Baby Led Weaning.com and the constant bad advice that it gives.

[MissClareBear1]

I follow this group on Facebook. I sit there and read dumbfounded as mothers advice other mothers to do idiotic and unhealthy things, such as wean a 16 week old baby.
How can someone who has never met your child inform you that your child is ready to wean at all, let alone early?

I have posted on the page about the numerous health guides from the NHS, WHO and other organizations -ran by qualified health professionals with years of experience-that weaning a child before they are six months can cause all manner of health issues. The website even states that it is not qualified to issue medical advice.

It frustrates me because the women that are posting comments are informing people to ignore the health advice of professionals. They are putting children's health at risk.

Is it just me or is this ridiculous?

I haven't seen anything like that on either the website's forum or their Facebook page, from a quick look just now.

There are plenty of websites where poor and incorrect advice is given out. If this one bothers you, you have a choice. Either don't visit/follow the site, or keep posting correct information on it for people to read.

I understand. I am doing the latter ("keep posting correct information on it for people to read.").

I have seen countless pieces of bad advice over the past few weeks I have been following the page. My main objective is to make people aware, so hopefully they will post correct information also.

I was under the impression that baby led weaning starts at around 6 months, when the baby can support its own head and sit comfortably.

It's a bit harsh to blame the site itself though, as if they are promoting wrong advice. If it's the forum, or the posts on the FB page, then it is exactly the same situation as Mumsnet. I've seen loads of wrong advice on here, on the weaning threads, breast & bottle feeding, parenting etc. It's a public discussion forum so therefore anyone can post anything.

The founder of that babyledweaning.com is a mner, who I seriously doubt would ever recommend weaning at 16 weeks!

When I used it a few years ago, it was not what you describe at all. In fact, I have never heard of a proponent of baby led weaning also recommending early weaning. They tend to be incompatible as 16 week olds can't feed themselves.

"I'm just starting out full on blw from doing spoon fed from 17 wks"
"Jemma asks: I have a question: my 5 mnth 1 wk old daughter appears DESPERATE to eat."
They were posted by the BLW Facebook page, the actual admins.

Just to be clear I have no beef with the founder. I did not say s/he recommended anything. Although, just because the are a mner does not mean they are beyond reproach.

It's hardly damning evidence you quoted there. NHS advice is to wean around 6 months and never before 17 weeks.

So both those quotes actually fall within the overall guidance that is currently given. Both are questions posed by mums looking for advice, not the website admins pushing a particular view point.

The 5 months 1 weeks person, that's completely reasonable - that would be "around 6 months" in my opinion. I can't see what the problem is there.

I personally wouldn't wean at 17 weeks, but lots of people do, and it isn't "wrong" to do so. I think it isn't ideal but that's a very different thing to it being incorrect.

Both are questions posed by mums looking for advice, not the website admins pushing a particular view point

This^^ and I LOVE your username. Feed yourself smiles.

shakes head and sighs

I can see I am banging my head against a brick wall here. By posting questions about weaning at an incorrect age mums read it and think it is acceptable and they are backed up by other mothers with no medical knowledge.
I would not use the word "wrong". I would use the words unhealthy.

So much I want to say but I'll keep it to - discuss this with the admins of the page directly. Talking about it on MN is far from constructive. Goodnight.

Wait wait wait.... Let me see if I've got this right. There are people.... On the internet, yes? Who say things you don't agree with?!

Holy shit. I think you should call the non-emergency police number to report that.

Wait wait wait.... Let me see if I've got this right. There are people.... On the internet, yes? Who say things you don't agree with?!

Holy shit. I think you should call the non-emergency police number to report that.

I am so shocked I posted twice

Truly, OP, this is worrying stuff. Perhaps you can write to your MP?

Have you read the weaning threads on here, MissClareBear1? There are dozens of similar posts on Mumsnet you know. You must be shaking your head and sighing a lot

What medical knowledge do you have, and what evidence do you have that weaning at 5 months 1 week is unhealthy?

And what do you expect of a public discussion forum? Anyone can post anything! Are you going to make it your job to police the whole of the Internet?

As Katese11 says, if you have a problem with the discussions on the FB site or the BLW.com forum, then contact the admins and make constructive suggestions on what they can do to combat the "misinformation".

"I'm just starting out full on blw from doing spoon fed from 17 wks"

This person started weaning by spoon at 17 weeks and presumably (as we have to presume on the little info we have) that the child is old enough to feed itself. Not that the child is 17 weeks.

I agree with PinkSquash's interpretation of the first statement. That poster started weaning at 17 weeks and was now moving onto a more BLW approach.

