Am I the only one who thinks baby led weaning is a stupid idea?

[chocablock]

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/mar/14/familyandrelationships

It seems as if everyone is doing BLW apart from me. What happened to the tried and tested traditional mashing up your baby's food and feeding it to them with a spoon? OK maybe let them play around with their own spoon a bit to get into practise but basically make sure they eat the food!!!Is there anyone else who thinks blw is new fangled stupidity? Or am I just a voice in the wildreness and hopelessly old fashioned?? :)

yes, Norman, I'm looking forward to Christmas dinner already

Zeph very interesting article (which I only skim read but I get the idea). Norman would be great to do the regurgitation/premastication thing in front of MIL:) :) I do like the way this thread is progressing. Perhaps we should begin a 'you chew' website to rival all the blw ones?

lol at looking forward to christmas dinner.

one of the things that's interesting to me about the premastication paper is that is demonstrates rather brilliantly that people in 'ver olden days DID worry about this shit. premastication doesn't sound at all relaxing to me... it sounds like exactly the sort of thing that one might worry one was 'doing right'

"?. . . with a banana leaf beside her containing food which she
chews mouthful by mouthful, before spitting it into her hand
and placing it in the baby?s mouth. . . . Gradually she tries
feeding the baby meat, dried fish, and all the other Garo
foods? (Burling 1963)

i can see that dried fish and tough meats would need some going at prior to handing them over to a baby, in particular, but it's not something we need to do now, what with cookers etc.

this is also good. lots of 'early' weaning in premastication cultures, but of course there does need to be. slacks off after six months, presumably because it's not necessary (as i say, apart maybe from tough meat).

Ta b l e 2 . Age of introducing premasticated foods in e-HRAF reports
Age in months Number of
cultures
1?2 2
3?4 3
5?6 3
7?8 ?
9?10 1
11?12 3

12 1

TOTALLY interesting point about literacy, habs. i guess we confuse literacy too easily with 'access to written information'.

This thread has gone off on a very interesting tangent

FWIW when DD has been eating, my DF has often said to me "Why don't you just chew it up a bit for her first?" He's African, and AFAIK it's still very common there, as is weaning onto "pap".

Anyway, I find it really interesting that methods of weaning provokes such strong views. I first heard about BLW when I went for a weaning talk by the local HV team. The talk was solely on BLW and did not mention traditional weaning/purees at all.

I went away and had a read up on it and liked the idea but I'm very flexible about it. I do spoonfeed sometimes and I do "help" her (although she's getting more dexterous now at 8 mo), but by and large DD is happy to get on with it herself and I'm happy to let her.

One of my closest friends has a DS similar age to DD and she's weaning him with jars and spoonfeeding. I can honestly say we have never had a conversation about how we are weaning.

I really think this traditional weaning v BLW argument just doesn't really exist in RL - I've certainly never come across it.

lilham sorry to hear about your DD, hope she's home and well very soon

Actually, I agree, choka - it's become very civilised and thoughtful. And I think that the wider the range of acceptable and safe options for weaning, which suit parent and baby according to situation can only be a good thing. I wouldn't mind pre-chewing, though I do wonder how much modern cooking may make it not quite so necessary.

I do think that if you are doing A then the whole world appears to be doing B, and vice versa iyswim? I see a BLW article, and vaguely think "cool, quite enjoyed that, dcs loved it" and no more, whereas if I'd fed with puree I might think "why do that?" or somesuch. For me the seemingly endless Annabel Karmel books and products, plus trillions of different baby jars, crisps, biscuits, porridges etc just all seemed a bit much - pushed me into the arms of BLW!

yy, Aitch - that was my PhD, essentially, how we view literacy in the medieval world - not literature, but practical works.

Meaning that literacy in the medieval world does mean access to written info, as just looking at ability to read doesn't tell us that much about how written info was used and disseminated.

I read an old baby book (from before BLW started being popular) which said that 20% of babies refused to be fed from a spoon, so if that's the case (I've no idea how accurate that is) then 1 in 5 babies were effectively weaned via BLW.

I think Aitch is right when she says that no one method has to be demonstrably suitable for all babies. No one method of getting babies to sleep has to be suitable for all for example. You do what works with your child.

IRL here (middle class, affluent, highly educated area) you are considered a nutter if you even consider BLW. Apart from one spoon-refuser, I was the only one I knew around here who did it (until I joined a group for lentil weaving types. )

This is a fascinating discussion!

