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

I was all set to do BLW. Here's what happened:

Saturday: Child turned 6 months. Went out to the pub. Evangelical BLW friends bombarded us with bits of pitta, peppers, sausage for DS to gum. A bit went down him, but there was a lot of gagging. We'd done baby rice and some pureed fruit and veg since 20 weeks as he was totally ready so solids weren't a new concept. Got home, made him some finger food cheese sandwiches. Child ignored and threw on the floor or squashed in his hands. Night time wakings - 4 (as usual).

Sunday onwards: Reverted to a no-holds-barred hiving off of whatever we were cooking and eating (spag bol, shepherds pie, fish fingers etc) and mashed it well down and spoon fed. Even though he resisted at first. Child ate heartily. Night time wakings - ZERO. For the first time in WEEKS he slept seven till seven. Well, maybe I am invading his human rights by spoonfeeding him or whatever but I have my life and sanity back.

Disclaimer - DS is massive. 22lb and huge milk drinker/eater. Needs to be filled up properly. If you have a smaller baby with a smaller appetite I can see that BLW might work, and indeed it has for some of my friends. But one of them had a baby like mine who was BLW'd in the "purist" sense and he ended up dropping down the centiles for weight and didn't sleep through until ten months, when, coincidentally, he actually started eating volumes worth talking about. I would venture to suggest that he might have actually been hungry for four months. Yes, this is one anecdote only, am sure others will disagree and say BLW worked for their larger babies too.

We do give DS some food to play with on top of spoonfeeding, but frankly if you're on a budget it's quite disconcerting to watch stuff being thrown on the floor meal after meal - can't exactly pick it up and give it back to them.

With DD1 we didn't BLW because we'd not heard of it but then again, we never really bothered with puree either; she ate squashed versions of what we ate, sometimes from a spoon and sometimes from her own hands.

DD2 is nearly 2 and didn't put anything in her mouth until she was well over a year old. She likes feeding herself with a fork but still struggles with getting food from her own hands into her own mouth. Her motor control was never going to lend itself to effective BLW.

It's really really really messy.

And ds won't eat much which isn't great because he won't drink much milk either and although there has never been anything wrong with his weight I like to know he gets something in his belly! Besides, although I spoon feed him his meals, he always grabs some of what dh and I are eating anyway.

And then there is the choking. I have banned ds from eating any sort of unpureed bread, biscuit or pasta unless dh is around because I can't cope with the gagging.

I am doing BLW. DS is 6 months. I would love to do a mixture but DS currently refuses anything I try to feed him on a spoon. Am a bit worried to be honest.

Ha! Boy is a resolute spoon-refuser and crap at doing anything but licking finger food. I think 99.9% goes on the floor or in the bin. We are doing blw in the sense that he is choosing to eat not much at all.

We're the same as you paschaelina. DS is gumming stuff and digesting a tiny, tiny bit. Refuses spoon - I would love to try a bit of puree.

He's a massive 23.5lb (at 6 months) and on 50fl milk a day.

Am starting to despair tbh

I know I should read all the posts first (only read the OP), but...

So you haven't tried BLW yet [bugrin]? I did BLW with DD1 because she just wouldn't take the spoon at all, and we are doing a mixture of purees and finger foods with DD2, but BLW isn't the lazy option! There is always lots of mess, the feeding chair and floor is covered in food after mealtimes as they throw EVERYTHING on th floor, you have to thoroughly wash them afterwards, their clothes are a write-off after each feed and so on. And you can't just sit back and let them get on with it, you have to offer something new all the time after they chuck what you have given them on the floor.
Also it is much easier to get your baby to eat a decent amount of food with a spoon.

Still, I do actually like BLW. Babies like to feed themselves too and experiment with food.

Personally, I found the BLW book preachy and full of its own importance. I also find it hilarous that certain mothers think themselves superior because they hand their baby finger food only, rather than finger food and purees/mash. Get over yourselves!

Because some children at that age have to have very regulated diets. DS2 was tiny, not gaining weight at all and had a universal developmental delay. I had to document every mouthful he took and write it all down for the various paeds dept he was involved with. And I was recommended to wean him at 4.5 mo.

Everyone's been doing it forever... now it just has a name

Mainly because it all seems so very fucking smug

In reality most people do a sort of mix up between trad and BLW and honestly how gives a toss - it's all just common sense and anyone who needs to read a book etc etc and buy into it all is as daft as a brush.

I mean, he had to have purees. And stuffing whatever the rest of the family eat in one of those goblet blender things isn't hard!

Miss Betsy is right - just naming (and marketing) something that was a;ready there - a bit like 'dreamfeed' or 'feeding a sleepy baby' as we used to call it......

I'm so glad to read this thread!

