To think I can't be the only one who has never 'fed' their dc?

[Memoo]

A conversation at the children's centre turned to talk of weaning (yawn) I mentioned that I'd never fed dd with a spoon as she had always just fed herself.

I was told that I must have fed her with a spoon at first and when I insisted I didn't they just didn't believe me. The sure start worker (HV?) even said she was sure I must be getting "confused" patronising cow as dd wouldn't have been getting adequate amounts of food by feeding herself.

I'm not the only one am I?

happy feeding elderly can never be the same as feeding a child, I work with older people and hate the comparison of the elderly to children. They are not children! And feeding people is not the same as feeding a child.

I hope MrsDV doesn't mind me sharing this story but I find it highly amusing that she was once asked by a HCP if she was sure she was breastfeeding her baby,
er, yes

different approaches suit different babies, surely? my child was far too lazy to even feed himself finger food till over a year old, but of course some children are far more independent earlier...

happy wasn't compairing the elderly to children, the working with elderly was back ground as to why SHE had been spoon fed herself.

Was finger food in my day, everyone did it and nobody really cared.....yogurt, custard etc would be spoon fed, because those sort of foods need spoons. Give kids banana and custard I say ! (( banana fingers with a custard dip to the trendies )).

chips are the best, keeps them quiet for ages

Does it really matter how a child is fed, as long as they are fed?

5inthebed your not wrong.....except on mn
then it is about
"look at me , i am perfect"

I tried giving ds loaded spoons for him to eat. He couldn't have made it any more obvious that he wanted me to do all the hard work seeing as I was there, and cheesy mash etc should be delivered right to his mouth.

Don't understand people talking about 'force feeding' which obv would be bad - every spoon fed baby meal I've ever seen has spoon put to the kid's lips and they either move their head towards it or away. FWIW I've often had DP spoonfeed me when breastfeeding during dinner. Works quite well.

Basically my ds wanted food before he had the coordination. to get it to his mouth. He enjoyed playing with chips and meat sticks but loved softer foods when on a spoon - he still hates getting sticky hands so would never use fingers. Other kids are fine without spoons - it really shouldn't be a big deal!

happy was comparing it, because she said that they had to feed each other as part of their training, i.e. how awful people getting spoon fed food = babies getting spoon fed food is awful, why else would you bring it up?

No. I explained that I had been spoon fed and found it uncomfortable, so I can imagine why some people find it uncomfortable to spoon feed their babies.

I had no problem with spoon feeding an elderly patient when they were unable to feed themselves or when they indicated they wanted to be spoon fed. I was not saying that elderly people were like children, and I too hate the comparison.

FWIW, I FF and spoonfed my first 2. In fact they were fed purees from 4 months. I breastfed my second 2 for 16 months each and followed baby led weaning. My 3rd didn't eat a full meal until she was 13 months.

You wouldn't be able to tell which of my children were fed which way. They are all great eaters.

My point was I prefer BLW and if I had another baby, I would choose it again.

DD was pureé fed, including all the PFB faffing with ice cube trays and whatnot.

DS1 BLW - but had massive sensory issues, didn't get on to 3 meals a day until well after a year, ate no meat until he was 5 years old and still won't eat anything with a mushy texture. I did attempt an odd jar with him when out and about, but he refused point blank. He didn't have any solid food until over 6 months, when he grabbed and ate broccoli, he just wasn't interested. He was underweight (98th centile for height, 25th for weight) until he started school, when he decided to stop fucking about and start eating.

DS2 weaned early at 21 weeks, so mush was part of that for a while, but he fed himself by the time he was 24 weeks, so it wasn't for long!

I find HV tended to be on the cautious side with anything outside the "norm," so suspicious of BF past a few months, co-sleeping, sling use, BLW... all my fun stuff! By the time DS2 was 1 year, I had enough and opted out of the service. It's not compulsory.

Horses for course

Mine took against spoons violently at around 7 months, after tasting something they didn't like on one (some pureed fruit), and after that they would only eat stuff they could pick up themselves. I couldn't get them to trust spoons again for at least a year.

They had lots of milk, though.

everlong I do BLW because I'm lazy. I'm not ashamed of that. I can't be arsed to sit and faff around trying to get my babies to eat food off a spoon, or wiping orange goo off their faces when they spit it everywhere. I just cook a meal for our family, give them a bit and then clean up afterwards. They get to explore their food, learn about different tastes and textures, choose what they want to eat, and regulate their own appetites. I get to serve up a meal without having to spend ages blending little bits up and I get to eat my own dinner before it goes cold. Win win.

Children have to learn to feed themselves at some point, why not get the un-coordinated, messy bit out of the way while they're still cute and it's still funny?

I assume that these babies are still having lots of milk feeds, otherwise they would be very hungry

I remember sitting in Ikea having breakfast about 2/3 years ago and a young couple with a child about 13 months was in baby had exactly the same as them, I had my judgy pants on thinking no wonder we have so many fat/obese kids thinking back was probably BLW in my day (old gimmer emotion) we just fed our kids.

You know, I often thought they needed a bit of guidance, too. However, short of a straitjacket and a head-clamp, it became clear that I wasn't allowed to give such guidance.!

I did BLW, lived in rented, had carpet, DS barely ate. He's 3.7 now. He didn't starve, and is actually now hovering somewhere around the 75th centile.

I think people stress too much about food.

can someone answer my question about milk feeds please

He was having a lot of milk, 2shoes.

Everlong it's not "good" but it's not bad either.

2shoes Milk is meant to be the primary source of nutrition until at least a year old. So all babies, spoonfed or BLWed or something in between, should be having plenty of milk during the first year.

Re: BLW being for 'lazy' mothers - most mothers I know who do BLW have said that saving time/effort has played a big part in their decision to do it. Obviously there are lots of other benefits, but this seems to be a big one for the parents, rather than the child. So whilst BLW probably wasn't 'invented' by lazy mothers, it certainly seems to appeal to them

ahh thanks.
so the main food is still milk
so BLW is the same as finger food