Silly BLW question

[PinkPepper]

I want to do BLW. Son is coming up 19 weeks and we are in no rush whatsoever. Planning on starting January.

The only thing I'm worried about is I can't get my head around not feeding my baby. Much as sensible brain wants him to discover it all himself and be in control himself, I feel almost conditioned that I should at some point be spooning something into him.

Has anyone else felt this? Will I forget about it as I watch him eat himself. I'm thinking I won't get a lot of support so want to get over any wobbles in order to be confident

Once he starts reaching and grabbing and mouthing things more, you may feel a little less worried. In order to spoon something into my DS's mouth, I'd have to hold his arms down - either to stop him from clutching what he's already chomping on or to stop him from taking the spoon off me. Not keen to discourage either of those things, personally I think your DS getting enough into his mouth will be the least of your worries and because of my DS's desire to put stuff in his mouth himself, the two occasions where I've tried spooning stuff in has been messier and less successful than the tentative steps I've made into BLW.

Know what you mean, we are bombarded with so many images of feeding babies and most of them are bottles and spoons. Don't forget that if your baby eats what you eat the baby food companies don't make any money from you, so it's in their interests to make spoon feeding the norm

You can make your own food and spoon feed?! Doesn't just have to be ready made baby food.

Mix it up then if you're worried.

Both DS's have had puréed food and finger food when weaning.

I hated the thought of trying to spoon food baby after seeing babies who fight against it. With blw there is no tears or stress, you sit together and watch him learn. Just keep up the milk and baby will be nourished. But baby picks up on your emotions so do what you are comfortable with.

Should have clarified, I'm not really worried about the nutrition, I just can't imagine never spoonfeeding a baby! But then similarly Purplevi I too have seen too much food forced into babies

Going down the blw route but if I feel uncomfy will look into other things. It's just an oddity I wondered if anyone else had.

Spoon feeding is not force feeding!! A baby will not open it's mouth if they don't want to eat something. I don't know why people think this

Do what feels right for you OP - plenty of people mix spoon feeding with finger foods and mashed family meals like cottage pie/lasagne.

Yes completely Agee that you can make your own food and purée or mash, I know because I've done it, but lots of people do buy ready made, you only have to look in the baby aisle in any supermarket.

My point wasn't that either way was right or wrong, just simply that it is in the interests of the baby food manufacturers to make mothers think spoon feeding is the norm.

I mixed BLW with a few purees. It takes the pressure off a bit, and it's hard to feed them yoghurt / soup / porridge etc if that's what you're having without a spoon. Both my DC set the pace and DH and I both enjoyed the whole messy process. Good luck!

My dd was much more into self-feeding than my son who clearly demanded I steer a spoon into his mouth. She's 9mo now and loving most food - but I tend to have a couple pouches in the buggy for those times her appetite is suddenly huge!

I did BLW with DC1, no spoonfeeding at all (I think BLW shoudl be called self feeding personally, as I think a lot of people confuse it with eating finger foods, hence saying BLW with purees - that just means traditional weaning). He was great at it, and I liked not having to spoonfeed him.

But DC2, wasn't good at feeding herself as much as DC1, so I spoonfed her a couple of mouthfuls (and then she refused the spoon), and I found I really enjoyed feeding her the few mouthfuls, and just left her to eat by herself. In hindsight she wasn't really ready for food till nearly 12 months. got really chubby on BM instead!

To what you think is best. Spoonfeeding is not a bad thing at all. Not if you don't forcefeed or constantly distract or badger the child to take one more mouthfu. When I just had DC1, I had friends who would try to spoonfeed their babies who clearly didn't want to eat or have had enough to eat, and they were trying everything to get the child to finish the plate or have one more mouthful. Putting on telly, rocking the child, singing, doing plane motions etc etc to get another mouthful in. Really put me off spoonfeeding, so that's why I went the BLW way. But since I had DC2 I realised not all spoonfeeding has to be like that, and you can just feed a bit by spoon if they are willing and just stop if they don't want anymore and let them self feed. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

Bit isn't "BLW mixed with purees" just called weaning?

Agree with choceyes too. I've seen so many parents "coax" their children into eating a little more when they were so obviously not interested.