Am I the only one to think BLW is a load of old tosh?!!!

[Jakeyblueblue]

I seem to be the only one who has gone down the traditional weaning route. I did look into BLW but just can't see how it can be a good idea! Ds is seven months now and on 3 freshly cooked spoon fed meals a day plus breast feeds. We are just starting to introduce finger foods and he is also now able to have mashed and chopped food rather than just
purée. He is a big boy and has been on the
98th centile since birth and he continues to gain steady weight. He was clearly hungry and ready to eat at 5 months and he took to food straight away.
I keep hearing about how fantastic BLW is but am struggling to see the benefits. I am not criticising just generally interested in others opinions on this issue so please feel free to correct me if I am wrong!
Firstly, surely not alot is actually eaten at first? I would imagine that if I had given my ds food to feed himself, he would just make an almighty mess with it at first.. Not sure how ethical it is to give a hungry baby food that they can't realistically eat. Secondly, surely the point of weaning at six months is that there is not enough iron etc in breast milk past this age. If the baby isn't eating much at first then surely they aren't getting the nutrients that they need. Finally, the gagging issue. I appreciate that this is normal etc and different from choking but surely it isn't pleasant for a baby? If I give my ds something he can't manage he really gags repeatedly. He really doesn't like this whatever anyone says. His eyes water and he goes red, sometimes he is even sick. I don't see how this is teaching him anything or how this could be a positive experience.
I am happy with how I have chosen to wean my lad and he will get to the same stage as all the BLW babies at probably the same time. It is more work making all the purees but I have actually really enjoyed it and suspect what I have cooked for him would have been more healthy than if I had just given him some of what we were eating. I am also happy that I know exactly how much he has eaten! If BLW worked for you then great, every child is different but I just can't see how it would have worked for us!
Am just wondering if this is just the latest phase? Is anyone out there agreeing with me? Or does anyone want to convince me otherwise??

Hey, if you want to follow like a sheep into the babyfood makers dream of a world of puree fed babies - feel free. BLW has been around since the dawn of time (do you really think that cave women fed their babies "3 freshly cooked spoon fed meals a day"?), but I don't expect that it was called "BLW" then, or even when your friends, or sister, or anyone with a child over about 8, was weaning. If you want to think that puree-ing is the "old-fashioned way" go ahead, you're wrong, but for you ignorance is clearly bliss.

Lovely.

Lol! My old tosh title got you all to look though didn't it? have posted on here before with More sedate titles and no one has responded! No, joking aside ladies, after reading some of your views, I will take back my old tosh comment! It seems, like everything, there is a place for it with some babies and it can work well. I won't be so quick to discount it in future, however, You def won't see me feeding my ds chicken legs for a while yet though!

Missismac, you are right, cave men wouldnt have used purees obviously but When i use the word traditional I am referring to the method of weaning that the majority of us were raised upon. This is my first child and it doesn't make me ignorant because I have never been exposed to it until recently.
I don't feel I am buying into Anyones dream by giving my baby, purees for all of about 6 weeks, in order to make the transition from liquids to solids a little more manageable. I call that intelligent and reactive parenting, much the same as those that ditched spoon feeding for BLW when they found their child refused the spoon.
It's actually comments like that that made me post in the first place.

Well, I did purees and finger foods with DD1.

DD2 refused to allow me to feed her as soon as I started her on solids at 6 months so she's been purely BLW.

On that note, baby led means just that - baby led. If you're going to bring ethics into it - I think it's vile when I see people forcing babies to take spoonfuls of food that they clearly don't want.

I sit on the fence when it comes to BLW, so I say that without being a strong advocate of either method. But really - I know plenty of people who puree food will do it in a baby led weigh but I've seen PLENTY of force feeding by spoon around and if anything is unethical, I'd say it was that.

"I don't feel I am buying into Anyones dream by giving my baby, purees for all of about 6 weeks, in order to make the transition from liquids to solids a little more manageable. I call that intelligent and reactive parenting"

So, by that do you mean that no pureeing makes somebody non intelligent and non reactive in their parenting? (therefore you are a judgey arse) or that you, personally, are feeding your baby in the way that you feel your own baby needs to be fed (not judgey).

I think it's the naming of it that seems to wind people up. My children had mostly finger foods and stuff they could scoop up with their hands or a spoon if they chose and that was looooong before it was dignified with the title of BLW (kids almost grown up now).

They had some pureés too, early on, but mostly fed themselves. I think whatever works for you and your baby is the right thing to do - but it does seem a little strange to me that BLW is touted as some kind of radical movement in feeding!

Shouldabeen - the latter of the two. We have already established earlier in the thread that my ds had problems with more solid foods and gagged when I tried with finger foods. I therefore gave him purees to make it more manageable for him.

