BLW research on radio 4 Today programme

[MamaLaMoo]

bmjopen.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000298

Article in British Medical Journal is a comparison of spoon fed versus BLW for food preferences, BMI, fussiness etc.

BLW babies were less likely to be obese and had healthier food preferences, carbs over sweet.

It doesn't say that the carb preference is healthier. It also says that BLW babies were more likely to be underweight, and there is no difference in picky eaters between the two groups.

"Our results suggest that infants weaned through the baby-led approach learn to regulate their food intake in a manner, which leads to a lower BMI and a preference for healthy foods like carbohydrates."

says its healthier.

well their food preference is healthier

I'm dubious about the food preference table entirely - the BL group "prefers" everything other than sweet foods, which I think is pretty unlikely. So I suspect it's more an artifact of the collection method - asking the parent what the babies favourite is - as that will be influenced by how you get to know the preference of a baby. Things the baby picks up will rank higher than things they're fed I'm sure, and I would not be at all surprised if finger foods, the more likely thing being picked up by the spoon fed group have a tendency to be sweeter.

Of course the table itself is not part of their analysis as that's supposedly based on matched pairs, but I'm disappointed that how that was done, ie detailing the adjustments made to make it comparable. As there's quite an opportunity for unintended bias to be introduced in such studies.

All in all it doesn't really say much to influence weaning choice (it would be interesting to see the number of spoon fed group who'd seen a choking incident as the 6.5% incidence in BL group doesn't tell us much if we don't know the difference) Both methods appear to have very similar outcomes, which isn't really suprising to me.

Nice to get this sort of thing mentioned on the radio though, and not just on Women's Hour.

DD was BLW and definitely prefers cake carbs

Aye, DD1 is addicted to jelly sweets which she licks for hours collecting sticky handfuls of fluff. She does love potatoes and pasta though.

www.babyledweaning.com/2012/blw-in-the-bmj-new-study-says-baby-led-weaning-promotes-healthy-food-choices/?preview=true&preview_id=1214&preview_nonce=511ce0e1be

there's a lot of coverage of this, but it's always a good idea to check the original sources, i've got them on that link.

i think quite a few mners took part, i remember seeing the link up i'm sure.

Have you noticed the reviewer comments are available? It makes very interesting reading.

bmjopen.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000298.reviewer-comments.pdf

http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000298.reviewer-comments.pdf

Again...

not least the stratospheric bfing rates in both cases.

Carbohydrate foods include fruit and vegetables but I suspect by carbohydrate they actually mean refined carbohydrate, which aren't particularly "healthy" and over consumption of refined carbohydrates and sugar is the most common cause of obesity in adults as most adults consume more easily accessible energy in the form of carbs than they can use. Carbs are just a small part of a balanced diet. We did BLW with our LO and I cant say that she actively prefers carbs to anything else. At the moment she enjoys protein, particularly roast or stewed chicken, roast or stewed/curried beef, and she loves eggs, cooked in any way. She's also always eaten massive amounts of fruit and dried fruit - this is sweet and sugary yet is one of the first foods most BLW-ers try. She loves cooked tomatoes and anything in tomato-based sauce including moussaka (will even eat the sliced aubergine with the skin taken off) and loves lasagne, and green veg such as broccoli, sugar snap peas, peas, and green runner beans. She also likes Nutella on toast or croissant and dried fruit, esp. dates and figs which are all very sweet, so I cant say that she doesn?t enjoy sweet things. She just seems to enjoy most food - except citrus fruit which we can't get her to eat at all. The most odd thing she likes is pickled onions. We find her taste for pickled onions rather odd, as she doesn?t appear to enjoy sour foods generally yet pickled onions seem to have passed though her sourness detectors! She's 16 MO.

gourd I'm not so sure on carbs directly linked to obesity. There's always the paradox where the Japanese stays thin while consuming a huge amount of refined carbohydrates (in the form of white rice).

BBC have picked up on this under the shock-tactic heading of "Spoon feeding 'makes babies fatter'" - nice!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16905371

sorry!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16905371

gourd I think by carbs they don't mean refined carbs specifically, it appears to be grains in the form of bread and cereal, but it's not covered in the paper, and it's not clear if the equivalent "vegetables" potatoes/corn etc. would come under that heading or another.

The key to good healthy weight in later life is balanced diet, eating when you are hungry and not when you aren't, and doing some exercise, but not favouring one food group over another. The BBC headline, though lazy and OTT is half right - it may point to a possible reason for the differences. From reading this I think we could speculate that it?s down to spoon feeding allowing less input from the baby into what/when and how much they eat (they are being cued by the parent) which could store up problems with appetite control instinct in later life, whereas BLW method allows child to eat what they want (they simply don?t even attempt to eat something they don?t want and they don't eat anything they aren't capable of chewing and swallowing), they can eat as much as they want and then stop eating when they are full. This is something many adults forget/ignore how to do in later life (me included) but babies have an instinct that tells them what/how much to eat and when to stop. I think BLW may allow this instinct to be used more than spoon feeding does. BLW also allows a baby to better explore their own tastes (which develop over time) and to enjoy exploring different textures of food - puree is basically all the same texture, so they don't learn what "real" food is actually like till much later on.

as they get older, ime, it's harder to tune out other people from their eating experience. both of mine have delightedly shown me their empty plates because that is the kind of thing they are taught to strive for in school and nursery.

i bought smaller plates. they get the satisfaction of emptying them and then eat as much of the 'seconds' as they fancy.

Hello, new to this thread, I have a stupid question and I have read the answer in various websites but think I need to settle my mind on this matter....

I am finally settling down to a routine with my 7 month DS I am at the moment trying both finger food and puree to see which my DS prefers, so far he is telling me that the spoon is not the way to go and is insisting he feeds himself. both puree and finger food. Today was my first proper day and although I think he enjoyed it, (not the gagging part) I am not convinced he actually swallowed any of it, just wore it... Is this the normal beginning process? I presume I have to persevere and imagine he will pick up the swallowing part of eating in due course???

Don't mind me, think I posted in wrong thread... Have gone elsewhere... :)

answered on your other thread but yes, basically, is the answer. and ye may yet be SHOCKED at his nappy.