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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Original poster

Are hvs generally against blw?

17 replies

Moulesfrites · 11/08/2011 13:00

I just ask because have seen a few comments on here which would suggest as much. Last week I went to a weaning session run by hvs and blw was never mentioned. The only way to do it apparently is to start with baby rice and then ice cubes of frozen carrot. She did mention finger foods, but said to start these at about 7.5 months and that most babies don't get the hang of them til much later. Is this a common viewpoint among hvs?

OP posts:
CMOTdibbler · 11/08/2011 13:02

My HV thought it was great, but the other HV in the group was a baby rice advocate

Yama · 11/08/2011 13:03

I have never discussed the weaning of my dc with a hv.

I would imagine that many are not very knowledgable about blw but surely they wouldn't be against it?

Flisspaps · 11/08/2011 13:06

They might not know much about it. Mine, when I said I was doing BLW, asked me who I was 'doing that with' with a Confused look on her face.

Erm, the baby?

She then went on to say that I could think about introducing finger foods as well, and give DD a bit of what we ate Hmm

That was the point at which I decided not to bother going for any more routine checks or weigh-ins as the advice I got off MN was far more useful.

BranchingOut · 11/08/2011 13:08

In fairness, the ones I met at the clinic with my son were always encouraging finger food and giving baby portions of adult food.

However, I don't think they have embraced the term 'Baby Led Weaning'.

georgie22 · 11/08/2011 13:09

Our HV team are very into BLW. Which is fine if you've got a baby who takes to BLW. Our dd wants to be spoon fed despite all my efforts with finger foods etc. She messes with food but doesn't put it to her mouth. At her 8 month check I mentioned this to the nursery nurse and was told not to spoon feed and just do BLW. Good job I didn't listen as she's still not feeding herself at nearly 10 months. She's expending all her energy on exploring and trying to walk - at mealtimes she just seems to want to relax!

AitchTwoOh · 11/08/2011 13:10

some are actively advising it, so i think as will all things HV-related, it depends who you get. but it was at a sally army thing i was advised to go to by my HV that i first heard the term 'food is fun until they're one'.

AitchTwoOh · 11/08/2011 13:12

that's a bit arse-backwards of them, georgie. if they love being fed, they love being fed... Grin my nearly three year old dd LOVES being 'fed like a baby' when she is tired, despite having been blw'd. (insofar as she was the NSC neglected subsequent child).

MockingbirdsNotForSale · 11/08/2011 22:33

The HVs in our area recommend BLW and hand out a LLL dvd about it. All bar one of the HVs I've seen have been lovely and knowledgeable. The one that wasn't was a cow who insulted me by commenting negatively on the appearance of my DD saying she was really skinny (18th centile with chubby bits in the right places) and that maybe I shouldn't BLW. So I punched her in the face smiled politely, told her DD was very happy and walked away.

MedicalEd · 12/08/2011 12:23

My HV was all for it and suggested it. She said most people end up doing a bit of both which was fine.
But DD doesn't hold or play with food (she just sits in her bumbo with her arms outstretched to the side like she is trying to balance) so I spoon feed her.
I will keep on offering her bits of things and hopefully she will get the hang of it eventually. She will gnaw on stuff if I hold it to her mouth.

HarrietJones · 12/08/2011 13:44

My HV said 'oh ok' when I said we were BLW. They don't tell you about it and most people I know have never heard of it.
We are going to a BLW talk next week by Gill Rapley so will be interesting to see if anyone I know is there.

thesurgeonsmate · 12/08/2011 13:57

The first time I saw BLW recommended was in a pamphlet given to me in hospital. So I was a bit surprised when HV gave a weaning talk and said they weren't in a position really to talk about it because of lack of research. She seemed comfortable with the idea, though, and her comment was that it would take longer to get to a "Three Square Meals A Day" picture that way.

skgnome · 13/08/2011 09:44

my HV encouraged it, well she spoke about it on the weaning class and when I complained about DD not wanting baby rice or anything pureed she reminded me of BLW

cantmakecarrotcake · 15/08/2011 12:25

I attended an 'early parenting' class at our clinic (run by nursery nurses rather than HV) which covered weaning and remember asking about BLW there. Their response was that the Dept of Health don't (yet?) advocate it, and that they had experience of a malnourished baby who only chose a very limited (sweet) range of foods.

I think they had to go with 'policy' for this class, but other HV and NN I've spoken to have suggested finger food to me when we were struggling with spoons. So what they can teach vs what they can recommend on a per-person basis are often different.

The overriding info I've had though is to get baby on family food ASAP whether pureed/mushed or whole - which is easier said when DD is rather keen on fruity purees/yoghurts and Goodies gingerbread men...

notcitrus · 15/08/2011 12:43

The HV at baby clinic was great - her mantra was "You give them FOOD!" - mash mashable stuff, cut other food to finger sizes, don't use salt, chill out already and let her concentrate on the locals with real problems (I paraphrase...)

But then there was a parenting course run by the HV clinic, and the weaning session was last, run by some HV from elsewhere, who confused everyone totally with 'three stages of weaning' and when asked about BLW by a bunch of us said she'd never heard of it and it sounded incredibly dangerous!

I took the first HV's advice - ds impressed his grandparents no end at 6.5mo by eating some squashed peas, mashed carrot and potato, and then spending the next half hour chomping on a stick of roast pork, finally spitting out some white collagen!
But another woman in the class met me in the supermarket later and was buying a bunch of purees and planning to give them to her 4mo, on the grounds that the class made no sense at all and the jars said 4-6 months so you must be supposed to start feeding them at four months. So much for that message...

MissMarjoribanks · 15/08/2011 12:46

My DH's aunt is a HV near Birmingham and she knows all about it and thinks its a great idea. She proudly announced to all our christening guests that DS was BLW as he troughed down the contents of his highchair tray. She's coming up to retirement but really doesn't fit the mould of the 'older' HV so often written about here - was also delighted when I told her I was still bfing at 12mo.

I went to a weaning class with the HVs here though and it was all baby rice and purees. No mention of BLW and finger foods were something to be introduced as a secondary means of weaning. I got my info from MN.

CaptainNancy · 15/08/2011 13:03

Our HV's are all fully supportive- the only weaning session we had post-natally was a blw session! (this was 5 years ago btw)

ShoutyHamster · 15/08/2011 13:06

I read the title as 'Are hvs generally against the law?'

Grin Grin

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