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!

As someone with several children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews having been weaned by blw or puree, nursed to sleep or left to cry - they all get to a stage at some point where they refuse to eat everything apart from carrot sticks, pasta or tinned peas or will sleep for 22 hours a day as teenagers.

That's a much better diet than I'm expecting, I'll take two veg and some pasta!

Ah I loved sitting and spoon feeding my babies! We did ‘a bit of both’ and lots of finger food but the joy of spoon feeding a baby I would have been sad to miss out on!

It's called "feeding your baby".

Job done.

Calling it BLW is just wanky.

So loading the spoon and watching them try to get in mouth is blw - how is it baby led if you’re loading spoon v offering a spoon to the mouth and encouraging them to hold and have a go isn’t.
Honestly you’ll look back and wonder why you were so hung up on it.
Reception children not able to use cutlery is an issue according to friends who work as ta’s.

The only people who care about others using these terms correctly are those who think their way is superior. “You can’t use our term because you aren’t doing it properly so you can’t join our club”. It’s all rather pathetic.

Op, if you ever should happen across this thread in years to come, I can guarantee you’ll be cringing. It really does not matter.

Londonforestmum

They can enough iron through BLW, you can also use supplements if you wish.

But surely it's better to have a diet - whether or not it's what you would call BLW - that provides enough iron without having to give supplements?
I appreciate sometimes it may be necessary to supplement, but not just for the reason that you can proudly say you're BLW.

Eventually they get a pre-paid card to spend on lunch at secondary school and they use it to buy Prime and Quavers.

😂😂😂

Its much harder to be sure they are getting the nutrients they need, especially iron, through BLW though as intake can vary wildly, and with all the mess it can be hard to be sure how much they actually consumed. Also harder to make sure they regularly consume allergens to reduce risks of developing allergies.

I did BLW with my eldest, and TW with my youngest, as by the time I had my youngest I knew more about the importance of nutrition and the prevention of allergies.

*I read the book (which is really short) during 1 night feed. The purée thing / schedule of what to do when seemed much more complicated.

But yes each to their own.*

Why all the disparaging posts about purée feeding if you genuinely think each to their own?

Really not seeing how adult scooping porridge onto spoon (adult has decided food type and which size spoon and how big a portion size on spoon is baby led)

Well I reckon BLW equals a super placid baby allowing you hours to piss about online.
had I known that was a side effect I'd have embraced it

As most people have already said, so?

I feel like the only people who care are those who smugly say they've followed the BLW route, because its the "best thing" now but some parents are too afraid of choking and having to prepare every food in a safe way and rather crack on with purees.

I disagree that a "mix of both" is spoon fed plus the odd finger food btw. Literally sounds like you're spoonfeeding the whole meal then giving a carrot stick (cooked til tender!!) for them to play with whilst you eat your own dinner.

FYI I guess I am doing BLW because my son doesn't like being spoon fed and somehow he vomited three times when we accidentally overfed him when spoon feeding hence we decided to let him feed himself so he knows when to stop. However, I do a lot of mashed foods too (and preload the spoon) so I don't think that is "proper BLW" to those BLW smug parents... but I couldn't care less what I and others do and what they call it AS LONG AS my baby and their babies are happy and healthy and SAFE.

I make porridge fingers at least 3x a week for my twins 😂 it’s my easiest breakfast, 3 mins in micro and dump on tray!

No ban on spoons in my house, but finger food is easier when feeding two at once

Sorry OP, I ‘do both’.

& making the noises & miming opening your mouth, with or without noises! I miss those years!

loved those years & also him shoving a yoghurt pouch in his mouth or answering the door after I finished school with a sausage (halved!) in each hand, babies eating however you do it is a gift

I started puree weaning but very early on she got bored and we would give her family dinners, she loved her white bean stofado...no idea what kind of weaning it was, she also was into finger food.

Amen to that.

All I can hear in these posts is “oh that’s not PROPER baby led weaning, you don’t understand the PHILOSOPHY”.

Same applies to the ones who pop up within 0.7 seconds of a post criticising gentle parenting, who always say “oh that isn’t PROPER gentle parenting, that’s permissive parenting”. I figure this means that no one really understands what gentle parenting is, except each individual mother who thinks that she’s the only one who’s absolutely nailing it 😅

But I distress. Baby rearing philosophies might feel like a big deal when you’re in the trenches and anxious to do everything right, but you’ll look back one day and realise you were being uptight over nothing.

OP the people who have addressed the point of your post mostly seem to agree with you, so you could probably just ignore the ones having the BLW vs other methods arguments with themselves.

I did the panicky I'm doing everything wrong and my baby is going to starve AND be fat forever method myself (it think it just comes under the general 'weaning banner)

im having an uncomfortable visualisation about the amount of table wiping required after BLW in the aforementioned restaurant

I’ll assume my imagination is running away with me

Firstly, I think your interpretation of purees is not accurate.
You can puree anything just by blitzing it with water or milk or other appropriate liquid. It's not complicated or time consuming. There is no schedule to keep to - I'm not sure what you mean by that. You feed your baby at meal times, presumably as you did with your method?

Secondly, I think you had a very easy going baby. If you have a second, don't expect to be able to do things the same way as with your first.

I weaned my two in exactly the same way. The first was eating full meals three times as day by about 9 months (we started at 4 months in those days). having started with purees, but very quickly taking on finger foods etc. The second would not eat. Not purees, not finger food, not left to do it herself, not fed bits by her brother, not off the floor. She was a bottle refuser too, so not sure if that was connected. She was about 5yo before she began eating any where normally, but still had a very restricted diet.

So as I said earlier, it really doesn't matter what you call it, as long as baby is being fed. The stress when they won't eat is awful.

YABU to care tbh.

Oh god now I know why my primary age kids still regularly slop milk all over the table and drop bits of spaghetti on the floor. If I'd let them make more mess as babies they'd have got it all out of their systems. Dammit.

It doesn't make a flying fuck of a difference if a child is breast fed, formula fed, a mix of both, spoon fed, baby led fed, whatever because in a few years time they're going to be going to parties eating all the crap under the sun and when they're even older, eating even more crap from fast food restaurants. Chill people!!!

Oh who cares??

When do we go back to the 6am, 10 am, 2pm, 6pm...... Feeds from new born followed by holding them over a potty to "perform" as our grandmothers did. The rules seem to change every time someone writes a new book.