BLW ?!?

[Soyouare2faced]

Am I the only parent to wonder what this new age BLW is ?? (Ok maybe not THAT new)
Just seems like one messy choking hazard to me !!

[2015mom]

Lol
I can see what you mean

But apparently a baby gagging is different from choking
Gagging is a baby's natural reflex preventing them from choking
But it is scary I do admit

Apparently they say a baby will know to manipulate food around their mouth before swallowing

I did a mix BLW and also spoon fed....And my LO did a bit of gagging but touch wood no choking

[Soyouare2faced]

Fills me with fear , I also hate mess. DD started choking on the other day and DP came to the rescue so I can't bring myself to try it.
I also don't understand how you know if they are full

[2015mom]

It is scary... Maybe try it in a few weeks time

Best to go on baby's cues as to whether they are full... If they start looking away, push on spoon away or throwing food on floor and not as interested in eating as before then they are full...

End of day nobody knows if we are full by looking at us.... Same applies to a baby

[Soyouare2faced]

What are the advantages?

[2015mom]

I did both.... But people who do solely BLW have criticised me on forums and said I am not doing BLW because I am doing spoon feeding too

It depends what LO is eating ... Is brekkie and yoghurt I give with spoon... Finger food is BLW because baby helps themselves

I have found with BLW that LO eats more.... If I decide to feed him he used to stop

Also if then are eating same food as us then by the time they are 10/11 months it will be so much easier at mealtimes because you can feed them what you are having

I find it so much easier now he is one as I don't have to carry food with me.... He just eats whatever we are eating out and about

[Soyouare2faced]

Might be too trendy for me

[gunting]

We did blw and it has been the best decisions we have made but I really think it isn't for everyone.

There are some hardcore blw followers who can come across a bit snobbish which I guess puts people off.

If you've fed your baby yourself then you can't really do blw. A lot of people think it's the difference between purée or solid food but actually the whole idea is that the baby 'chooses' when to eat by feeding themselves.

The baby also learns to chew before swallowing rather than swallow before they learn to chew as you would with purée. If you have any questions about blw then hopefully I can help.

[gunting]

But my son has ate the same meal as us since the very start of weaning. He had just milk for 6 months and then his very first food was sausage casserole with mash. His first week of weaning consisted of chicken curry, steak, lamb tagine, pulled pork burrrito. He's 11 months now and sits at the table with us at dinner time and eats his food from a plate with a fork.

[Soyouare2faced]

DD1 I did 'normal' weaning and then as time went on she began to feed herself.
I've noticed with DD2 when I give her thicker purées she moves them around her mouth before swallowing.
The choking incident has really worried me

[milkshakeandmonstermunch]

Ahhh BLW. We did that. It gives babies an experience of different tastes and textures in the hopes of making them a better eater in the future. My nearly-3yo currently exists on crumpets, jelly and fruit though so we clearly failed . Play it by ear OP. You don't have to pick one method over the other.

[Soyouare2faced]

Maybe I'm old fashioned , but spoon feeding and then moving onto different textures seems to make perfect sense.
I don't see what's wrong with spoon feeding that makes BLW better ??

[gunting]

I think the benefits for us so far are:

• my son has always sat around the table for meal times and it's been nice for us to eat together
• he likes all kinds of flavours, spices and textures
• his dexterity is very good.. the hv has put this down to his self feeding but I guess we would never know otherwise
• he has sat and ate 3 meals a day since 7 months (not sure if this is different to spoon feeding)
• we've never had a choking incident. He's ate steak with two teeth and can gauge how well he needs to chew something before attempting to swallow it

There are some cons:
-tracking salt intake

• mess
• he needs home cooked meals every day and sometimes I can't be bothered haha.

I've never done spoon-feeding so I don't know how it would differ from this.

[DownWithThisSortaThing]

We did it but nothing new or 'trendy' about it IMO, it appealed to me because it seemed like less faff - you basically cut out the 'beginning' bit of weaning and give them a bit of whatever you're having and let them get on with it. DS seemed to enjoy it and not a single instance of choking, just a couple of gagging episodes. He learned quite quickly about chewing and taking small bites, it was interesting giving him stuff like melon slices and watching him figure out which bits he could eat and how best to eat them.

Its a bit messy but babies toddlers are messy creatures anyway, you're going to encounter food mess at some point however you feed them you know they're full because they stop eating (and throw it on the floor) so a big wipe clean mat is essential for the practise

If you feel more comfortable doing purée then do that, me - I was too lazy busy to purée anything when I knew it could be eaten solid even with no teeth!

[DownWithThisSortaThing]

I don't see what's wrong with spoon feeding that makes BLW better ??

There's nothing wrong with it as such, it's just not always necessary.
Some babies prefer doing it themselves, others do better being spoonfed. It's also quite nice being able to eat your own food while it's still warm at the same time as the baby!

