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

[amyboo]

YABU. I just weaned DS. I didn't give it a name. Didn't really puree, just whizzed salt free versions of mine/DH's dinner in the blender. Interspersed it with some toast, bit of vaguely squished fruit, cut up pasta and the odd biscuit et voilà. DS (age 2.10) is one of the best eating toddlers out of kids I know his age - eats all his veg, fish, most meats as long as they're not too tough, brown bread (crustier the better), all dairy stuff and pasta/rice.

Feeding mushed food as opposed to "finger food" has nothing to do with control - DS learnt to use the spoon himself (albeit messily) by the time he was 1, and now uses a knife (not always how it should be) and fork as he wants to eat like Mummy and Daddy.

I think most people's problem with weaning is that they over think it. Just do what seems right to you and go with it.

I think the best thing you can do with weaning is to get your kids eating the same food as you (albeit mushed or salt/spice free or whatever) as quickly as possible. The fussiest eaters I know are those who have persistently been fed either at different times or different foods to their parents.

[Themobstersknife]

YesWeWill - that is part of my point. There should be no reason why BLW means less tastes. It is people misinterpreting and just giving finger foods that causes that.
TheRhubarb - haven't got time to look it up and I don't want a fight, but I think the theory is that most babies have a sensitive gag reflex until about 6 months, but sometimes when they are older. It is the gag reflex that helps protect babies from choking. If you try and feed before this gag reflex is fully developed, then this can cause choking. From memory, it is used as part of the argument to wait until around six months, and part of the reason to let babies have a bit more control over what goes in their mouth. It is a theory and I don't believe it is being used to market anything.
Finger food in the supermarket I believe has little to do with Baby Led Weaning to my mind.

[PickledInAPearTree]

The website us hilarious. Its full of photos of parents trying to outdo each other with the huge hunks of meat being ravaged by their toddlers.

I did a bit of both as I suspect most people do.

[THERhubarb]

Obv when you wean that gag reflux is more pronounced whilst they get used to it. But the real danger is implying to mums that signs of actual choking is just down to gag reflux. In some cases it is not and it's important to note that.

Babies can and will put things into their mouths which cause choking. Giving them control over what goes in their mouths will not help this. If given the choice, a baby will put pretty much anything in their mouths.

[THERhubarb]

PickledInAPearTree many of those babies belong to Mumsnetters.

[natwebb79]

I weaned my DS on a mixture of purees and finger foods. At 14 months he now eats the same meals as us and it amazes me how much he eats. Not much he doesn't eat (yet!). I get confused as to why BLW advocates tell me that they don't know why I 'spent hours cooking and mashing things'. It took me about 10 seconds to pop some of our veg in the blender for him and about 2 seconds to wipe his mouth after I'd fed it to him (as opposed to the finger food meal where the end mess would almost have me in tears!) :-D

[hazeyjane]

Some babies take to baby led weaning, some take to purees -

dd1 was like a little bird, she would sit with her mouth open waiting to be fed, she was traditionally weaned ie puree, then mashed with finger foods etc. She was also weaned early because of reflux, so probably wouldn't have really coped with blw.

dd2, was blw, ate everything, with hands, learnt to use a spoon, ate wahat we ate etc.

Ds has low muscle tone, poor oro motor skills, and problems with his swallow, so has purees, bite and dissolve foods and some mashed food (he is 2.6).

It seems daft to be as evangelical about a weaning method, as some seem to be,when it just doesn't suit some babies.

[mummysmellsofsick]

I tried blw and found the wetter and mushier the food I gave him the more he liked it- so I tried purees and he much preferred them, at least till 9 months... Then I reintroduced bits and bobs from family meals. Purees were really useful for us. Some babies like them some don't. If you are really baby led, then you just see what your baby prefers

[WillSingForCake]

OP perhaps whilst you're asking HQ to amend your title you could also get it moved to Weaning which is where it belongs.

I see you haven't started weaning your baby yet. Be very careful about being smug & judgy about others choices - you may well find your baby hasn't read your BLW books and you end up giving purees. Which is fine. It really doesn't matter, it's up to the individual.

[MummytoMog]

I used jar food and dehydrated baby food because I really really couldn't be arsed with cooking and BLW. This did not preclude me giving them bits off my plate. Both now eat anything at 3 and nearly 2. apart from sardines on toast which my MiL tries to give them regularly because she is an idiot

[TheCatIsEatingIt]

Just wanted to offer the OP some support here - the title is a bit inflammatory, but the OP explains why and apologises. You don't need to keep apologising to people who can't be arsed to read it, duck.

[AThingInYourLife]

I'm weaning my 3rd baby and have recently come to the opposite conclusion.

I think the rejection of the spoon implicit in hardcore BLW is ridiculous.

Prejudice makes me think it makes more sense to allow babies to feed themselves, but experience tells me that they often prefer to be fed.

[BreconBeBuggered]

I don't read weaning threads so I was always a bit vague about what BLW meant. DS2's first encounter with solid food was at a party when he was 4 months old and crammed his mouth full of jam tart and cheese. He loved it, but it wasn't the carefully prepared vegetable puree I'd been planning.

