to wonder why anyone wouldn't BLW?

[Claz1001]

It sounds great for both baby and lazy parent. Definitely the way I'll be weaning my DS soon! Why bother with purees if you don't have to? Why doesn't everyone do this? Maybe I am missing something

blw wasn't around when ds1 was born 10 years ago (as far as i'm aware)

i tried it with ds2 and dd, it didn't work for us because

1. neither of them had any teeth til they were nearly 1

2. ds2 would not and will not touch food with his hands (he eats toast with a fork now at age 3)

3. it made an unholy mess and wasted tons and tons of food

4. they both got upset at total failure to get food into their mouths and were instantly happier when it was given to them on a spoon.

HOWEVER, i still think it's a great way of doing it if it works for you, and with both of my little ones, as a result of reading up on blw, i ended up giving them lots more finger food/more adventurous things to eat than i might otherwise have done, so all good.

YABU - it's horses for courses.

I liked the idea of BLW but in practice it was hard to introduce enough flavours to DD that way (which is important to do at a young age) as most of it ended up on the floor or mashed in her hair, so I did purees as a main offering and some finger food on the side. Seemed to work, she has not yet been a picky eater and loves all sorts of foods and flavours. Will have to see what works with DS when the time comes.

Bit of an evangelical here so I'm going to stay quiet..

Lol @ 'the traditional route'

BLW is traditional...it just used be called ' giving finger foods' that's all.

Because it made me retch, properly

MrsMcgee There is nothing wrong with being a bit evangelical about something, its just that people have to remember that, as with everything in life, what works for one won't work for everybody.

I found a combination of spoon and self feeding worked nicely for us with dd3. The older two were more spoon fed with finger food as well but not as much as dd3. They are all good eaters. BLW was fun for scaring dh though
'She's CHOKING'
'No, no it's just her gag reflex, I learnt about it on Mnet'
'**ing Mnet!'

There is no way though that BLW is easier than a jar and a spoon when y're out and about though. I watched one of my lovely friends out at another friend's for lunch: She had a portable highchair which took 5 minutes to put together and attach to a chair and about 15 minutes to clean at the end, she had an all over bib to wrestle her baby in to and she had a box full of lovely roasted vegetables to feed him (which she had doubtless been up at the crack of dawn to prepare) It took him ages to suck eat them and I couldn't help but think - as she swabbed down the baby, the chair and several adjacent adults, that sitting him on your knee and spooning in exactly the same vegetables pureed (with lumps!) would be a hell of a lot easier.

We did a bit of both but one of the most heart-melting feelings is seeing a little person eagerly opening his mouth for you to give him another spoon of (mashed up) food and making 'yummy' noises. It made me a little bit confused about some of the people on here talking about the evils of 'shovelling mush' into a baby's mouth.
I found mashing / pureeing to be very useful in ensuring my baby had a good balanced meal given you can make a nice 'one pot' meal for the family and then mash it all up together for baby so he gets a little bit of everything. Finger foods are great too but I don't think there's any need to be extreme about it.

It also drove me mad when proponents of BLW said spoon feeding your baby was wrong because it's like force feeding them . Tbh when DD was having a spoon fed meal I could barely keep up with her, we both had a spoon and she'd have a good go at feeding herself, all the while wanting me to spoon in mouthfuls too. And then when she was full it was obvious, there was no way I could force her to eat more even if I had wanted to.

She has learned to use cutlery and to eat finger foods and now as a toddler is very competent and happy at the dining table.

It's nice to let babies experiment with food at their own pace, but often not completely practical or right for everyone.

So if you hand your baby a roast potato and after a bit of knawing they get frustrated with their three teeth and fling it down, might you mash it up with a fork and offer some to their mouth so they can have a taste to satisfy their curiosity?

If so well that's not really baby led weaning is it, however it is what most parents do.

I am a bit suspicious of BLW it seems to give a name to something parents across the ages have done to a greater or lesser degree, namely handing pieces of food for the baby to try and letting them fling food about with a spoon, knowing at least some will end up in their mouths.

I think also BLW is sometimes used as an excuse to give babies food that's crap (I've witnessed happy meals, salty chips, choc given for 9 month olds on the basis that it's finger food).

I had heard about it and read up about it and thought I might give it a go with DD but she had other ideas. She never put anything in her mouth apart from her finger until she was 9 months old. Nothing at all. Even now at 12 months she laughs and shakes her head when offered finger food (unless it's chocolate ) So there is one reason why not everyone does it.

