Do annabel karmel's meal planners make anyone else feel completely inadequate?

[babs102]

They are ridiculous, how does anyone have time to prepare that much food?

seriously? i think you need to take a step back and think about why you're so bothered about what other people do, tbh.

That BLW site helped me so much weaning DD (thank you once again Aitch )and the help and support from Aitch on this site was invaluable to me.

Bloody hell, was that really over 2 years ago

Someone kindly bought me a copy of AK when I had my first dc over 2 years ago. I took it back and logged onto BLW - it rocks!

People do need advice on BLW.
They need advice because the only books available out there are written by Anabel karmel and her purees which quite frankly make things worse in my experience.
As BLW relies heavily on common sense it's unlikely to get a publishing contract is it.
So having a blog or website with tips seems a perfectly reasoned thing to do.

I found the information very useful. And not about bananas. Don't be stupid.

OP - YANBU for feeling inadequate about AKs meal planners. Whilst pregnant with DS1, DH bought one of her books and I had panic attack about weaning. With DS1 I diligently pureed food into trays and he had cubes of mush for breakfast/lunch/dinner.

With DS2, I discovered BLW totally by accident. Was reading about attachment parenting and it was mentioned there. Discovered the whole world of finger foods.

thesecondcoming - think you are being a bit OTT about it being precious. we are bombarded by purees in the form of AK, parenting type magazines and any supermarket with its rows of jars each containing the same brown splodge. I for one needed reassurance that it was ok to let DS2 just get on with feeding himself.

What's the problem? Just get your maid to do it!

The book is interesting though. I can't remember what it mainly covers but I assure you the entire book is not taken up with "This is how to peel a banana and put it on a highchair tray"

Unlike AK whose entire first chapter seems to consist of recipes as so:

First Greens Puree

Ingredients
Broccoli
Sprouts

Method
Cook food
Puree food

Apricot and banana puree

Ingredients
Apricot
Banana

Method
Remove skins, puree fruit.

It's not rocket science either way - if you don't feel you need a book, more power to you! I just like reading - actually I do think it's more about confidence. There aren't a lot of other mums in RL doing it without purees so it helped me feel less alone to read a book or a website about it - and I don't really care if that is sad or pathetic that I needed someone to hold my hand, I didn't need it, it just helped.

I have the BLW book. I read the intro and thought ok... now how do they spin this out for an entire book?

I have referred to it once to check what sort of foods I shouldn't be giving DS and what tips I could use to make it successful (about a further 6 pages in total) and what I read was useful.

I don't understand why some people feel you have to choose one way of feeding your baby!!!

Some home-made purees (AK as it happens, is brilliant, nothing to be scared of, tis only fruit and veg cooked up in different ways!!)

Some jars

Some BLW.

My baby will happily eat an AK recipe puree for main meal, followed by say, some veg pieces or little sandwiches or toast, followed by a pudding from a jar (or another AK fruit puree, or finger food pieces of fruit).

As one wise HV said to me "At the end of the day it's only about getting your baby to eat, exactly how and what (bar, obviously, things not meant for babies ie high salt) is not important.

PS BertieBotts - as a first time mum who was very nervous about weaning I assure you there is every need to include the foolproof recipes using two ingredients in the first chapter of AK!!

Now of course I don't need to look at the receipe book but back then I would have looked up a receipe for mashed banana and been very grateful to find one

i think you're being really rude, tbh.

I can see where thesecondcoming is coming from, but all aspects of parenting can be like this IMO. As if putting a label to the way you do things makes it special.

I think there are far too many books on parenting nowadays. I tried to avoid them and used to ask my NCT group to tell me what they said.

Saying that I love recipe book and the AK baby and toddler book has a good recipe for Hungarian goulash we all eat, so she's not all bad.

I can also see what thesecondcoming means, tbh.

And BLW is surely and old idea come around again, as these things usually are.

have any of you read my posts at all?

and are you seriously so stupid that you need a book on how to make hungarian goulash? i mean, seriously?? etc etc etc. i mean why would anyone want a book telling them how to puree some mush for their baby??!! I mean, seriously?? etc etc etc why the ceremonial announcement that you are feeding your baby puree, like everyone else in the UK at this point??

try to take the pureed chip off your shoulders, ladies, you're imagining things. read my posts, if there's anything you disagree with, feel free to take it up with me. pay particular attention to the posts On This Thread where i say that weaning isn't that important, that people should do whatever makes them and their child happy and that blw is nothing new, indeed it's the way loads of children have been fed for years.

and then, y'know, i'll see you on the next thread about it, with you still banging on about how vexed you are at someone daring to mention something about child-rearing that isn't what you did.

why on earth are you being so aggressive? it's completely baffling. did you just call me 'honey'?

I can see why Mums with kids well past the age of weaning can feel that BLW is at best a fad and at worst a pretentious PFB statement. But that is because weaning is over and done with for you and the memory of it fades so quickly.

If you are a first time Mum embarking on solid foods, it is intensely nerve-wracking to consider anything other than the prevailing norm - which in this country happens to be personified in AK.

Yes - BLW IS just giving them food.
Yes - It is probably an old idea come round again (although I have a Housekeeping book from 1905 that recommends pap until the age of 2 ).
Yes - it is common sense.
And yes - it all sounds pretty easy from the comfortable position of kids who are all eating well and have been for years.

It takes a leap of faith and a great deal of courage to follow your such common sense with your first baby when you feel the rest of the world is frowning at you and hovering with accusations of irresponsibility. Because that is what I expereinced. So a blog or website was the only place I found useful and non-judgemental advice and support. And is EXACTLY what the internet is best used for ......and is, I guess, why you are all on here in the first place.

strange.

"By thesecondcoming on Sun 25-Oct-09 10:20:11
i am sniggering at all the 'we are BABY LED WEANING' like it's some fucking rocket science massively important movement you have all signed up for.
would any of the devotees of BLW please indicate how it differs from 'offering finger foods' as has been done from the year bleeding dot... "

i thought this was your first post, nothing about pfb there, although it is a horrible, nasty term imo.

and then you made another aggressively rude post "By thesecondcoming on Sat 24-Oct-09 11:43:52
BLW makes me piss myself...isn't it just 'letting them feed themselves' "

and i answered you to say that is exactly what it is. so who exactly has been arguing with you, i'm curious to know? other than to point out how needlessly aggressive and rude you are being.

I am really struggling to understand your problem with BLW, thesecondcoming.
Maybe I'm moving in the wrong circles, but I have never met anyone who announces that they're BLW as they hand their baby a piece of banana. (In fact I don't know anyone IRL who did BLW apart from me).

I'm much more likely to come across people who
a) make an entirely separate meal for their child and eat their own 'real' food later.
b)continue to mash banana for a 1 year old because they don't realise that he could actually manage a whole banana
c)'chase' their child's frantically turning face as they try to get him to eat the last spoonfuls of an arbitrarily decided quantity of puree.

Now I am not saying that all puree weaners do these things, and probably most don't. But I do think that this can be a product of following AK/GF style weaning guides.
IMO BLW is an excellent antidote to all of the above by getting a child to self-feed family meals and most importantly controlling his own appetite. And no, I don't think it's the emperor's new clothes- the concept of appetite regulation, not finishing everything on your plate etc is (I think) relatively new.

And also, as has been said by others as well, in a world dominated by AK with her special weaning food, equipment and timetables it can be very difficult to take the leap and do BLW. Blogs, books and forums (fora?) with other BLWers can make you feel more 'normal'.