How I got into BLW Well I hadn't really heard about BLW and as my dd was such a terrible sleeper (up 6 times a night was a good night for us!)the HV recommended i started to wean at 5 months. I started off giving my dd the favourite food of all hv's-baby rice which actually she did eat, but only if i loaded the spoon and handed it to her. Next up was pureed apple and mashed banana, again only if she did it herself (she was amazingly good at getting the spoon straight to her mouth for a 5 month old really). At this time she was still bf but soon started to refuse the breast so we moved onto ff which she took to really easily. About 2 weeks down the line though she would purse her mouth up at the sight of a spoon and if handed it would throw it straight on the floor. Getting overly stressed about her not eating, I decided to give it a few weeks break and try again when she was 6 months. In the meantime I found out more about BLW, and having been living in Botswana(where babies are often weaned a lot later and go straight onto 'real' foods), it actually made a lot more sense to me than the whole puree route i'd been following. At 6 months i started again, although I must confess I kept on giving her puree because i was feeling the pressure from all the mums around me who were smugly talking about how many cubes or how much of a jar their dc were eating. Anyway, it didnt work and i kept on getting frustrated with her refusing food-at 7 months she went on a complete hunger strike, refusing all solids and milk for over a week. At that point i thought enough is enough, chucked some leftovers on her tray and left her to get on with it. So that is how I got in to BLW at the third attempt(although i realise technically i'm not a blw er as i did try to wean her on the puree route first) What Happened It has been very slow going. By 9 months she was actually eating some of the foods i gave her instead of just mushing it up or throwing it on floor and now at 10 months she still doesnt eat a huge amount but is willing to try everything i give her. As I usually cook from fresh I find it very easy to just do a bit extra for her and she usually ends up with leftovers from the previous night for her lunch! I don't think she is a very hungry baby really and I'm trying to destress myself about how little she eats (which is the whole key to blw for me really). Poo Most of the time her poo is still runny with bits of food in. We've had some interesting whole peas, sweetcorn, and rehydrated raisons recently(anyone else noticed this?!)-the pincer grip has led to her putting such foods in her mouth faster than she can chew! It has seemed a little firmer recently though which is great-much less messy at nappy changes. Havent noticed any farting really, nor any really bad smells (well what can be worse than formula for smell anyway?!). Maybe thats still to come, perhaps once she starts eating more. Choking We havent really had any choking or retching incidences, only one or two where she has sicked up whatever got stuck (in a mucusy covering-lovely) but she generally seems able to get her food into swallowable pieces-despite still having no teeth. The best bits BLW has enabled me to relax about mealtimes and to stop counting how much she eats. I can get on and eat my food while leaving her to get on with hers. She is properly a part of family mealtimes. We can go out or to stay with friends etc and not have to worry about what dd is going to eat. LO has experienced a far wider range of foods than she would have done through traditional weaning. I'm now having the last laugh at all those mums who were smugly advising me on how well their babies ate at 6 months but who now refuse to eat lumps or finger foods (some of them were nice but others when i was talking about the probs i was having with weaning just went on and on about how good theirs were, how they ate everything they were given etc!).