BLW v Puree - your thoughts please .....

OK, I am having a bit of a debate with my mum at the moment re feeding my LO who is nearly 13 months.  Over the last couple of months, C has been getting rather independent and preferring BLW type food and enjoying experimenting with different textures of food and not taking any pureed foods off a spoon .. from me anyway.

My mum keeps on at me that I should be giving her several veg and some meat pureed so she is getting her different food groups and she will end up getting fussy with food.

Does it really matter as long as she is eating, growing, developing at normal rate and gaining weight?  I think she is eating pureed food at nursery but she has the distraction/copying there.

Surely if she is sleeping through the night without needing a bottle, I am doing something right.

Today she has had:

B - most of a weetabix and half a crumpet with honey

L - sandwich with Princes Sardine & Tomato pate, cherry tomato, half a Ella's Kitchen Pea, Brocolli, and Pear pouch, and half a C&G Dairy Dessert (we were out for lunch with friends)

D - some smoked salmon, brocolli, and cous cous, some grapes and half a yog

Supper - bowl of Porridge and 3 oz of formula at bedtime

Snacks through the day - raisins, a fruit stick, 2 rice cakes, couple of Organix carrot sticks,

Is this OK or not enough?

xx

Why does your mother think that veg in puree form is any different to veg in a normal adult form ?

What your daughter is eating sounds a balanced diet to me and there is absolutely no reason she has to have puree.  Surely it's a great developmental thing that she is able to feed herself.

She sounds like a great eater, I think it is a generational thing as both MIL and my granny think that a "proper" cooked dinner is better than a meal where you eat the same ingredients but uncooked, or in separate bits. For example cooked carrots vs raw carrot sticks.

I think the biggest sign is that she's sleeping through the nights and is happy during the day.

From what you've listed there, C seems to be getting a varied diet so I wouldn't worry.

I considered BLW for S, but we started him on solids at 5.5 months and he was a hungry baby, particularly as he dropped the majority of his milk, and what he could cope with as a BLW baby was not enough to sustain him. We moved onto purees but with as much finger food as possible. Now he's willing to try almost anything at almost 10 months but much prefers to have the finger food.

Follow your instincts and take your lead from your child. T was fed purely on purees and became fussy much later, so I don't think fussiness is anything to do with what foods you use to wean on.

Thanks Jelly baby :-)  I could kiss you lol

Apparently all these fads the HVs come out with aren't good for the child and I did OK with purees .  She also came out with a classic last week and said that at 13 months old I should be withholding pudding if she doesn't eat her main course.  I told her that 13 months old is far to young to understand and I will end up having to supplement her hunger with a bottle in the night.  Plus she only gets fruit or yogurt for pudding and nothing terribly exciting and I know I can supplement with some more vitamins if main course didn't go down very well. 

Gah!!!

I am so glad my mum is so good sometimes, both her and my 86 year old grandmother have read the Gill Rapley BLW book and think it's fantastic so I haven't come across the negativity that others have.

Your mum would hate our household.  Zoe has her pudding before her main meal in the evening because it means we can eat the main meal a bit later when H is home. 

Thanks Odd Bod and Grapes Mummy :-)  I was really pleased when she ate most of her sandwich at lunchtime esp as she had never had the fish pate before. 

Just a little tip for you BLW'ers - Tescos sell 'Humzingers' (sticks of pressed fruit) and they are classed as 1 of 5 a day - they come in 2 different box flavours (Exotic & Classic). It took C ages to 'get' them and now she loves them and gets quite excited when I get it out of her little snack box.  Also Cheerios are a good little snack but in small amounts - small but easy to pick up and eat and lots of vitamins and minerals.  C goes mad for those lol. 

Surely eating at this age should be fun and not just about being spoon fed.  A HV told me that girls especially love BLW as they tend to be more independent than boys.  C used to love jars of Stage 2 until she was 11 months and then she went right off them and at the same time wanted to eat herself.

jelly baby:

Your mum would hate our household.  Zoe has her pudding before her main meal in the evening because it means we can eat the main meal a bit later when H is home. 

Thats quite a good idea actually - I may give mum the Gill Rapley book to read when I have finished with it.

Re your comment above, LOL.   I think she would cringe at some of the stuff I give C to eat sometimes.  When she was poorly with a Gastro bug the week before last, all C wanted was Scotch Pancakes and little fromage frais yogurts. Mum kept on at me that she needed vitamins to get better which put more pressure on me and made me feel crap.  What was I supposed to do? Force feed her? Now mum is coming round tomorrow around lunchtime, and I am dreading it as no doubt she will be scrutinizing what i am giving her. Better get something ready in the morning lol

xx

<dreams that one day Matilda will eat that much and in a non-mushed variety>

Sounds fab to me. Don't change a thing. 

Rusty the Clown:

<dreams that one day Matilda will eat that much and in a non-mushed variety>

 

Sounds fab to me. Don't change a thing. 

 

Can I kiss you as well lol

How are you doing?  Is Matilda 1 already? I think C and Matilda were due around the same time weren't they?

Keep persevering sweet - it does easier.  I was convinced that C wasn't getting enough food as a pigeon ate more but I find if I give C some finger foods and try with some puree as well, she is more likely to go back to the finger foods.  Yesterday she was mixing yogurt with bits of brocolli or green beans. Yum lol 

Gah my reply has gone walkabout

How old is Matilda now? Aren't C and Matilda the same age? Or were you before me? C was 20th Feb.

Keep perservering with the BLW - it will happen.  I think nursery puree her food so I make sure she has BLW at home if anything just to keep it varied and keep her in the habit of eating finger foods.

What snacks does Matilda have?  I found snacks to be a good starting point with C. 

xx

MrsThreads:

Can I kiss you as well lol

<puckers up>

Yep, Matilda was 1 on 2nd Feb. 

She's a rubbish eater. She really only started eating anything just after Christmas/New Year. 

I would love to be able to leave her a sandwich and it actually get eaten rather than smudged into her hair/highchair/the walls/the washing machine. 

Everything is spoon-fed apart from the occasional biscuit/crisp. 

Actually, I'd just be happy if she managed to spoon-feed herself. The toad is a lazy one. Not walking yet either but that's a whole other story and I don't want to steal your thread! 

C isn't spoon feeding herself yet but sometimes I will give her a spoon as she wants to have a go but I just use it as a tactic as she is a lot more compliant if I humour her lol (evil mummy icon needed)

Re the walking, neither is C but she is cruising a lot and getting a little more adventurous with her goals e.g. giving herself bigger gaps to cross and cruising more than crawling. Going to give in and get her a pair of cruising/crawling shoes to help her with her balance (socks a bit slippy on laminate floor and floor too cold for bare feet) and see if that helps