There's no rules, it's just whatever works for you, but plenty of babies are 'BLW' successfully and unless I'm mistaken, advice now is to wean around 6 months and offer finger food. So even if you spoon feed, it's encouraged to let them have a go at self feeding. At 6 months they're generally ready to sit up and put food to their mouths and chew, so why not?

[BummyMummy77]

We did it. It seemed pretty natural. I don't think it's a new trendy thing. I think in the history of mankind in perspective baby food is the trendy thing.

[Candlefairy101]

I've never heard of BLW before but I have done it with my youngest two.

My eldest I spoon feed and has an extremely bad appetite.

My 2 youngest i BLW and eat everything!

TBH I hadn't realised I feed them different until I read this thread, I never consciously did it. The reason I spoon feed my eldest I THINk was because I was young 19 when I had him and was worried about ALOT of things, I had my youngest two 4 & 5 years later and I BLW because it was easier at the time for me, I know it's mess but they really enjoy it, especially when your all sat round the table and they can just sit and watch everyone else eating quietly eating, you can enjoy your dinner without 'one mouthful for mummy, one mouthful for baby'

[Soyouare2faced]

I see a lot on people stating that baby will now eat anything. But, if I'm giving a variety of food via spoon I don't see why that would be different

[plugitinsilly]

Personally I think it teaches a baby that they are in control of their own food. It's not just about flavours and textures, as someone upthread said it's about the baby having choice over what goes in their mouth and when.

You know the baby is full up when they stop eating (same as as they'd refuse with a spoon).

I did it with both my DC and it felt like the most natural way to teach them about food and eating.

[Soyouare2faced]

What's the choice though? As you would put the food on their highchair/plate

[Timetogrowup2016]

Your baby probably gagged not choked.
Choking is silent.
Blw teaches them to chew and swallow.
Puree is a waste of effort imo.
How ever it's really up to you snd what you feel comfortable doing .

Dd enjoys fingers food much more then purée however I do spoon feed yogurts etc

[Soyouare2faced]

2016 - it was silent, I've never seen such panic, the fear on her face, went totally beetroot DP whipped her from the highchair and had to remove it. I'll carry on as I am I think

[Timetogrowup2016]

Oh bless. I'm sorry to hear that.
How old is baby and what food was it?

[splendide]

It worked brilliantly with DS. When he was little it used to keep him busy for ages and ages as well. I used to love being able to actually relax and eat dinner while he chased single peas around his tray and gummed at bits of beef.

I'm not convinced it's led to him eating a particularly wider range of food. I will say he is very relaxed around food because never in his whole life has anyone attempted to make/ cajol/ bribe him into eating something he doesn't want. That could equally have been achieved with spoon feeding though.

Like last night I made vegetable risotto which he hadn't had before. I put it on the tray and he poked it with a fork and said "all gone". I just said OK, I'm just eating mine though and he ended up eating quite a bit of his in the end. He didn't have to get in a strong protest upfront or throw it on the floor because he isn't worried about being pressured.

I hope this doesn't sound smug, it's literally the only element of raising DS that I feel I did "right".

[splendide]

It worked brilliantly with DS. When he was little it used to keep him busy for ages and ages as well. I used to love being able to actually relax and eat dinner while he chased single peas around his tray and gummed at bits of beef.

I'm not convinced it's led to him eating a particularly wider range of food. I will say he is very relaxed around food because never in his whole life has anyone attempted to make/ cajol/ bribe him into eating something he doesn't want. That could equally have been achieved with spoon feeding though.

Like last night I made vegetable risotto which he hadn't had before. I put it on the tray and he poked it with a fork and said "all gone". I just said OK, I'm just eating mine though and he ended up eating quite a bit of his in the end. He didn't have to get in a strong protest upfront or throw it on the floor because he isn't worried about being pressured.

I hope this doesn't sound smug, it's literally the only element of raising DS that I feel I did "right".

[splendide]

It worked brilliantly with DS. When he was little it used to keep him busy for ages and ages as well. I used to love being able to actually relax and eat dinner while he chased single peas around his tray and gummed at bits of beef.

I'm not convinced it's led to him eating a particularly wider range of food. I will say he is very relaxed around food because never in his whole life has anyone attempted to make/ cajol/ bribe him into eating something he doesn't want. That could equally have been achieved with spoon feeding though.

Like last night I made vegetable risotto which he hadn't had before. I put it on the tray and he poked it with a fork and said "all gone". I just said OK, I'm just eating mine though and he ended up eating quite a bit of his in the end. He didn't have to get in a strong protest upfront or throw it on the floor because he isn't worried about being pressured.

I hope this doesn't sound smug, it's literally the only element of raising DS that I feel I did "right".