well.

What I am wondering is if it is too early for me to offer her food. I haven't been giving it to her everyday. It has been more like 3 times this week. She is very good at handling food and putting it in her mouth and she seems to enjoy it a lot. Also I was a bit tired of her trying to take my food and not giving her anything, made me feel really bad .

Am i right doing this? or should I wait till she is 26 weeks? I am not in a hurry to give her food but I could see that she wanted to try it. She is EBF and still having all her normal feeds even. I have offered her food when I was eating and between her feeds.

Your thoughts will be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance

Annabel Karmel's book called Baby and Toddler Meal Planner is great. It tells you first foods, how many meals a day, how many feeds etc and shows you how to build it up over time until they're a toddler. I know there are other books out there, but I think this one is good personally. Will really help you.

I think Baby Rice with some of your EBM but only a couple of spoonfuls a day only is best in my opinion for now and give plenty of BM for now. I used to do it at lunch after the full BF first.

You're only 2 weeks away, you could wait a little longer of course but it's your baby and entirely your decision at the end of the day.

You'll probably get some much more experienced mummies on here soon though x

I don't really want to give her purees. I am pretty happy letting her to eat what she wants more than me feeding her with a spoon. I think it has worked pretty well in this three occasions that I have offered her food and she is very good at experimenting with ii.

I really believe that food should be fun and want to give her the chance to enjoy feeding herself. However thank you for you advice anyway. A friend if mine has a book from the same author and she said she would lend it to me.

Also the HV told me to start introducing her to solid at 24 weeks. Not sure if this is right

i started blw with ds at either 23+2 or 24+2, can't remember. I literally put vegetables on his tray and it was up to him. Surprisingly he tried all of them and ate quite a bit (never eaten one since ). Pure BLW is just that - they should be ready to eat at the same time they are developmentally ready.
HGaving said all that, DD is 17 weeks and i plan to wait to as close to 26 as i can this time.

2 weeks is 2 weeks tbh. If she's able to bring the food to her mouth, chew and swallow then keep offering DD started just before 6 months when she nicked food off my plate and she did brilliantly.

and same as you, i didn't give 'meals' for ages, and i'm sure there were plenty of days where he was back to just bm. Food was just for trying.

If you are doing BLW you can't really go wrong or do it too early - as long as the baby is able to sit up straight (with support if necessary, it just means that they need to not be slumped in the highchair etc) then they will do the rest! We started BLW at about 21 weeks with DS and like you just started very slowly. I didn't offer him food to begin with unless he seemed to want it during meal times so some of the time he just sat at the table and watched us eat, playing with a toy on his highchair tray, and after a while he would be eating at every meal and I started to make him his own portions of things.

Oh and Annabel Karmel is good for meal ideas but don't take her weaning timetable or dire warnings of choking risks too seriously

what was it, a lychee stone or something?

I agree with Bertiebotts absolutely, and I didn't follow it to the letter either

I think 24 weeks is fine - also it's the same as I did.

I also did BLW but combined it with mashing foods (pureeing is such a chore!). Never looked at a manual to tell me what to feed baby, it's all common sense and you can work it out yourself if you're confident enough to trust your instincts - which it sounds like you are.

By 8 months I started feeding DS our meals, but cutting salt out during cooking (which was healthier for us, as well!) - great as it meant I no longer had to faff around with preparing separate meals.

Good luck with it all!

I always ran out of ideas on meals that were child friendly instead of the pizza, garlic bread, curries etc. Which is what my hubby and I seemed to live off (not anymore of course). I think that's why I always liked having a book on hand to refer to.

But you guys sound amazing on your BLW and your approach. If I ever have a 3rd baby I'll have to try it and of course ask MN for advice.

SPB - a friend mentioned she had bought some lychees for her DS this week and I made a joke about taking out the stones before I realised she had never heard of Gill Rapley and didn't have a clue what I was on about!

Thank you very much to all of you. It is reassuring to know that I am not crazy offering my DD food when she is asking for it.

As I said, she does not want it all the time so I only give it to her when I can see she wants to have a go.

For the time being it seems I am offering her food beween her milk feeds. However once she starts having more solid food. Should I breastfeed her before or after she has had some food? I am not sure about it. I have read the Gill Rapley book but still unsure. How do you do it?

It helps to see solids as completely separate from milk feeds, I think. I used to offer food at mealtimes or when the rest of us ate something, and continued to breastfeed on demand. DS often wanted feeding after solids, but not every time.

I gave DS a bit of nectarine at 23 and a bit weeks, and we carried on from there. I felt awful for not waiting until exactly 26 weeks, but all the signs for him being ready were there. He didn't eat much at first, but now (at 9 months) there's no stopping him. The biggest problem we've got is that he's developed a taste for steak, which we definitely can't afford on a regular basis!

Just remember that, for now, solid food is more about fun and learning than nutrition.

Mareta our DC' s must be the same age. I started offering her finger foods at 22 weeks. I include her in all the meals but offer her all her milk feeds (ebf but now switching to ff for return to work purposes etc)

Some meal/foods gets gnawed/munched/mulched.SOme not. No issue if she isn' t interested as it is about play at the mo. Defo consuming some tho IYKWIM .

Friends have raised eyebrows etc. Had a bit of a flaky on Friday and thought I was being blatantly dangerous. More reassured and just continuing.

The guidelines are 'around the middle of the first year' and blw works on the principle that if she can sit up, put the food in her mouth, move it around, chew and swallow, then she is ready. The beauty and joy of blw is that you're going at your baby's own pace, they will self regulate and you aren't following a one size fits all routine.

Carry on with milk on demand, if unsure, offer milk first, then solids and enjoy it. I adored sharing food with dd (she was around 28 weeks when she started) and it was nothing but a pleasure. Still is now she's 2.8yrs.

Good to see you Show. Still recovering from my 'flaky' but trying to trust myself and going with the flow.

Thank you everybody for your comments they are a great help. I have been unsure of whether to offer her food or not. She sits unaid and loves being in her highchair while I am eating. The problems is that she tries to grab my food and I thought I had to wait till she is 6 months before giving her any solid. HOwever I can see that she really wants to try different things and seems ready for solids.

At the moment she is BF on demand and I will carry on this way until she says she does not want anymore (whih will be very sad for me). I will offer her when I am eating which usually is not when she wants a feed and see how it goes from there.

Hermmuminess which food do you give to your child? i have given my DD carrots, pears, applesand orange. A friend o mine told me that oranges are too strong and acid for babys, is this true? She love it even more than pears. I was also wondering if I can give her green beans and sparragus. At the moment I am unsure of what food I should be giving her. She seems to love trying anything that is in my plate.

Hi Mareta, I have followed the same route:carrots,apples,orange,brocoli,asparagus,roasted sweet potato/b'nut squash/potato/red pepper;rice cakes;banana.Segments of plum very popular too.

Oh dear if oranges aren' t ok...she has been having an orange every morning. Well, not the whole one but obviously sucking/gnawing the living daylights out of the segments. And let' s just say bits are defo going through IYSWIM. They are ideal to hold.

I am doing a non BLW bit...which is handing it to her if she is getting too frustrated to pick up slippery bits.

My HV this week said that the guidelines are six months but any time around that is okay if DD is ready. So I doubt two weeks is going to make any difference, nor is she magically going to change at exactly 26 weeks.

I haven't seen anything about avoiding oranges. This seems to be quite an informative webpage www.eatwell.gov.uk and it doesn't seem to say anything about oranges, but does mention fruit juice. Can't comment on the suggestions for each stage of weaning as we haven't started yet, however it might give you some ideas of things to try.