I still don't understand why you think it's tosh when other people respond to their own individual children's needs though by doing BLW?

Cave women would have done what is now known as extended breast feeding so wouldn't be stressing to wean at 6 months anyway.

If you actually do extensive reading on blw, there are mashed and puréed foods involved it's about the delivery of food i.e. spoon or not rather than the actual food itself.

Me too, shedding carbs. It does seem that some people do tout it as that. My ds turns his head when he has had enough so force feeding isn't an issue here. Have Seen some do it though and would agree that it vile. I guess all feeding is actually BL when you take that into consideration.

You seem very defensive op.
I think finger foods can be a good idea for dc2. My dc1 had purees as I had plenty of time to create annabel karmel creations in bulk. However I obviously had less time with dc2, he was not a fan of purees anyway, and loved sitting at the table with Dd and eating what she ate.

For me the important thing is to not get too stressed about having to feed the baby solids which may result in forcing the baby. DD (7.5 months) is bf so I see bf as her main source of calories, the solids are just for fun and practicing chewing and swollowing rather than nutrition as such.

What works for us is a mixture of things. I do give her mashed up food with a spoon, but it is fairly evident when she doesn't want more (when she's really keen she leans forward and gobbles the food off the spoon before you can even get near her, when she's interested she opens her mouth and takes the food off the spoon and when she's had enough she doesn't open her mouth - for us it's simple, although I appreciate this is not the same for everyone!). She also gets finger foods, most of which ends up on the floor for the dogs but she loves eating when we're eating.

The main problem I can't see my way round is salt. I just can't cook without salt (pasta without salt???? Bliah, inedible!), so I am not sure how we will share meals as a family. I fear I may have to cook all of her meals separately until 2 years old!

Shouldabeen. Read the earlier threads. I have since retracted that statement after being otherwise convinced.

I hate the term blw. I have a friend who does a mix of blw & purée's... I don't know how this is different to normal weaning though!
We do blw I suppose, my ds doesn't like to be spoon fed and would rather try himself. He eats same as us, doesn't gag on good, is putting weight on nicely so yes
YABVU to think it's 'tosh'. You don't like it, doesn't mean it's not goof. Yanbu to no do it.

Food is food ffs only diff is your mashing yours up, we erm...don't

Sorry, I'm just winding you up a bit because you sound so idignant.

It's really not worth getting worked up and defensive about. Honestly. Weaning is such a dull subject - HOW do you bring yourself to get aerated about it??? Really?

Redhotpokers. Am defensive at being called ignorant. Not agreeing doesn't make me ignorant. Boo boo. Salt worries are one of the reasons I said in an earlier post that i think what I fed my ds was probably healthier than if I had given him what we were eating. I am not overweight or unhealthy but I am not sure our diet would be healthy for a baby. Before anyone lays into me, i Am not making judgement about anyone elses diet by the way. Just mine.

Shouldabeen, lol, you are right! There's nothing like a good debate! Guess I just got sick of all these people frowning at my choice to do purees etc. Thought I would see if I was the only one and it all kicked off! Ha ha!

I'd like to point out that I didn't call you ignorant.

But, say you're out with a group of people. And one of them starts bashing something which they later admit they've not done any research on and didn't have a proper understanding of until it was explained to them right then. Then started getting defensive and saying "well I didn't know that"

How would you view how they were coming across?

If you don't understand it, why not start a thread saying "please tell me why you did BLW and what the benefits were?"

Starting a thread along the lines of "well this is a load of old crap" and then responding with "well I DIDN'T KNOW THAT!"

This is mumsnet, you ARE going to be called on it if you behave like that.

x post.

Noooooooo I didn't say you called me ignorant!!!!! Read the whole thread!! Missimac called me ignorant earlier!!!! Sorry if I confused you!

Do what is best for you, no need to label it. There are no rules contrary to popular belief.

Anyway ladies, thanks for your replies! Its been really interesting! In hind sight I probably shouldn't have used that title so apologies for any offence caused. To me and my ds BLW was a load of old tosh. Would never have worked in a million years but to those that it has, then obviously it wasn't and I consider myself told! Am pretty new to this and didn't realise you lot were all so bloody feisty! Will be more considerate next time!
Anyway, will scuttle off with my annabel karmen book under my arm and a spoon in my hand, to enjoy my day! Am off to the park so will try to avoid the BLW lynch mob that has probably tracked me down by now! Lol!
Have a nice day ladies and apologies again. I guess its a good thing that we are all so defensive. It means we care about what is best for our little ones and that we are intelligent enough to form an opinion about it!

Bloody predictive text!