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!

Seriously - fa gees a flying fuck how your geet is weaned.

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

Agree with this, why does it matter? It’s all just weaning.

This

Just don't feel under pressure to say you're doing a bit of both!?

I mean..... I don't think anyone does

a few years on you really won’t remember I’m sure ds just ate food I’m sure I probably named it something thinking I was on to something new and far better for my baby than any previous generation of parents had managed 🙄

parents of babies are so tedious I include myself I was that person 😆

In my culture we wean earlier then most and don't use much baby food if any. We call it nothing it's just feeding your baby . It seems pretty ridiculous to me to be so hung up on what you call it.

Yeah those aren't safe ways for sure, but between 4 and 6 months (6 months being the very latest) when they are able to sit supported (so can definitely hold their heads up!) with purees until 6 months (then can move to mashed foods, or coarser purees or normal solids or a mix) incorporating all the major allergens regularly. They did weirdly have a list of foods you were supposed to avoid (beyond honey and added salt) but I ignored those as I couldn't find any sound basis for avoiding them.

My DS had a higher risk of nut allergies as his dad is allergic so the nurse at the child clinic advised us on this, but for nuts and dairy for instance I added ground up nuts/nut flours to greek yoghurt

People can make up whatever definition they like of BLW, but the original method (according to the person who invented the phrase and wrote the book) means you let the baby feed themselves all the time. So it's impossible to 'do a bit of both'.

I'll ask again, as you didn't respond last time.

If someone is doing BLW but the baby goes to grandparents one day a week, and they use purées, is this traditional weaning?

I don't understand it OP so I suppose in that respect YANBU

Thank fuck mine are grown now so I don't have to get hung up on using the right words for letting them ram their fingers and food in their mouth, hair and high chair

And the questions is, WHY do you care so much what other people are calling what they're doing? It doesn't hurt you or your baby and you can relieve yourself from feeling "annoyed that they're calling it wrong" by removing yourself from that conversation... like an adult?

And by the way, you're not superior by being able to quote the "real definition" either, of which you have posted several times!

Oops. I've weaned 4 babies and didn't realise I was doing it the wrong way, thanks ever so much for educating us 😅

I'm suprised you care so much about other peoples feeding techniques tbh. Hopefully if someone uses the phrase BLW in real life you wouldn't give them a lecture?

A fed baby is a happy baby, does it matter if someone doesn't use the "right" phrase according to one arbitrary definition?

OP you are going to have to accept that the vast, vast majority of people use BLW to mean 'finger foods'.

Therefore, they see it as totally legitimate to talk about doing 'a bit of both' and don't give a flying about the original definition or your interpretation of that.

*If someone is doing BLW but the baby goes to grandparents one day a week, and they use purées, is this traditional weaning?
*
If the definition of BLW is BLW all the time no exceptions, then any use of purées is not baby led weaning.

It's not a judgement, it's just how words work

So if the adults were having purées with their meal and they gave some to the baby, is that BLW or traditional weaning?

But using you 'it's how words work' logic, then it clearly isn't traditional weaning either is it? It's far further from that than BLW.

I was present for a couple of meals when a relative did BLW with her baby. It was an absolute shitshow - mushed up weetabix, baked beans and god knows what else all over the baby’s clothes, hair, the floor, the high chair. Took ages for the kid to be cleaned up and the mess was just left for the rest of us to sort out. Full outfit change for both meals, as well, because no bib could contain the horror. Seemed to delay the mother far more in eating her food than if she’d just fed the baby some purée first and then given her some dry foods to eat herself while the rest of us were eating.

But anyway, you do you, OP.

If a toddler gives your baby a crisp at a playgroup that suddenly makes you not BLW that makes no sense.

Babyboomtastic I wouldn't call it traditional weaning because afaik there's not a set in stone definition for traditional weaning? BLW is a thing that someone invented and defined and named so should only be used as such

I did a mix of finger foods and purées so I would just say that

And?

Baby is fed.

That'll do me

Do people care? I just let mine help themselves off my plate, I left small chopped up bits nearest side of plate, and let them crack on. Are not fussy eaters now older

Whether we do or don't, I have watched my friend's grandchildren do BLW and personally, I couldn't abide the waste and the mess. Daughter is somehow alive and grown up so whatever I did must have been ok.

There is definately pressure re. BLW. I didn't fancy my DD choking to death like two other babies in our local area, so I blended and mashed most of her meals in the first months. The health visitor warned me that because she was not chewing her mouth muscles wouldn't develop, she would end up with speech difficulties and related social problems. I ignored. DS is now 9, is healthy and has good a varied diet. Her mouth works fine and her diction is very good - she's does singing and drama!

You haven't answered the numerous people who asked though.

Why do you care?

It might not be the definition as per the book you read. But they are feeding their child. Don't ask if it's going to make you angry that they used words wrong.

Potentially stop talking to people all together. Many do use words incorrectly. Regularly.

Do you have to follow the rules intently for your DC @Londonforestmum? Did they go to nursery?

You’ve just reminded me of a long forgotten memory, involving a baby at a rather naice little National Trust garden cafe and an Ella’s Kitchen pouch. Mother announced that the baby had to do it themselves, and they proceeded to cover themselves and the cafe’s IKEA Antilop high chair in baby bolognese.

The only merciful thing was that they were outdoors.

It was utter carnage. Baby was filthy and the mum was trying her best to clean the high chair with wipes, but I pity the fool who wanted to use it next.

(But that’s not PROPER BLW because it
was a puree pouch obvs) 😁