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

[Labradorlover]

Pureeing and mashing are the modern forms of chewing the food for your baby IMO.

[Scheherezade]

Ok, so if a baby has spoon fed porridge whilst self feeding toast and banana, sandwiches for lunch and whatever mum and dad are eating (including soup mopped up in bread) that's not BLW and is a terrible abomination??

[Molehillmountain]

My two younger children didn't eat til later and wouldn't be spoon fed. So they fed themselves. Didn't need a book about it but was strangely grateful for the "permission" to do it. But conversely, dd1 loved being fed and went happily through different the textures of purées. I'd hate to think that I would now be frowned on for that. Although like most things, i bet it wouldn't be the original authors/proponents of it that got sniffy about it. Why do good, sensible ideas have to be hailed as the only way, this throwing out the proverbial baby with the bathwater?

[RyleDup]

I did both. Dc1 had purée and dc2 had finger foods. Makes no difference, they now eat well and independently. Do whatever you want, it's no big deal either way.

[Fairylea]

I think there's so much snobbery about weaning from pouches and jars too. I use jars and pouches quite often as its easier and I've read the ingredients and honestly most of them have better things in them than if I'd slaved away in the kitchen for hours.... and it's easier to give a wider variety of flavours when you can just grab a pouch.

I really don't think weaning has much to do with how fussy children become... my dd loved spinach and pea pasta when she was a baby. Now you would have to bribe her with the entire contents of an Apple store to even have a pea within close proximity on her plate.

[THERhubarb]

Themobstersknife BLW IS a money making exercise just like any aspect of parenting. You can find all the information you need about anything on the internet, including how to do your own purees (and I got an NHS booklet on this with my 1st).

The amount of websites, recipes, how-to books, cookbooks, etc on BLW shows there is a market and someone is making money out of it.

What evidence is there that baby led weaning can prevent choking and is it independent evidence?

No-one is slagging it off either. We are advocating that people use their own common sense. If you read the thread you would see that.

[Themobstersknife]

Schehezerade, I think that is BLW, or at least my definition of it. I would tend towards giving them a loaded spoon and letting them get on with it, but that is more laziness than anything!

[Fairylea]

I'm also not convinced the choking risk is lower with blw. If it was then the finger food (which mostly dissolves to mush anyway) in the baby aisle wouldn't be mainly from 7-9 months - they have to cover their backs and so wouldn't put from 6 months on them if there was an increased risk - and they don't, so that tells me something. And it can't be about making money otherwise they'd want more and more people to buy them at a younger age.

[neontetra]

OP, to answer your initial question, I mainly feed purees, partly because of fear of choking (my mom was horrified when I suggested blw for this reason, and her fears got to me). Also because dd has always been tiny, and I saw it as a better way of getting calories in her. And indeed, she does now track 9th percentile not 2nd. But that may have happened with blw, too.

[Lifeisontheup]

BLW is money making, I've just googled it and the first three sites I looked at have books about how to do it, DVD's showing you how to do it and cook books. Yes you don't need to buy them but I bet they sell a lot. Very few people put stuff on the internet from a purely altruistic point, even most (not all) blogs carry advertising.

[VisualiseAHorse]

I do both.

I feed him from a spoon (although, we're moving more into him holding the spoon, while I guide it in, he finds this very very funny), while he holds something like fruit, veg or toast and feeds himself using that.

TBH, I don't see how BLW is lazier. You have a lot more tidying up to do! With spoon-feeding, you just mash what you're having (or use a jar!) and feed it.

[Themobstersknife]

I think people have been slagging it off on this and other threads, but maybe
I have misread. To my knowledge, there are two Baby Led Weaning books associated with Gill Rapley, both very cheap to buy. If there are others I apologise. I haven't looked for a while. The other resources are free as far as I am aware, unless other people are now cashing in. I haven't seem shelves in the supermarkets stacked with 'BLW' foods and endless books associated with BLW.
Anyway, apologies for my rant, but it is frustrating when people haven't really looked into it, but formed conclusions about it and rubbish it.
Can't remember where I read about the gagging / choking effect. Prob in the BLW book. In my logical head, it makes sense to introduce children to the textures of foods as soon as they are able to handle them, as it teaches them to deal with them.

[dashoflime]

We've just started weaning.

I offer mushy food on a spoon. DS generally grabs the food and sucks it off his fist. What would you call that?

