Starting solids, BLW vs Spoon Feeding

[maba]

I know this topic has been discussed many times but I would like to know more, specific to my baby. My baby will be 8 mo in 3 days and he's been exclusively BFed. At his 6 month ped visit, the doctor said I can introduce solids and I told him I'd like to wait till he's able to sit up on his own. I was hoping he'd take to BLW. He has shown no interest in foods so far. When I eat, he looks longingly but when I offer he just wants to play with it. Also, family and friends started scaring me about babies becoming picky eaters or refusing to eat solids if it's delayed for too long. I believe BM is superior and I plan on BFing as long as my LO wants but at the same time, I'm aware of how nutrient-deficient our foods have become as result of industrialization of agriculture and often wonder if my baby gets enough nutrients from BM. So i thought I'll start feeding him some fat-rich foods but not stress too much about it, so I tried boiled egg-yolk with grated liver ( I believe their digestive system is not developed enough to handle cereal) and placed a tiny speck on his tongue with my finger but he managed to push it out. I've tried avocado, egg-yolk with ghee as well but he manages to push out whatever little I place on his tongue and when I try again just turns is head away.

He is a healthy baby and weighs about 16 lbs at 8 months. While I believe he's getting nutrients from my milk, I cannot completely shake off what others tell me about introducing solids. I'd love to hear from you mommas on my predicament. 

[lilbsmama]

screw what everyone else says, lol. You can obviously tell that your boy is just not ready. It's totally ok, because he's getting everything he needs from YOU! My ds is 15mo, and still just plays with almost everything we give him. But he eats when he is hungry and nurses whenever he wants. Keeps following him, mama, he will tell you when he is ready to eat for real!

[ProtoLawyer]

Let him play! As long as he's growing and healthy, he's getting what he needs, and he'll figure it out eventually.

We started with BLW around 6 months, but he wasn't interested...avocado made its way to the floor, ripe pear became hair gel. We tried purees a few times; my son was way more interested in grabbing the spoon and painting the dog with it. was wondering if he'd ever actually eat, and then one day, he grabbed some pulled pork off my plate and went to town. (He was maybe 7 1/2 months.) So, after that, I just cut up whatever we were eating (with the exception of overly salty or spicy foods) into little bits, and if he ate it, fine, and if he didn't, fine.

He started daycare right before he turned 9 months, and the daycare is willing (with parent approval) to do either purees or table food for babies 8 months and up. I told them to go ahead and give him table food, and we haven't looked back.

[Marissamom]

I agree, just let him play. DD was 9 months before she was ready to eat solids, she would eat a couple bites a couple times a week before that. now she's a champion eater. some kids will be picky no matter what you do, but even just letting your baby see what you're eating and giving them a little to play with makes them more likely to happily eat the food in the future. 

[Darlingricki74]

I agree with the others.  I would quit trying to put the stuff in his mouth and just put him in the high chair and put some on the tray. Give him a spoon, maybe pre-load the spoon with some of it but don't try to feed it to him, most likely the spoon and maybe some of the food will make it's way into his mouth.   He may just fingerpaint his tray with it, but he may decide to taste it too!   Just let him play with it and try it if he wants to.  Eventually I'm sure he'll try eating it even if he doesn't the first few times.

[AFWife]

I'm going to agree with everyone else. My son showed minute interest in solids at that age. Seriously, he'd suck on a mesh feeder with banana while I cooked dinner and that was IT. Everyone (family) gave me the same lines your family is giving you...that if I didn't make him eat it would screw him up.

Well, he's 2 and is an adventurous eater. He has a few things he just doesn't like...but he eats things like salads. He LOVES fruit and views it as a treat food sometimes. (Seriously, the few times we've done bribes we've used fruit)

When he's ready he'll eat!

[Chloe'sMama]

We didn't do solids till DD1 was 9 months and she loves all sorts of foods.  DD2 has shown a bit more interest and we have started her at 8.5 months, but only BLW and table foods (well banana and sweet potato so far).  Small chunks on her tray any only self directed. 

You know your baby....

[katelove]

I'm just going to echo the others. We started BLW just after 6 months. Our LO would taste everything we gave her but swallowed almost nothing. She started swallowing more around the 10 month mark and now, at nearly 12 months, she is swallowing more again. She still tastes everything we offer her.

I'd say 99% of her nutrition still comes from BM but she is experiencing tastes, textures and smells as well as developing motor skills, learning how to handle different shapes and sizes and textures and getting things into her mouth.

I'm delighted we discovered BLW, we wouldn't do it any other way.

[etsdtm99]

yup, let him play, if he wants to eat, he will eat!

My DD is almost 8 months, we started BLW at just over 7 months - she started out gagging on anything she put in her mouth and mostly playing and now this week twice she has eaten a measurable amount (banana and asparagus) she is chewing and swallowing and has even learned to drink from a straw all by me just putting things on her tray.. my DS was completely different! with him ,he wasn't ready - he didn't have all the signs i waited for this time even though we waited til 8 months and a few days (he only had one from my list - the list being sitting unassisted, crawling belly off the floor and pincher grasp)  .. he didn't really take to eating until he was also crawling, sitting up from crawling and had the pincher grasp (even though i had started spoon feeding him) - he was about 10.5-11 months .. anyway.. he is picky now, but he is 3 .. it will pass.. my 5 yr old was a very picky 3 yr old and now she eats anything ..  anyway, its all very tricky .. if you are concerned about your milk and your baby isn't interested in supplementing his diet, why  not supplement yours? you could accomplish the same thign by putting more nutrients into you.. and it would be a whole lot easier than forcing a baby to eat before he is ready! 

