BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[TigerLady]

Welcome, Kte! Make sure you get the book!

Look at all these messes everywhere!

 

[CountingDown]

Congrats to TL and lovely pics of lo's enjoying their food x

Olivia has now learnt to hold her hand over her mouth to help keep the food in there and can now also open her fists to get the food in there too

I havent tried Olivia with rice for a while may have to give it another go.

I am still really struggling to get Olivia to eat well at breakfast time, the only thing she tends to eat well is yoghurt and fruit. I have tried cereals mixed with yoghurt instead of milk and she still isnt interested!!

I am not much of a breakfast person so I can only assume that she may just be like me

 

[faille]

Wow! Congrats TL. Must admit I am soooo jealous of you
I have to wait until summer/autumn to start ttc again lol


Aww loving the messy pics too!


CountingDown, have you tried differing the time you offer breakfast? Violet gets up at 8am and has a bottle aprox 8.30am and will not be interested at all in 'food' breakfast until about 10am.


Oh, and TL, now that Violet is actually eating a significant amount (and dropped a feed), I make sure she's awake for meals. But we're really lucky in that she's great with food even if she is tired and she's not too hard to get off to sleep again (most of the time ). So now she's eating quite a bit, I would wake her up but if she starts fussing then I know she's obviously more tired than hungry lol. But that's only been recently, before now I'd have just let her sleep. I know not everyone will have that view either x

 

[Lu28]

Welcome Kte!

I make sure Aisling is awake for mealtimes too. BLW isn't as flexible as traditional weaning in that way I suppose, if dinner is on the go and ready I'm not going to let it get ruined because she's snoozing! To be fair, she's grouchy when she wakes and as soon as she notices the food she's a happy baby again!

CountingDown, maybe delaying breakfast would work or would she take breakfast before her first milk feed?

 

[CountingDown]

The latest time I have offered breakfast is 10.30am, anything after 11.00am I class as lunch lol.

I will try offering breakfast before her feed tom and see if that makes a difference.

 

[saraendepity]

hey ladies ..Welcome Kte!!

well we tried the rice thing again tonight but with Curry this time....omg Daisy wolfed it down !!LOL biting massive chunks off the chicken and swollowing like a pro..tho she did gag a little on the Mushrooms....daddy cut them at perfect gagging size!LOL but she did manage them really well and swallowed some whole !!!LOL she still got really fustrated with the rice but cos she had stuff that she could easilt manage (chicken) it really helped keep her from kicking off at the rice! tho she did manage the rice a little bit more than last time! counting down..i;d try to fiddle your times about a bit... i had lots of probs in the beginning but a little tweek in times etc really helped we have first milk feed at 7 (ish) then she doesnt have 'brekkie' till 10 ish

sara

xxxxxxxxx

 

[fantastica]

Congrats TL exciting news!!!

What kind of time does everyone give their LO dinner?! I never know if I'm making it too late :s

Cute pics btw...I really need to start being more adventurous with Jacob!

 

[TigerLady]

We usually have dinner at about 6 or 630 after DH gets home. I get home around 515, so if Otter is cooperative, I have time to cook.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Congrats TigerLady!

I offer Ruby her dinner at about 5.30pm. these days, if she's grouchy (which is rather a lot at the mo, not sure why but hey that's another thread) she'll cheer up once she's in her highchair and food is put in front of her.

My HV said to give Ruby the 'minimum' amount of milk for her age which is 21oz a day. I don't understand why I should give her the minimum? I've dropped her to about 26oz but she is sometimes waking up at night now, but going straight back off when given the dummy so I doubt that's anything to do with the amount of milk...

 

[saraendepity]

we have dinner around 6 ish... we did offer it earlier but Bug just wasnt interested..... she always starts to get grumpy around then and as soon as she is sat in her chair and food is plonked in front of her she cheers up no end!LOL

 

[saraendepity]

Congrats TigerLady!

I offer Ruby her dinner at about 5.30pm. these days, if she's grouchy (which is rather a lot at the mo, not sure why but hey that's another thread) she'll cheer up once she's in her highchair and food is put in front of her.

My HV said to give Ruby the 'minimum' amount of milk for her age which is 21oz a day. I don't understand why I should give her the minimum? I've dropped her to about 26oz but she is sometimes waking up at night now, but going straight back off when given the dummy so I doubt that's anything to do with the amount of milk...

i dont understand this either? surely if she wants a little more (or a lot to be fair) then you shouldnt be stopping her? bloody hell if i was hungry and wanted something i wouldnt be very happy having it 'rationed'??

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

No I know, I think the HV thinks she'll be full of milk and refuse solids, but I don't think this is the case. Also my friend with an older baby says she never cut his milk down to the minimum at 8 months.

I would drop a bottle but at the 'mid point' between the 2 that I could drop either of, she's ALWAYS asleep!

