Combining traditional weaning with BLW

[sassmonkey]

Hi all,

There seem to be loads of ideas and good advice about weaning on this site. My DS is 5 months on Monday, and he's 20 lbs and 71 cm. We've never managed a night with more than 4.5 hours between feeds (3 is more common), but I'm coping okay. I think he might be starting to give off a few signs of being ready for weaning so I'm starting to do my research. I would like to combine the best of purees and BLW - and I'm wondering if anyone else has done this. Are there big drawbacks to doing both in tandem? HOw can I make them work well together? All stories and learnings welcome!

SM

I've done both purees and finger foods with all three of my children and they've managed fine.

I started with purees, me with one spoon and DC with another. Once they got to grips with having solids and were ready for more lumpier foods, then I tended to put the bowl/plate infront of them and allow them to feed themselves with their hands while I helped feed as well. From there, I tended to do a lot more finger foods, less spoon feeding and allow them to eat how they wanted.

Although never allowed free reign on yoghurts or weetabix until they could fully manage a spoon.

I weaned at 6 months and started off combining purees with BLW but DD decided for herself after about a week that she wasn't going to let me feed her the mush and so we changed to full on BLW and she's doing great!
But do whatever works best for you. If your weaning early then you might be better off sticking to purees (and offering finger foods) as you're a bit more limited in the types of BLW foods you can give before 6 mths. Good luck!

I did both too. It seemed to come naturally to do it that way, IYSWIM.
You need 3 spoons, one for baby, one for you, and one to be thrown over the side of the chair.
A bib for baby and one for you too

I did BLW with DD1 who was not really into eating until she was about 8 months and would not open her mouth for a spoon (so had not choice)

DD2 was ready for ages before i started her at 6 months. She was very enthusiastic about feeding herself at the start, but three weeks in she has realised she gets more quicker on a spoon and when she sees me with one throws whatever she has in her hand away! I have not bothered doing really smooth purees and just shovel stuff into her as she needs it. Today at lunch she had a good old go at a banana and when there were no large lumps for her to grasp left I loosely massed the mess and shoved it in with a spoon.

it can work both ways

We've jumped in with both feet and are doing a mixture of mashed stuff spooned in and blw - works brilliantly. I don't have to puree things as he's fine with lumps, I just squidge it a bit with the spoon before it goes in!

I did a mixture of both with dd2.I started with BLW but she seemed very hungry, waking lots through the night for milk and not gaining weight. So I introduced mashed foods and yougort etc with a spoon. The method now depends on the food. Things that are easy to pick up I give as finger food and others mashed on a spoon. I often use finger foods at lunch time when I'm eating too and spoon feed at tea time so I know she has had something before bed.

We did a bit of both, ds likes feeding himself and I pop a spoonful in inbetween his fistfuls, just to make sure he's getting enough as lots ends up on the floor.

Thanks for the great tips, everyone. I imagine it all does depend on the baby, to some degree, as Flourybap says. I think the combo sounds like the right way to go for us. We are going to be travelling for the next three weeks, so it will be very hard for me to be brewing and stewing fruit and veg every day. If I can do some baby rice etc with some finger food, it would be great.

Question - how big / small should I cut things like apple and carrot and cucumber so that he doesn't choke on them??

i would say as big as your finger so he can hold half and eat half iyswim.

its unlikely he'll choke as he'll have such a strong gag reflex - really far forward - that he'll have to keep the food in the front of his mouth to avoid gagging. he probably will gag a few times but if he is sitting up straight (hence why they need to sit up before you start blw) it'll just fall out of his mouth. as they get more adept, they gag less. the whole point is they learn to move the food around the front of their mouths before getting it to the back to swallow it - its actually quite a hard skill to learn. this is why they need lots of practice!

apple and carrot are probably a bit hard to start off with as bits can break off. steam the carrot and then it'll mush in his mouth (baby-made puree ) and some put the apple in the microwave - i give my ds a whole apple/pear with a bite taken out (or three) so he could hold it with both hands and gum it - he has two bottom teeth so he can scrape the flesh off - not much chance of bits breaking off.

gagging is a very good safety mechanism!

I would second the bit-of-both approach.

My DS, like yours by the sounds of things, is a 98th percentile whopper and has been desperate for food, always trying to steal mine and DH's and crying when we didn't let him have some, for weeks. He's now 5.5 months. He was waking more and more often. So last week I thought I'd give it a go even though it is a bit early.

He has taken to food quicker and more easily than I ever expected. He has never really gagged and has never rejected a single morsel. He has had pieces of all sorts of roast vegetables and now shares my toast every morning. He can polish off a whole banana - unmushed - with me holding it for him (so not strictly baby led, but he's doing the biting and chewing). I tend to use purees though in the evening when I want to get lots into him so that he will sleep more deeply.

His sleeping pattern changed overnight - from waking at 11pm, 1am, 3am, 5am and 7am - and he now does an 8 hour 9 hour stretch. Unheard of previously and it has happened consistently every night since we introduced solids. Hope the same happens for you! Weaning is fab!

DS was three weeks early so slightly slower at taking to self-feeding - BLW didn't seem workable initially. I found that I did mostly purees from 6 months (sometimes offering him vegetables etc. off my plate, but he wasn't really interested in eating them) and then a couple of months later, he took the reigns.

Now, at almost 10 months, I spoonfeed him yoghurts and things of that consistency but he much prefers finger foods. When their pincer grip forms around 8 or 9 months, finger foods become much more fun! He eats a huge variety of things now but he wouldn't have taken to the BLW approach from the start. Each baby is different - follow his lead, literally. If he can't self-feed, spoonfeed for now, but keep offering the finger foods.

If you are giving finger foods, they need it cut into quite big 'finger' chunks to begin with as they can't hold it, but once they get to grips with the pincer grip they can handle smaller pieces.

I'm doing BLW and a lot of my friends have said that they started off doing it, but ended up also doing purees so they could get enough food into their babies. I'm not being really strict, so DS still has yoghurts and porridge from a spoon. Even the official government advice suggests that a mix of purees and finger foods is best.

I used the gina ford (gasp!) weaning book for my two as a guide to how to structure weaning. I guess it's a combination of both, as it's big on the finger foods after the initial introduction of tastes.

Depends on the baby though, dd1 wasn't intersted in finger foods until about 10 months, dd2 started weaning by downing one of her sisters rice cakes, and never looked back from there (also a 99th percentiler). I think you just offer both and see what they prefer really (which is, I think, a much more baby led approach than trying to stick religiously to one camp or another).

Damn, knew I shouldn't have mentioned SWSNBN