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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to wonder why anyone wouldn't BLW?

183 replies

Claz1001 · 21/04/2011 13:50

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

OP posts:

confuddledDOTcom · 21/04/2011 16:32

I know what you mean, it seems so logical you can't imagine why ever not but I think there's a lot of things like that and it's down to personal preference. Both methods work. On the MN article about weaning someone has described it as using stabilisers when you can ride a bike.

Once upon a time it's what was done, I've had people who aren't English coming up to me when eating out and saying it's nice to see a child being weaned properly!

My eldest took to solids/ BLW like a duck to water at 6 months and something weeks (I was going to wait a little because she was premature but got a lot of pressure) and with my youngest I did adjust her age but at 7 months she still couldn't sit up, even supported she would slump like a baby. Anything put in her mouth came back out and she couldn't even put things in herself. She was almost a year before she was interested in solids and about 22 months before she started eating solids more than breastfeeding. It certainly brought home the logic to us, she just wasn't ready. Just like she wasn't ready to walk until she was 2 but we weren't going to put braces on her legs to make her walk.

A healthy term infant is born with enough iron to get them through until 6 months, breastmilk contains enough iron for the baby - less than formula because a. it's bioavailable and b. babies don't need as much iron as an adult (like for like) -so the chances of a baby becoming anaemic are slim without their being an underlying reason. People are more likely to choke when they're fed by someone else and more likely to choke on liquids than solids. A baby has several safety mechanisms to protect them from a choke which can be over ridden by someone else but not so easily themselves.

Vallhala · 21/04/2011 16:33

I preferred not to have to pick up food then mop the floor each mealtime. :)

rubyrubyruby · 21/04/2011 16:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

cheesesarnie · 21/04/2011 16:43

yabu.do what you want with your baby but dont preach to others.
imo everyone does a bit of blw,you hand your dc food and sometimes it goes in the mouth.
i agree you sound precious,what other things should everyone else be doing?

porcamiseria · 21/04/2011 16:43

agree with cory

hate all these wanky acronmyms! most people do both, no fuss no drama

love the way that giving a baby some food to eat with their hands is "baby led weaning", fuck off!

Quenelle · 21/04/2011 17:14

Finger food is not BLW.

Original poster

Claz1001 · 21/04/2011 17:33

cheesesarnie I am not saying that everyone should be BLW at all, just wondered why anyone would not want to when it sounds too good to be true! I wouldn't preach to anyone about it as, for a start, I haven't even tried it yet with DS as he's too young and I made purees for DD when she was a baby. Not to mention the fact that I would never try and tell someone what to do with their dcs anyway! Sorry if my OP sounded preachy, it certainly wasn't meant to. It's interesting to hear all the different points of view.

OP posts:

cheesesarnie · 21/04/2011 17:37

sorry i obviously read wrong.

TheVisitor · 21/04/2011 17:39

Now to shock everyone - I weaned DS1 on Farley's rusk at 9 weeks old. Yes, less than 3 months. This was 18 years ago, mind.

Original poster

Claz1001 · 21/04/2011 17:43

Wow, 9 weeks visitor did he actually eat it?

OP posts:

crashingwaves · 21/04/2011 17:45

I just didn't/don't like the sound of it. I just can't understand how the baby doesn't choke if she hasn't got many/any teeth! x

QOD · 21/04/2011 17:45

er because didn't want to wean dd onto sausage chips and beans, or burgers or other salty foods that WE lived on!

pommedechocolat · 21/04/2011 17:48

The mess. The mess. The mess. The intolerable length of meal times.
It isn't some kind of magic solution to babies and solids imo.

crashingwaves · 21/04/2011 17:48

Lol QOD!

Something else I've thought of - my friend's toddler wouldn't use a knife or fork for ages and my friend thought that this was because of BLW. I'm happy with purees :)

TheVisitor · 21/04/2011 17:49

Crashing - did he ever!!! He was a hungry little beastie - was drinking 9oz bottles of hungry baby formula every 2 hours and looking for more. He slurped the rusk up and opened his mouth as if to say "where's the rest of it?" He's a big lad now, not fat big, but very broad shouldered and solid. He just liked food. Funny now though, he self regulates with food extremely well, and always has.

nobetterthanthat · 21/04/2011 17:52

Because its a piece of piss to scoop some of your dinner into a hand blender, or mash it with a fork, then scoop it into the baby's mouth.

