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?? :)

Really, Aitch? Which one didn't really equate spoon feeding with force feeding?
"I hated the idea of forcing food into a baby's mouth with a spoon irrespective of whether or not they were hungry" and which then went on to effectively blame it for adult obesity to the one which said "far better to force feed your baby...'" claimed the baby had no control over what was in their body and blamed future fussy eating on the fact that they weren't Wnaky Named Weaned?

I couldn't give a rats arse how people wean their baby. You do what is right. I certainly don't feel the need to make judgemental comments based on ignorance.

DD I think didn't like the feeling of food on her fingers - she would eat the same stuff proffered from a spoon that she refused to touch on the plate in front of her. She turned out fine, is not fussy and doesn't over eat. We did it her way just like everything else in her life. Stubborn mare

Some people need to grasp the idea that parenting is not a One Size Fits All thing.

And I mean that for both "sides" of this ridiculous argument.

Pavlov I think it's one of those strange issues where RL and MN divide - others include SAHM vs WOHM, BF vs FF, disposables vs cloth. IN RL these groups rub along perfectly well and live in peace. However, on MN, it's like Game of Thrones on Crack. You win, or you die!

Hunty my DS ate most of a sheet of wrapping paper yesterday

Truly baby led!

"And you don't have to do BLW or puree/mash. You can do both or one or the other at any given time."

Well, I have seen it said on MN that if you are not only doing "BLW" you aren't doing it at all. Which is daft. Like most things.

I'm going to have to hide this thread because it pisses me off. I include the attitude of the OP in that too :o

the first one makes no equation between puree feeding and spoon feeding whatsoever, unless you make quite an effort to be offended where none is meant.

like i say, this all feels very five years ago.

Yabu.

Ds1 got hand-woven, pureed, organic mush.

Ds2 ate of my plate.

My Gran did BLW - most people did then.

Babies do not need 'special' food. They can eat the same as us, and have done so since human beings first walked the earth.

but. BLW is just that! if my son wants me to shovel puree into his mouth by crying until i do, while chomping on some toast, and attempting to shovel some in himself then i will do it. I will feed him however which way he dictates he wants, and did with DD too, and call it whatever you like. It is not BLW apparantly, or weaning, apparantly, does not have a label, who gives a crap? it is Feeding My Child. Which is the ultimate purpose.

Why are you still blogging about it then?

My son once ate a piece of fake coal!

Wow - BLW threads move fast don't they! And some of my earlier post has been used in arguments between other posters - this is the first time this has happened to me in over 2 years on here! WOW - I am so proud . I must remember to post more when I am sleep deprived and hormonal in the future!!

Now, look you daft lot, I am not saying all spoon feeders are force feeding - I was saying that when I fed my first baby (at 4 months, spoon fed with jars etc ) I FELT it was forcing food into his mouth. It was very upsetting for us both but I perserved because people (ie my mum and hv) told me that's how you wean a baby, and I didn't know any different. I had hv asking all the time about how much he is eating at each meal and I became a bit obsessed with making sure he ate it all so she thought I was doing it right. Then I found out about BLW with the second baby (and started last month with the 3rd) and wow was that easier! I think different hv was helpful too - less stress all round.

And I do happen to believe most people don't know how to read their body in terms of hunger - I know I don't, I eat when it's time to eat ie lunch break at work, spare 5 mins in the evening, rather than when I am hungry. I feel that is partly why I snack between meals - because I am actually hungry then, so I eat. Well, that's my excuse anyway!

was that directed at me? i don't really blog on BLW so much now, i haven't weaned a child in two and a half years. but i do (very occasionally) yak about food things and do have a diary going written by former Newsnight journo Siobhan Courtney who basically wants to keep her brain going while on mat leave and is doing a BLW diary week by week. it's been really popular with the new members. that site is a bit of a labour of love for me, tbh, because the people who are on the forum are so brilliant, i can't exactly wind it up and leave them all homeless. and tbh there are other *BLW sites that i occasionally bump up against that are a bit more, imo, bonkers, so i think mine is a force for good against mothers getting unnecessarily wound up.

*the existence of which does not make BLW redundant, it's just evidence of the fact that women seem to tie themselves into knots over things to do with being parents. i don't get it, and i certainly don't contribute to it.

i think it depends on the child too. DS2 liked to have control. He didn't like me putting a spoon in his mouth, and at 6mths he didn't have enough control to manipulate a spoon himself. But he definitely had enough control to pick up soggy carrot sticks, slices of toast etc. etc. and he liked that. A friend of mine had an unbelievably big eater who would demand more and more puree and shout if she didn't shovel it in fast enough. Just not something to get too worked up about. Force feeding is definitely wrong, but puree feeding does not need to equal force feeding.

