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??

Just on the iron point, a full term baby whose cord was not clamped until it stopped pulsating has more than enough iron stores to last it until 9 months at the very earliest, so there is absolutely no need to worry about shovelling in 3 meals a day at 6 months on the dot to get iron into them. The nutrients babies are most likely to need from solids first (and again, not 6 months on the dot) are zinc and iron, so it makes sense to introduce some foods when starting solids that contain these minerals. They only need tiny additional amounts of them and can easily get them from gumming a piece of turkey or beef.

If a baby is gagging an awful lot, it means they have not yet lost that protective reflex and aren't actually ready for solids yet. they all develop at different rates, but these reflexes are unlikely to have gone by 5 months. See here for signs of readiness.

Even babies right at the top of the centile chart can continue to thrive on breastmilk if fed whenever they ask for it. I know lots of them .

As for how much they eat, well my eldest was shovelling in 3 meals a day with his hands by 7 months. He could eat wheatabix or porridge, most of a banana, risotto, breadsticks etc, shepherds pie . He just wolfed down whatever was put in front of him and continued to breastfeed loads round the clock too. He was obviously very hungry because he ate. He was on the 0.4 centile. DC2 was a bit slower, more like 1-2 meals a day at 9 months. Just wasn't as interested. Dc3 (my biggest baby) was happy just to stay on breastmilk as long as possible and showed little interest in more than tiny mouthfuls of food until after her birthday.

Tbh I'm not sure what point you are making. Why do you feel the need to criticise what other parents are doing? Giving finger foods from 6 months is recommended and pureeing is unecessary, as all babies, even if spoonfed, should be able to cope with food mashed with a fork from 6 months (the recommended age for introducing solids). Allowing them to explore food and different texturtes with their hands is considered a good thing developmentally, so it's not much of a leap to just let them feed themselves if they want to.

I don't understand why folk get so stressed about it all, you do what works for you and your baby. For my two it was a mixture of purées and finger food.

I only get jiffy when people use those reclining high chairs to lie the baby back so they can't spit the purée out or are too wee to sit up themselves.

Some babies have to be weaned when they are to small to sit up themselves, both of mine were as they were Premature. If i'd seen you 'getting in a Jiffy' at me soon feeding puree in to my 10lb miniboy while we were out and about you'd have found yourself wearing whatever I was feeding him.

Don't judge people for doing something unless you know all the facts.

The vast majority of people do what they believe to be the best they can possibly do for their child.

What is the point of even spending time thinking about what other people do?

Have only skimmed this thread but as I understand it, your baby's nutritional needs are met by breast milk for the first year. Starting solid foods is to experience taste texture smell etc. Fruit and veg, as most of us are started on, have very few calories, as we all know from trying tolose weight, so weaning onto solids has feck all to do with calories. Breast milk is far more satisfying to a baby.

As regards iron content, iron from breast milk is far easier for a body to absorb, and a greater proportion of it is absorbed. I'm not sure your HV is right about the iron issue but I stand to be corrected.

Having done both methods of solids introducing, BLW was way easier, and sat with me IYKWIM much better, makes way more sense. Fretting about a bit of puréed carrot......really, why? Once your baby is growing well, why fuss?

I think Jakey just meant people can be frightfully self-righteous about BLW. They bloody can. Personally I'm enjoying the puree route, and everything that isn't puree or mashed I give DD gets messed around with and not eaten. This probably wouldn't really matter; one day she'd learn. But we both quite like the spoon-feeding and I'm an evil control freak, hah! And I can't seem to remember not to put salt in things I'm cooking, and I'm never in a million years going to sit down for tea with baby at baby o'clock - civilised meal after her bedtime will do me nicely. So am evil depriving baby of social skills and mealtime interaction person too. Still, we all seem pretty happy on it. To be fair, though, Jakey, you were asking to be flamed; live and let live etc. Hope you had a lovely time in the park with your wicked heterodox opinions.

My experience is that quite a few people can be self-righteous about pureeing too (and pretty much every other parenting choice). I had one "friend" from baby group who wasted no opportunity to talk about how outrageous it was that people who bf'd would do blw'ing as "they" were always "going on" about the nutritional value of breastmilk as though it were the elixir of life, only to be too lazy to bother to cook their children proper food when they weaned! . Apparently my roast vegetables were infinitely inferior to her pureed ones!

Plenty of babies do eat lots from the start doing BLW. I almost got put off doing it because you get the impression that BLW babies don't eat anything for months, whereas our son was gobbling down everything from the get-go and was having three meals a day at seven months.

The big advantage in my mind is that you can eat your food at the same time and don't have to spend time spoon-feeding (though you do have to spend time cleaning but I suspect spoon-feeding just delays the mess rather than reduces the total amount). Also, there's no risk that they'll become fussy over lumps/textures like a fair number of puree-weaned babies I know have. I'd certainly do BLW again whereas I'm e.g. not certain if I'd breastfeed again for as long as I did.

DD2 is seven months and blw. No one who has seen her eat could doubt whether she gets enough! And as for getting the right nutrients, her diet is more varied than my fussy 3 year old. DD2 will eat anything put in front of her, obviously some things are easier than others but she'll give it all a good go.

I have no issue with purees, it's down to parental choice. But I do wish I'd known more about blw when DD1 was a baby. It's just so much easier.

I agree. I get fed up with all these stupid fads and so called rules on how to feed your baby! We are all mums and mums know best what their babies and children need. I am going to do purees at breakfast and lunch and blw at dinner time as I simply don't have time in the day because of school runs and everything else us mums have to do! Also I would worry about my son not getting enough food or nutrition if he just fed himself. I don't know why babies are expected to grow up so fast and be independent when they are only babies for a very short time. I say we should do what we want and who cares if it is not 'blw', as long as they are healthy and happy. Finally my sister in law followed every fad and rule going with weaning and bedtime routines and her son has turned out to be an extremely fussy eater and has behavioural problems at school. She followed gina ford and she gave him a huge variety of different foods to encourage him to be a good eater! So these fads and rules don't always work!!!!!!!

I really don't understand why people have to criticise each other so much for their choices. I've seen babies who are blw, and those weaned by purees and to be honest I haven't seen much difference. My friend did blw and now spoon feeds her two year old anyway because she now refuses to feed herself. My other friend did purees and finger foods (when she thought her dd was ready) and her dd eats amazingly well and feeds herself well too (she is nearly one).

I think it is very hard to say whether a child will be a picky eater simply based on how he/she is fed. I think it's probably down to their personality more than anything else. My DD is 6.5 months and I've been making her a huge variety of meals, I started with sloppy puree and now her food is quite lumpy and textured and she is doing brilliantly. I give her some finger foods on the side and she is feeding herself these foods, and she is also feeding herself using the spoon. She eats absolutely everything put in front of her and gets plenty of variety of textures and tastes with a combo of the two. Still no knowing if she eventually turn into a picky eater. My sister and I were both fed the same way (purees) when young. She is incredibly picky, I eat everything, literally and love food.

I think it really is down to what works best for everyone individually - if blw works, then great. If purees work, then great. I personally have felt upset by those people who think I'm doing something wrong by not doing blw. I have also seen those doing blw upset because they are criticised by those doing puree. Why can't we all just support each other because our babies will all reach the same place anyway, just at different times. Despite having very stressful jobs in my past, nothing compares to being a first time mum. We all want to feel we're doing our best for our lo's and I don't see why we have to add to the pressure by being so hard on each other.

OP, I can see why those doing blw would be angered by your post, especially the title. I would be very upset if I had seen a post suggesting purees was a load of tosh.