What's wrong with weaning with purees?

[whatsthetimemrwolf]

I weaned dd (now 6) and ds (now 5yo) following Annabel Karmel's book, starting with purees then progressing to lumpier foods. It was relatively stressfree, easy and happy experience.

I now have a 5mo dd and planned to wean the same way when shes 6mo. However I don't really understand why there seems to be a negative attitude to 'pureed' weaning in comparison to blw (which I'd never heard of until reading on mn!). Are there any issues with introducing foods the AK way?

I don't think so, to be honest! I think people tend to latch on to the latest way of thinking and then presume that its the only way to do it! We do mostly BLW, but if my son had shown signs of prefering purees, we would have done that instead!

I guess one thing that people occasionally struggle with is getting babies to eat finger foods if they've only been used to purees, but that's easy enough to solve, just do finger foods as well!!

Thank you growlinglucifer! I always used finger food as well, so didn't have any problems with babies only eating purees.

Things have changed so much since my lo's were babies so I didn't know if nutritionally there were any reasons not to follow the AK weaning method. I assume I shouldn't drop any milk feeds though (which from memory, I think she used to recommend in her books), can anyone confirm? Thanks

I don't think there's any evidence to show that BLW is better, just that it's best to wait until around 6 months. I think after 6 months it's ok to drop milk feeds if the baby drops them itself, but you shouldn't rush the baby into anything. I think it was a month or so before my DD dropped a feed (as you will know they don't eat very much at first whichever way you want!)

Yes, I think the same - with my little lad, I just let him dictate when he wanted to drop his feeds, the first month or so he definitely didn't, then by 7 months he was starting to drop them. Mind you, he's 10 months and still on 3 a day - I've no idea if that's normal or not really!

There's nothing wrong with purees as you ob obviously know from your own experience.

BLW is a load of bullshit IMHO, created by people who can't be bothered to prepare any food for their baby, just give them what they're eating and expect the poor mites to feed themselves, yet rave on about it to somehow justify what they are doing.

Finger foods can come in a few weeks, when there's less risk of choking and they have learned to chew and swallow.

When babies were weaned earlier (at around 4 mo) they would have puree, then lumpier foods and after 2 months of weaning would be fine with finger foods.

If you start weaning at 6 months it makes sense to skip out the steps relating to younger babies. They also are able to chew and swallow better with 'solid' foods, a runny puree is not chewed and does not develop the muscles in the mouth.

It wont harm your chilld whichever way you wean as long as you provide a variety of nutrious foods.

I'm with you zeb.

I fell for BLW propaganda with DS1 (I was a bit PFB), but soon gave it up after he nearly choked on a bit of banana. No one ever explained how to get babies to eat meat, for example, without pureeing it, so I quickly switched to purees (a la Annabel Karmel) and finger food (rusks) and DS1 and DS2 have turned out fine.

BTW, mine both dropped all their daytime milk feeds by the time they were 10mos, but I think they were unusual. They're still clinging to their evening milk, though, at 3.6yrs and 21 mos.

Some babies apparently find it difficult to move on from smooth purees to lumps/finger foods and as purees were only invented relatively recently because we started weaning babies before they could physically swallow real food you don't have to do purees.

But there's no harm in doing just purees, or a mixture of both if that's what you and your LO take best to.

HTH

Thank you very much for all your posts. My instinct was to start weaning dd2 the AK way as I know its worked for me and I actually really enjoyed it (so did DC) but I thought I'd better check there were no problems with this. Will let dd2 guide me on the milk front then. Thanks again.

zebedee - it isn't a load of bullshit. yes it's lazy, I fully admit that. But most of us BLWers did it because we liked giving our children control over their own food. None of them have starved. It's just a different way of feeding.

You seem bizarrely angry about it

I wouldn't say 'lazy', more like 'avoiding unnecessary work', which isn't quite the same thing. I think it follows on/ complements breastfeeding on demand better than puree/ spoon feeding does.