[HelenMumsnet]

Afternoon. The OP's asked us to move this thread to the Weaning topic, so we're going to oblige.

[TwelveLeggedWalk]

Hi OP
To answer your original question, I weanedy Dts on purees because they were 2 months prem and could not sit, hold anything, or meet any of the other requirements for BLW (but were otherwise ready for food).
I know your OP was deliberately inflammatory, and you otherwise seem pretty rational but just a gentle reminder that lots of mn posters dont have perfectly average babies!

[CommanderShepard]

I honestly don't think BLW makes for less fussy eaters. I really do not believe fussiness works like that.

I BLW but only because it makes most sense for us and suits our family best. DH and I were both incredibly fussy whereas our younger siblings were not, and yet all of us were weaned in the same way according to our mums (which is to say purées from 4 months). If anything I think it's about control. I was always in trouble for not eating [insert food here]. Some of those foods I like nowadays; some of them make me physically sick.

I just think anyone who says to themselves "I shall BLW so my child will be a 'good eater'" is setting themselves up for a fall. I fully expect DD to hit 2 or so and start rejecting foods she used to love.

[Nellycats]

Avoiding purees is great, getting babies interested in food rather than passively accepting spoonfuls of slush is good for them.

BUT

Please stop the "I like it because I'm lazy", it's a bit disingenuous as BLW creates so much mess that surely whatever time you save spoonfeeding you spend in scrapping stuff of the floor?

Also, not all babies do well with self feeding, my first was brilliant at it, my second not so and I had to step in with spoonfeeding at 15 months because she was still practically mainly breastfed!

Fork mashing can be a great way to feed your baby, introduce texture, include real food and avoid the spinach purée cliche.

I'm currently letting my toddler eat on her own while offering spoonfuls of whatever we're having such as stews, yoghurt, mash, fork mashed pasta etc. Because when I leave it to her to self feed with spaghetti she will have around four pieces, chuck the rest to the floor and then breastfeed all night.

Sadly, mine is not the kind that scoffs an entire leg of lamb and then washes the dishes (and probably hunted down the lamb in the first place with a tiny bow and arrows)

[Nellycats]

Also, my son who pretty much chose to feed himself from around 9 months and was a brilliant non fussy eater remained very adventurous till 2. Then he discovered what all the other children at nursery knew: that he liked sausages and hated tomatoes and all of a sudden we got a much fussier eater. Now he won't even have ham. Plain pasta is all the rage apparently

[gail734]

I do mostly spoon-feeding of mush because I want to actually get some food into dd who is just 6.5mo. I don't want it on the floor, walls or her clothes and she doesn't have the motor control or the chewing ability to do it herself. Later I give her a banana, rusk or bit of toast to entertain her. She doesn't really eat it, but it doesn't matter. She sucks it into little bits and then I pick it up and eat it put it in the bin. Waste of food has always bothered me, but I'm trying to get over it!

[AThingInYourLife]

"getting babies interested in food rather than passively accepting spoonfuls of slush is good for them."

I don't accept this dichotomy.

My eldest had almost no interest in food despite all the "playing" I encouraged her to do with various bits and pieces.

DD3 is mad about food but obviously prefers mush to things she can pick up and play with.

There is nothing passive about the way she gets excited in anticipation and takes part in her feeding - she quite clearly savours each new taste.

BLW appeals to all of my prejudices and my utter loathing of puréed food.

But I've done less of it with each baby and weaning has gone better with each one.

DD1 was very co-ordinated by 6 months and could hold and eat an apple and pick up peas and eat them, but even she didn't seem to really enjoy BLW.

My other two physically struggled to eat the food they were given. When I give DD3 finger food instead of mush on spoon, I don't think she even gets that it is food.


Feeding mush (finally) feels more natural to me and if I didn't have a blender and spoons I would give my babies chewed up food until they had teeth and could easily eat more adult food.

BLW seems to work brilliantly for some.

But it's just one useful approach. It's not the path of weaning righteousness.

[Nellycats]

AThingInYourLife, I do agree with you about BLW not working in many cases, my dd included! But I have also seen babies that are old enough to at least have a go at finger foods still spoon-fed puree, and they seemed almost zoned out. Like food was something happening to them rather than a social, pleasurable experience.

[Nellycats]

Actually I think that BLW is promoted very much on the dichotomy of spoonfeeding mush VS eating adult food.

What my post was about is that there is a middle way, that of fork mashing rather than super processed purée that is actually not entirely necessary for a baby of 6 months as they can chew and swallow rather than suck which is what tiny babies of three used to get with purees.

I tried BLW and it didn't work, and part of me thinks there's a bit of competitive parenting involved, in a "look how advanced my baby is, she eats steak".

But just by saying that I will offend a mum whose baby eats steak, just like I managed to offend mums that spoonfeed! Please read my post, I actually believe in a bit of both

[Nellycats]

"pur&eacut;ee" is my idiotic phone's idea of "purée". Why, why, why?!