Baby Led Weaning

[SpeedyBojangles]

Could someone please explain the benefits of BLW over traditional weaning?

DS is 3 months so just looking at options for when he is ready to wean at 6 months. My older DCs were both traditionally weaned with purées but I've seen a lot of parents trying BLW recently so wondering if anyone here has tried it and how you and baby found it?

Thanks!

Interested...

Did it with my last 2 dcs. Basically just let them grab stuff off our plate when they got interested. They are fantastic eaters and eat pretty much everything now. Made the whole transition so much easier and stress free. But lots of mess on the floor.

You don’t have to wean at 6 months. My youngest didn’t really embrace solids until about 8/9 months.

We have done a mix of traditional and BLW it works well, just go with what you think works best for you, give them both a try and see what works best :) xx

Theres a really good book by tracey murkett and gill rapley. Found it good so far but very messy!

BLW makes it sound a bit wanky I tend to say (.it it comes up!) that we didn’t do purées. Worked brilliantly for DS - he just gummed at whatever we were eating. He’s a fantastic eater at 4 - we still all eat together and he still eats everything we eat.

I did BLW so can’t really comment on traditional weaning. I chose it because I wanted to eat at the same time rather than spoon feed then eat mine.
I was breastfeeding which I think helped as it didn’t matter how much she ate, I knew I was giving her enough. If you’re formula feeding then know that feeds will go up and down.
It was messy and there was waste but it was great fun. DD is 2 now and will give everything a go.
I did read the BLW book- I think it’s by Jill Rapley.

Oh yes I liked the book too.

It’s amazing what they can manage given a chance.

Benefits no spoon feeding, baby led weaning children tens to be less picky than traditional weanen peers. They chose healthier snacks and have a steady weight gain. Blw kids have more advanced motor and chewing skills than tw kids. Blw kids learn how to handle more textures and foods at various sizes. Guess what baby led weaning is cheaper as baby eats what you eat no purees bbay picks up food by themselves :) it's messy but what a great experience they also get sensory out of it. Most of all parents caneat Thier food hot and Thier is no pressure to feed baby and no force feeding child

You can't mix TW and baby led as this can confused baby people who say they mix are just doing traditional weaning a d don't understand the concept of baby led weaning. No feeding baby let them feed themselves 😂

I tried BLW but my baby wasn’t actually eating enough, just sucking it and throwing it around. He started losing weight because he needed calories. So I resorted to spoon feeding purées just to make sure he got some food into him. Then after he’d eaten I let him play around with some bits of food. The other problem was the mess - I have a nice home and it was a huge hassle to clean up thrown bits of food, wash the floor and change his clothes after every meal.

Oh btw tasting food is still eating as babe still gets nutrients from it. Better than purée sugars not knowing what babe is really eatingm I prefer baby led over giving kids stuff that is purees as yes it messy but babe is more indpendendat than tw kids who can't chew as well as my kid or use utensils

We decided to go down the traditional route of pureeing. We used Ella’s kitchen as a guide. We would then put out some foods to play with and explore.. but we knew they had definitely had something to eat. Twins are 20 months old now and eat everything!

My son has been eating on his own since 7 months with blw it took him a while however tasting is still eating 😙

We didn’t do the whole hog but I just didn’t do purées. DSs has a share of whatever I had to play with (within reason!). We did however spoon yoghurt into them (which is definitely not BLW). I loved it and goodness it was less faff than my friends from NCT had (several of them collared me when we had DC2 to demand to know how it worked as they’d been jealous of my casual attitude...about the only thing I did get right, I suspect).

Oh yes, mine didn’t wean until c9 months...but both were breastfeeding so I didn’t worry. Realise that was lucky.

There is a good blw Facebook group called baby lead weaning UK. They are very good at reassuring you about choking versus gagging (something that can happen regardless if feeding method) and sharing meals/recipes. FYI, The admins only let you join if you say you are definitely going to exclusively do blw.

Oh yeah I. On a group for baby led weaning across the world it's great the UK one was extremely rude to me so I left lol

I did BLW with both mine (9 and 7yo now) and really loved it. It was great to see them try new things and their reactions to various foods.
The book mentioned above is very good and explains the principles very well. It also helped me to explain the whole thing to members of my family who were less enthusiastic about the whole thing (my mum hovered above DD1 in case she 'choked' and would very nearly snatch food from DD1's fists...)
What I cannot vouch for is the child growing up to be less fussy. DD1 is fab, will try anything, DD2 drives us all mad by declaring 'I don't like that' as soon as something is put in front of her
Would definitely recommend it though, purely because the idea of purees is just yuck for me.

We did BLW, I tried purées but we wouldn’t be spoon fed and still won’t. When I have my next I’ll go straight to BLW. I really found it so much fun. It’s meant to help with motor skills and mouth moment which is in turn apparently meant to help with speech. Regardless of that, I found it easier as we could all eat the same. Never needed to worry about having something separate. I really enjoyed watching him explore new things, it was so funny to watch. It can also encourage them to use cutlery early on. I find pouches and jars expensive too. There’s loads of good apps/instagram accounts for easy recipes suitable for you and baby. It can be messy, so if you do try it I’d advise investing in a good suction plate/bowl, plastic mat for the floor and a full cover t shirt bib. He’s 21 months almost and a fab eater

Did a mixture. Some purees some finger foods. As soon as they get the hang of puree you change it to mashed then chopped so the puree stage is very short.

could someone outline the differences.im so confused by what they both are as some people tend to do and mix a bit of both and then call it one or the other!

BLW is letting your child feed themselves. So no spooning anything into their mouth. That’s all it means.

The term baby led just means no spoonfeeding, its misleading really they can still only eat what you give them be it a breadstick or a spoon of yoghurt

Yes they obviously can only chose from what’s in front of them.

I'm not convinced there are significant benefits tbh. I didn't do any purees at all with mine but found BLW too rigid. I gave mine ordinary, everyday food but would mush some up and spoon feed a bit, load spoons for them to feed themselves and leave some for them as finger food. So for instance I might make a shepherds pie and load spoons and spoon feed them the pie and leave the veg for them to feed themselves. I have a fussy eater and one that will try most stuff, luck of the draw I think.