I used purees with ds1, who is a great eater, and blw with ds2, who is also a great eater.

The reason why I used blw with ds2 is because he flatly refused to be spoon fed, I had a 3 year old ds so not as much time to prepare separate food, and I'd read a bit about it on here and thought it seemed like a good idea. Both ways worked fine, so go with what you fancy!

Zeb why so narky? It's just a different way of doing things.

I did both with DD. She had full control over her own food with both purée and finger food.

Do whatever suits your child and your family. neither is right, wrong, better or worse.

zeb - i think you're attitide is bullshit tbh. i am loving blw my dd and it works for us for i've not raised an eyebrow at a single puree feeder. stop trying to make it contentious like ff/bf. fgs

also for what its worth i don't do it because i'm lazy but because i will do everything i can think of to stop dd going through eating disorders like i did when she gets older. so far she is an amazing eater (often commented on by family/friends/complete strangers in restaurants) and i am very proud of how blw has turned out.

I came on this thread to say there's nothing wrong with it - do what's best for you.

Can't believe it's got so heated!

Am very at the provoactive anti BLW comment from Zeb.

and Propaganda ttalloo? We are talking about weaning here aren't we - not some sort of new political regime?!

We did BLW and it was easy. People did it for years before it got a fancy name and book written about it - there's no need to get all cross about it. People get enthusiastic about it because it's easy and less hassle. But wean how your like - your baby, your lifestyle, your choice.

I too don't understand the hostility to BLW (except perhaps the slightly ridiculous name - it's not really baby led unless the baby is choosing what to get out of the cupboards/fridge after all). I have encountered this hostility or, at the least scepticism, in real life since starting BLW and generally this seems to be mainly from a certain type of person who takes someone doing something a different way from them as an implicit criticism of the method they chose. Usually this applies to more than just weaning.

My family were also pretty sceptical until they saw DD happily tucking into chunks of melon/apple/kiwi fruit/chicken/fish finger/pasta/chicken tikka (bit concerned about that one myself TBH) and are now totally converted. My mum even read the abridged BLW book given away with a magazine recently and is almost evangelical now as is my aunt who is currently over on holiday.

That said, we still spoon feed some foods to DD when she will let us and I can't see anything wrong with mixing spoon feeding and finger foods which is what most people do anyway in some form or another.

If you wait to wean until 6 months you can skip purees anyway and move straight on to lumps - purees are just a hang up from when babies were routinely weaned at 3 or 4 months.

And on the choking concern, younger babies have a gag reflex further forward on their tongues than older babies and adults. This means they gag on food before it has gone too far back so they can bring it up again. This can be scary to watch but it doesn't bother the baby and, if DD is anything to go by, they soon get the hang of dealing with all sorts of food.

As someone has said above, don't make purees/BLW a FF/BF issue - just do what suits you and enjoy it.

to answer your question: NOTHING!

have fun!

There's nothing like a controversial comment to spice up a thread a bit !

The thing with BLW types and the way they carry on on this website is that they all think that what they are doing is far superior to traditional weaning and you all seem to think that therefore you are far superior than everyone else.

And as for purees causing food phobias, issues and even eating disorders as some people have suggested, what a complete and utter load of rubbish - I'd like to see some evidence of that please before you harp on about it on every thread on this website.

By way of typical example please look at thebreastmilksonme post on a thread about reducing milk feeds.

I think alot of mothers
play out their own food anxieties through their children when weaning.

In the end it's just about getting junior to eat solid food. How you do it is up to you.

When I weaned ds 7 it was 4 months start, he had puree and when he was able whatever he could grap of my plate. I think all weaning is baby led, especially now people wait till 6 months or near as dammit. DD is now 6 months and eats pasta, beans etc but has also had the odd puree I've made too - but less so as I strongly object to having spoons thrown at me .

You can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

As long as a baby isn't being force fed then whatever foods you choose to feed your baby should be fine.

oh jees, another thing to be judged on.

i didn't even know what blw meant, and DS is only 2 1/2.