With BLW would you still have 'meal times' at the same time each day?

[BellaBalloon]

And would you start immediately offering at all 3 or just start with breakfast say.
Basically what i'm asking is, is it important to still have some structure and predictability and gaps from milk feeds?
trying to get my head round it before I start

oh and second cheekily thrown in question

is there an average for how quickly babies get it? do lots not start eating til 8 or 9 months? just not sure I have the patience to wait that long, tho am keen to go the BLW route

Sorry - i realise that is a lot to ask of one thread

I sat both dc's at the table at the 3 meal times. I think it took dd a month or so to get the hang of it and ds a couple of weeks as he was used to seeing dd eat hers.

I BLW DD2 and DS.

I just offered bits on the highchair tray when I was eating, so if I had breakfast, then I offered a bit of weetabix/toast soldier etc and the same for lunch and dinner.

Obviously I kept up with the normal milk feeds as very little actually goes in when you first start, but it is giving them the chance to finger the food and get used to textures etc.

DD2 didnt really start eating until 7mnths, despite starting about 5.5mnths, and DS was about the same.

I would just offer little bits often, and go from there! I tried to tie it in with our meal times as then I wasnt tied to the kitchen!!!

HTH

DS was BLW.

WE still did milk feeds at normal times, and I started solids with breakfast. First brekkie was a blueberry! We built up to 2 meals a day - brekkie and late afternoon tea - pretty quickly on HV advise as he was 6 months old anyway.

It took him about a month or so to get the hang of eating. He gradually became less interested in milk. Then he upped milk and was less interested in food. Then back - he goes in fits and starts and is often not at all interested in food (he is 21 months) and fills up on (cow's) milk.

Thanks DJM and knickers . That is helpful. I'm looking forwards to it but a bit nervous as this is DS1, so i have no idea what's in store...

Just go with the flow, that's all I can advise.

Def go with the flow, feed them what you are eating when you are eating (rather than baby meal times specifically), and don't stress.

DS got the hang of it very fast, so it was only a couple of weeks before he was stuffing food down at a rate of knots

I started last week (my DS is 26 weeks this week). We started on 2 meals a day (breakfast and lunch) although if he is asleep at lunch, I sometimes do a mid afternoon snack of fruit as I usually have something myself then. Milk feeds have not changed yet.

DS got the hang of it really fast and within 2 days was picking up food and chewing it. I was really surprised as I thought he would be much slower.

Agree go with the flow. And enjoy it! There's a BLW thread - do come and join us if you haven't already

It has made me more structuredabout my own meals, and i always eat at the table now if i'm at home. I give her three meals a day and four milk feeds (sometimes she needs a bit extra kate afternoon) and it seems to be working pretty well. I strated doing this pretty much from 6.5 mths

I think they really vary in how fast they start eating in any quantity. DS is only just now, at 10 months, seeming to get a significant proportion of his calories from solid food, though he was very quickly able to eat - just didn't want much.

I found that because he was still on frequent milk and 3 naps a day, at my mealtimes he was often either asleep / tired / not hungry / too hungry. At the moment what seems to work for us is
first thing in the morning - just milk
about 11 - brunch
about 2 - late lunch
about 5 - tea for DS only
And I follow the meals with a milk top-up, more or less depending on how much he's just eaten. It's easy to do that because I'm bf. If we're out in the day we just work round that.

So, probably completely different to what anyone else does, but just to give you the idea that if what you're doing doesn't work you can find another pattern that suits you.

I mean we fit meals in with socialising, not vice versa, which would mean I could never have lunch with friends!

But to start with I don't think there's any need to have a structure for solid food with BLW. Keep the milk feeds the same and you can give a little bit of anything you're having if it's suitable, or a few sticks of steamed veg. And you don't need to if your baby's is clearly not in the mood for it - the point of BLW is supposed to be to make food fun not a chore.