BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[Shiv]

aw Poppy7, I really feel for you Its awful when you feel you have to keep quiet to keep people happy ... Im very lucky in that even though my MIL is a MW, and currently they are very anti-BLW in my area, she has never said anything negative about it to me She's too nice, and I love her to bits In fact, its my Mum thats the bloody awful one, shes really nasty about it telling me that Gabriella will be starving because Im not shovelling food down her throat (dont get me wrong, I spoon fed my litle man and am not against it at all) and that now that she is weaning I should be cutting down her milk and just giving her water during the day!! WTF!!

Okay rant over, sorry ladies xx

Thanks Dom. I still feel angry about it now! It's so frustrating when people don't understand OR even worse....you try and explain and they don't listen

Unfortunately a down side to starting BLW can be the negative attitude of some people around you, most of them eat their words after a couple of months when they see how well baby eats and how unfussy they are

 

[Mary Jo]

I believe the FF vs BF thing is also to do with the BF baby being familiar with different flavours because of the milk tasting different depending on what the mother has eaten, compared to formula, which always tastes the same.

Although I bf Adam daily till he was 4 months old, we had to supplement formula after the first week, and he got way more formula than bm. He's never had trouble BLW, and I have actually felt a lot more relaxed about it because leaving it to his own appetite takes away the pressure on me to make sure I "get enough into him". I don't "get" anything into him, he gets it himself and some days it is a lot and other days he picks and plays. (My husband stresses more if he doesn't want to eat, he is inclined STILL to pick up a spoon and shove it in his mouth, which very annoyingly Adam accepts. I actually think he'd enjoy being spoon fed if I let him!)

 

[loopy loulou]

As I started before 6 months I didn't do it "properly" at first (ie offering exactly what we had) as I wanted to wait till 6 months to offer dairy, wheat & meat. I just offered the fruit/veg from our meal & bought gluten free bread for a few weeks.

I BF so not sure about the FF although there are a few doing it fine. I think as a BF'r we are used to not measuring how much LO eats etc but a FF is used to known quantities & may struggle with leaving the baby to decide quantities etc.

Thanks for that, sounds good, and what I was thinking of doing. I was only going to offer fruit and veg until 6 months.

The quantity thing doesn't bother me with regards to FF, I breastfed till 4 months so am still in that mindset anyway! I feed on demand and let her take what she wants, so not on a strict routine with that, so don't think her eating amounts will be a problem either.

Thanks for advice!! Can't wait!.

 

[joeyjo]

So BLW is going well but I need advice of some of the "older" girls if they happen to stop by!

Pre weaning G used to give me either 9hours then 4 overnight or 4 then 9 - ie he fed (bf) at either 11pm or 4am with the occassional sleep thru approx once every 10 days) and had 6-7 BFs in 24hours

since weaning he has dropped down to 3-4 BFs in 24hours. But although he sleeps thru more often he wakes 5 nights out of 7; it's always at different times (usually between 9-11 but can be as late as 3/4 and anything inbetween) & he always seems very hungry.
Now he seems unintersted in his middle daytime feed but obviously I want o maximise day feeding and try and loose the nightfeed. It doesn't even seem that linked to what he eats in the day

Currently he has roughly
7:30 - Bf followed by breakfast
11:30 solid lunch
1:30-3:30 BF (wait for demand or start offering at 2:30 if not demanded)
4:30 solid tea
6:30-7 BF

does anybody else's lo still wake overnight? If your lo stopped waking after weaning can you share what u think helped

thanks
6:30/7 BF

 

[polaris]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'm so excited about weaning now whereas I was kind of irrationally dreading it before.

TennisGal thanks for the advice. It is scary about the choking isn't it? OH is more scared than me I think but we've yet to experience bad gagging so I'm not sure really how I'll cope. I just keep telling myself that once they are in an upright position and you are allowing them to control what they put into their mouth that they are unlikely to choke - and if they did that our mummy instinct would kick in and we would be able to take action and clear it - I really hope this is true! I did check Thomas's mouth after the meal yesterday and there was a big lump of spring onion in the roof of his mouth so I'm glad I checked and cleared it.

Poppy7 - how annoying when people just don't listen to your wishes regarding your baby. My SIL has twin girls and she traditionally weaned them at four months and is very critical/defensive of the way I am doing things - constantly pointing out that the twins eat normal food now anyway, you don't have to puree for long you can just mash it, etc. I think she feels defensive that I am choosing to do it differently and so I don't feel comfortable talking about any of the advantages of BLW to her or the reasons why I'm choosing to do it this way because she hears that as criticism of the way she did it which isn't what I want at all, I have nothing against traditional weaning at all, each to their own. She already feels a bit resentful I think because she really really wanted to breastfeed but the girls never really latched on after being given formula in the hospital and she pumped and combine fed for three months so I feel bad about that too that it came reasonably easily to me. Everyone else has been fine so far though - my mum has been really supportive and likes the whole idea of BLW which is great.

MaryJo - LOL at you eating your brekkie with a plastic spoon too! Good idea though!

 

[Racheldigger]

Somebody was worrying about weird nappies earlier - sorry, it was only 3 pages ago, but I've forgotten your name already! Rowan had very weird nappies for a couple of weeks after we started BLW; it was like a combination of the worst things about breastmilk poo and grown-up poo: the same bright yellow colour and nearly liquid consistency that leaks everywhere and stains everything, but a full-on stink!