I haven't seen the FB page but I found the website tremendously helpful when weaning my 2 DC (from 6 months as it happened but really 5 months 1 week is neither here nor there).

I read that sentence the same as the two posters above. The parent has been spoon feeding and is now wanting to do blw, presumably as baby is 6 months ish.

I have probably not picked the best examples.

1. I can imagine there is bad weaning advice on this site. If I see any I will of course comment. I realize it is a public forum open to abuse. I am trying to make people aware of the bad health advice on that particular website. It is not about "policing" the internet.

2. I have contacted the Facebook page with my polite suggestions. I have received no reply. This is why I resorted to starting a thread on this website.

3. It is not just a matter of me "disagreeing". It is not a trivial issue of right and wrong. It is a matter of health and fact.

4. I am a consultant who works on Special Care Baby Unit and the Neonatal Intensive Care ward. I have about 10 years of experience in this field.

5. The evidence I have comes from studies conducted by The World Health Organization, The Department of Health, The British Medical, Journal, The National Institute of Clinical Excellence and of course the NHS. Perhaps you should do some research.

The "health advice" is not actually health advice though is it? It's the personal experiences and anecdotes of other parents. It's not the site admins saying "you should wean at 12 weeks" or whatever.

If people are on a discussion forum the vast majority will understand that they are not going to get research based medical advice that is appropriate to their personal situation. They are after other parents personal experience and possibly support.

If it really alarms and bothers you then keep messaging the admins, and post messages yourself on the main FB page alerting other users to the incorrect advice being given out. Preferably being specific as to what is incorrect and why.

I would be interested to know what you think the "best practice" advice is for parents around weaning. Not a day before 26 weeks, and then to do baby led weaning?

^ what Culture says

Most people with an ounce of common sense know that the various pamphlets etc and advice from GP/HV are the official recommendations based on research. And they may also receive advice from their paediatrician in certain circumstances eg child has special health issues. They also will receive experience-based guidance from friends and family and Internet forums, which may or may not correlate exactly with official advice.

TBH an unsupportive and patronising tone based on what a Great Big Expert you are is unlikely to get you very far either on parenting websites or in real life. How do any of us online know that you're actually a SCBU consultant, either?

I'm reminded in this instance of the Sanctimommy slogan - "When you know better, you judge better"

Hi there,
thanks to those people who flagged this thread to me. I've looked through our inbox on FB to see if there are any messages alerting me to it from MissClareBear1, and unfortunately there don't appear to be. There is one message from a person who wishes us to pin a post to the group (we're not a group and we can't do this) explaining what BLW is etc, and a reminder that puree-feeding a baby isn't BLW. Is that you MissClareBear? It's the only remotely negative message in the inbox, but it doesn't sound anything like the OP of this thread.

If it is you, however, many thanks for the input and apologies that it wasn't answered immediately (the message was sent at 10pm the night before this thread was started on MN).

As I have explained on the FB thread, and in my response, FB isn't the same as MN, not since the introduction of Timeline. The fact that everyone's auntie can see what is posted on our page does mean that we occasionally get those same aunties coming on and giving us what-for about our crackpot BLWing theories. Generally, the page community deals with these interventions with grace and good humour, thank heavens.

That said, I personally can't see much wrong with the thread that you mention here. While a lot of it isn't strictly BLW advice, there's nothing that contravenes the current NHS guidelines - some people really enjoyed their pureeing experiences and it's nice that they want to pass that on. (I might have missed something, though).

Anyway, thanks again for your thoughts, and many thanks for your input on the thread, if that was you. Social media relies on sensible voices, I always think.

I too can't see what the issue is on that original post, anyone and everyone can comment on threads on the fb page, they don't all understand fully what BLW is and so there can be the odd rogue comment about purées but for each of those there are many, many positive, supportive, helpful, insightful comments that have helped me tremendously over the last four years. If you have a problem, I would suggest that you send a message that can be responded to properly rather than trying to discredit the page on a different forum.

I hope the OP is not suggesting that only health professionals should be posting advice. I think its important to hear anecdotal evidence from general parents who are happy to share their experience. Id also say that each child is different so to have a catch all age of 6 months is silly. Some will want to start earlier and some later. Also, guidlines change, and who is to say that they wont change again.

I think people should be allowed to parent the way they want to and weaning from 4 months onwards should not be considered dangerous.

Here is a link to some advice that it might be ok to start weaning from 17 weeks:

www.babyexpert.com/baby/weaning/is-it-safe-to-start-weaning-at-4-or-5-months/8206.html