To really not understand baby led weaning?

[Leavetowean]

I’ve been trying it with my baby (with some trepidation) but I really can’t understand at all how they are meant to not choke.

She just gagged and vomited on some food because she obviously took it straight to the back of her throat as she hasn’t got any teeth to chew it.

I feel like it’s a massive step back for us. I’m really not enjoying the weaning journey one bit, I find it so stressful (and no she isn’t picking up on my stress) but AIBU to think the whole let them eat what you eat just doesn’t work for some babies? What am I missing?

Fair point but they probably mashed the food up rather than served huge pieces of it. That was the part of BLW I struggled with. I feed my baby mostly the same food as us (minus the salt etc) but mashed. My baby doesn’t take tiny bites of things as all the BLW guides suggest, she takes huge mouthfuls or crams the whole thing into her mouth.

I’m a big fan of baby-led weaning aka just a fancy new term for what parents have been doing since the dawn of time…. But it doesn’t matter what me or my children like.

Don’t listen to us angel we are just randos on the internet, I would give your health visitor a ring. That what they’re there for! Mine even offered me a course on how to do it but it’s not my first rodeo so gracefully turned her down. Best of luck to you and your little one it will all be okay.

What are you even talking about?! It's not a 'trend'. It's literally how babies have been weaned for years and years. And there is no salt or 'other ingredients' if you give you baby real food. I gave my babies sticks of steamed broccoli or roasted sweet potato for them to suck on. There was no salt! You just sound really misinformed.

Sorry, my comment wasn't aimed at you, you've seemed quite sensible and reasonable in all your posts. I was responding to LetsGoOutside who is quoted in the post above who was rather forthright in their disdain for BLW so I responded in kind.

Sorry for sounding grumpy! I do find weaning really stressful and she’s still eating pretty much nothing.

I found it much less enjoyable with my second which I think was down to having to fit everything else in. Plus I was very sleep deprived and dealing with the mess after each mealtime really wore me down. I also hoped she would take to food really quickly and that it would help with sleep (it didn't!). The only thing I can say is it won't last forever but you know that so I am not sure it's of much help.

You've got a 6 month old, you're entitled to feel tired and stressed. I did not enjoy the baby stage at all, although weaning I found quite fun. Bet there are parts of parenting you are better at than I am though (Just had an argument with my DD, about my hair colour. Not a high point).

According to Gill Rapley, it's a safety thing: as PPs have said, babies' gag reflex is triggered further forward in their mouth than adults', so the baby will gag if they put it in too far and learn not to do it. If an adult is popping food in, (a) there's a choking risk because you can put it too far back, and (b) the baby doesn't learn by trial and error. Similarly with cutting up food into small pieces rather than big, as you mention in a previous post - smaller pieces are easier to choke on especially if put too far into the mouth by an adult.

The 'feeding when not hungry' thing did seem counterintuitive but in practice we still see with 2.5 year old DS that he is much less up for trying new foods when too hungry or too tired. When he was a hungry little baby expecting milk, he would not have been messing round experimenting with sticks of broccoli.

How are you getting on now @Leavetowean I’m in exactly the same position as you were a couple of months ago! Please tell me it gets better?

I didn’t do any kind of spoon feeding or purees. I disagree it’s a fad - my kids are 14, 12 and 9 so it’s been going on at least that long.

I put stuff on their tray. If they ate it, fine, if they didn’t fine. I was BF on demand though so they never ‘missed a feed’. My twins - my son ate anything he could shove in from 5 months, my daughter had about a lick of a rice cake by the time she was 1 and didn’t eat much food for ages - and still eats about half the amount of her brother.

just do what suits you though - I couldn’t understand the appeal of purées.

Just to say if they couldn’t pick it up, it wasn’t considered safe - definitely no ‘popping it in’ for them.

If she’s just 7 months old the bulk of her nutrition is from breast milk or formula. Baby led weaning at that age is just an introduction to solid food, follow all current guidelines and baby will be fine.