[BabySmurf]

i just brought  DS to his 6 month appointment, and i got the "wow you're still just ebf? he's taking an awful lot out of you!....you really should start solids within the next month"  i dutifully went home and made up some avocado and ds wanted nothing to do with it....not even to play with it.  what ami supposed to do, jam it down his throat? i was almost worried, and then i thought about it....do i really think ds is going to want to nurse......FOREVER?! does that even make sense? of course not.  don't worry about it, so long as you are offering him food, he will eat when he is hungry...and he's designed to know pretty well what his body needs. try not to over think it!

[Erin77]

My son is a week away from 8 months old and we also have done BLW for the last 4 weeks. You can TELL when they start wanting to eat, and if they don't, it means they're not ready, in my opinion. The first week he poked at his banana and sweet potato and maybe tasted it, a little- but by this week, he it biting off chunks of food, chewing and swallowing it on purpose. If your little one is just tasting, that's fine, and s/he will get to the eating stage soon enough on their own time. My ped says that food before one is just for fun and I am totally happy with that. 

[SilverFish]

sounds like he just isn't ready. my dd didn't really get interested in food until after 8 months, and now she's a great eater. you might want to try some different foods though... my dd definitely has different tastes than me, and also changes her preferences really quickly. breastmilk is sweet and has a very gentle flavor of the foods we eat. you might try something soft and sweet and see if he prefers that. my dd was mad for melon, ripe pears, peaches, and other fruits, banana etc. she loved roasted sweet potato and carrot too. i think fruits especially make a perfect first food... sweet, soft, loaded with nutrients. once my dd was actually eating regular amounts of food each day i started pushing the high fat foods, but when solids were an every other or once a day event, i just wanted her to try lots of different lovely flavours.

as for spoon-feeding, we did a combo of spoon and self feeding. she eats 5 meals a day now, at 15 months, and mostly feeds herself. it is incredibly convenient sometimes for me to spoon feed her one or two of her meals, as 5 major clean-ups a day is way to much for me to deal with and as the mama-fed meals go much quicker. once your baby or toddler is needing solid meals every day, sometimes it's good for a meal to just be a quick, no-nonsense deal rather than a fun exploration of what food does when you toss it at the cat. i personally felt like the combo of spoon feeding and self feeding worked out really well for us. she still accepts being spoon fed by us, yet is more practiced at self feeding than quite a few babies i know who were fed jarred baby food the majority of the time.

[Bird Girl]

We did yogurt as one of the first foods--if you're OK with ripe fruit and full-fat yogurt, they are a gentle start from breastmilk only. Either way, there's no need to rush. Both of mine sucked down food when they were ready to do so--one earlier, the other, later. Both are good eaters now, at ages 9 and 6. I believe a high-iron food could be helpful at this age, but offering in a low-pressure way is really all you CAN do, so why worry?

[maba]

Great, great advice everyone! Thanks for reassuring me. I personally am not too worried about it but I'm just trying appease DH and the rest of the family. I guess I want him to eat just so they can stop badgering me about it. For the last 2-3 days, I've been letting him play with his food. Not a bit has gone into his mouth and he uses his clothes and his face as his canvas. As messy as it was, it was way too cute to see him smear mushed avocado on his face and hair. And the best part, he looked like he was really enjoying the whole experience.

[Shaki]

Do you know any 12 year olds who refuse pizza and still nurse? :)

He'll eat when he's ready. Try not to let you DH and extended family bug you about this. And when they do bring it up, don't bother to argue with them--it's a waste of time. Plus as your DS continues to grow and thrive and eventually eats solids it will become a non issue. You can always reply to any food questions with "We're working on it," that's sort of a non confrontational way to get people to back off. Plus it's totally true, even if YOU did absolutely nothing about introducing solid foods your baby would eventually initiate it. So, technically, he is working on it all the time. The same way he is working on gross motor skills and language all the time. Even if you wanted him to not eat solid foods, sooner or later he would.

Also your Breast milk is NOT lacking in nutrition, don't let anyone tell you otherwise--that's pure BS.

You're doing fine OP! Continue to listen to your babe! :)

[AFWife]

What do they think you're supposed to do if he isn't ready to eat? Let's say you try purees and he spits out every.single.spoonful that you give him...are you supposed to hold his mouth shut and force him to swallow? Does that accomplish anything?

And my 2 year old will agree that painting with your food is STILL way more fun than actually eating it.

[sweetiebird]

DS2 sounds similar to your LO. He's just 9 months and does eat a bit. I'm doing BLW with him because he won't let me put a spoon in his mouth at all! He won't even let me put a piece of food in his mouth either. I can put some oatmeal on a spoon and give the spoon to him and he'll put it in his mouth and eat it, but that mouth goes shut if I try.  So, BLW it is! Some days he eats more than others, but I'd say at this point 90-95% of his calories are coming from breastmilk. DS1 was totally different and he was eating a lot of solids by now. He LOVED to eat solids. Temperment is a big thing and there isn't much you can do about that.

HTH :)