BLW or purees?

[Chocolatecakefan]

My dd is just over 5 months and I'm starting to think about weaning - which I plan to do in 2-3 weeks time

I am more interested in the BLW style, but having been to a weaning clinic last week and speaking to an HV this morning, they both seemed to be really against BLW and insisted that I should be doing purees. Why is this?

What is the most common approach now? I thought that because we are now advised to wait till 6 months we could go straight to finger food as they have the abilities to pick up and chew? I also got confused as the books I've read said to wait until lunchtime after the baby has had milk so she's not hungry before starting, but today's HV was insisting that I should do it when it is time for her feed - surely that's just recipe for a tantrum?

Why does it have to be either / or? my babies are 9 and 12 now, but I did a mixture without having heard of blw. dd much preferred finger food and still does, while ds preferred purees and blends.

your baby might take a while to get used to solids and you don't want her getting frustrated because she is hungry and cant the food in fast enough. Start by giving her milk first and letting her explore the food, then gradually increase the amount of food and start giving it before milk when she is a bit more confident /able to feed herself.

Thanks tiger - I was planning on doing it on lunchtime an hour or so after her feed so she wasn't hungry, that's why I got confused by the HV saying I should do it when she is due to be fed!

I have no idea why your HV would be suggesting purees and being very against BLW. I also don't agree with giving food when a milk feed is due, that is odd advice. What I went by was trying solid food about an hour after a milk feed, so they aren't starving but also aren't too full to be interested. That also means that milk is still the priority, as it should be till much closer to 12 months.

Really, you should do what you want, and what you're comfortable with. I did BLW, as did a fair few people that I know personally. Lots of other people did purees - it has been the predominant method for a long time, and lots of people will do purees as that's what their parents/siblings/etc did. Most people who do purees will introduce some elements of "finger food" alongside, or soon after they start solids.

If you want to know why the HV were giving the advice they gave, I would go back to see them (maybe at a drop in?) and ask them exactly why they're recommending it.

If you haven't already, I would get the BLW book (by Gill Rapley) and have a read, as it explains the ideas behind BLW really well. It may help to give you confidence with BLW if you go ahead with that method.

Puree is mushed food and finger food. You do give finger food even if you give them purees. Have a look at any of the books/website of Annabel Karmel.

BLW is self feeding. You can give them purees to self feed, but you don't usually. However, you will have to let them go on with feeding themselves with cottage pie, spag bol with their hands. It's not 'finger food'.

Also, with BLW, you do all her feeding with your meal time. And you let them get on with it. There's no need to wait an hour before milk or such non sense. You start with the meal most suitable to you, usually breakfast and lunch. And then quickly work up to three meals if you can face it. I was on three meals with both DC within a month.

I have two spoon refusers so I'm quite familiar with BLW style weaning.

Thanks guys. I'm in the middle of reading Gill rapley, it's so well written!

I did think the HV advice was odd, glad it's not just me!

The HV in my area are very pro BLW and promote it at their weaning workshop.
My DD is 6 months old we have just started BLW this week its going very slowly she's basically ate nothing.
Ordinarily I wouldn't be bothered (I was a nanny so I've weaned a few babies) but she has reflux so I want to see if eating will improve it before I agree to upping her dose.

I started with purees and gave a few pieces of fruit, bread and veg alongside that. Some babies take to solid food immediately, others take a while whatever method you use. With purees, most babies get more solids earlier than with BLW because they have to learn to feed themselves, which may be frustrating for some babies.
If you want to do BLW, do it, if you want to give purees, then do. BLW is just a different, not the only correct way of weaning, even though IME a lot of people who do it try to make out it is. Also, remember that you will not be giving purees for more than a few months anyway.

Thanks for all the advice. I think where she confuse me most was she was insisting that I should be doing purees, then immediately said I should be giving her weetabix for breakfast!

You can add a lot of milk to weetabix until it goes mushy and like a porridge. Then you could spoon feed that I suppose. I imagine that's what she meant.

I went to a weaning workshop and the HV was very pro purees, and I was confused like you as I had been quite keen on BWL. Then another younger hipper HV came along and was really enthusiastic about BLW so I went with that and it really worked for me. The pros for me were :

We all already had sit down mealtimes so we just pulled up a highchair and he had whatever we were having

No worrying about preparing purees in advance/batch preparing etc

It's lovely watching a six month old experimenting with eating apples/chicken legs etc,

You can let them get on with eating while you eat, you don't have to worry about spooning food into their mouth.

DS has always been great at sit down meals, in restaurants/family gatherings etc, and I'm sure this must be at least partly down to that being all he has known.

For some people the disadvantages will be that mealtimes can be quite time consuming (lunches were often an hour long). And it can get quite messy. The ikea antilop highchair was great

Be guided by your child I would say.

My kids are a bit older so I hadn't really heard of BLW but:

dc1 happily accepted purees and enjoyed exploring finger foods too.
dc2 refused anything except yoghurt off a spoon and ate everything with hands.
dc3 didn't like self feeding at all until much older. Tbh dc3 wasn't massively keen on food full stop though

One positive thing I did find with puree is that you can introduce stronger tastes by combining with something milder that you know they already like eg dc1 would eat pretty much anything if I pureed it with carrot.

Do have fun however you approach it - I loved weaning, really enjoyed introducing them to the pleasures of food

Puree can also be based around family food and eating together btw.

And yy do get the Ikea highchair. It's the best by far.

I didn't really do either.

Well I didn't ever purée anything, but I don't know if you could have called it true BLW as I spoon fed sloppy stuff like yoghurt, shepherds pie, porridge etc. But basically just gave DS exactly what we were having. Most of the time he used his hands. The challenge now (15 months) is getting him to use a spoon and fork instead.