To think most people don't understand baby led weaning

[Londonforestmum]

I hear so often people say they are doing a mixture of baby led weaning and spoon feeding. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but this is 'traditional weaning', which always advised finger food from 6 months as well as purées. It's not doing a bit of both. BLW means you let your child feed themselves all the time. To say you're doing a bit of both is like saying you're a bit of a vegetarian because you eat some plant based foods alongside meat?

BLW also doesn't mean children don't use a spoon, you can use a spoon straight from the start but you just preload it for them and then let them hold it / put it in (or somewhere near lol) their mouths.

I think maybe people feel under pressure to do BLW but don't want to so they say they're doing a bit of it. There is nothing wrong with doing traditional weaning (purées and finger food) though!

Why can you not mix it up?

Have I missed something? I have a 10 yr old and a 6 yr old and sometimes they were spoon fed and other times they did the feeding themselves

posts like this are so tedious. Just let people get on with feeding their kids.

Who cares? Why be so pedantic about it?

There are definitely parents who wean on puree only and introduce finger foods much later on (so after a few months of puree/baby rice/baby porridge type foods).

What’s that called?

I struggle to see why this even matters.

posts like this are so tedious. Just let people get on with feeding their kids

This.

They will all eat eventually one way or another OP.

Not saying one way is better than the other

And ?

I also think it's a bit pedantic and doesn't really matter...but YANBU. You can't really do a bit of both and you can't really do "some purees and some BLW". But I think the lines have become quite blurred now and I get what people mean when they say they do both.

You can totally mix it up, but that's traditional weaning. Spoon feeding and finger foods.

I didn't care what it was called - I was just thoroughly relieved if my DD ate anything at all!
She did not take to solids at all. The first 'meal' she ate was a Maccy Ds happy meal at the airport when our flight was delayed by hours when she was 18 months old. We did a celebration dance.
People should just let others get on with doing things in what ever way works for them and stop trying to label everything.

Advice used to be spoon feeding from 4 months, then spoon feeding and finger foods from 6 months. We start at 6 months now, so doing spoon feeding and finger foods is traditional weaning (without the only spoon feeding from 4 months)

The whole weaning thing is simpler getting them from milk to family foods.

It doesn't need complicated processes or labels.

Just feed them healthy stuff in a form they can manage

And chill

I agree with you (but I am quite pedantic!). You are either doing BLW or you are not.
It's like when you find out that your vegetarian friends eat fish.

What does it matter??

But things do have labels, no one is saying you're a bad parent for not doing BLW, but doesn't mean it doesn't have an actual definition/philosophy.

Its why I always said I did a "mixture of finger food and spoon food" because blw is just finger food.

My youngest is 7 and I completely forgot the term BLW existed.

These are the kind of things that some parents get het up about but in ten years time you'll wonder why you gave it so much thought. Feed your baby how you feel is best and leave others to do the same. It's really not worth the headspace (and from the children I know they get fussy whether they were brought up doing BLW or purées. Just luck of the draw)

In what way is giving a baby finger food and puree not baby-led weaning?

By that logic is it really baby-led weaning if they don't shop for and prepare the food themselves??

I'm teetotal but I start my day with a shot of tequila.

I think you're wrong OP. Purées plus finger food implies to me that it's mainly purées with the odd breadstick or whatever. Whereas "I'm doing a mix of spoon feeding and BLW" implies a heavier reliance on BLW. I don't agree with your vegetarian analogy personally.

IME it's only those who are Very Serious about BLW that get worked up about it.

IME most people who say they're doing a mix mean that they're doing mostly finger foods but will spoon feed yoghurt, porridge, soup etc, and sure the odd puree out of the freezer does no harm on a day they're tight for time and their own meal isn't baby suitable etc. I don't think their naming of their method matters in the slightest.

The real ire should be reserved for "food before one is just for fun" (it isn't).

Whatever.

It doesn't matter how people interpret the phrase "baby led weaning".

My mother thought there was something wrong because DD refused spoon feeding. She was just strongly independent.