 

[Kitten]

Well, it's finally going well for us, in that he's 'eating'. During the morning at the childminder he now takes water and eats a snack and his lunch (still only small amounts) but the big turnaround for me this afternoon was about an hour after his lunch at the childminder, we went to a cafe and he ploughed his way through 6 organix spicy tomato stars! He would normally have one and spit it back out after chewing it and he was just munching his way through them, it was amazing! And then he didn't need a milk feed until later so went 8hours without any breastmilk!

 

[polaris]

We had a great day today (day 2!). We both had porridge for breakfast - Thomas did really well with a pre-loaded spoon but also enjoyed getting stuck in with his hands after a while. Don't think he actually swallowed much but he was getting plenty in his mouth and getting used to the feel of it. Then we were out for lunch for SIL's birthday - I had brought along some rice cakes for Thomas which he absolutely loved and sucked on for ages - but he also tried from my plate some brown bread (not too sure about it), some lettuce (sucked away on it for ages), and a tiny bit of fish (seemed to love it but didn't want to give him too much as I was a bit worried about salt). MIL was a bit worried that we were moving too fast with him, but I pointed out that he's not really actually swallowing anything yet, he's just getting used to the new textures and flavours. They were all pretty impressed by how much he was enjoying himself, it was great!

 

[joeyjo]

Yay kitten so happy for you & theakston

 

[craftymum]

We were out for lunch on Saturday and I ordered a baked potato with cheese and pineapple and salad, and I gave Jacob some of this (minus the pineapple as we're trying to work out problem foods, due to rashes he has around his mouth, neck and chin). Everyone was just watching him smiling and when we were leaving a man asked how old he was and he praised him on how advanced he was at self feeding already

 

[polaris]

We were out for lunch on Saturday and I ordered a baked potato with cheese and pineapple and salad, and I gave Jacob some of this (minus the pineapple as we're trying to work out problem foods, due to rashes he has around his mouth, neck and chin). Everyone was just watching him smiling and when we were leaving a man asked how old he was and he praised him on how advanced he was at self feeding already

That's brilliant - how lovely to get such positive reactions from other people!

 

[craftymum]

We were out for lunch on Saturday and I ordered a baked potato with cheese and pineapple and salad, and I gave Jacob some of this (minus the pineapple as we're trying to work out problem foods, due to rashes he has around his mouth, neck and chin). Everyone was just watching him smiling and when we were leaving a man asked how old he was and he praised him on how advanced he was at self feeding already

That's brilliant - how lovely to get such positive reactions from other people!

Yep, and from a man too lol

 

[joeyjo]

discovery of the day - Blueberries lead to scary looking nappies

 

[TennisGal]

Nappy watch! I love it!

DD has decided that mango is just the best thing ever...I had a chunk of hers earlier, and her face! How very dare I!

 

[joeyjo]

I'm mostly used to the nappies but I didn't know DH had given him blueberries and couldn't figure out what the big black lumps were- ewww

 

[Rebaby]

Otter wasn't more sick on solids, but he doesn't have reflux either, so that might not be a good comparison. Can you link the sick to any particular food or food type? i.e. dairy or acidic, etc?

Thanks for the advice Nope, so far it seems to be completely random, but i will keep an eye out in case it gets worse after something in particular.

So far he's "tried": bread/toast (white and wholemeal), pitta bread, homous, carrot, broccoli, cucumber, lettuce, avocado, baby corn, green beans, chicken, porridge, weetabix, rusk, yoghurt, fish fingers...i think that's it so far?! He seems to really enjoy chicken, broccoli and weetabix, although to be honest the only things he's not been mad keen on are lettuce and carrot.

I don't think he is 'consuming' very much, but that said there has been a definite change in his nappies the past couple of days- they're stinkier, and i've spotted definite 'bits' of various things in there (sorry if anyone is having supper while reading this! lol)

I am dying to share some pics with you all:

https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y9/fakeplasticgirl7/Tobias/th_SSL21342.jpg
(Sharing Daddy's toast)

https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y9/fakeplasticgirl7/Tobias/th_SSL21385.jpg
(Pre-loaded spoon of yoghurt)

https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y9/fakeplasticgirl7/Tobias/th_SSL21447.jpg
(A battle between some baby corn and a chicken goujon! )

 

[TennisGal]

great pics - the last one is fab!!

 

[TigerLady]

Looks like he is doing really well!!

And mandarin oranges come out strangely in nappies, too.

 

[triplemom]

Beautiful pics!!

 

[Racheldigger]

As to how you know your baby's 'finished' cues - they seem to change all the time! Throwing all the food off the high chair tray never seemed to be one of Rowan's: she tended to do this early on in BLW, at the beginning of the meal, when we'd given her too many things at once and she couldn't cope. When she'd actually finished, she'd pick the surplus food up a piece at a time and drop it carefully over the side! Nowadays she has more sophisticated ways of telling us she's finished: either she picks pieces up and tries to feed them to whoever's feeding her (she finds this deeply amusing), or she leans back and places her hands behind her head, thereby restyling her hair with whatever her hands are covered in.