Weaners - when did you baby actually eat?

[Popples1]

I'm posting in here because the weaning forum is quite quiet and I'd like to hear from 'been there, done that', mummies.

My LO is 6 months and has been having small tastes of puree for a few weeks now. However, he WILL NOT be spoonfed! Even if he opens his mouth for the spoon (which doesn't happen often),rather than swallowing, he lets his mouth fill up with drool and it all drops out down his front eventually He knows his own mind and will not be coerced into eating unless he wants to! He's a little more interested when we do BLW and will lick/suck/munch on mango, nectarines, toast fingers, banana etc. for a short while before he gets bored but still doesn't eat a great deal. He also flaps about with his own spoon loaded with puree sometimes but inevitably, most of it ends up in his eyebrows.

I'm ok with this (no choice really!) but am curious about how long your LOs were messing with solids before they actually ate any. It seems that all my friends' babies are little gobblers so I don't really have much to compare to. All the 'your baby needs more nutrition than milk provides by 6 months' stuff worries me a little although he's EFF now and following his percentile perfectly so I know he's ok at the moment.

Thanks, ladies.

 

[mrssunshine78]

I wouldn't worry about him tbh, they all do things at their own pace, I've just started weaning my dd2 and feel much more chilled than I did with dd1. If he likes blw is just stick with that for a while and then try spoon feeding him later if you want to. My lo is eating a couple of tiny spoonfuls of food on an evening, but she too would rather just play with the food. Milk is their main source of food and calories until they're one. Good luck.

 

[SassyLou]

Maybe just go straight to BLW and forget the purees?

I have weaned 4 children now. The older three were all traditionally weaned (they're 25, 15 and 13 years old). Our daughter now 28 months was BLW, I can honestly say it's been fantastic and we've loved every minute. She eats really well and has never been a problem. Even my ILs who were really sceptical now tell everyone about BLW. We never spoon fed her ourselves, it has always been her choice whether to eat something or not. I love the way she would, and sometimes still does, lick and smell food to check it's OK. People have even come up to us in restaurants and commented on how well she eats. We did find that preloading spoons didn't work for her, she much preferred to get in there with her hands. We just picked food she could pick up, and didn't worry about the mess. The other fantastic thing is never having to worry about making food for them or having food with you when you go out, she just eats what we do xxx

 

[Popples1]

I do like the idea of BLW but after a gagging incident with mango (loads of gagging, I did backslaps in the end) I've lost my confidence a bit. Everything he puts something in his mouth I'm terrified he'll choke.

 

[SassyLou]

When did you try the mango? If it was a few weeks ago he may not have been ready.
Gagging is really scary, but I learnt very quickly to step back and count to 10, my daughter has always managed to deal with it herself. Gagging is just a natural part of learning to eat.
Its much safer in the long run that he gags and learns to do this.
Really worth reading the BLW books by Gill Rapley.

 

[Popples1]

It was a couple of weeks ago. Ordered the Gill R book this morning

 

[SassyLou]

Fantastic, good luck.
If you're on Facebook there's a support page and there's also a website with recipes etc.
X

 

[Popples1]

Oh great, thanks, I'll go and find it! X

 

[BabyMamma93]

ive just started weaning my LO on docs advice, started first with C&G pureed fruit & mushed up banana, he loves it, ive just given him a rusk with his milk, and he loved that too, at first he wouldnt open hismouth, now he does and smiles, some gets spat out, other bits he swallowed.
I gave him a finger biscuit and he fed him self with it, then i gave him another and paniked bcos a bit snapped off in his mouth & he was gagging, defo waiting for 6m to try BLW but i soo cant wait.. sorry im not much help, just giving my experience x

 

[CaptainMummy]

We did BLW with both girls. Dd1 at 5.5mths and dd2 at 6 months. Both ate straight away lol, none of the playing with food that people talk about when doing blw. Dd2 will be one on friday and is an amazing eater

 

[MindUtopia]

We did BLW and started at 6 months. I could see a change in her nappies, with some obvious solid food starting to come through, by 6.5 months, but I really have no idea what quantity she was eating. It all gets mushed up and goes on the floor and by the end doesn't really resemble what you started with, so it's hard to have an idea of the quantity. But I would say she really took off eating for the sake of eating, rather than just as play, at about 9 months. So it was about 3 months after we started. I think that's pretty normal for most BLW babies. Don't stress about the quantities though. Babies really don't need food for nutrition, particularly if you're formula feeding (as it's supplemented with vitamins anyway), before a year. It's important to offer food before then because it's part of the experience of developing and exploring tastes and textures, but they don't really need the nutrition or calories from food as long as you are still feeding formula on demand.

Also, I really can't recommend BLW enough. It's wonderful. Don't let the gagging on mango thing bother you. Gagging is good. It's what helps them learn to eat and keeps them safe from choking. My daughter is now nearly 19 months, so we started BLW 13 months ago and she's never had anything but finger foods. She's never choked once on food (gagging a bit to start, yes, but they all will). Actually, the only thing she ever chokes on is water (usually while drinking her bath water!), which goes to show you that it has nothing to do with whether you feed finger food. They can choke on water or puree just the same as finger foods, but the thing about BLW, which the Rapley book will explain, is that it gives them control over their food so they are much less likely to choke. BLW really is wonderful though. Our daughter is such a confident, adventurous eater. We get compliments everywhere we take her about how well she eats and the sorts of things she'll try. I couldn't imagine having done it any other way. Persist with it. You really will be glad you did in a few months time.

