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!

Finger foods didn't work for DD (I refuse to call it BLW because it's such a shit, loaded name). She refused to pick anything up and put it in her mouth (apart from sand when sitting on a beach FFS). So, I was led by her and spoon fed her. Job done.

I bet you can't tell how children and young adults were weaned.

@Londonforestmum babies can be very different

people who say they do a bit of both are trying to fit in with a poncy trend they’ve heard the performance mums talk about and they’re worried it’s what they SHOULD be doing cos you’re all poncing around telling them about how it’s so much better and easier the time. In that sense it’s exactly like vegetarianism and plant based. It’s a trend. You’ve got people jumping on your trend. That’s annoying cos it means it’s not so super trendy anymore. Get over it!

Except what I eat for dinner usually has a much higher salt and spice content than you should give to a 6-month-old!

There seems to be a kind of smug superiority that goes hand in hand with the zealous followers of this. The gate keeping of the name and the claim that people "don't understand", with the implication that they are stupid, is ridiculous.

In your grand experience of ONE BABY 😂😂😂

Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Either way, technically they have more of a choice over whether to try the porridge if they've only got to open their mouth.

I've done both (and yes that makes you shudder, and no I don't care), for more than one child. I can compare clearing up after a free pouch in ikea, compared to them feeding themselves. I can compare how much effort each 'method' took, in a way you can't. The important thing is that you are content with how you did it, but claiming you have some kind of universal superior knowledge about what is easy/hard, based on one child is ridiculous.

Personally, I found everything had it's pros and cons. I preferred BLW style (hence why it was about 95%) overall. I found they took about the same amount of input from me, just at different stages of the meal. A plastic floor mat under the highchair amd a power mop really helped.

Maintaining strict orthodoxy to BLW 100% of the time is very much a first born privilege though unless you are very restrictive about messy foods. How would you manage when you've got 15m to do breakfast and clear up baby before the school run? Do you really think you'll be giving loaded spoons then? Or letting them put their hands in bean juice chasing round the bean? People don't have time for that when they have more than one!

Oh dear...

Exactly, they end up in McDonald's anyway when they are teens with freedom 😆

I like that - intuitive weaning. Or maybe instinctive weaning. Weaning which keeps the best from every weaning philosophy, throws away the ridiculous, and filled the practical needs of the family.

Ooh, what happens to the naughty babies who aren't self-feeding solids by 7-8 months? Do they go to baby prison?

Baby led weaning seems like a wasteful, messy idea that could only happen in the first world and for rich people with loads of money to waste and probably a tumble dryer and cleaner.

Minimising waste and mess is not a bad thing. There's no need to let your child smear their food all over themselves and throw it about and waste most of it.

Plus babies actually need to eat. Helping them to do so is no bad thing.

Like anything taken to extremes it's likely to be detrimental.

No they get malnutrition and wake up hungry all night

Are you aware that you're spouting absolute nonsense? When I mash up a pear for my baby, what on earth makes that less healthy than a non-mashed-up pear? Do tiny metal particles from the fork leak into the puree?

I can't tell if you're joking or not...

I don't believe you. You claim to not put much thought into it yet have started a discussion and are adamant your definition is correct.

I think you are massively overthinking this. A fed baby is a happy baby, who cares if someone uses the term BLW and you disagree with their definition? Who is it hurting?

Anyone seen any good Netflix shows recently?

I mean you have to try it for more than a week or so, they get there in the end! Especially at first milk is their main source of nutrition anyway.

Not at all, have you seen the price of shop bought purées, I couldn't have afforded them even if I wanted to. And to make them at home you need equipment, probably blender, probably a fridge, which most people in poorer countries won't have.

All 4 year olds are like this regardless of how they wean

In the 15 mins before school run example I would just give the baby milk, and then let them have solids for lunch / dinner? Or just let them have a go at the weetabix themselves so I can eat my own breakfast quickly. They really don't need Weetabix shovelled in, in any scenario I can think of. Even though I've only got one child we still needed to be places in a rush...

Honestly people I've spoken to with more kids are the opposite way around, they had way more time to cook separate food / purée stuff with just one child, when it got to 2 or 3 it was much easier to just give them a bit of what everyone else was having and let them crack on with it.

I know people still doing a "bit of both" at age 3 or 4. The alleged example someone said about kids in school not knowing how to use cutlery is more likely to be from being spoonfed, as with BLW they learn really quick from not having the help with it.

Like hell they do! I fed all 3 of mine home made purees until they were about one, they also occasionally ate handfuls of whatever we were having and were all breast fed until they were 2.
They were not malnourished 😅.
In fact my boys are now a healthy 6'4 and 6'2.
They also slept through from being tiny.

Can't stand militants.

I'm presuming you're in the UK or Western Europe. You'll have a fridge.

Personally I don't think a blender is necessary, but you can get a mini one or a stick blender for around a tenner.

I mean, you know all that. I'm not quite sure why you're trying to make out that you don't.

Get a life.

This was in response to someone saying BLW could only happen in the first world. I'd say if anything the opposite is probably true.

My very wise Mum's advice on what constitutes a successful day of childcare "Everyone fed. No one dead."