in July 2024 Babies 🇬🇧

Stress with BLW

Hi all, I've been doing a mixture of mashed up food and BLW - finger foods etc I've been trying to do as much BLW as possible- he's had toast strips, pasta, pancakes, finger sized fruit batons etc - basically typical BLW stuff following all size and prep advice. He's managing fine, gagged on some veg, toast and pancakes but spitting out well and doing great. Hes not came close to choking but I am soooo stressed. I keep calm when he does it so he wouldn't know- but meal times are filling me with so much anxiety. My mam was there today for the first time seeing me doing BLW - pasta pieces and quartered plum tomatoes. She was so intrigued as she wouldn't have dared give us this type of thing at 7mnths - would have mashed the pasta and definitely no skin on pieces of tomatoes. He showed her how good he was with it. But we spoke after about it and asking why I do it when it caused me so much anxiety - feeding is supposed to be enjoyable for both of us, yet I dread it. We all had mashed puree foods at this age and we've never been picky eaters and ate everything - so she said why am I rushing it? He can eat the same stuff as us - just mash the pasta abit more than full pieces, mash the fruit etc- which I'd be comfortable with. And I'm leaning towards her way of thinking. I'm not enjoying BLW - he doesn't even have teeth. Why am I putting so much pressure on myself to do it? Because everyone says how good it is. I'm cool giving him nutritional food - plenty of veg - mashed up with lumps and somethings finger food if they're really soft. But the pinwheels the bread the pasta, the thought of choking scares me. I know first aid, but I don't want it to happen at all. Is it bad that I'm thinking of putting a hold on BLW even though he's does well? Is anyone else feeling the same? I'm happy for him to feed himself and load the spoon, get his hands dirty, just stopping the bigger stuff I think are more of a choking risk - pasta,bread etc.

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I’m exactly the same. I was ok doing blw with my first but he was much better at chewing and swallowing food and he knew when to spit out larger pieces etc. Now with my second, he just shoves everything in! I thought I’d be more comfortable with blw second time around but I’m so so much more anxious and stressed about it all but at the same time feel guilty not doing it. Like you, I don’t even really know why i feel like this and forcing us to do blw. Maybe it is because everyone talks about it like it’s the gold standard of weaning. I’ve started to do more textured purées the last few days but still let my son feed himself and explore and make mess. It’s comforting to hear I’m not alone in feeling this way.

I think you are right to slow down on things that are causing stress. I had a problem also having too much pressure on myself..was trying to do two meals a day! And I let him get messy most the time. So I combo feed. Load up the spoon. Sometimes let him have the spoon. Oh he is spoon greedy lol and I also give him like a big piece of raw veggie to gnaw on while feeding He does have two bottom teeth, I let my baby gag (rarely) and choke and cough. It’s good as long as it’s not a whole bunch of coughing otherwise give them a drink . Pancakes are super thick. Egg noodles I think are better like ramen Mashed potatoes. Pretty thick but water or breast milk it down perfect

I won’t do apples or bell pepper because he can chunck them off and they are not soft like strawberries

There's no right or wrong way it's what you feel comfortable with. If it's stressful then put it on hold for a while and just do some texture. We all learn to eat at some point and I do think there's an urge to get babies to be more advanced than they are these days. We do mashed up lumpy foods and usually things like strawberries or yorkshires as finger food but I'm not full on giving a plate of food yet!!

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