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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to think BLW babies can still eat yoghurt?

96 replies

Russell19 · 21/01/2020 15:38

On a local parenting facebook page a mum asked about how to get her baby to have medicine as he was spitting it out or being sick. The baby was 9mo.

Someone suggested a spoon instead of a syringe, someone else suggested giving a bit of yoghurt then medicine and alternate until medicine is gone. The lady replied saying she couldn't do that because she is doing BLW and her baby isn't spoon fed.

Now my baby is a similar age and we do a mix of puree and finger foods (shoot me I know!) but it seems right for us so I went with it. But it got me thinking.... surely BLW doesn't mean a baby can never have a yoghurt or anything that requires a spoon?!

I haven't really thought about it before because I'm doing both but thought it sounded bizarre.

So.... AIBU in thinking if you do BLW your baby can still have a yoghurt?! Or AINBU and this mum is taking it too far?

OP posts:

NoMorePoliticsPlease · 21/01/2020 15:39

There is a lot of codswallop talked about blw. Babies do very well with a mixture of finger food and spoon feeding.
It is a fad

Ellisandra · 21/01/2020 15:40

You need to ask this?

44PumpLane · 21/01/2020 15:42

We did BLW and you can totally use a spoon!

If she's really bothered she can pre load a spoon and put it in front of the tot but BLW doesn't mean you're not able to feed anything liquid!! Daft!!

Vinorosso74 · 21/01/2020 15:42

We did BLW with DD and she occasionally had yoghurt. We would put yoghurt on the spoon and put spoon on tray of high chair. She would pick spoon up and actually most of the yoghurt did get eaten. We just didn't put the spoon to her mouth.

Lunafortheloveogod · 21/01/2020 15:42

Logically it should be fine to give them yoghurt even if they’re BLW, ds is mostly baby led but he’ll get things that need spoons if that’s what I’m making for all of us. He gets yoghurt too, but he’s cmpa and allergic to strawberries so he’s quite hard to get yoghurts for.. maybe something more like that behind it. Hopefully it’s not that she just doesn’t have a baby spoon lol.

Suppose there will be some people who follow it super strictly and won’t spoon feed a drop though. She could freeze yoghurt into drops and give them to break up the taste though.

pooopypants · 21/01/2020 15:42

Sounds like she's got a stick up her arse. If she can't get over spoon feeding a baby to give them medicine, she's only making her own life more difficult.

Grumpos · 21/01/2020 15:45

Perhaps her baby does what my toddler does with yoghurt - dumps it out the pot and proceeds to spread it over the table then either stuff his fists into his mouth thus covering his entire face and hair in said yoghurt, or just goes for a simple face plant into yoghurt mound?

Seriously though, we did a bit of both. DC could eat with a spoon easily by a year and now at almost 18 mths can manage a fork with things like peas and rice and small veggies no problem. It’s hilarious watching him spear them!

Surely anything militant is a bit of a pain? When does she propose to introduce cutlery then or foods which might require them?

DappledThings · 21/01/2020 15:45

This is why applying labels to normal parts of child rearing is daft and gets people tied in knots.

I never pureed any food for DC, they mostly ate what we ate from the start but they also had a good few pouches when we were out and about.

Not getting hung up on BLW as a hill to die on was a very sensible decision we made.

Berrymuch · 21/01/2020 15:45

Of course. Some of the online baby groups for blw are ridiculous, feeding from a spoon is fine.

Howdidido · 21/01/2020 15:48

Some people seem to think BLW is a religion that must be adhered to very strictly.

It's not. It's just giving food to babies. Definitely not rocket science!
Anyway like PP said- even the strictest would say you can give them a bowl and a spoon!

FairfaxAikman · 21/01/2020 15:48

The issue is less likely to be to be the type of food and more that she doesn't want to (or baby won't allow her to) spoon feed.

DS wouldn't have allowed him to feed him at all at that age.

TheHagOnTheHill · 21/01/2020 15:49

So glad we didn't have now when DD was little,she wouldn't have tried as many different foods.

londonrach · 21/01/2020 15:54

Seriously. All babies i know who are blw also have yogurt. Never heard anything more silly. My daughter at that age was using the spoon herself although most didnt get into her month! Yanbu

TeaAndASitDown · 21/01/2020 15:55

This is bonkers. Not sure how serious the medicine is obviously but she's so against a spoon that she'd rather her baby didn't get his meds?! 🤦🏻‍♀️

53rdWay · 21/01/2020 15:55

Well of course they can have yoghurt. But babies that aren’t used to being spoon fed won’t take easily to medicine being fed that way either, so telling her “just alternate the yoghurt you’re spoon feeding her with the medicine you’re spoon feeding her” isn’t very useful advice.

But I see this is going to get drowned out by all the people piling in to say “blw parents are SO RIDICULOUS we just did a bit of both!” so crack on with that

53rdWay · 21/01/2020 15:57

she's so against a spoon that she'd rather her baby didn't get his meds?!

Or: She has a baby that isn’t used to being fed that way, so isn’t going to open its mouth for the medicine to go in, and the medicine will therefore go everywhere. Better to use a syringe rather than faff about trying to balance medicine on a spoon that the baby is trying to rub into its hair.

Original poster

Russell19 · 21/01/2020 15:57

I'm sure I probably didn't need to ask but I just thought it sounded so ridiculous and nobody else questioned it on the page (maybe put of politeness)

Because I don't really follow BLW didn't know if it was a 'thing'. I felt like I must be force feeding my baby yoghurt haha!

OP posts:

DesLynamsMoustache · 21/01/2020 15:58

People tend to get really militant about BLW and 'never being spoon fed'. My DD is pretty much BLW (although I think the term has become a bit wanky) but occasionally I will help her spoon feed something if it is something not eatable with hands 🤷🏻‍♀️

DesLynamsMoustache · 21/01/2020 15:58

And even though my DD is rarely spoon fed, she still opens her mouth when food comes near it!

Original poster

Russell19 · 21/01/2020 15:59

@53rdWay I completely get what you're saying which does make sense.

But I think she had tried the syringe and was getting spit up/sick etc which is why people suggested the spoon.

OP posts:

HildaSnibbs · 21/01/2020 15:59

The odd thing about BLW is that some people seem to equate spoon feeding with force feeding... rather than just holding a spoon near the baby's mouth and letting them eat from it. Which I can't see a problem with?!

UndertheCedartree · 21/01/2020 16:00

My eldest would never be spoon fed so we fell into BLW (wasn't around then) But by 9 months he would eat a yogurt with a spoon himself (very messily). Of course they can eat yogurt but if the baby is not used to/won't be spoon fed/feed themself with a spoon then it might not really work.

53rdWay · 21/01/2020 16:02

But I think she had tried the syringe and was getting spit up/sick etc which is why people suggested the spoon.

Yeah it’s fair enough to digest it, but if her baby isn’t taking food off a spoon and is fighting the medicine it is unlikely to smoothly take medicine off a spoon.

I suppose it’s POSSIBLE she is a mad militant BLW-er who hates spoons so much she is prepared to deny her child medicine for the anti-spoon cause, but it seems more likely that spoons just aren’t going to work very well for her.

53rdWay · 21/01/2020 16:02

SUGGEST, not digest

HildaSnibbs · 21/01/2020 16:05

Anti-spoon cause

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