[THERhubarb]

So the BLW book says that BLWed babies are less prone to gagging? That is a dangerous statement to make and I hope they have independent evidence to back that theory up.

One poster has already stated how her baby had a sensitive reflux gag and so BLW was not possible for her.

In fact this also annoys me. There are many mothers who are hospitalised or who have to rely on nurseries and they don't have a choice about what kind of weaning to do. Why make them feel bad by labelling yet another "method" of parenting and announcing it's the ONLY way to feed baby?

Also there are countless websites on BLW and most have banners and other advertising methods. There are books sold on the methods, there are recipe books and cookbooks and DVDs and lots of other marketed products.

If left alone, most mothers would discover BLW naturally, would mix with what they normally do and all would be well. I fail to see what has been achieved by the marketing of BLW.

[PoppyWearer]

My DC1 was born back in the mists of time...in 2008...no such thing as BLW back then, as far as I was aware anyway (and I read up about weaning extensively before taking the plunge, was also on Ye Olde Mumsnet at the time).

With now-16mo DC2 I was fully up-to-speed with new-fangled ways and we did a mix of purée/mash and finger foods BLW.

I think plenty of posters on here have said that a mix of both worked fine for them, you don't have to choose between one and the other. Do what works for your child. I don't think my DC1 was keen on finger food BLW anyway, she hated having messy hands. Still a bit precious about that now.

Tis the Emperor's New Clothes, surely?

[IceNoSlice]

dashoflime I think you'd call that: typical, natural, messy, endearing or funny? Bet my LO would do the same

[littlewhitebag]

Blimey - i am glad my DD are both grown up (15 & 20). In my day we ... just fed our babies. I recall a mixture of puree type food (soup comes to mind with bread to dip in) and finger foods. I never ever read a book about feeding - i just did it. Both girls are great eaters.

[TantrumsAndBalloons]

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

I give you child led parenting

[LalyRawr]

dash my daughter does the same. Any food, be it from a spoon or her hand, has to be put in her mouth, chewed for a bit, spat back out into her hand, examined, then back in her mouth again to be eaten.

[dashoflime]

[Fairylea]

I'm doing baby led parenting.

Led into extreme sleep deprivation and shower reminiscing...... when I could have one without worrying about hearing ds cry in the middle of it before the school run !

[YesWeWill]

Well there has just been a thread on here about a mum who now regrets BLW because she thinks this is the reason why her 2 dcs are extremely fussy as they didn't get to try that many tastes when they were little. She is planning to use purées food with her dc3 in a bid to avoid fussiness.

[YesWeWill]

BTW, I used purees to start with and then gave them a spoon as soon as I could.
And they had 'finger food' too as well, one of which was cucumber and is still to this day one of their preferred foods!

imo, the best mix of all:
they got eat on their own quickly, they got to taste different textures but also got to try different foods and I knew they were eating a bit of everything (veg, meat, cereals, yogurts...)

[Zipitydooda]

I think you worded your OP very rudely if you wanted a balanced option. I really don't like being insulted.

I did not use BLW for my 3 but it only existed as a 'thing' after I'd already had the second. I don't think it would have worked for my children or me as they were very late in getting teeth (18 months old they all still only had between 2 and 4 teeth) and this does hamper eating things like cooked chicken and other proteins that I cook. I know the books say it doesn't but in my experience it does. It's difficult and not enjoyable experience for them eating.

I used a combination of puréed food and finger food. This meant I was reassured that they were getting balanced nutrition including fruit, veg and protein and a multitude of different tastes and they were also learning to feed themselves and experience textures. At around 12-15 months they did not want me to spoon feed them but by this point, were capable of spoon feeding themselves and used a combination of fingers and cutlery.

I did not find purée ing a bother at all and never used jars of food. Most of the BLW mums I know spent much more time worrying about whether their baby was getting balanced nutrition (as most food ended up in the bin) than I spent purée ing meals. The amount of time that food needs to be smooth(ish) is only a max of 3 months then you can chop or mash with a fork.

[NaturalBaby]

I think Maryz' point was made in the book - I read the book and have it in my head that given a well balanced selection of food, a child will naturally select what it's body needs. My 23 month old is very good at this and will have days of eating mainly fruit and vegetables and other days mainly eating carbs. My older children (3 and 5) have been corrupted and only request chips, sausage and chocolate!

2 things stand out from your OP - you haven't actually started weaning yet have you? and you either haven't been on MN long or haven't read a very wide range of threads to know that blw on AIBU requires a flameproof suit.