To think Gill Rapley should be knighted?

[Happydutchmummy]

Ok, so I'm not sure if women can be knighted, maybe she should be Lady-ed, Dame-d or whatever the correct term is...

My second dc has just started weaning and I'm experiencing the joys of blw again. It's just so awesome. I know she didn't 'invent' it, but she did the research, wrote an amazingly clear book and has changed the way that a lot of parents wean their child. Due to her the nhs has changed its guidelines on weaning to be more finger foods rather than purée and many health care professionals now recommend it.

On top of that she hasn't cashed in with a whole range of blw merchandise, there is no official blw high chair, you can't buy Gill Raply branded bread sticks, etc. it's just her book and recipe book but that's it.

Surely she deserves some official recognition for services to babies, and mums who are too lazy to purée

Ok so I'm not a BLW purist, but I don't force DD to eat. When I spoon feed, I hold the spoon a good inch away from her mouth, and she either opens her mouth or doesn't. I'm not jamming it in through a closed mouth. If she doesn't want any more she doesn't open her mouth. I don't say, 'one more mouthful'. I let her work through food herself and she has learnt just like any other baby to process food. She gags, I don't panic, it's all good. But I still don't pass the BLW test because I've used a spoon.

Thanks Avocado! It's all good isn't it?! I just don't understand the need to be one thing or another. It's exhausting.

I'm quite glad I am too lazy to stick wholeheartedly to rigid sets of rules about how to bring my DCs up. I had thought BLW was common sense till I read this thread, now I know it's rigid set of rules which must not be deviated from. As for the knighthood, YABU.

What rules?! That leaflet is for BLW parents to give to nursery and careers, so highlights main ideas. I don't see rules. It's basically sit back and let baby get on with it. All the "don'ts" are either safety, or to highlight the difference from traditional weaning.

Blueberrybaby I would say your way is baby led weaning, you let baby be in control. Spoons are used it BLW too. Preloaded spoons or offering food to babies on a spoon or fork lets them decide whether they want it or not

Ni I think people are responding to Captains list of "things that aren't allowed".

Most posters are saying BLW is similar to what they already do, but aparently not as we used spoons and "finger foods".

BLW is a whole way of thinking. . You give your child finger foods, or allow him to help himself from a communal dish (or your plate), and let him decide for himself how much he eats; resisting the urge to hold his nose and ram it in.
There really is no mystery about it, much less a whole new way of thinking; it's been around since Adam were a lad.

The leaflet says no spoon feeding.

I've scanned the posts , mn is very grr towards BLW usually.
I totally agree that she should receive acclaim for transforming the weaning process - or returning it back to its roots .
I have raised two on the purée crap and one BLW . I think the end result is the same - three brilliant eaters all happy to try new tastes . The weaning experience though was so much more fun and relaxed third time around .
Her book is clear and written well , she hasn't branded anything .
I agree op - acclaim due but no knight hood as me hates that tosh and anything royal .

What if your baby WANTS to be spoon fed though? My dd had mostly finger food but what she really wants and likes is to be spoon fed with food off my plate. This is led by her, so how can it not be baby-led?

Using spoons does not equal spoon feeding

What else do you do with a spoon? It's spoon feeding whether the adult or the baby holds the spoon?

Ds2 dug about with a spoon from about 10 months. Sometimes I helped it to his mouth when he got frustrated. Doesnt mean I did purees, he started with a breadstick at 5.5m and went from there stealing food off plates when able. Ive never blended or mushed anything and both boys have had the same as we were eating.

Im inclined to call this way "Weaning" or W for short.

I can do lots of things with spoons. I can play the spoons along to music. I use a spoon to lever the plastic lids off glass bottle for the recycling. I use spoons in cooking for measuring.

DS uses preloaded spoons when eating and feeding himself. If you use a fork when eating is it called fork feeding? No. Spoon feeding is a term used in traditional, it does not describe the act of eating with a spoon. Jeez

I read her book before weaning DS and found it smug, irritating and judgemental. So, no, i wouldn't be putting her forward for any honours.
I decided not to do BLW but AK instead. Did introduce finger foods from 6 mo. DS is the least fussy eater i have ever met. Whereas according to Gill Rapley he should be a fussy eater as spoon fed. Wrong!
Weaning DC2 at the moment and rather annoyingly she is not accepting a spoon so i might have to go down the blw route, when i dont actually want to. But hey ho, she does!

It really matters not if you use spoon, fingers, the baby does it himself, you purée, you cut into smell pieces.

It matters not a flying fuck in the nano second if they part of your child's life.

As I stare at ds (23) eating steak and necking a pint of Stella I am struggling to remember what the fuck I did. And also fleetingly why his table manners haven't improved much!

I can tell you one thing though I didn't read a sodding book.

.

So if we use a spoon that's not spoon feeding, if we give cut up bits of food to our babies that isn't BLW. I'm totally confused.

Ni so what would you call what TheBody describes?

I was just saying that in my humble opinion, if your baby WANTS to be spoon fed and you feed them with a spoon, surely that's baby-led because you're doing what the baby wants?!

Was making a point about the ridiculousness of all these labels, but clearly failing miserably...

I think its only BLW if you own a copy of the book , if you just cut up food and don't own the book then that's finger food and its different .Ok.

rally exactly

I followed my baby's lead.

The moment she realised that us spoon feeding her was a quicker way of getting food in her stomach than her doing it herself, you could sod off with the finger foods.

And that's baby-led weaning.

I never understand the fuss about BLW on MN. Baby wants food. You get some hopefully healthy food into them one way or another. End of.

Ni "DS uses preloaded spoons when eating and feeding himself."

And that isn't spoon feeding in your opinion?

Excuse
In my opinion no it isn't. I use the term spoon feeding in relation to traditional weaning; when the adult feeds the baby pureed food from a spoon by putting the spoon into the babies mouth.

DS uses a spoon to eat yoghurts. I dip the spoon in the yoghurt and set it on the tray in front of him. I have previously mentioned the possibility of holding the spoon near the baby and letting them reach out the their hands to take it or guide to their mouth, or even lean forward onto the spoon. In none of this is he actively being spoonfed by me.

Fuck knows! If I wasn't so busy earning a living and drinking wine I would write a bloody book.

I thought most of us with older DCs sat the baby ready while they dished up and gave them some bits of the cooked broccoli/carrot etc to keep them happy.

I think Gill Rapley has made money from old rope myself.

It's bonkers