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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To find it annoying when people call all finger foods 'baby led weaning'?

37 replies

Findingthingstough18 · 09/01/2019 15:09

Ok, this is clearly quite a minor issue, but for some reason it annoys me. Almost all the other mums I know keep calling all finger foods for babies 'baby led weaning' - as in 'we're doing a mix of purees and baby led weaning' (that's just traditional weaning) or, as I heard today, 'oh we're just doing purees for now because I'm scared of choking but we're going to start doing the baby led weaning stuff at 9 months' (that is definitely, definitely not baby led weaning!). To be clear I'm not some sort of baby led weaning devotee or anything - that's not what annoys me - and nor do I give a single solitary toss how these people wean their babies, I just think it sounds so pretentious! Giving your seven month old a bit of toast sometimes isn't baby led weaning!

OP posts:

Kbass · 09/01/2019 16:24

I hate all the new wanky terminology that comes with parenting. The other day I saw someone use the hashtag #contactnap because their baby was asleep on their chest. Erm....no
Your kid is just asleep on you, as do pretty much all babies and it has been happening since the beginning of time. It's not a way of parenting and it doesn't make you better than anyone else just because you've given it a wanky label. It's natural 🤷‍♀️

tynext · 09/01/2019 16:26

I didn’t do BLW but yes it annoys me when people refer to finger foods as BLW as it’s completely incorrect

Babykoala1 · 09/01/2019 16:27

I am weaning my son currently and I always feel that "BLW" mothers judge me, apparently baby rice is the ultimate sin because it has no nutritional value blah blah. I can't imagine plonking a peice of avocado between his chubby fingers before he has learnt how to swallow all for him to smear it all over his sleepsuit. But yes, if thats the way you like to do it then just call it by its actual name. Finger foods. Just say finger foods. Or "exclusively finger fed" if you really need to be a twat. Its no more baby lead than feeding them via a spoon, if he rejects it I'm hardly going to ram it down his throat.

Bigkingdom · 09/01/2019 16:30

I find it annoying when people get worked up about what other class as BLW/traditional etc. We are all just feeding our babies food. Its just food. Get over it.

Original poster

Findingthingstough18 · 09/01/2019 16:31

I find it annoying when people get worked up about what other class as BLW/traditional etc. We are all just feeding our babies food. Its just food. Get over it.

If that's directed at me then that's exactly my point?

OP posts:

Wallsbangers · 09/01/2019 16:34

I'm pro BLW but through my child being a stubborn so-and-so rather than any philosophical decision on my part. The "do purees and blw" people get on my nerves because that's just traditional weaning as do BLWers who obsess about how they can all have dinner together even though their family all have completely different schedules. The baby can eat by themselves (with supervision obviously), they'll be fine.

LuaDipa · 09/01/2019 16:37

My youngest is 10 so it’s ages since I weaned a baby, but I remember struggling to get my eldest to eat from a spoon. My dm advised me to soft steam some veg to let him pick at it himself. Apparently she did the same with me around 40 years ago, as advised by her dm. Granny was obviously a baby-led weaning pioneer.

InSightMars · 09/01/2019 16:37

Of course every parenting activity has to have a wanky portentous-sounding label. How is parenting supposed to be taken seriously if it doesn't have labels?

I dunno, in my day, we breast or bottle fed then, at an appropriate age as determined by the prevailing advice, the baby 'went on solids'. And everything was 'finger-food' given the baby's fingers were into everything. We did what is now known as 'baby-wearing' without slings, it was just basically juggling a baby in one arm while doing everything else with the other during those clingy/teething/just want to be held phases (now known as 'bonding' or 'separation anxiety') they go through.

Narya · 09/01/2019 16:47

It's also the labelling of the parents by their choices - I don't want to be a 'BLWer', 'BFer', a 'FFer' or anything else like that. It's hugely divisive. I'm a mum, that's what counts.

colditz · 09/01/2019 16:47

YABU because it doesn't matter

but you know that really

WaterOffaDucksCrack · 09/01/2019 16:49

I find stuff like this weird too! My son's 3 and I remember being somewhere feeding him and got talking to another parent. She asked me if I was "exclusively" breastfeeding. I had no idea what she was talking about so just said I breastfed. "Yes but are you exclusively breastfeeding? I did with all mine apart from their bottle at night." I just said well done! Then when I googled it I found there was no need for the "exclusive" part at all!

Baby wearing I hate because it gives me a horrible mental image.

Baby led weaning only annoyed me when my sister tried to make me feel guilty for mashing my sons food. I had to explain to her on many different occasions that he had choked twice and I saved him. It may be appropriate for her kid but it wasn't for mine!

tillytrotter1 · 09/01/2019 20:12

Any excuse for a new acronym! How did we ever manage for the last thousands of years, I can just hear the Stone Age mothers discussing 'baby led weaning', whatever it is. Mothers find babies much harder work now because so much time is taken up making sure they're doing today's trendy thing.
Just get on with it, relax, do what feels right for you and sod everyone else.

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