It mean you can eat whatever you want an give some to the baby regardless of the developmental stage of the baby and the ease of holding the food (ie soup, dahl, rice, porridge etc has a fighting chance of getting in their mouth) , you can take a jar with you when you go out and not worry about having cherry tomatoes, avocado and pita bread that hasn't either gone mouldy or been eaten by another person.

Shoveling in mush is quick so you aren't constantly late for school/swimming/dancing/rainbows/badminton or whatever the other dcs are doing.

Because you can spoon feed and give them finger food to, at your convenience not theirs.

IslandMooCow · 21/04/2011 18:12

Did BLW for both mine, started at 6mth.

Never pureed anything, so quick and easy. Soon moved on to eating what we ate.

Would highly reccomend. Both eat really well now too.

redstripeyelephant · 21/04/2011 18:17

I just don't see the need for all these labels. It's just food.

If we're eating pasta or noodles or a roast dinner DD eats with her hands. If it's soup or yoghurt or mash I use a spoon. Common sense.

A friend went to such great lengths to avoid a spoon it was comedy. Chunks of pear dipped in yoghurt (which got chucked on the floor), toast dipped in porridge, yum! It's just a spoon FFS!

redstripeyelephant · 21/04/2011 18:17

I just don't see the need for all these labels. It's just food.

If we're eating pasta or noodles or a roast dinner DD eats with her hands. If it's soup or yoghurt or mash I use a spoon. Common sense.

A friend went to such great lengths to avoid a spoon it was comedy. Chunks of pear dipped in yoghurt (which got chucked on the floor), toast dipped in porridge, yum! It's just a spoon FFS!

IslandMooCow · 21/04/2011 18:17

recommend . Sorry!

QueenofDreams · 21/04/2011 18:20

I can't be bothered with labels or being evangelical about anything really. Life's too short. So when it came to weaning DS. I mostly just plonked cooked food in front of him and let him get on with it. If we were having soup/porridge/any other really sloppy food I would spoon feed him.

Woman I know recently had a go at me for daring to use the term 'somewhere in the middle'. Apparently there IS no somewhere in the middle. You either BLW or you PLW (parent led wean ) and those of us that use the term 'somewhere in the middle' or 'half and half' are ashamed of our choices. It's not baby led weaning unless the child has total control over what it eats. (which leads me to wonder if said children are buying and cooking their own food in order to be totally in control) She is also a full on attachment parenting, extended/tandem breastfeeding, cloth nappying co-sleeping mum. It doesn't seem to make her any happier than I am. And in all honestly she seems a hell of a lot more stressed most of the time! (PS have no problem with any of these choices, but she is so fecking PREACHY it really grates)

Haribojoe · 21/04/2011 18:22

Without being rude what you've missed is that every parent and child is different and what seems easy to one may be a faff to another depending on their situation, how many other children they have etc.

lazylula · 21/04/2011 18:22

I acttually enjoy the puree stage, it has worked with both mine and then there has been a natural progression to finger foods, both of mine kind of missed out the lumpy food stage really. Each to their own and all that.

MigGril · 21/04/2011 19:52

QOD, but that's one of the reasion why I loved BLW with DD it made me cook heatly for all the family so we stopped eating so much junk.

Will be starting to wean DS soon and am looking forward to seeing what he like's to eat. But not the mess. I always through one of the best things was me not having a cold dinner.

I think some of you have missted the point on the overfeeding thing. The main point being is if they eat fast which they can do with purees then they can eat more then needed before they realise they are full (a lot of people do this as adults to). So if they eat themselfs yes it offten takes longer but they recongnise when they are full better thus not overfeeding.

prettyfly1 · 21/04/2011 20:01

blah migrill. The fact is it is horses for courses and this "why doesnt everyone do it" nonsense is just another stick for women to judge and beat each other with. What suits one wont suit another and that is the end of it - expecting other women to defend the choices they make for the children they love is downright offensive and patronising.

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