I gave DD more purees, baby rice and jars of baby food esp. veg and fruit.

DS arrived 2.5 yrs later and as second child and when BLW ideas coming along he had more rusks, bits of banana, and biscuits at toddler group. ( Is that the BLW idea ?? LOL ) Less jars as I'd gone off them by then - did freeze a few veggie ice-cubes for him but not many. Also DS was EBF for longer ( and weaned later) as by then recommending 6 mths exclusive BFing.

Anyway main difference I've noticed is DD is better with her veg now having tried more tastes as a baby. DS has a sweeter tooth and more fussy with his vegetables.

So maybe those purees aren't such a bad idea, even in the jars !

Urgh, I loathe the label. We did a bit of mashed up stuff & a bit of finger food. Simple.

I always laugh at the thread from deducted BLWers asking "but how do we do yogurt???"

FFS just give it to them on a spoon... Like u would eat it.

Tigresswoods Yoghurt was never a problem without a spoon, DD either covered her hands in it and licked it off, or picked up the pot and drank it as if it was a cup (something she learned from DH)

We did offer her a spoon to eat it with, but it seemed that was better for throwing on the floor.

It's about what suits you and your child, not about anyone else being right or wrong.

well the interesting thing about 'but how do we do yoghurt?' imo is how advertising etc has entrenched the idea is that a weaning child HAS to have yoghurt. we don't eat yog, dh and i, apart from in curries, so our kids didn't tend to have it and yet somehow their bones are not crumbling.

Juggling: "DS arrived 2.5 yrs later and as second child and when BLW ideas coming along he had more rusks, bits of banana, and biscuits at toddler group. ( Is that the BLW idea ?? LOL ) Less jars as I'd gone off them by then - did freeze a few veggie ice-cubes for him but not many."

see, i'd say that is really not the blw idea. this is as dogmatic as i'm prepared to get here but no, giving a child biscuits etc at toddlers and some veg puree is not really BLW.

i think of BLW as Self-Feeding Family Food, tbh. i suppose the downside of that is that if a family doesn't eat well then jarred/pouched/pureed food might actually protect a child from that for longer, but generally if you are letting the child eat from a good range of foods then they will be fine. there has been some research done into this in nursery schools and in one famous experiment in the thirties where children through choice instinctively asked for cod liver oil and cured their own rickets so doing.

Having had a big age gap after 4 spoon fed dc's i scoffed at blw until weaning dd at 6 months.She absolutley refused anything that she didnt put into her own mouth so i just had to do it.I plonked anything and everything onto her high chair tray from casseroles to chips and she stuffed it in.I managed to progress to spoon feeding yogurt which is a godsend if out and about for meals but on the whole thats how it is with her awkward madam.

I'd agree with you a bit "Aitch" that it seems to me BLW would work better with a family who sit around a table together and regularly eat healthy meals. In families like ours where things are a bit more hit and miss I think some baby focused meals such as pureed veg or yogurts can be a good thing.
I realise DS's weaning experience was not ideal ( esp. the biscuits at toddler group ) and hardly a perfect example of BLW - hence the and the LOL - As a second child he tagged along a bit behind his sister.

I'm all for letting babies eat when they're hungry though, and as much and no more than they want.
My DC's have grown up with a good sense of regulating their own appetites. They are fit and healthy with a good relationship with food ( though as I said DS seems to be more fussy with his veg ) I think extended BFing on demand might have something to do with this as well.

Just sharing my experience to add to the interesting debate.

Only skim-read thread

I did the whole faffy pureeing parsnip and stewing apple-thing for my first child, but did a version of BLW, I guess (although I didn't know it was called that at the time) with my second child. Much easier, simpler, felt more natural. I did spoon-feed some things - yogurts or porridge, for example - but at mealtimes I just made 'normal' food and gave her a bit of it on a plate to grab at.

I really don't see why this is viewed as some sort of weird, revolutionary parenting technique! It's what people ahve been doing all over the world for centuries.

There is emerging research that in general (i.e. not on an individual level) parents who spoon feed are a bit more likely to encourage their babies to eat more. No evidence of yet whether this is good, bad or indifferent though....or what this means on an individual level for individual babies. Some babies might be better off being encouraged to eat more.

BTW I meant the extended BFing on demand would be a good thing helping them to regulate their appetites. I think there should be more research and emphasis on the relationship between BF/FF and obesity as I've heard it may play an important role. Much easier for a baby to self-regulate when BFing, especially where this is on demand. Much more tempting for the mother to control things where there's a calibrated bottle involved. IMHO

Shame to miss out on the fun of seeing a small person in a pureed carrot beard. I did a bit of both but mainly they had smooshed versions of whatever we had. Think this is an area way too over-analysed and complicated. Can't imagine Medieval women worried about this much.