My 2.5yr old was BLW in the purest sense. I did load spoons of yogurt for him to pick and eat himself, which he did. he was very adapt at self feeding although he only ever ate a little bit. Now at 2.5yrs he is very fussy with his food and won't eat things that are mixed together, like cottage pie etc, anything that is remotely mushy. No soup either. he still eats very small meals and still drinks a lot of milk. And doesn't sleep through either.

Now i don't know if any of those things are because of the BLW or just cos this is him

I also have a 8 month old DD which I'm BLW at the moment. But she is nowhere as adept as her brother was at self feeding and doesn't have any patience to sit at the table like her brother did. I don't think BLW is working for her at all. I have tried to spoonfeed her on occassion just to see what she does, but she doesn't like that either. So I'm rather confused. I think from tomorrow I'm going to perservere with the spoonfeeding a bit more.

Oh Honeybee! Boy is also huge, he's 7.5 months now, very little improvement in the last month foodwise, in fact he's quite likely to vomit it up if a largish lump does by chance slip down. Add to that my husband is extremely suspicious of blw anyway,

I'm clinging to the hope that he will get it at about 9-10 months as lots of people have said before.

Until then I'm not getting myself worked up about it.

I am in awe of those babies who eat whole plates of food!

I couldn't 'BLW' because both of my DC were premature and we started weaning a LONG time before they would have been able to feed themselves.

I don't know of i would have done it if i could but i do know what if i had I wouldn't have turned it in to a flippin religion and got all evangelical about it.

It actually scares me the way some people are about BLW.

(and the nappy nutters)

blw was best for me and dd. she twigged pretty much instantly and ate like a horse - still does. she was very dexterous early on though so it was easy for her. i could never be fagged with puree - even the word annoys me - i dont have an appliance and spoon feeding dd goo made ME gag! also its never been that messy with dd either and at 18 months she feeds herself with a spoon really quite neatly. i am the first to admit i am very lucky with her.

however.....i would recommend trying blw to anyone because it was such a success BUT i try not to evangelise. pureed food is not poison by any stretch of the imagination and you move on to finger food soon enough anyway. the anabel karmel plan sounds really healthy though if i had done puree i'd have just been blending whatever i ate. a friend's ds doesnt pick the food up and she is terrified of choking so its not going to be best for her - even though i privately think her ds might not be ready for weaning we as parents have to feel in control and feel positive about our decisons and not dread every meal as i imagine my friend would if she blw'ed

i have much more to say aobut baby jars but thats another thread.

worzelmummage - yes exactly - the evangelising - that! why has the 'alternative' parenting become a tick list that you have to fill in to join the club - bf, tick, cloth nappies, tick, no jabs, tick, blw, tick, slings.......you get the idea. its way to cliquey for me!

I do think it's funny that so many people want to attach themselves to BLW since it's the in thing, even though they're spoonfeeding too. I mean, that's just "ordinary" weaning isn't it? BLW is a different approach, why pretend to be doing it when actually you're just offering some finger foods?

Most people do it by the back door without calling it BLW anyway. You give them a plate of food - they mess around with it and eat a bit with fingers. Then after they've had a good gnaw on it you squidge some up with a fork and spoon it in for a bit. For pudding you might give them a banana which they eat by themselves, or yoghurt which you feed to them with a spoon.

Many babies will very soon start grabbing the spoon and putting it in themselves. My DD was feeding herself yoghurt pretty well with a spoon at 9.5 months.

In terms of pureeing, I only did this in the very very early days. By 7 months or so she was having food squished up with fork.

Started off with soft food/ purees.

Moved very quickly (within a couple weeks) on to finger foods (which DD can pick up and eat herself) and spoon-feeding chunkier foods (meat/ sauces etc.)

DD likes both spoon-feeding and feeding herself. IME you need to do a bit of both to make sure they get a varied diet into them.

HTH

I'm just about it all.

BLW works
PUREES work
Slings work
Pushchairs Works
Tesco superdry work
Bum genious Nutter work
Vaccinations work
No vaccinations ummmm dont..

Wow, people are so touchy about this - you'd think we were discussing BF versus FF.

Bumpsadaisie - I thought you were not meant to give babies dairy products before 12 months - have I got it wrong?

But Bumpsadaisie, that isn't BLW is it? It's just ordinary feeding. So why try to give it a trendy new name?

Fair enough if you actually are BLW, but someone saying "oh yes, I'm BLW and spoonfeeding" just makes it look like they're jumping on a bandwagon.

Agree with Cory and Porka...

What an offensive title!

Yet another stupid acronym...and yet more sanctimonious comments from people who insist that their way has to be more virtuous than another way.

Why is this an issue????

Why can't a mother just be allowed to feed her baby as she pleases...

What is this about spoons being "evil". How is a baby to learn how to eat properly if he/she isn't fed with one or taught how to use one.

Why are purees suddenly abhorant and a symbol of laziness?
Nothing wrong with a bit of apple puree, or soup or mashed up veg...