Please talk to me about your experiences of BLW and/or traditional weaning (title edited as thread moved from AIBU)

[IceNoSlice]

Or can someone please tell me why they chose traditional weaning over BLW?

I have just read the BLW book, all seems good but am thinking I've only seen half the argument. I want to consider whether purée and finger foods might be the way to go...

Ps sorry this isn't really an AIBU but wanted your attention. I clearly d

Bah! Fat fingers.

I clearly don't think you're ridiculous.

To be honest I don't even know what BLW is. I just did what was easiest for me and what worked for DS

I dont think BLW existed when my dcs were small

I don't get your post? :)

I think it is a pile of rubbish, most Mother's have been doing something like it for years...now it has a nice special name and loads of overpriced silly books

I BLW my two youngest DC and wouldn't do it any other way now- can't understand why friends spend so long mashing and pureeing and cooking so many seperate meals- but each to their own!

BLW has to be one of the wankiest phrases I've learnt from MN

'Finger foods' have been around since the dawn of time...

I don't give a hedgehog's poo. Who cares?

Feminine - I am looking for people to give me reasons why purée is good to get a more balanced view.

BLW means only finger food, no purée.

there's no need to puree food if you wean your baby at 6 months which is why BLW is popular now. Some babies do like help with feeding though as they can get hungry and frustrated when trying to feed themselves. Others love it from the word go. Its also very messy so some mothers like to have the control of feeding their child as its cleaner. BLW is great fun though and it always gave me tremendous pride to see DD tucking into the same food as me. Thats the other bonus- no special prep of food, just give them what you're having and eat together, minus added salt (which you quicky get used to not having).

I sort of did both and ended up with bloody brilliant little eaters.

If main course was finger food then pudding would be spoon fed, and vice versa. It meant I wasn't constantly hovering around them with a spoon or leaving them to fiddle and play and get hungry.

I'm not relaxed enough to believe my babys would have eaten enough to grow or give them energy if they were left to their own devices and fully BLW.

Why are you so concerned with what methods other people choose to use to wean their babies?

You don't have to go one way or another: you can just go with whatever works at any particular time.

Sometimes it was convenient to shovel food into dc (on long train journeys for instance or when they were hungry and overtired), at other times it was obvious that they wanted to explore and play with their food.

Puree to us was things like (unseasoned) mashed potatoes from my own plate. I eat that kind of thing as an adult from time to time so why should it be wrong for them? If you give them a whole banana one day there is no reason you should give them mashed banana the next if that happens to be more convenient.

With dd her hypotonia meant it was difficult for her to access food either through breastfeeding or (at first) through feeding herself. A mix worked very well.

AutumnMadness umm me, I care. Not whether what you do is right/wrong whatever but on what I should do with my DC. Just looking for opinions.

No, I know what it means ice

I don't get your question I think

Like worra said, its been around forever. I feel sorry for the babies that never get to enjoy carrot puree AIBU ?

I didn't know what baby led weaning was, until I looked it up a few years ago.

I discovered it was very similar to the way I had already weaned my dc naturally (without the fancy name of course), and I expect this will apply to many people too.

We just called it 'feeding your baby'

You just do what you do, the need to declare you're doing it the best way or any way at all really is a bit lame and smacks of having fuck all else to do.

MrsApplepants to help me decide what I want to do?

I'm not looking to judge anyone else.

I purée as I was afraid of choking

I think what everybody is saying is there is absolutely no reason why you should make some kind of irrevocable decision. Most of us didn't. I have a lovely photo of baby ds exploring his first biscuit and another one, equally lovely, of him spoon feeding big sister.

I weaned at about 6 months for all of mine. They all used a spoon very well, and would stuff their mouths (with hands) when they felt like a change.

Oh ffs! So you've found something that works for you. Woo hoo. Why you feel the need to call other mothers "ridiculous" is beyond me.

Most manage just fine using a combination of BLW and spoon feeding. In fact most mothers were practising BLW before it even had a name! It was just another way to feed your child. Now of course there is a huge lobby which advocates it and makes money from it like anything else baby related.

I used a spoon for mine for yoghurts and anything else slushy and I let them use their fingers for anything else. Largely because I did not want the mess of food in their hair, over their clothes, on the floor and anything else they were able to get their grubby little fingers on. So I chose a method that was easiest for ME.

My two have grown up to be fine and healthy. They have no food issues and can use a knife and fork perfectly well.

As with any method. If it works for you then fine, if it doesn't then try something else, or tailor it to your needs.

There really is no need to slag off any other mother. It makes you just look ridiculous then.

My mum hated BLW, she was so anxious about it! I think if you're the kind of person who likes to be in control then spoon feeding is likely to appeal more, being able to know how much they've had etc. I am a lazy slattern laid back so I preferred BLW.

And...the choking thing is a valid point.

Not all food we feed ourselves are anyway suitable for 6 month babies to try and get a grip with!

DD was weaned early (on advice) and was a very hungry baby. She also got very frustrated and upset if she couldn't eat fast enough. She did learn to use her spoon very early, but again, if it was taking too long she'd get frustrated.