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age and BLW...

Hi everybody, hope you're well and had a nice Christmas.



Since being pregnant with Finley I've had my heart set on doing BLW with him. He's now 8days shy of 5months old. I got Gill Rapley's book about BLW for Christmas, and have already read it from cover to cover!



I just got a little confused about the age guidelines. Now, I'm aware of the general 6month rule for weaning, and all of the reasons/research behind it. The book also states through and through to begin BLW at 6months. One phrase in the book (don't have it to hand to quote directly) was along the lines of "watch the baby not the calendar". And it gave a couple of pointers for when baby would be ready to begin experimenting with food such as sitting unaided and being able to reach for food of their own accord and bring it to their mouths.



Now, Finley can do both of these things, has more than doubled his birth weight and has lost his tongue thrust etc. If I were going down the other weaning route, ie, purees, I would definately be waiting longer. However because with BLW he won't actually be EATING the food to begin with, is it ok to offer him bits on his high chair now for him to simply play with and experiment with?? I figured since in general it takes a couple of months for babies to begin chewing and swallowing the food, he will be over 6months when he begins to do this is I allow him to have foody play times now. Am I just getting the wrong end of the stick? I'm a bit confused.... what do you all think? XX

Replies

  • its certainly worth a try if thats the route you want to go down, as its purely fun and not for calories it doesnt really matter if he has a good play about with it instead of eating x
  • Erin is five and a half months old and we started blw yesterday for exactly the same reasons! I figured she won't be eating much for the first few weeks so I'm not too fussed about waiting until six months.



    So I say go for it!



    xx
  • i *think* we started at about 5 months 1 week....madam could pull herself up at the couch and helped herself to mummys cheese and veg pie while i was pouring a drink!!! she actually managed to eat some too so i took this as a good sign and started with little bits from there on.



    daddy was mildly horrified when i gave his 6 month old sandwiches as he didn't understand BLW but i wanted to do it so we persevered and he loves that now we can plonk her in her booster seat and she'll eat almost anything she's given. our only problem is should we be in a hurry and need to spoon feed she doesn't like it and still tried to eat with her hands...daddy gets very annoyed but i thinkit's so cute! image
  • We started at 5 and a half months. She was able to do all the things you say and was really reaching out for our food so just gave her little bits to start with and with a few weeks/month she was eating quite a reasonable amount and now at 11 months will clean a plate of food of in half the time of her 6 yr old sister. I'd recommend blw to anyone, the best thing we ever did, I wish i'd known about it with dd1.
  • I actually started with purees at 5 months because I thought you couldn't BLW til 6 and DD was very obv ready for some foodie action! Interestingly at about 6.5 months she decided that DD1's food was much more interesting than hers and has basically weaned herself off purees and onto "proper food" that she can feed herself. With the exception of porridge and yoghurt at 8 months she pretty much totally self feeds. I know this isn't true BLW but it's a bit of a happy medium that worked itself out for us with a baby that wanted to try food before the guideline 6 month stage.
  • Hello, just seen this, my LO is 1 year old, eat breakfast from a spoon (which I feed) and dinner but tea time refuses to be spoon fed so ive been giving her hotdogs, pasta, chicken, veg, fish bites etc, but i feel like im giving her the same things, any advice on meals she can feed herself? x

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