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.

ENid...would she not have eaten it herself, with her hands...?

DD eats spag bol with her hands, and sometimes i can mush the food into a ball or 'chip' shape which makes it easier ?

at 15 months Babylulu is starting to eat with her fork and spoon..

My dd is perfectly capable of eating shepherds pie with her fingers; as I said, BLW is messy, but in my dd's case, absolutely necessary if I wanted her to eat anything other then milk.

oh well - whatever lol

I used purees more for ds because I weaned him earlier (pre-6 month recommendation).

Dd was weaned at 6.5 months and pretty much went straight into finger food, because I had found it so easy with ds once he got to that age. And hurrah for the lack of blending.

I think I was a fan because I read somewhere that lumps and solid food are helpful in speech development. Although dd didn't utter a word until she was at least two, so that blows that one out of the water.

Bizarrely, had I known about BLW, I would probably have felt compelled to NOT do it. Because I'm contrary like that. But it seemed right (okay - easy) so I did it by default really.

enid my dd has had all of those things and been absolutely fine. she loves chicken casserole, chickpea curry, couscous and roast veggies, honestly. shepherd's pie was not a problem, because i do my mince with some un-broken-up meatballs so you just pull them out as you find them and hand them over. mashed potato is easy for them to eat, so long as it's fairly thick.

the thread about starving them is here . thing is, you either believe that they get everything they need from milk or you don't, so she can't be starved as her mother has said that she is bfing on demand. my dd was a bit finicky with some textures, so it might that, or it might be what Corriedale suggested, who knows? i don't really know if it was a BLW question in a way, just a 'baby behaving oddly' question, and your and auntymandy's opinions are every bit as valid as anyone else's. it's up to WriggleJiggle what she does at the end of the day, isn't it?

enid- you would be surprised at what food babies can manage to eat. my MIL freaks out when she watches dd eating. it's been hard for her to stop thinking dd will choke and that if she drops bits and makes a mess it's ok.

I just don't think it's really that much different from giving them stuff on a spoon in conjunction with finger foods. Ok there will always be some odd balls still exclusively puree feeding at 2yrs or whatever, but most mums I know give a mixture of puree, then lumps, with finger foods almost from the start.

Enid:
Babies will not starve unless you cut off their milk supply - thats where their calories & nutrients come from. Ive said it earlier in the thread but will say it again - early solids are NOT meant to fill babies up - they are only for experimentation & introducing new tastes & textures. As they get older they will gradually start eating more food and its different for every baby when the solids over take the milk but it is meant to be a gradual process.

You also mention about not being able to give stuff like sheperds pie, chick pea curry, chicken stew with couscous. I presume all these things had some kind of vegetable in them which would be ok to pick out & offer to the little un. For very young babies you might need to have lot of veg in stick or wedge shapes at first until they get past having to palm things & can use their pincer grip properly...then anything goes - if you can pick it up (no matter how messily) then its can be classed as finger food imo . Shepards pie with peas was a huge fave with my DS when he was little - he ate the whole plate with his hands with no problems. Occasionally he liked us loading a spoon with the mashed potato which he then grabbed & fed himself.

then that's fine fannyannie! there's just lots of us who are enjoying not doing any puree at all, we don't see the need so we just do the finger food. there's really not much more to it!

fannyannie: my dd refused to take a spoon, therefore BLW made a crucial difference in my situation. She coughed and choked every time I tried to give her a spoon. With BLW she was in control and didn't cough and choke.

exactly, fannyannie, there isn't much difference... don't know why everyone's getting so up in arms about it. if they are on 9 yoghurts a day and having appoinments with Dr Tanya, then i'd be worried.
i think the only 'new' thing is the 6 months recommendation for weaning, which means that for the first time if you want to you can skip the purees altogether...

not that the 6month thing is new according to the WHO, but that's another matter.

not that the 6month thing is new according to the WHO, but that's another matter.

hmm well I read that thread and the baby was only seven months, and bf on demand so getting lots of milk so she wouldn't have starved would she? ime lots of babies don't start eating much until 8/9/10 months and even later. it's all just tastes till then right?

not that the 6month thing is new according to the WHO, but that's another matter.

yes, if it fits in with your lifestyle then do it, but if not then don't but I don't see how it;s a pass/fail thing tbh

not that the 6month thing is new according to the WHO, but that's another matter.

DID you hear me, i said blah blah the 6 month thing..?
sorry about that, somethign funny happened.

also with regard to that baby, there is a pic of her on my blog with a whole, largely decimated, ear of sweetcorn and an arsenal bib. she is GORGEOUS, absolutely edible, but she is clearly not in any danger of starvation as WJ said.

DID you hear me, i said blah blah the 6 month thing..?
sorry about that, somethign funny happened.

also with regard to that baby, there is a pic of her on my blog with a whole, largely decimated, ear of sweetcorn and an arsenal bib. she is GORGEOUS, absolutely edible, but she is clearly not in any danger of starvation as WJ said.

Message withdrawn

So if my wee man is in his high chair and he starts to chew on his bib, should I take this as a signal to mix it up with some porridge and serve it up as a pancake?