Combination feeding....

[Princess81]

First off please don't let this turn into a weaning punch-up session.....
I want to do a mixture of tw and blw, anyone doing it?
I'll admit blw scares me a bit as I'm not in control of it but has to start somewhere I guess..... I'm thinking soft fruit?
Do you even mash anything for them?

 

[ZMD]

I done a mixture of both then switched to just blw at about 8 months as found it so much easier! I started with toast, bannana, mango, melon etc. its amazing what they can manage! xx

 

[Amy_J]

I did mainly purees to Begin with and offered lots of finger foods, pitta bread strips, hummous, rice cakes, slightly soft carrot sticks (steamed), sandwiches, chcicken strips etc etc he took to it really well but hes a fussy little bugger now!

 

[Princess81]

Thanks girls he's started with toast already which he enjoys so I'll just have to try to introduce more. Scared!!

 

[Amy_J]

It took him a good few months to actually get the hand of eating propery but i wasnt too bothered as he as eating all of his purees! I manly did finger food style lunch,(sanwich/toast/pitta bread with fruit etc) and then puree dinner with milk inbetween! Good luck xxxx

 

[Princess81]

Thanks we're a little limited because he can't have dairy/lactose

 

[Laura_C]

This is what we are doing, did the same with my eldest too. She is mainly BLW at the moment, she has yoghurt which generally I spoon feed but I always give her the spoon and let her have a go and let her have a play with it afterwards as she is learning. She has started to have the same meals as us, as long as they are suitable. She really enjoy tuna and jacket potato the other day, with some cheese too. I was too scaredy to give her the skins yet though! She is eating veg well, she likes lots of different breads, chapatti, naan, pitta etc. She is such a hungry baby though that she isn't always satisfied as she obviously isn't getting as much into her, so she can get a little frustrated. It's nice at meal times though that she can sit and share what we are eating now I just mix it up depending on what meals we are having, breakfast is generally TW, lunch maybe TW or BLW and also dinner, just depends I kinda go with the flow. I try to offer her new tastes regularly. We have had a couple of scary chokey moments but we've been ok.
I personally have found doing a combination of the two has been great for my girls

 

[Hunnie]

I'm doing a bit of both but we had an incident with a rusk the other day and it scared the crap out of me and has put me off Blw a bit xx

 

[pinkyprincess]

I could be wrong (not bashing!) but I thought with TW you introduce finger foods at a stage but I don't see how this is BLW as isn't part of BLW about letting a child choose portion sizes which you can't do with purees? So wouldn't it just be finger foods? I've got an annabel Karmel book for the finger foods.

Could be wrong here and not bashing anyone's techniques just trying to get my head round weaning!

 

[Princess81]

I could be wrong (not bashing!) but I thought with TW you introduce finger foods at a stage but I don't see how this is BLW as isn't part of BLW about letting a child choose portion sizes which you can't do with purees? So wouldn't it just be finger foods? I've got an annabel Karmel book for the finger foods.

Could be wrong here and not bashing anyone's techniques just trying to get my head round weaning!

Yes good point, I guess I'm more tw with finger foods thrown in although I do let him spoon feed himself - sort of!

 

[Laura_C]

Whatever it's called, I use TW and finger foods then, apologies if I have the terminology wrong - not that it really matters Sophia completely chooses her portion sizes either way tbh, I just don't buy thy whole ramming food down a baby's neck issue, my LO completely makes me aware when she is done. She can say no by shaking her head as well as other gestures like not opening her mouth for more an pushing food away. My LO is actually eating her main meals herself, dinner and tea. Tonight she will be having chicken, veg and potato wedges which she will feed herself - she will choose exactly what she wants and put it into her mouth herself with no intervention - is that not BLW? Im confused...? I spoon feed her her porridge in the morning and she has the odd purée/fork mash stuff atm and she started very much on purées to begin with. Basically whatever the right terminology is my LO is a happy bunny with combination feeding

 

[pinkyprincess]

Whatever it's called, I use TW and finger foods then, apologies if I have the terminology wrong - not that it really matters Sophia completely chooses her portion sizes either way tbh, I just don't buy thy whole ramming food down a baby's neck issue, my LO completely makes me aware when she is done. She can say no by shaking her head as well as other gestures like not opening her mouth for more an pushing food away. My LO is actually eating her main meals herself, dinner and tea. Tonight she will be having chicken, veg and potato wedges which she will feed herself - she will choose exactly what she wants and put it into her mouth herself with no intervention - is that not BLW? Im confused...? I spoon feed her her porridge in the morning and she has the odd purée/fork mash stuff atm and she started very much on purées to begin with. Basically whatever the right terminology is my LO is a happy bunny with combination feeding

I was just confused as to a difference coz if your BLW is it still finger foods? Does that make sense? I'm confusing myself!!

 

[Princess81]

I do think it's purely terminology. Laura I plan on doing exactly the same it sounds great!!
I got a beaba steamer blender heater thing on order

 

[tinks77]

I do both, started tw at 4 months and blw weaning at 5.5months
We gave a jar for lunch and dinner as well as finger food. She eats everything now and can work her way through a slice of pineapple in seconds lol

 

[Hope81]

I saw girls that did BLW saying that combination feeding that starts with spoon feeding can be dangerous as babies first learn to swallow fast what you put in their mouths while on BLW first learn to chew.
Ofc I am far away from this decision yet but though I entertain he idea of BLW I think TW is more for me the way they do it in Greece and probably other places too?
Meaning purées at 5-6 months, more lumpy food at 7 months and end of 7 months -8 months finger food, only fork mashing food with big lumps at 10 months and normal food sometime between 12-15 months...
Ofc until then who knows what I will do so keeping an eye in all of your weaning journeys

 

[BabyBrain]

Ok someone please put me out of my misery.....what's TW and BLW stand for????

 

[Hope81]

Traditional weaning and baby leading weaning

 

[BabyBrain]

Aaahhh thanks hun xxxxxxx

 

[ZMD]

We started tegan on purees at 5.5 months, dieticians advice as she wasnt drinking much milk. 6.5 months we started finger foods. So she had porridge breakfast. Blw style lunch puree for tea followed by something of ours. The purees soon got phased out and by 8 months she was pretty much eating similar to what we ate. X

 

[Piglet's Mama]

We do a mix of both and tbh, I think all the Mums I know do this. Main meals are spoon-fed with "finger-food" snacks in between like toast, fruit or a sugar-free biscuit, rice cake etc

From experience, before 8 months they don't really "eat" the foods they feed themselves. They will take it, chew it, swallow it but they don't really know they're eating to fill themselves up. We found if we just gave B finger foods she woke hungry too, and where she previously slept through, woke at 3am for milk.

Not to bash either type of weaning, but with TW I knew what she was having, I knew what she liked, and I knew by how much she ate that she would be full up. If you're used to a baby that's sleeping through, you kind of don't want to go backwards...!

And the whole "babies can't control their portion size when spoon fed" mantle is utter bollocks. If Brooke doesn't want anymore she'll turn her head away or start wriggling. You know as a parent when they've had too much as they stop opening their mouths to be fed. If you push them, they will just lob the bowl, spoon or both! The problem is then with the parent force feeding their child! Do what feels right for you and don't feel pressured by what others are doing. In the early days I felt like I should be doing it a certain way because that's what all the cool Mums were doing. Now I please myself and my baby, much much easier xx