[WaitForIt]

I've tried and failed to explain blw to the childcare centre DD is starting at. She has only just started blw and isn't swallowing much. I told them this and imthought they were ok with it but when it came to the crunch they decided she wasn't handling eating the pasta so gave her applesauce. I've given her pasta, she is able to break bits off into her mouth but they fall out or she spits them out. Some does go down, just not much!
I'm thinking it might be easier if they just feed her purees and I continue with blw at home but I don't know how that will work. Will she cope ok getting lots of solids 3 days a week at childcare, and only at her pace the other 4 days? Or will I need to give her at least some purees too?

[tick]

A bit of spoon feeding won't hurt IMO, I've heard of more than a couple of kids who ate BLW style at home and were spoon-fed by childcare. At her age I imagine she's still having lots of milk though and you should probably emphasise that you want this to remain her primary source of nutrition until she's a bit older ....

Just play it by ear, you'll make sense of it as you go!

[beansidhe]

I dont know a lot about blw, but why cant you keep sending the finger food as well as puree?
The puree is going to be there to ensure she is getting enough to eat while at child care, while she has the finger food to explore and practice with.

Children and babies tend to eat so much more when in care as they are usually more active and stimulated and their appetitie increases accordingly. She might be sitting in her high chair next to another baby watching them get fed and opening and closing her mouth and leaning over indicating she wants some which is why the carers probably gave her extra.
Having worked in a babies room for 5 of my 10 years as a child carer i can assure you that the above scenario is not unusual and little babies do it all the time.
Maybe chat to your carer's about it.

[KRT]

I asked DS's daycare to do BLW, which they were very open to, but I'm sure sometimes he was given pureed/mashed food as well. He was happy to continue with BLW at home. In fact, he refused spoon feeding at all at home from 7 months, much to my MIL's disappointment. She was desperate to help feed him, and he wouldn't have a bar of it.

I figure that it's a very different set up having to get food into 4 kids in a short period of time, and that they're unlikely to be spending lots of time forcing food on him given everything else they have to do!

[deejie]

DS1 did BLW at home and had purees at child care (2 days/week when he started solids at 6months). He did just fine and it didn't seem to make a difference to him that he ate more on the child care days than at home. He went through a long period of complete spoon refusal at home but took it at child care!

[duckasorus]

My daycare was very supportive (she was 9 months when started) they altered the meals to suit her same as they would with dairy etc
As she got older and could use a spoon they just let her self feed the meal

[laridae]

I did BLW and daycare did purees (5 days a week).
DD coped just fine.
I did get them to wait until about 6 months before they fed her them though. She was sitting up etc well by that point.
It didn't take long before daycare switched to finger food anyway (just a couple of months).

[PurpleNess]

I do both with DS at home, he is spoon fed 2 meals a day & BLW at lunch time, snacks & sometimes dinner. Works fine, however I am finding that he's wanting to use the spoon himself now he's 1...

I think you'll all be ok.

[laridae]

I am finding that he's wanting to use the spoon himself now he's 1...

Let him, my DD was competently using a spoon by 14 months - with mess very rare.

[Tesseract]

She will be fine to do BLW at home and purees at childcare, however I would just emphasize to them that you do not want her to be overly encouraged to eat. A lot of parents fret that their child is not eating enough so staff can assume that you will be demanding that she eat a whole bowl for example. It sounds like this is what has happened with the pasta ie "she didn't eat much pasta so we gave her applesauce so she'd eat SOMETHING, we wouldn't let your child starve."

Could you stop in for a lunch time and feed her yourself so they know what you are comfortable with? For example if you tell/show them that you are happy for her to just play and not consume much. This way they will know that you won't come back at the end of the day and say "why hasn't my child eaten?"

Most childcare staff (and most people!) are a bit suspicious of BLW at the start, but the ease of it usually gets them in the end. (It is easier to clean up a mess than spoon feed a child, particularly when you're already cleaning and have lots of kids to contend with.) When I explained BLW to the staff at my childcare they looked at me funny but then said "so she feeds herself? Great!" You'll probably find your DD will start refusing the spoon feeding in a few months anyway if you're doing BLW at home.