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

sausageandmash - it was a rhetorical question and aimed at the poster who said 'get a blender and be a proactive parent' (fgs and big smirk)

but however....pureeing (sic) food is i imagine a western practice which we i expect have convinced ourselves we need along with early weaning. i wouldnt be surprised if theres a book around called 'the politics of baby rice'.

but if you were aiming for a teacher style condescending ticking off - jolly well done!

doesnt work for everyone but should be tried, its not a new concept just has a new name.

I toyed with it for DD1 and went for it with DD2 (who loved it) which meant I could feed them the same food sooner and they both sat there and got on with feeding themselves

drew the line at yoghurt

There seems to be far more attacking of BLW than vice versa, especially given that BLW is apparently really 'smug'...

ninkynonker - yes absolutely and its reminiscent of other contentious debates on mn. what a shame

I purée fed dd1/2 as I didn't know another way (11/9 years ago). Currently doing BLW with dd3 and its so much easier.

She sits in her high chair (wearing a bib with sleeves) while we all eat together and at the end we scoop up her mat and shake in the bin. Hands & face wash after every meal, bath after tea. It takes less cleaning than feeding dd1/2 AND I've not lost any clothes to the orange purée stains yet!

Oh & she has now dropped to1-2 night feeds ( from every two hours) so it's doing some good!

I don't believe that spoon feeding is evil but I have seen people feeding small babies to 'finish the jar' even when baby seems reluctant. I can remember starting my older ones on a couple of spoon fills at a meal at first so this seems wrong to me.

I did BLW. It worked for DS but may not work for other babies.

But, it's amazing how many parents out there still think

• purees are obligatory first foods, or
• that BLW = finger food (it's not - the whole point is that you don't make special foods, baby eats what the adults eat) or,
• babies can't eat solid foods without teeth, or
• get scared that their baby isn't eating enough (they will, milk is their main food source til 12 mo), or
• worry that their baby will choke (they won't unless there are medical problems and choking is more likely with liquid food like purees anyway).

Given that there is still so much misunderstanding, I think it is useful to advertise the positives of BLW, so that parents understand what it is and a least realise that they have a choice if they want it.

Okay so when I was had my first I thought the same as you. I had all the time in the world to sit with DS while he chewed and played and spat out food. Then I had time to clean up the considerable mess.
This time round I couldn't be bothered with all of that and it's been puree or mashed up all the way. Spoon fed at the beginning, and now a little bit of finger food etc. DD is 9 months old
It's clean and I don't have to clear up a huge mess on the floor and throw tons of food away. I don't have the time or patience. It's much more convenient to spoon feed and I know she is getting food into her. (she was quite little and needed to get food inside). Also when out and about it's better. Anyway at 7 months she was self feeding little bits of finger food etc. Having done both ways I can honestly say that it doesn't make a bit of difference if you do BLW or not, by 9 months they will self feed anyway. I don't think there is a need to define it or to be purist about it.

With ds1 and ds2 the advice was to wean at four months so it was purees all the way. ds1 used to gag alarmingly when he got lumpy food at 7 months and when I spoke to my GP, she laughed and said "but he only has two little teeth!" so it took a long time for him to have anything non-mushy.

Ds3 was prem and the advice was to wean him six months from birth, not six months corrected. So developmentally he was only four months and it had to be purees.

Ds4 attended a nursery from 6 months where they were given mush as standard. I did give him a lot of food to try to eat himself at home but with what the nursery were doing you couldn't really class it as BLW.