 

[faille]

We used to have dinner around 6.30pm but when I'm back at work we can't do it so early... It'll end up being around 7.30pm but I've been putting it back this week and it's working fine so far. She has a nap at around 5pm and doesn't go to bed until 8.30/9pm so it isn't interfering with anything being a little later.

Claire, I wonder whether your HV wants Ruby on the minimum amount of milk because she now classes solids as being more important than milk? I don't even know when food "should" take over from milk. I know they can survive on milk alone until 9-12m but does that also mean that milk should still be the main source of food until 12m?

 

[purple_socks]

claire: i wouldn't with hold milk.
i'm no HV so this is just personal opinion but i believe babies know what they need. And isn't that the whole theory behind BLW...trust LO and let them cut back on milk naturally when they r ready?
I don't like it when HV (or anyone for that matter) tell parents to mess around with LO milk/ diet...either by making them drink/eat more or stopping them drinking as much as they want. it just makes me uncomfortable! i've always ignored adivce on forcing Kian to take more milk/ weaning him early coz he doesn't drink the amount he's 'meant' to...he's gaining fine. Sometimes he drinks lots and grows quickly (like when he was a few weeks old and the HV was flapping abt him drinking too much!) other times he drinks very little (and she flaps abt that!). my thinking is that LOs r like big people-there needs/wants vary. i sometimes eat more one day and other times i'm not very hungry. If someone tried to control my portion sizes i'd hate it.

maybe i'd rethink using a bit of 'persuasion' if we were past 1yrs and still not making progress with solids replacing milk but not at 8 months.

 

[fantastica]

thanks was doing dinner at about 6:30...so will just stick at it!

claire: tbh...i've paid no attention to the recommended milk amounts etc..and just gone with what Jacob wants...seems a bit mean to withold if Ruby's perfectly happy and healthy...the amount she's advised is probably if you're doing 'normal' weaning...although that's just a guess!!!

 

[JayleighAnn]

We had Halen weighed today and in 5 weeks he's only put on 5oz. My HV says it's cause he's not getting enough food, apparently I should force feed him purees? I don't want to bloody force him to eat!! He is still BF every 2 hours round the clock, he was sicky over xmas with some bug, surely that could be why he's lost weight? She just kept sayinv "feed him some cereal based food FROM A SPOON" putting real empthasis on the last part help me ladies! Lol

 

[joeyjo]

JAyleighAnn
Hope a few points can reassure you...
First off growth at this stage naturally slows down.
Second Breast milk has far more calories than most food - as long as he is getting the hindmilk.
Third - yes if he's been off colour you can expect lower gains.

I think you are very brave admitting to the HV that you do BLW - I've not got the guts to do that but then my HV is a bit oldfashioned at the best of times and I am considering complaining about some "advice" she gave me.

OT but - The only thing I would ask is whether you are sure he is getting hindmilk if he feeds every 2 hours - does he drain the breast? does he take 1 or both? G normally only takes 1, if he asks again withing 90min or so I put him back on the same boob first before changing to the 'new' boob to try and ensure he gets the hindmilk.

Basically I'd go with your instinct and not worry too much about what she says, he's gaining and happy so you're doing a fab job

 

[JayleighAnn]

He drains both breasts in one sitting, I know he's getting the hidmilk as when I squeeze there is no more milk there at all. I didn't realise how much knowledge HV's lack, I told her before we planned to BLW and she said wouldn't recommend it although she has no training about it. She also kept banging on about stopping BF and FF, which I'm nog doing.

He's never been big, he was born on the 25th and he dipped to the 9th and now he's sarted slipping to the 2nd. I know the charts arent too accurant as their FF charts, my HV just doesn't seem to listen to me

 

[Lucy_lu_84]

Jayleigh I would trust you instincts and as long as he is gaining some weight I wouldn't worry. Like you say if he has been poorly that could have contributed.
I hate how we come away from seeing a HV and feel like crap and like we are doing something wrong. I stopped going to one of mine cos she was a cow! lol

On a different note Joshua dropped a feed today. He just never asked for his afternoon bottle. So he went 6 hours without - normally the max we get is 3.5 hours. he had rice krispies for breakfast and I have no idea how much he hate, they went everywhere. Lunch he wasn't interested and jsut sucked the juice from a piece of melon. Dinner he ate a far bit of mash and then sucked the life out of brocoli.
Do you think he will continue to drop? or could it just be cos of his cold? Im thinking the latter, as wasn't expecting him to drop one yet. And if he does I would have much prefered he drop the night oen lol

 

[joeyjo]

JayleighAnn it sounds like we have the same HV mine started talking about swapping him to ff now he's coming up to 6 months; she also implied I was leaving it too late to start weaning when he wasn't quite 5 months- *say what???*

I'd just trust your instincts