Angel agree about being seen a nutter. I did purees for a month or so while I got my own confidence up (I am anxious by nature and gagging panicked me). When DS was about 7.5 months we were in Strada and he was going at some pasta and then had a satsuma I had in my bag. A group of older Italian women absolutely PANICKED and rushed over to dissuade us from giving it to him - they said they wouldn't give it until he was a toddler. It's fascinating, how all round the world it inspires such strong feelings. Only natural though, I suppose after bf or ff it's one of the first really big decisions you have to make that might impact your baby's health forever.

btw this digression into literacy is wonderful

YANBU.
It irritates me no end. The mother decides exactly what the baby will eat and when it will eat it! There was a huge fuss on a thread where the nursery gave the baby a chocolate finger biscuit-the baby ate it and would have chosen to eat another-to my mind that was BLW! The mother was furious because she was doing what they all do mother led weaning.
I feel sorry for them. I like to eat mashed banana myself and yet you are not supposed to mash it for the baby! You can't force feed a baby-you can put in in their mouth but you can't make them swallow!

Bollocks. DD1's first food was ice cream that DH happened to be eating and she lunged for. OK, my "BLW" babies aren't in a position to phone a takeaway and order up a nice steak and a glass of Rioja, but they get offered what we are having (including pudding) and choose what to eat out of that. And I have never yet met a baby who wasn't perfectly capable of mashing banana -- all over the place, in most cases.

Exactly, why not do it nicely with a fork and put it in a dish?

tbh exotic it does seem like you have purposely misinterpreted BLW (the chocolate finger episode) in order to take offence at it. seriously, forget the name, it's not a very good one. you otherwise seem like a smart woman - what could be the problem with letting babies who are capable of feeding themselves, feed themselves?

Anyone would think that when you did purees the baby sat passively opening and closing their mouth while mother spooned in what she wanted in the amount she wanted! They were the same as they have always been-had a mind of their own. My DS wouldn't eat cheese in any form, he is now an adult and still won't. They had a spoon and they used it-not very efficiently at first. When they have had enough they do not swallow!
I don't object to them having finger food-I object to the baby led bit which is utter rubbish!

have you actually read this thread, exoticfruits?

btw if your son is now an adult, did you wean him at six months? because that is quite crucial to this discussion... of course you have to spoon food for a 12/16-week old baby, broadly speaking they can't even sit up never mind feed themselves.

NO-because I think that people totally misunderstand how it was done and go in for trendy names. DCs always did what is called BLW -they just had puree too. There is nothing new-there never is. It is like carrying babies in slings, it has always been done and then is called 'baby wearing' as if there is something new about it.

Yes I did-Aitch. People never used to stick to guidelines they did what was convenient for them. I waited and I used purees some of the time. I like purees-I eat homemade soup most days-what is the difference? and I can't eat it without a spoon. I also eat yoghurt most days. If the baby eats the same as you some of it needs spoons and you might as well help them.

oh i see, it's the fact that we don't know our history that is pissing you off.

meh, everything is branded and commercialised these days, even things that aren't officially a brand and aren't particularly commercial. it's partly to allow the media (tv, newspapers and now perhaps more relevantly, internet sites and forums) to discuss it in an expedient and, crucually, searchable manner. you're tilting against windmills if you think anything else.

So in other words you are completely disagreeing with the OP even though saying "YANBU"? In my post of 11-Nov-11 22:32:06 you are camp A and she's very definitely camp B.

And if you had read the thread you'd have found it full of comments from people who have "done" BLW (including Aitch, who runs the babyledweaning.com blog and forum) saying that BLW is a silly name anyway, so agreeing with you to a large extent.

"you might as well help them"

or you could leave them to get on with it so that they get better at doing it for themselves... different parenting, that's all. i cannot abide yogurt or blended soups, btw. my children like yog but prefer their soup 'with bits in'... horses for courses. i do not get why this is such a hot button for people.

Haven't read thread, so apologies in advance if this has been said millions of times already!
DS1 was puree fed. DS2 was sat in a highchair and various foods, what we were having were put on the tray in front of him. He is now 20 months and eats most things. But then DS1 does too. They have both got to the same point. BUT, I personally enjoyed feeding DS2 more than DS1. It was far easier, more relaxing, quicker (albeit much messier!) and lovely to see him gnawing on corn on the cob at 8 months old! Whatever suits you or your baby. Everything baby wise goes in and out of fashion - sleep, food, nappies etc. To claim it is a 'stupid' idea just because you don't agree with it is going to put a lot of others backs up. Stick with how you want to feed your baby. Let others be the mums they want to be.

Each to their own, my dc's were fed mashed and pureed food plus finger food. I didn't force feed them as they were always more than happy to eat what was offered.

If I had a young baby now I might try blw but I have to say, the posters who are saying that mashed food = fussy eaters are taking the argument a bit far

My eat most things, never been fussy dc's can vouch for that!

"the posters who are saying that mashed food = fussy eaters are taking the argument a bit far."

they certainly would be if they were saying that. are they? it's certainly been far from the broad thrust of the discussion if so.