 

[Popples1]

We did BLW with both girls. Dd1 at 5.5mths and dd2 at 6 months. Both ate straight away lol, none of the playing with food that people talk about when doing blw. Dd2 will be one on friday and is an amazing eater

Haha, clever girls

 

[Popples1]

We did BLW and started at 6 months. I could see a change in her nappies, with some obvious solid food starting to come through, by 6.5 months, but I really have no idea what quantity she was eating. It all gets mushed up and goes on the floor and by the end doesn't really resemble what you started with, so it's hard to have an idea of the quantity. But I would say she really took off eating for the sake of eating, rather than just as play, at about 9 months. So it was about 3 months after we started. I think that's pretty normal for most BLW babies. Don't stress about the quantities though. Babies really don't need food for nutrition, particularly if you're formula feeding (as it's supplemented with vitamins anyway), before a year. It's important to offer food before then because it's part of the experience of developing and exploring tastes and textures, but they don't really need the nutrition or calories from food as long as you are still feeding formula on demand.

Also, I really can't recommend BLW enough. It's wonderful. Don't let the gagging on mango thing bother you. Gagging is good. It's what helps them learn to eat and keeps them safe from choking. My daughter is now nearly 19 months, so we started BLW 13 months ago and she's never had anything but finger foods. She's never choked once on food (gagging a bit to start, yes, but they all will). Actually, the only thing she ever chokes on is water (usually while drinking her bath water!), which goes to show you that it has nothing to do with whether you feed finger food. They can choke on water or puree just the same as finger foods, but the thing about BLW, which the Rapley book will explain, is that it gives them control over their food so they are much less likely to choke. BLW really is wonderful though. Our daughter is such a confident, adventurous eater. We get compliments everywhere we take her about how well she eats and the sorts of things she'll try. I couldn't imagine having done it any other way. Persist with it. You really will be glad you did in a few months time.

Thank you so much for sharing this. I feel very reassured. I think I need to relax and trust him a bit more. Daft really as I did hypnobirthing which is all about trusting your baby and your body, why should it be any different now he's out?!

Any foods which you found particularly successful? He sucked on some toast fingers today. Although it does make he nervous I must admit that I really enjoy seeing him grab the food all by himself, especially after watching him wriggle away from the spoon so many times!

 

[crossedfinger]

Want to jump in here and add my own experience. My daughter started "eating" solids at 4.5 months, but didn't really start eating anything in earnest until 8 months. At first, everything that I spooned into her mouth just dribbled down her chin! Super frustrating. She used to gag, too, but like other posters said, this is important to them learning how to eat.

 

[CantWaitToTTC]

I'm definitely interested in this post! My daughter turned 6 months on Friday last week, last week (on Monday), I started her on food. So far she has sucked on cucumber, toast, toast with bean juice, played with steamed carrot sticks and cheese sticks and didn't even touch avocado.

No idea when she will start actually eating - I as worried about this too, she only started getting food to her mouth to suck 2 days ago. But after reading these posts, I'm not stressing about the eating part.

But I am DESPERATE on ideas of food for a 6 month old. I don't want to repeat the same stuff

 

[Popples1]

My LO currently has chicken pox and is a bit off his milk so we've stopped solids for now. However, just before he got poorly we had a bit of a breakthrough - he's fed himself some potato & broccoli purée and even opened his mouth for spoonfuls of natural yoghurt mixed with apple purée (one day) and then banana purée (the next day). Hopefully we won't be back to square one when we restart solids!

 

[TCK_Runner]

Yikes on the chickenpox!!! Any idea how he got it?!

We started Emma on solids mid-August. The first week was just trying to get her to take the spoon and not fling or spit out all the food. She caught on quickly, although I think it helped that either myself or my husband would sit and eat lunch while the other spoon fed her. We're doing purées and she's taken to it quite well. The only BLW items I've tried so far are carrot sticks and cucumber sticks, she was not keen on orange carrots in that form OR in puréed form, so I guess I'll have to try them again at some point.

Of the things we've tried, so far she enjoys rice cereal, pumpkin, apple, white (sweeter) carrots, and she LOVES apple-banana and pear. She also likes apple juice mixed with some water in her sippy cup, which she finally has figured out how to use... But I have to limit the fruit a bit. I got pissed at my husband one day while I was out and he fed her lunch. I came home and he said "I forgot to make the cereal and she wouldn't eat much carrots, but she liked the pear, so I fed her the rest of the jar, 10-12 spoonfuls" *facepalm* And then he wondered why she pooped FOUR times over the next 24 hours .... I made him clean it up!!!!

 

[Popples1]

Haha, great story about the pear! I don't think my DH has fed our son a meal yet (he's joined me when I've been doing it but not gone solo) so at least he's giving it a go!

Not sure where chicken pox came from to be honest. We don't know anyone else who has it but have been to a few baby groups recently so I guess he picked it up at one of those. We've been in quarantine this week - cancelled all our play dates/classes and been going for long walks together instead.

LO is still not injesting much food but is definitely showing more interest. He's still insisting on holding the spoon himself but a little is going in his mouth and I've seen him sticking his tongue out to lick it. He also likes munching (or more likely, sucking the butter off!) on toast fingers. It's lovely to see him exploring it all. I'm enjoying it again now I keep reminding myself 'food under one is just for fun!'.