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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Baby Led Weaning and Tummy Time

110 replies

BeKindToYourKnees · 05/08/2013 12:57

These terms irritate the hell out of me!

When DD was a baby, I gave her a mixture of finger food and spoon-fed her. She ate the food (or not, depending on how hungry she was/whether she liked it). When she was a bit bigger I gave her a spoon too, eventually she learnt to eat with it. Is this "baby led weaning"?

Maybe I'm missing something, but surely everyone does the same? Why is it called this?

And as for "tummy time".... I really don't get it.

Please enlighten me!

OP posts:

maja00 · 05/08/2013 14:38

On the other hand, I think the fear of waste does encourage overfeeding - persuading babies to finish their bottles or clear their plates rather than eat to appetite.

YouTheCat · 05/08/2013 14:39

I wasn't accusing the OP of silly angst. But it is something I have seen many times on these boards. People getting overly stressed about are they doing this that and the other right.

Lanceolate · 05/08/2013 14:40

I think that giving them a piece of real food to touch, taste and gum is a lot more preparation for eating than spooning purée into them.

maja00 · 05/08/2013 14:41

I wouldn't call wanting to do the best for your baby "silly angst" either. Isn't the whole point of a parenting forum like this so people can get advice and compare ideas?

Original poster

BeKindToYourKnees · 05/08/2013 14:41

YouTheCat I didn't think you were either

OP posts:

IneedAsockamnesty · 05/08/2013 14:43

I just used to amuse myself with the horror struck expressions of older relatives every single time I handed the baby some food,without fail much drama about choking and other such nonsense.

But as far as I can talk the only thing wrong with traditional weaning is its so much faff

YouTheCat · 05/08/2013 14:43

Seriously? Getting way too stressed out about how and what to feed your baby when it really isn't rocket science and, in the long run, it really doesn't matter.

I can understand people getting worried if there is a problem and wouldn't call that silly but some people just stress about every little thing.

maja00 · 05/08/2013 14:49

It's not uncommon for mothers with young children to suffer from anxiety - I don't think ridicule is justified, personally.

YouTheCat · 05/08/2013 14:57

True but I don't think all this 'you must do it this way because of blah blah research says you must' serves to make anyone less anxious.

Plenty of guilt sticks for mothers to beat themselves up with.

Hamwidgeandcheps · 05/08/2013 15:00

You know - those plastic trikes people balance babies on even though they can't reach the pedals. They have a sun visor type thing that looks like a giant fly swat.

JollyHolidayGiant · 05/08/2013 15:41

Baby led weaning definitely works better at home. Hardly any wasted food here as we put a clean plastic tablecover on the floor and anything DS dropped could be scooped up and handed back to him. Doesn't quite work the same in a restaurant when the floor is not clean.

EthelredOnAGoodDay · 05/08/2013 16:07

I rarely get pissed off and the post on threads, but this one has really got on my tits. I did BLW with DD and will do with DS, partly because I liked the idea of them weaning at their own pace and partly because I frankly cannot be naffed making purees and freezing them and all that stuff. Why do some people on here have to be so bloody sneery about it?! Why can't people just accept that some people choose to wean that way and some people choose to spoon feed, without slagging off one approach against the other. I don't care what other people do and it's none of my business, but i do care about people trying to suggest that by giving something a name, you somehow become a pretentious arse... Who gives a toss what you call it? All sorts of things are given names to make referring to them easier. Why can't people just support each other instead of constantly looking for things to criticise.

EthelredOnAGoodDay · 05/08/2013 16:07

Apologies for typos...one handed typing is clearly not my strong point!

slightlysoupstained · 05/08/2013 16:19

What Ethelred said.

Original poster

BeKindToYourKnees · 05/08/2013 16:23

Who said one approach was right and another wrong? And I don't recall anyone being called a 'pretentious arse'

OP posts:

MotherofDragons82 · 05/08/2013 16:38

What bemuses me is why IRL people need to use terms such as BLW at all. How often, really, does weaning come up in everyday conversation?

I give my DS food, he eats it - tbh what he eats and how is only of interest to him, me, and my DH.

Who are these people who earnestly discuss weaning to such a point that they need names for different styles of it?! Who, really, knows how other parents are weaning their kids? This, to me, is why terms such as BLW are a bit daft - they're a bit unnecessary, save for the odd conversation with a health visitor. Or is there a whole section of people out there that I've never encountered, who actually care about such things?

Personally, I couldn't care less how people feed their kids, as long as they feed them.

EthelredOnAGoodDay · 05/08/2013 16:40

When someone says I didn't do these things with my baby and lo and behold they can chew their food/hold their head up etc, by implication they are taking the piss and being critical. Fair enough the words pretentious arse weren't ever used, but suggesting that calling baby led weaning by that name is somehow stupid, or a marketing ploy, is going to get people's backs up.

Whothefuckfarted · 05/08/2013 16:43

Baby led weaning is where the baby is the only one to put any type of food in their mouths. They control how much they eat. It follows on well from 'on demand' breast feeding. It's them regulating their appetites independently.

MotherofDragons82 · 05/08/2013 16:45

Erm, Ethelred, I think you're being a tad oversensitive there.

YouTheCat · 05/08/2013 16:48

I said that. I wasn't implying pretentious arsedness. I was saying that it doesn't really matter how you do things in the grand scheme of things as they will all learn to feed themselves/hold their heads up etc.

Voodika · 05/08/2013 17:17

I think the problem is that anyone who calls it BLW takes it all so seriously.
Eating should be an art not a science.

EthelredOnAGoodDay · 05/08/2013 17:23

I call it baby led weaning and don't take it seriously....well apart from on here!
Point taken, possibly being over sensitive, but just don't like people being critical, we are all just trying to muddle our way through and do our best. It's just a name for an approach when all said and done.

slightlysoupstained · 05/08/2013 17:26

Voodika Um, tell you what, maybe we'll leave you to your "art"?

NoComet · 05/08/2013 17:52

YANBU
Tummy time = SCREAM!!!!

So I only tried twice for 10 sec with DD1 and forgot all about it for DD2

BLW is a pile of tosh, that fortunately hadn't been invented 12/15 years ago.

Anyhow, DD2 was one of the few children for whom solid food = calories form 5.5months.

She BF 24/7, but still fell of the graph and was a total bottle refuser. However, she loved yoghurt and fruit purée and just climbed up the percentiles from the first spoonful.

I stopped stressing, made more milk and we carried on BF for many many years. By one she was exactly average sized at 12 she's probably just a touch smaller than average because she never stops doing sport of some sort.

ChunkyChicken · 05/08/2013 18:47

Ethelred I totally agree. See StarBallBunny's comment for evidence...

The reason BLW was "invented" was to encourage people away from the almost force-feeding of very young babies, say 3-4mths, having spoon after spoon of food pushed into their mouths, scrapped off their chin & bib, back into their mouths until the mother father/carer had deemed them to have eaten a sufficient amount. This isn't the same as anything anyone has described here obviously, and leads to a adult who overeats.

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