Ok since we are on food, lets talk about Baby Led Weaning - isnt it just ANOTHER set of rules for mums to fail at?

[Enid]

Because by NOT following baby led weaning I don't have any angst about what to give dd3 for breakfast. I give her porridge, I spoon it in, she eats it, end of. I mean, sorry, but porridge pancakes!? Why bother?

I liked the idea of it but there seem to be toooooooooooo many threads asking for advice and what to feed your baby etc - this suggests to me that it is just ANOTHER thing to angst over. I mean, if I am giving dd1 and 2 shepherds pie with peas, how am I supposed to feed it to dd3? so she gets the same thing mashed up and spooned in, hurrah.

is there not a mnetter who has set up a website on this?

is it aitch?

have I imagined all this and lampooned aitch into my fantasy to boot?

And I don't get the 'it's less faff than pureeing' bit. That takes about 15 seconds.

Dealing with gagging, choking and crying is the time consuming bit ime.

Of course lockets, that is very true.

For me, it's just as Pruni said in the last line of her post.

Bit like tummy time.

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no there are people who do only purees

I have an aquaintance who still feeds her 2 yo purees.

She also wheels him around in a pram with frilly blankets.

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It is Aitch who has a blog (www.babyledweaning.com)

She has said before, and I agree, that BLW is a silly name! It is just using all finger foods and no purees. It's not a revolutionary thing, but it is easier and makes more sense now we don't wean until 6 months.

And yes, I also know a 2yo who still has purees and won't eat finger foods.....

PS Alfie has never choked or cried due to BLW! He gagged a couple of times the first two weeks but grinned at same time! If you don't panic then they don't.

And I think it really is a case of you do what is best for you and your child. BLW or spoon feeding, who cares as long as you're all happy??? Can't see a problem either way, although spoon feeding is not for Alfie or me. Who knows how any future kids I may (or may not!) have will get on with BLW? Like BF, I'd try it first, but if it all goes belly up, then I'd spoon feed and get on with life. I really can't see the problem either way TBH.

Where IS Aitch anyway? You always know how to put things better than me Aitch! LOL!

hello all.

i have been away having ROOT CANAL treatment.

BLW is absolutely a stupid and slightly cringey title for something that mothers of more than 2 children have always done and will always do, or so my mother (of 4) tells me. in fact i think she said something along the lines of 'bloody new mothers always re-inventing the wheel...mutter mutter.'

it's basically just feeding the baby what you are having (more or less) and they feed themselves and take as much milk as they want. the idea is that you don't really bother much about amounts as the baby just takes more milk. at the moment, for example, dd is teething and not eating very much and i couldn't care less.

whether they will be better or worse eaters at the end of it we don't know, as it's fairly recent and there isn't more than a tiny amount of research into it.

i like it because i am quite geeky and i like an experiment and also i am profoundly lazy and like eating in cafes and handing stuff to DD.

i don't find it particularly messy but i've never pureed so i've nothing to compare it to. dd likes it, never refuses anything without trying it (except plums), she's putting on weight and she sleeps through the night. she probably would be doing both on purees, as i would have made it my job to create delicous purees and obsess about that, had BLW not piqued my interest.

does that help at all? i am in the middle of cooking a beef and beer casserole and my anaesthetic is wearing off...

HowTheFilly,

Solids at the start of weaning have nothing to do with satisfying hunger. They simply dont have enough calories in them for that - thats what milk is for. Solids are more for exploring tastes & textures and getting used to chewing foods. The mourneful looks that DS gave us at mealtimes, before he was able to sit unaided, were easily solved by simply giving him a bowl & spoon to play with. All he wanted was to be involved in our mealtime & pretend to be like mum & dad (just as he wanted to read every book & newspaper we read - didnt necessarily mean he was ready to do so himself .

The idea behind blw is that babies usually dont have the coordination/ability to feed themselves until their gut is mature enough to cope with solids properly so they arent actually missing out at all. Just like them not being able to walk until their muscles are strong enough to support their own weight - waiting until they can do it on their own is the best way of preventing problems later on.

