Reassurance needed on baby led weaning...

[snowboarder]

Hello - it's all fine - all I wanted was peoples views on whether filling up a baby with food would help sleep, really, therefore need for puree, which baby snowboarder doesn't seem to rate much but might be necessary. I think BLW is great and does work but it does definitely take longer to get going.

I'm going to try and add in purees and try and combining the two as advised and see if it makes a difference - I would hate to think he really is waking JUST because he's starving and I was not helping him eat more! However after last night's 2 hr wakeful period after big feed at 2am I'm not so sure!!

Cheers all. Good debate as usual. What am I going to do over the next 2 weeks! Will report back. x

[The Nappy Lady]

On the choking front, I stuck with soft stuff at the start, well cooked veggies - carrots and broccoli firm favourites, and you can of course cook up fruit so it is mushy and let them feed themselves handfuls - it's messy, but they do love it.

Plus of course the softer fruits work really well.

If you look on You Tube under Baby Led Weaning and Choking you can watch some videos of little ones dealing with this which can be reassuring.

Good luck Snowboarder!

I had DD1 next to the bed crying at 1.30am after a nightmare, and DD2 awake about an hour after that and crying on and off for almost 2 hours with DH trying to settle her without success - teeth I think. I am trying not to go to her because if I do she just wriggles until I feed her. It is hard to resist as I know she'd settle much quicker, but at 1 I know she doesn't really need it, and I don't want to be a dummy any more! I think part of the reason I've been so ill for the past 2 months with coughs and colds is due to lack of sleep and being run down. The two nights before that were perfect 7pm to 7am and I thought (yet again) that we'd cracked it! Ha! Back to feeling sleep deprived today so you are not alone!

Molly

x

[Fuschia]

Mine eat fantastically well AND also wake up at night for little milky snacks.. IME the night time waking isn't really hunger, more a desire for some reassurance, contact etc... in that sense I am a believer in the need to "Night time parent" (within the emotional and physical resources available to you!)

[hanstands]

helena handbasket Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

It was a LOT of work and took a

> couple of months (with very few tears I should

> add) but I turned him into an awesome sleeper.

What did you do and how did you do it??

Its off topic perhaps though could be helpful if Snowboarder's spoon feeding doesn't help the sleep, which it didn't with mine [but hope it does for you!!]

[randomv]

Mellors Wrote:

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>

> If you can bear with it though, tne benefit of BLW

> weaning is that I took the little one to Wagamama

> at lunch today (age 13 months) where she merrily

> chomped down Duck Gyosa and a mini portion of

> Chicken Ramen with no help (although I am glad

> they were cleaning the floor not me). No messing

> about with baby food.

Just wanted to point out that my 13 month old was weaned from 5 months, first with purees only and then puree/mashed food and finger food and he is also quite capable of eating what we eat without having it chopped or mashed up for him. I cook one meal per day which we have at night and he has for lunch the next day, and we regularly take him out to restaurants without having to take baby food with us, so if your LO is more suited to purees and the more traditional route at the moment, please don't think that means you'll be stuck on baby food for longer - it isn't necessarily the case.

[BellendenBear]

The term BLW seems to be used a lot purely to describe giving finger foods, but isn't there more to it than that? It is about allowing your child to chose from a variety of foods and go at their own pace. With the puree approach you can still offer finger foods and encourage variety of taste and texture. And it doesn't have to involve force feeding calories down their necks.

In the end I opted for the bit of both approach - purees because I am impatient, and finger foods to encourage independence. People have been giving their kids purees for years without making them all picky or unadventurous. From what I can gather from my Mum, I wasn't offered anything that wasn't mushed and beige for months (I don't advocate this).

BLW seems to have a hint of doing something different for the sake of it. Surely babies brought up with this method are going to have a healthy attitude to food and eating because their parents have thought about food and feeding habits. Are the 2 things not parallel rather than being cause and effect?

[Smiler]

Re. the sleep (or lack of) issue, think that the comments / reactions show how hard and emotional lack of sleep is! It is a real struggle.

