oh i've only just seen this thread, what a shame i'd have liked to discuss the subject... Never mind, watch me kill this stone dead.
Cod, you keep saying 'jsut gvie em food' or words to that effect (with the emphasis on 'to that effect' ) but that is precisely what I do. Shepherd's pie will probably be off our menu for a while, as mashed potato and mince is a bit tricky to pick up and we don't have a lot of leftover roast beef anyway, but of course DD manages perfectly well with casseroles, pasta dishes, really most of the things that DH and I eat. She's able to use a spoon now at 10 months but is more efficent with her fingers.
Skipping the purees was principally the attraction for me, and i have found that in comparison to spoon-feeding friends i get to eat my own meals hot a lot more often. Now, even if that's the only advantage i'm taking it gladly.
For the record it doesn't take very long for DD to fill herself up, and we tend to clean up our dishes etc while she's having some fruit so i do think it's a reasonably time-efficient manner of weaning. it was messy to begin with but after a month or so her aim got noticeably better.
With regards to their GCSEs it's impossible to say as the 'research' (tiny group, really, so more an indicator than actual concrete proof) was only conducted in 2002. Gill Rapley reports that all are 'good eaters' but who's to say they wouldn't have been anyway?
The one area that i do find interesting for the future is the difficult period that a lot of toddlers and their parents experience when the children seek to establish control over their environment and often use food as the battleground. Rapley has posited that never having removed control in that area, it may follow that children who have 'led' their own weaning from the start may not respond to food in this manner. (Will they move their rebellion elsewhere, of course? again, we don't know. DD may yet torment me with a profound love of bratz dolls).
My paediatrician friend mentioned that DD's fine motor control seemed particularly good for her age and when i told her about BLW she said that made sense as she was simply getting much more practice at picking things up than most babies. So will this matter in the long term, will she be a fine artist when she grows up? (Not if i have anything to do with it... i'm thinking of encouraging her to become a magistrate as they make loads of money and get heaps of respect).
Anyway, I like BLW principally because it is so easy but there is also a super-geeky part of me that is fascinated to see if any of Rapley's predictions turn out to be true. In the meantime I can't see that it could do DD any harm, and writing the blog does give me something to do other than join the Flylady thread and tidy up my house, which lord knows can only be a good thing.