Advise please on "standard" weaning versus baby led

[pamelat]

DS 21 weeks, started baby rice at 19 weeks. He loved it.

He has had 4 or 5 days now of carrot/pear purees and mashed banana, loves everything hes a big boy (20lbs now)

I dont breast feed anymore, stopped 4 weeks ago so all bottles.

I weaned DD (2.8) on pureed fruit and veg and then finger foods, to be honest I cant even remember when

I have read snippets about BLW and worrying read that a lot of people think its "cruel" to spoon feed/puree for a baby , could someone please offer practical advice and guidance and please tell me what BLW would actually entail.

And what is wrong with puree fruit etc?

I like the sound of BLW as with a toddler I dont have much time to puree!!

How weird of anyone to think it's cruel!

I did BLW with both of mine. It's fab. You basically just give them whatever you're having really, just normal food, only in pieces they can pick up.

Nothing wrong with purees at all, but it's nice not having to bother, especially with two - I have a 3yo and a 11mo and they have both just eaten the same since I started weaning DS2 at just before 6 mo.

Of course its not cruel, people talk some rubbish. Humans have been mushing up food for babies for ever.
Do whatever suits you best. I find it no bother at all to puree up some food for DD3. It literally takes about 10 / 20 minutes to make a whole batch of something for the freezer. She's loving it, I give her finger foods too but she just drops them on the floor, so with BLW she would be eating nothing at all.

Thanks, so can I ask a really stupid question please ... ?

Say DD was having a banana, do I literally give DS (only 5 months) a banana, as a whole thing?

And I guess banana is one of the easier things, what if it was something hard, say a breadstick ....... would he not choke? Or is the theory that they only eat it if capable, so would not bother with the breadstick if incapable?

I like the idea but just a bit scared by it/new to it.

I can recommend the gill rapley book on blw it's only about a fiver on amazon.
Basically the theory is that we only purée because historically we weaned kids before six months, now the advice is generally to wait till six months to wean they don't need the purée stage as at six months they are capable of feeding themselves.

I see that your ds is only 21 weeks and afaik it wouldn't be advised to start blw till at least 24 weeks. (but stand to be corrected)

With blw they don't eat much at first, so will be having milk as main source of food for longer than a purée fed baby. The mantra of blw is 'food is for fun until they are one'

HTH

The downside of blw

Oops ignore last line, can't see what you are typing on iPhone half the time!!

Yes don't do it yet, we started at about 25 weeks for both of ours.

Banana - what I do is cut it in half then if you press gently on the sides it natually splits into 3, so you end up with effectively 6 chip-shaped pieces.

I didn't give anything as hard as a breadstick for a while. Things that are firm enough not to fall apart but soft enough to easily squish in their mouths. Steamed veg are brilliant to start with.

Just seen your last post,

Bananas are quite tricky as they are so slippery you can give say a third of one with skin cut off at top like an ice cream in a cone iyswim

Breadsticks etc are fine as they kind of suck them and they go soft, in any event they are unlikely to choke they will gag and spit out before they choke their gag reflex is much nearer the front of the mouth than ours

it can be cruel to spoon feed a baby, when you are scooping food up and forcing it in while the child turns its head the other way etc.

I dont thing that spoon feeding in general can be seen as cruel.

Baby led weaning is about offering a variety of foods and letting the child decide when they are able and want to eat them.

This is obv not the path you have started down but you can still use blw type techniques to prepare finger foods which are recommended for all babies

I gave banana with no skin but it is a bit slippery so may not be the best thing to start with

can i ask a question if the OP doesn't mind? i think this will be useful! when you BLW at first with veg, can you still prepare in batches and freeze? ie can i freeze a whole load of cooked veg pieces? and how do i freeze them? in a book ive got it says about freezeing cooked veg in individual portions, but i dont get how i can separate them...

nb i'm planning on a combination of purees and BLW.

thanks, and sorry if this is a thread hijack or whatever it's called...