All babies are different, you do whatever you think is best for you and yours and then adapt along when you realise your baby hasn't read up on the latest approach and wants to do it their own way

'It also drove me mad when proponents of BLW said spoon feeding your baby was wrong because it's like force feeding them'

That's when evangelical becomes zealot. I liked playing helicopters.

I didn't use if as many of the things people use that make it "so easy" e.g. bread sticks / bought bread etc. are very high in salt for a small baby.
Like most people I did a mixture of finger foods (fruit, veg) and purees (made en mass and frozen) and didn't find it overly taxing

Crazycat When DD2 doesn't want anymore she just stops opening her mouth and thats that. I couldn't make her eat more even if I wanted to. Its just the same as when she is self feeding, she stops when she has had enough. Its not rocket science!

I agree crazy if the child doesn't want any more, you end up wearing the food and the spoon!

I always did both because babies naturally tend to stop eating the minute that 'little hunger pang' is over...therefore I found they were hungry again 20 mins later.

I don't know what baby-led weaning means really. Surely everyone does do it, you don't tend to just shove food down their throat and not bother what the baby thinks about it.

I would say I was a lot more confident offering solid foods earlier second time round, and made a lot more stuff myself because I was a more confident and better cook...also ironically as I breastfed for a shorter time I was already used to making up bottles & fiddling around with sterilising stuff etc, first time round it seemed such a faff after breastfeeding.

Once DD2 had got onto the stage of having tried most things - meat, fish, dairy, then I just mushed up what we were having as long as it wasn't too spicy, with the odd Little Dish meal if we were having something that couldn't be mushed, like pizza! Both daughters got teeth quite late, barely had two by 12 months whereas most of the other one year olds I knew already had about 4-6 teeth. But they still managed to chomp away on things with their hard little gums nontheless.

If blw is giving babies finger food and letting them go at their own pace when they're ready, then that's what we did 20 years ago. Just didn't have fancy labels for it and didn't worry about how other people fed their babies!

Our DC were spoon-fed as well - but it was never force-feeding. Why would you force-feed a baby? And do some people really think that giving mashed or pureéd food is wrong? I would have thought that most parents do what is right for their babies and their families...

DS1 was a really grabby baby, he would grab food early on and munch really well. Very few episodes of gagging so all very chilled and easy. He loved chunks of broccoli especially and didn't really like being spoon fed. BLW suited him.

DS2 was a very gaggy baby. He gagged on everything to the point where I was a nervous wreck so I was really careful with finger foods and offered lots more spoon fed type foods.

They are now 3 and 17mths. DS1 is a good eater but always prefers finger foods and doesn't use his cutlery very often. He won't eat foods like lasagne or cottage pie. DS2 will eat anything and everything and is really very good with a spoon and fork.

The main thing is that you offer as much variety of healthy foods as possible, and they enjoy mealtimes. It matters not whether the veg is mashed up or offered whole (provided it is safe choking wise) just that they eat it!

YABU - my DD choked on lumps for months. Amazing eater now at 2yrs but it took patience and a very gradual increasing in textures..... to soft mash, to small lumps and on and on.

Oh and she wouldn't lift food until she was 1yrs old!! Spoon only.

Wean to your childs needs, not your own. Tough lesson but I learnt it bloody quick.

Helicopters .

I wonder where all these 'force fed by the evil spoon' babies actually are? .

Sorry, I shouldn't be so cynical, I know BLW works well for some, but I can't imagine being so purist about it as to get to the stage of thinking puree on a spoon was wrong...

Erm... To answer the op's question... Because for many aspects of raising a child, there is more than one way of doing something, which will result in the Same outcomes.

For example, I did blw with one child, not with the other two. I bf one child until 2 years, the others til 1 year. I returned to work when one was 12 weeks, and when the other two were 6 months. Two children drank breastmilk happily from breast or bottle; with the 3rd we went straight to cup. No difference in outcomes for any of them.
There isn't a 'right'' way

Crazycatlady - I've been here for four years - I have seen some spoon is evil posts!

Me too Northern. I read them with great hilarity when weaning DD.

erm because we were medically advised that it was dangerous for DS. He was very prem, and medical advice on prem babies is wean on actual age (so in my case DS was only 3 months or so developmentally) He also needed solid food to assist with reflux and weight gain. Some of us do have to use Purees however lazy we may be.

My son would have starved if I did BLW. He never even tried to hold his own bottle or cup until I started making him at around 1 yo, I even had to teach him to hold his own spoon.

Turns out he's got special needs, possibly autism, and he lack instinct. He has to be taught everything.