Baby-Led Weaning???

MrsBWG

When it comes to weaning off of BM, I'm totally going to follow DD's lead (we EBF), but adding foods and when and how I have questions with.  Anyone here tried BLW or used that method complimentarily with purees?  I'm just looking for suggestions and stories.  I'm eventually going to find what will work best for us...  Also, has anyone tried those cool-looking mesh bag feeder things??

Thanks!!

MagickalNarwhal

We did BLW with my older kid and loved it! If you do it along with purees though it kind of defeats the purpose - that's basically just introducing solids in the typical way - purees, and maybe adding finger foods earlier? With BLW, my kid never did the slurping down that comes with purees - he learned to chew from the get go. I think navigating whole foods helpes them develop the skills to really eat all kinds of foods. He's fantastic at navigating all kinds of foods in his mouth now at almost 20 months - yesterday I gave him olives with pits and he chewed the meat off and spit the pits out. 

I started out with the book. We wanted to take a baby CPR class but never did...my partner freaked out with the gagging (and you do have to be prepared for a fair amount of gagging and know that gagging =/= choking), but I was never too worried. He has yet to choke on anything.

sidey1

Our pediatrician has recommended this approach, our biggest issue is really logistics because we don't get home in the evenings with enough time to sit down and eat dinner with DS before he goes to bed so we could cook him a dinner seperately and feed it to him alone but I think that defeats the purpose a little. We did start purees this past week because he's putting away so much formula, but just a very small amount once a day so I guess we've already screwed up that whole plan. I need to figure out somehow so we can at least try it.

ASmallWonder

What you're thinking of isn't BLW but rather, purees and finger foods.  BLW is solely finger foods, thereby allowing their food intake to be totally self led.  What you decide to do is totally fine.  wholesomebabyfood.com is a great place to start.  Those mesh feeders can be fun but a word of caution - never put banana in there.  You will never get it out

MeenaJo

We did purees and finger foods with DS as the PPs are calling it. I never really had a word for it, though researching BLW foods is what I followed when starting finger foods. We started with some purees but also gave a lot of BLW type food when DS would sit with us during meals. Long strips or large chunks for him to grasp. We never had a problem, he loved to eat! Even though he also took purees he learned quickly to chew food and loved eating bits of whatever we were eating. I plan to do the same approach with DD.

arschm02

I mostly give LO purees but have just started doing some BLW. We've tried bread, steamed apples and bananas so far. He has done awesome with it so far. Gagging is normal, but we haven't even had any gagging yet. We also just started puffs and yogurt melts, which he loves! He is 6 months old.