I want to hear from moms who followed strict BLW while being low supply moms

[Blessed_Mom]

Are there any?

This is my story. I am a low-supply mom. DD is 10 mo old. My supply kind of tanked (after trying, literally, everything except Dom. Oatmeal, fenugreek, blessed thistle, oatstraw, nettles, fennel, Goat's rue....you name it I must have tried it) - around 5 mo of Dd's age. That was when I started Dom. Supply was restored to the same decent level which we found ourselves to begin with (80% of DD's needs). We chugged along until around 6.5 mo DD started showing interest in solids. BUT - she did not take to CLW at ALL. This is why - she is allergic to quite a few foods (we know - dairy, soy, eggs, peanuts and corn). Since allergic babies aren't supposed to really chug foods - she didn't but when I fed her purees she would eat them heartily enough. That was a welcome relief to me since my supply was low and she had weight gain issues (weight totally stalled at 15 pounds when she was around 8 mo old). From 9 mo - on feeding avocado and purees - she finally gained 2 pounds to be 17# now.

Long story short...if led to BLW - she would still never have touched a morsel of any food. But my supply is about 70% of her needs now. What do I do? I cannot wait for her to be 'ready when she is".

So what do low supply moms in my situation do if the baby is not yet ready and they strictly want to do BLW? Wait forever for the baby to be ready (maybe at 14-18 mo)? meanwhile the baby is not getting 100% nourishment...so shouldn't they be "feeding" their LOs purees?

Sorry for the long post.

[BlueWolf]

If you are strict about doing BWL weaning and she is NOT ready for it full time.. have you thought about supplementing with a bit of formula?

I know that might not be a popular answer, and I'm by no means advocating formula feeding. But I could only make it to 6 months breast feeding after a really bad battle with supply issues. My DD is 100% formula fed now, and still not ready or wanting to eat solids more than as a fun thing. I honestly can't wait to get her off the formula and onto foods full time, but she's just not ready for it yet.

[Megan73]

I agree with BlueWolf.
I was a low-supply mama, too, supplemented with formula in a Lact-Aid and did - mostly - BLW although we did do some iron-rich pureed foods because I let my doctor scare me about anemia and spoonfed foods that are eaten with a spoon, like soup or yogurt.
If you want to do BLW I would supplement with formula.
If you don't want to do formula, I'd do what it sounds like you're already doing - offer solids in whatever form she'll take it and make sure they're calorie and nutrient-dense. Other ideas that come to mind are finely minced meat, fish or dark-meat chicken, mashed beans or chickpeas, sweet potato, tiny wholewheat pasta with olive oil, and avocado.
Keep in mind, too, that very soon she'll develop the pincer grasp and be feeding herself bite-sized pieces. My son went from basically no interest in solids at 10 months to eating whatever we were eating at a year.

[Blessed_Mom]

She doesn't take formula in any shape or form plus I don't want to feed her neocate or elecare (full of HFCS).

Megan,

Can you elaborate on how that happened? How did your son suddenly start eating solids?

[sapphire_chan]

It was my understanding that part of BLW is supplementing with complementary foods when there's a nutritional need. Since you aren't replacing breastmilk calories with other calories, it's not going to hurt anything to offer purees.

Of course, if you're really against spoon feeding, you could make yummy nummy smoothies and share them with your LO.

[zinemama]

I was low supply and pretty much gave up and switched to formula at 4 months. By then, baby loved to nurse, so I kept right on nursing him. For two and a half years, actually! I agree with BlueWolf and Megan.

[Megan73]

Originally Posted by Blessed_Mom

She doesn't take formula in any shape or form plus I don't want to feed her neocate or elecare (full of HFCS).

Megan,

Can you elaborate on how that happened? How did your son suddenly start eating solids?

He just did. I think he was a kid who just preferred to feed himself and once he had the pincer grasp down he just started doing it. As I said, we'd done some purees - mostly minced meat, mashed kidney beans, baby pasta - for the iron and I offered him the BLW mainstays like soft chunks of banana and avocado, strips of bread, etc. to experiment with.
Honestly, it sounds like you've done a great job getting your LO's weight gain up.
Why not just keep doing what you're doing and offer things she can self-feed as well?

[mambera]

I think if baby is not ready for solids and supply is low then you need to supplement with formula or donor milk.

