Baby Led Weaning, Breastfeeding Q and when did bubs start "eating"/swallowing more?

[peanutter]

Hi there

We found BLW to be fantastic with both of our children.

Bubs let us know each time when they wanted to feed less from me (both in terms of amount and also in terms of frequency) so we didn't "wean" in this way - but we were intentional about generally offering food before feeding from me, or EBM.

That way, they weren't experimenting with food when already full, if that make sense.

In terms of actually swallowing more etc, it would have been around 12 months before that started happening. Obviously they were eating and swallowing before then, but it really was just experimentation.

The main thing for our children seemed to be them understanding the connection between food and the feeling of fullness - and that took around 5-6 months. Until then, they were just exploring, and learning to love the taste and sensation of food.

It was a lot of fun. A huge amount of mess and wasted food, but they are now well and truly set up for good eating habits, which makes it worth it And they've always been able to feed themselves, and try new things a lot more readily than what I've seen from others.

Good luck!

[~TT40~]

We just offered Spock a small plate of whatever we were eating from 6months. Some days she wouldn't even look at it, other days she would play with it, others she would put it in her mouth. It was until 12-13 months we would say she actually ate. As in had some full mouthfuls and swallowed. The only time we fed her was if she was having yogurt or custard and I didn't want to clean up the mess, if we were eating outside or I knew she would be having a bath straight away I would just let her go for it.
She was still very much full time bf too. I didn't night wean until 16ish months, and only because she was still waking ever 2hours, and this was my last resort for more sleep. She is now 2y4m and has a few bf a week. But is a fantastic eater, she will try everything we offer to her, she will say if she doesn't like it and refuse to eat it, but will always try first.