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Hi Aitch

Root canal work - ouch!

i am very sensible, pruni, thank you for noticing...[smiles wanly through bloodied teeth]

i forgot to mention about the 'control' thing. there is a school of thought that says if you let the baby pick food up and eat it themselves they will control their own appetites, so in that respect it is like breastfeeding. given that this is often advanced as a pro-breastfeeding anti-obesity thing then it would seem to follow that blw is the naturaly successor to bfing.

HOWEVER, as a formula feeder i've never really bought that argument with milk, and i'm not sure i but it with purees either, i personally can't imagine being able to feed dd a morsel more than she wanted, puree or no. however i have been surprised to see other people (friends of mine) employing distraction techniques on their babies to in their words 'shovel' a bit more in, with success.

i don't think dd would ever have complied with that but some babies obviously do... and i've been told some babies also get that whole 'finish up the last of your bottle, darling' although i've never seen that as most of my firends are bfing.

the control thing that strikes more of a chord with me is somethign Gill Rapley suggests doing (i think half-jokingly), whereby she advocates feeding your partner (and he/she/it you) their dinner from a spoon. for a laugh me and dh did it and it was hugely frustrating and stopped being funny after about thirty seconds.

so apart from the fact that i get to eat my own dinner while it is still hot i like BLW because i know that DD can please herself without thinking 'oh ffs mummy stop talking to daddy about the fortunes of East Fife Football Club and get that food onto a spoon'.

we do have lots of interaction with her at meal times, to whomever was concerned that i was knitting a bobble hat in another room while she was left with a cheese sandwich.

ah terramum, yes, I do remember this

And am absolutely with you on them not needing much besides milk for...oooh....ages really. No arguement there.

And both my kids ate at least 80% finger food tbh, cos I liked to give them a bit of independence. Both mine wanted that at 7/8 months, so finger foods were perfect.

BUT

I also think an important part of weaning is aclimatising kids to their family's cooking and so on, giving them a taste for different sorts of food, etc etc. Now there are foods that you can't give as finger foods which I think they need exposure to. Eg....

My thing was more that they ate the same as us, not that they ate with their fingers. So occasionally I would eg puree down a soup a bit more for dd.

(well explained, aitch btw)

Told you she was good at explaining it LOL!

(oh christ am regretting the "topping up with slops" line)

but seriously aitch, I think the controlling their own appetite thing is vital

but my god neither of mine would have stood for me feeding them if not hungry.

filly, on the blog thing we tried to work out what food couldn't be eaten as finger food and we came up with very little, actually. i can go and have a look for it if you want. soup can be eaten with bread, but i do admit that for the moment we haven't been blending soups (although i do that quite infrequently anyway) and we've been having more chicken and veg and barley type soups as they are easy to pull bits of meat and veg etc out of. and the barley is hilarious for the pincer grip.

i do BLW with DD...but until i discovered mnet.. i thought i was a bad mother!!!

traditional weaning did not work for DD....she would not eat from a spoon..none of my lovingly prepared homecooked meals....(or the organix jars when i grew tired of sobbing over the meals she refused to eat!!) she would refuse the spoon , spit the food out or just cry to be let out of the high chair.

I took babylulu to the HV as she had had bad gastroenteritis, wouldn;t eat and was losing weight and she is petite anyway...

Luckily my very sensible HV said to leave the food on her tray ( she was 8 months old by this point...we had been weaning since just under 6 months) lots of pieces of finger food to pick up and explore..................

so i did....and she is so much happier! she is 15 months now and eats with her hands. although the last month or so i have introduced a fork and spoon and she is now using them to get the food in herself.

although watching her eat spag bol or macaroni cheese with her hands does make me laugh...i have to strip her down to her nappy for that!!!

she is happier.. i am happier..we can eat as a family because neither me nor DH has to sit there trying to shovel food into her...

it worked for me and it is nice to know there is a recognisable alternative method to traditional weaning.

it won;t work for everyone..but as there are not really any rules...don;t see how you can 'fail' at it......

Aitch's blog is fab!! she is a star!