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!

I thought it just meant offer stuff when they seem ready rather than stick to a schedule, so it’s led by the baby not the parent. It’s baby “led” not baby “physically does it themself”.

Traditional weaning is purées from 4 months and purées plus finger food from 6 months. If you delayed finger foods till 8 months that would still be traditional weaning I guess but not following the finger foods advice. Not every scenario has a name.

Surely you are just weaning, whatever way the food gets in their mouth. Does it need to have a label?

With a tricky eater, BLW is not easier! It is wasteful and hideously messy. The clearing up for half an hour after your baby has eaten a tiny bit of avocado and spat out one piece of pasta and squished raspberries everywhere. I bloody hated weaning!

I’m curious what it’s called if you encouraged the child to use a spoon, also spoon fed to ensure some nutrition went in, and offered finger foods with each meal, but never made purées.

I’ve always just called it weaning? It’s just what made sense for my DC and I didn’t think much beyond it.

No, it isn't like that at all.
Being a vegetarian/vegan is much more of an ethical choice. I'm not vegetarian but I get a bit irritated when people who eat meat/fish describe themselves as such.
BLW is just a different way of conveying food to gob.

Well that was sort of what we did 20 years ago (although mine had finger foods earlier than 6 months).
But I know when I was a baby, nearly 60 years ago, my mum was happily feeding me shepherds pie at 3 months, so 'traditionally' weaning methods have changed regularly over time.

Honestly, once you are out of the baby and toddler years no one gives a shit. These things like potty, training and sleep methods are so all consuming I'm the thick of it but by the teen years are such a distant memory you can barely remember it.

If we stopped giving everything a label and methodising everything and instead relied on the instincts that have meant our species have survived for thousands of years everyone would be alot better off. - Apart of course, from the 'experts' and influencers that peddle the snake oil making millions from the baby industry and parenting 'right'

I find BLW faddy and promoted by the self-righteous. I stressed out over it with my first and all it really resulted in was a lot of uneaten food on the floor. Couldn't have cared less with my second, spoon-fed until he was reaching out for food himself. Guess what? Both perfectly healthy, both eat most of what we put in front of them, both healthy weights, both have the ability to chew and use their jaws!

These are the pointless fads that totally stress out new parents and the evidence that BLW is 'better' than traditional weaning is not even as strong as people make out. If food is going in and coming out in the right ways, you're doing a good job, who cares what it's called!

The only people who care about "correct terms" for feeding a baby are those who make money writing books about it, or those who think their way makes them morally and intellectually superior. I just called it "weaning" when mine were small.

Thank fuck I weaned decades ago, when there weren't any fancy names I had to learn about and be sure of getting correct!

Oh honestly OP you keep saying how you don’t think a particular way is better but if that were true you wouldn’t care that people “incorrectly” describe their “weaning philosophy” as BLW if they also do some spoon feeding.

The only people who care enough about this to start a thread about it are virtue signalling. You do care. Really, you do.

BLW is a well defined way of weaning. It means letting your child feed themselves every meal. It's fine if you don't want to do that. It's just a bit ignorant to say you're doing a bit of it.

I've said upthread that I agree with the OP. Not specifically about BLW but about any "philosophy" where people say they are doing something but they are not. It doesn't matter to me at all how people feed their children but when mine were little, there was definitely some kudos to BLW and I can see why people want to say they are doing it (even if they were not).
I do also feel the same about vegetarians who eat fish (fine, but you are not vegetarian) and people who say they are coeliac because they get bloated when they eat gluten but have never actually been diagnosed.

I think for some (maybe not OP), BLW is a philosophical choice if not necessarily an ethical one, like attachment or gentle parenting. And once something has a name it seems it can be done Right or Wrong. Often I think it's those who are quite anxious in their parenting and find that sticking to a rigid framework of rules helps them cope.

(I was definitely a "mostly BLW with the odd puree thrown in" parent, but based on others I know or have come across online.)

I'm struggling to see how this is relevant to anyone. I guess if your baby isn't gaining weight or something you might use the phrase with a Doctor but even then I don't see what it adds.

Who do you need to tell that your baby is fed one way or another? That's a pretty boring subject.

I'm glad I had my kids before the internet.

Does anyone really give a shit? I just hope they eat something I give them!

Why is it ignorant? Likely they are doing a mix of letting baby feed itself and also giving purées?

People talk about it a lot. Most child / baby conversations are boring.

@Londonforestmum but it doesn't matter, it really doesn't. Nobody is failing an exam on baby weaning because they use incorrect terminology.

I think the benefits are mainly for the parents anyway! It's much much easier

Goes to show how opinions differ. Certainly not my idea of easier, I can't think of anything worse...the food waste, the mess etc, right from the beginning.

Far easier imo to puree and spoon feed and then introduce controlled finger foods.

I had mine eons ago
The term baby led weaning was a marketing invention to sell books to parents who want something to be "better" at than other parents.
so long as everyone is fed and no one is dead at the end of the day most people are happy 😂
But some people still need their brownie badges even as grown ups

It just seems to be a very misunderstood phrase. That's all.

I don’t care how people choose to wean their kids.

But when i was a FTM, my god did I detest the BLW weaning crowd 🤣🤣 every single one i met during the 6 month weaning stage onwards were all self righteous and thought their way was the correct way.

once your child grows and another comes along, i’d be shocked if anyone actually still cared by that point on how their baby was weaned.

so to sum it up- it really only matters what you call it when you’re a first time mum and EVERYTHING must have a label/routine

I think you're misunderstanding the gravity of the phrase.

" well defined way of weaning"
oh lord
whats an "un well defined way"
lob random food items at them from six foot away and see what they eat first?