I am in about your situation - made 80-90% of baby's needs while she was EBF - and it really took the pressure off when she got interested in solids at 5.5 mo. She probably would have been happy to BLW but I preferred to spoon-feed early on. Now at 10 mo she mostly feeds herself. We still offer a little formula occasionally but she doesn't take much.

Why do you say your DD is not ready if she is showing interest? Can she sit well and swallow food without tongue-thrusting?

[Blessed_Mom]

She is not ready because she just does not feed herself anything.
Well, except puffed rice (which I gave her to fine tune her pincer grasp. I also gave her chunks of so many foods but she will not put them in her mouth. She will play with them though)

[tzs]

i'm not in your situation so i cant pretend to understand, but as a total outsider, i guess the first question that came to my mind was "why such a strong desire to do blw still?"

so if the theory of blw is to do self-feeding to help your child with solids in the best way for them...if it isn;t working and another way is, then why not follow your babe's lead and go the way that is working?

i mean, it's not like puree fed babies never learn how to feed themselves, they just do it differently. and you can still offer a wide variety of whole foods, table foods, healthy foods, whatever you want, while spoon feeding.

you can always reevaluate. we do such a mix over here. it's so easy to be flexible that you don't have to be 100% blw or 100% purees. for example, my babe started out initially with spoon-fed mashed stuff, but we realized she preferred chunks and bites so i mostly spoon/hand feed her table foods. if we aren;t eating or aren;t eating anything she could eat i pull out a frozen baby-meal that i "inherited" from a friend with an older babe. she practices and self-feeds cheerios and table foods some of the time. and then when i have the time or the inclination i'll let her have a go at a fruit or a meal by herself.

that's great that she's gaining and i really have to admire the work you put into increasing supply, i don't know if i would've had the same dedication!

[Blessed_Mom]

Originally Posted by tzs

i'm not in your situation so i cant pretend to understand, but as a total outsider, i guess the first question that came to my mind was "why such a strong desire to do blw still?"so if the theory of blw is to do self-feeding to help your child with solids in the best way for them...if it isn;t working and another way is, then why not follow your babe's lead and go the way that is working?
i mean, it's not like puree fed babies never learn how to feed themselves, they just do it differently. and you can still offer a wide variety of whole foods, table foods, healthy foods, whatever you want, while spoon feeding.

you can always reevaluate. we do such a mix over here. it's so easy to be flexible that you don't have to be 100% blw or 100% purees. for example, my babe started out initially with spoon-fed mashed stuff, but we realized she preferred chunks and bites so i mostly spoon/hand feed her table foods. if we aren;t eating or aren;t eating anything she could eat i pull out a frozen baby-meal that i "inherited" from a friend with an older babe. she practices and self-feeds cheerios and table foods some of the time. and then when i have the time or the inclination i'll let her have a go at a fruit or a meal by herself.

that's great that she's gaining and i really have to admire the work you put into increasing supply, i don't know if i would've had the same dedication!

Good question. This is why - for the past 3-4 days she is completely refusing solids - avocados, purees everything. It *could* be because she has just cut her first tooth. BUT - she shows no other signs of inconvenience...she is as normal as can be. I don't even know if they are corelated.

I wonder if it were different were she self-feeding? Also - I have always been fascinated with these little wittle babes feeding themselves tons of solid foods (and nursing a ton) and that makes me feel so wistful. We all want things we cannot have and my desire is to have a baby who nurses a ton (while I am full-supply) and also BLWs all kinds of yummy table food.
<sniffle>

Meaning: Suddenly my babe is refusing all forms of solid food. It is driving me batty. My supply is about 70% of her needs (trust me!). She won't take formula in any which way. So I wonder.....what would other moms do?

[tzs]

i hear ya. those blw people really get you with those cute pictures, for sure!

we kind of go back and forth. sometimes i'll be spoon feeding her and she just gets really really angry and i have to let her do it herself. sometimes she's not having much luck self-feeding and get's really really angry and i just spoon feed her.

she did have a period of a couple days last week where she just wasn't interested at all, not in food she had loved before, not in anything but sweet fruit. i was worried i was going to have a picky eater. but it picked up on it's own again and she's more adventerous than ever.

have you tried doing both at the same time? like puffs on the tray for her to fiddle with and then some spoon stuff?

ugh, i'm sure you'll have some cute food pics in no time!