[nicolemodesti]

As randomv, we also started with purees, then mashed/finger food by about 8 months. At this age he was also munching on pieces of chopped apple etc. By 9 months he would happily sit with us in a restaurant and eat from our plates and not the lovingly prepared pasta I had taken along. To be honest I don't know very much about BLW, but it does seem that our now 13 month old has a great palate, loves to try new foods and use a spoon/fork. So much so that he would rather eat from our plates, especially the paella we had in Menorca for his 1st birthday! Long may it continue. Funnily enough, I really enjoyed the pureeing stage, as I would tuck myself away in the kitchen for a couple of hours on a Saturday morning while my partner spent time with our boy. Strange but it was therapeutic!!!! I'm not sure about the food/sleep factor as we are one of the 'lucky' ones in that he was sleeping through from 6 weeks. Good luck with it all.

[snowboarder]

Re sleep - it is amazing though what you get used to!!

Re Milky midnight snacks - that's actually SO fine if that's all the night wakes are!

Re BLW - Yep BellendenBear I was a bit concerned that BLW was a bit the 'latest thing' and I know am quite susceptible to getting all enthusiastic about fashionable or right on ideas...but it DOES make sense in theory to me - however am going to try to get more food into my baby to see if this can help sleep - for me as much as him!

Note - the pumpkin, squash and mango mush did not go down well this evening.....porridge tomorrow.

[randomv]

BellendenBear Wrote:

> BLW seems to have a hint of doing something

> different for the sake of it. Surely babies

> brought up with this method are going to have a

> healthy attitude to food and eating because their

> parents have thought about food and feeding

> habits. Are the 2 things not parallel rather than

> being cause and effect?

Totally agree. I think the term BLW is misleading though: what could be more baby led than feeding puree to a baby who clearly needs more than milk but doesn't yet have the skills or mental capacity to pick up the food he needs? In the case of my LO, he gradually showed that wanted to be more involved - there is no way he would have allowed me to force feed him puree - so he would feed himself bits of veg etc while I fed him the puree/mash. Now we are at the stage where he almost totally self-feeds, either with hands or spoon and I no longer mush or chop anything up for him.

[The Nappy Lady]

How did the porridge go today Snowboarder?

Molly

[snowboarder]

Not bad! Porridge and toast for breakfast, 3 giant pasta twirls and tomato sauce, with extra sauce and courgette fingers on the side for lunch, and scotch pancakes, ellas fruit puree and yoghurt for supper. And milk. Blimey if he doesn't sleep now I give in. Kitchen is destroyed after all this though. And I am exhausted!

[The Nappy Lady]

Wow, that is really good going considering he's only just started - well done. It does get easier honest - you get in to the swing of it and find lots of 'easy' bits and bobs to lay on for them.

Really hope it pays off, but don't despair if it doesn't happen right away...it will in time....oh and check out how fast the nappies change!!

Molly

x

[snowboarder]

Well - I'm not sure how much actually went down - for example the pasta was just sucked (and OH GOD I then ate it to be tidy!). So in reality a bit of porridge, suck of toast, suck of pasta, some pureed tomato, suck of scotch pancake (which he LOVED!) and small taste of yoghurt. Bet he's up all night with tummy upset now!

Nappies already disgusting and too frequent. Might retry the paper liners....

[Belle]

Ahah - as snowboarder might remember, in early weaning days my baby's record was ELEVEN poos in one day. All of considerable mass. UGH!

[The Nappy Lady]

Blimey - I thought we had it bad with up to about 6 per day at the moment due to teething, but 11 is hardcore...even as The Nappy Lady I'd have issues with that!!!!

Snowboarder - just thought, tomatoe is one of the things that can make them sore when it comes out the other end, so keep an eye out for that, not always, but it's a bit like fruit juice and stuff I think.

Really hope it continues to go well, he sounds like he's taking to it very enthusiastically which is great.

Molly

[snowboarder]

rubbish. didn't work...

[Fuschia]

I'd say giving a lot of solids at just 6m will only reduce milk taken in the day and encourage even more night feeding, tbh.

[The Nappy Lady]

It wont work overnight Snowboarder...have you phoned Claire Kevdis yet...yes I'm nagging you I know!

Molly

x

[snowboarder]

Will call..

He didn't really have much to actually eat yesterday - more just lots of tastes. It's hard to get a balance isn't it? I bf before solids though.

Onwards!