What is BLW all about then?

[reddaisy]

When I had DD three years ago I followed Annabel Karmel's weaning book and I dont remember anyone mentioning BLW and now it is everywhere!

DS is ebf (if it is relevant) and six months old at the end of the month I think I understand what to do from lurking on threads but not why so can someone enlighten me please?

Weaning went really well last time and Dd has always been a good eater so I am tempted just to do the same again.

BLW - cook healthy food for the whole family, chuck some of it in front of the baby too and leave them to it.

I do it for the most part and have never read any books or anything - I'm eating toast, I give the baby some. We have pasta, or roast chicken, or potato wedges - I give the baby some!

Spoon feed yogurt, everything like porridge I preload spoons and give them to him, try not to stress about mess or how much he eats.

It's easy.

Have a look at this site.

Very useful - essentially, what CMOTDibbler says though - cook one meal for everyone, give baby some, eat. That's it.

In same position. DC4 is 6 months, and suddenly it's all BLW..! Where did it come from? I'm assuming that as weaning has got later now, 6 months +, (think it was 5 months+ with first two and heading towards 6 months with my 4yr old) it reduces the need to wait to introduce stuff so baby can eat pretty much anything and everything, so why not just cut to the chase??

Also by 6mo a lot of babies would have developed the ability to feed themselves. Sitting unaided, aiming objects accurately into their mouths, chewing and swallowing. So why not start with some easier real food?

But I waited for six months with dd and gave her lumps straight away and all different kinds of food but why cant you spoonfeed them as well?

I cant follow that link at the moment because I am on my phone and it wont let me.

The reason behind not spoon feeding is mainly so that the baby is in control, can set the pace and isn't being encouraged to eat more than they want.

My DD2 is 9 months, we did blw but we do 'cheat' by spoonfeeding sometimes, mostly when I want to limit the mess- for instance in someone else's house. DD2 seems fine with that. But generally it's easier if she feeds herself, so I can get on with eating my own meal.

You can spoonfeed as well, if you want.

There is no law about BLW! :) You do whatever appeals the most.

Weaning technique appears to have no bearing on whether or not they are a "good eater" later, so you can't get it wrong, really. Not unless you're weaning him straight onto chocolate puddings and KFC. I could see how that might cause some dietary issues later on.

Not spoonfeeding for me is about not encouraging DS to "eat it all up" - I leave him in control of what he eats. He knows if he's hungry or not, I don't know! So no "one more spoonful" or "finish it all up", just letting him decide. Sometimes he eats loads, sometimes just picks, but that's OK; that's how I eat!

Of course like Pozzled said, realistically you spoonfeed on occasion for convenience. In public or at someone else's house you don't want the mess, so out come the jars, but I never use jars or puree at home, except fruit puree to stir into porridge or something.

Spoonfeeding and finger food is normal weaning isn't it though?

BLW is where you don't spoonfeed as it's 'exclusive self feeding' (term nicked, once again, from Aitch) - if you're spoonfeeding, then it's not the baby doing it all by themselves.

There's nothing at all wrong with spoonfeeding if that's what you want to do, but for some parents or babies, it's not what they want to do.

It's been 6 months for 9 years mummyb. I did blw with dd and she's nearly 5.

I just did what felt right for us and that was letting dd eat with us. DS is 27 weeks old and for lunch today had beef casserole and dumplings, carrots, broccoli and mashed potato. Most of it he ate with his hands but I preloaded a couple of spoons with mash and he also ate from them.

Another in the same position! We will start weaning in a few weeks time and I'm trying to decidee what to do too. DS1 is 7yo and I traditionally weaned him at 6m and loved it. He did however tiake a while to accept lumps.

In theory I like the idea of BLW, but in practise I find it hard to see how I would give him what we eat, as we eat a lot of one pot things with lots of herbs, spice, stock, quite rich and full-flavoured stuff. I would end up having to cook separate for DS2, so really it seems easier to cook a huge lot separately, puree and freeze.

Unless I'm misunderstanding BLW?

lookout Just give him what you eat - one pot, heavily herbed rich things are good - heavily spiced and DS2 will likely take awhile to accept it, however you don't need to make seperate, just mix in some natural yog, or sour cream into his portion after removing it to lessen the spiciness (this will also cool it down in temp nicely as they tend to prefer cooler food than adults too)

What FredFredGeorge says - there's no reason your DC can't eat spiced or herby foods"

Pressed send too soon! It's only if you use salt that you might need to cut back! Otherwise you can just give what you eat

My DS much prefers stronger tasting food to bland stuff.

I think i heard just to avoid adding salt, stock (becaise thats concentrated too much salt) or adding sugar. Though i hear you can buy baby stock cubes... Thoigh that just sounds like another marketing ploy to me!

You can buy adult low salt stock. I use marigold boullion normally, so I use their low salt version. Kallo does a whole range of low salt, organic ones.

The other thing to avoid is honey because of botulism.

And like BrianButterfield, my DD prefers strong tasting food. If you just give her blanched pasta, she'll throw them onto the floor. She likes curries, chillies, casseroles, and pasta only if it's covered with sauce.

Stock isn't a massive issue. If you look how much the average stock cube contains and then divide it by 4, 8, 16, however much you divide the portion up for your baby, it turns out to not be much at all.

Thanks for all the replies (and sorry for the hijack OP) Am still not convinced though, and it seems to me if you're gonna go down the BLW route, you need to really want to! Still, I have a few weeks to decide

i've done both- weaning from 4 and half months ish with DS1, BLW at 6 months for DS2. I enjoyed BLW more and at 6yrs and 3yrs the BLW one is a much better eater

See, to me it's the other way round. I'd have had to really want to spoonfeed! Hmm, sit and do "open wide, here comes the aeroplane" with a bowl of mush while my tummy rumbles and my dinner gets cold, or tuck into my sausage and mash while DS has fun scoffing lumps of potato, green beans and cabbage? To me the first one requires way more commitment.

It's the mess though, Brian! The idea of having to clean up mashed up food from him and his surrounding area fills me with a kind of fear . If I was gonna do purees, I would spoon feed before his nap and eat later. But I can see, I think, how BLW would be more fun - it's amazing watching them discover, and I guess that's what's attracting me to BLW. I definitely wouldn't see it as more convenient cos of the amount of cleaning up involved!

Agree with Brian - any mess is quickly sorted with a quick wipe down and sweep round under the high chair, and as its not mush it's easy to get up! I used an old towel under DD's chair at first and shook it off in the garden rather than repeatedly sweeping and mopping. Still quicker and tidier than making separate food, mashing separate food, having different mealtimes, eating a cold tea...

Its about what suits you and your baby though, for some it'd be a cold day in Hell before they did BLW and that's OK