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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Original poster

If you chose NOT to do BLW, what were your reasons?

218 replies

mrsb26 · 06/01/2016 19:56

Looking to start weaning dd soon and have been reading up on various approaches.

I understand that baby led weaning seems to be the 'thing' for many mums at the moment. I see its benefits in many ways, but also air on the side of caution with it for other reasons.

If you chose to wean traditionally (eg puréed food first), what were your trains for not doing BLW?

Am I right in saying that the NHS recommends a combination of purées and finger foods from around six months?

OP posts:
StrawberryLeaf · 07/01/2016 11:41

My feeling is the important thing is to wait until baby is ready to wean (likely close to 6 months) then just go straight to family meals adapted slightly where required.

I think purée is for under 6 months, if you are weaning a baby over 6 months why would you purée anything? If you want to spoon feed just mush it up a little with a fork.

Squarerouteofwine · 07/01/2016 12:16

Strawberry maybe because going from milk to mashed up food can be too big of a step so puree for a while is a good way to introduce food?

Hate the view that only blw babies are having home cooked food or eating what the family is eating...mine eat the same as us just puréed.

lljkk · 07/01/2016 12:17

didn't Because I like to control the mess.

TheEagle · 07/01/2016 13:11

Agreed, square, DTs eat what we're having for dinner - just mashed a bit now.

RabbitSaysWoof · 07/01/2016 13:11

I hate that too square, but I think blw would have far less selling points if it were compared to an honest description of traditional weaning, I think most people who say they are doing 'a bit of both' or '50:50' are really doing traditional weaning but maybe believing the blw misconception that traditional weaning involves little or no real food and no finger foods, just purees for months on end.
I can easily see why people believe it, the puree stage has been made into such an industry with pouches and jars and special blenders made by baby equipment companies it would be easy to believe before you have known a child weaned the ordinary way that it goes on forever, then the blw brigade (or at least the HV's in my area) get in and tell you their inaccurate take on spoon feeding and they just confirm the marketing hype that if you don't do this the alternative is pouring water into a powdered cow and gate meal or fucking around with a tommy tipee blender for the best part of a year. My favourite one is the patronising advice that 'baby wont choke' like if you don't blw it's obviously because you are highly anxious.

GoldPlatedBacon · 08/01/2016 22:13

I've just started weaning. Prior to weaning I was all set on blw but am instead doing puree and finger food.

The reason is that I couldn't quite face just giving her, say a floret of broccoli, as her first food. Plus DP thought I was crazy in suggesting it. Her first food was somewhat roughly mashed carrot but she didn't take too brilliantly to it so on day 4 I pureed and she seems much happier with the experience of eating. I've been weaning for about 2 weeks now, she's had a few whole foods like broccoli/banana to hold but I made up some puree today and gave it to her for dinner. she likes to feed herself with the spoon so I usually feed her a couple of spoons then load up a spoon and give it to her. The advantage I've found with puree is it's a good way of making sure I don't waste veg as I can blitz up the random odds and ends and feed them to her Grin.

Just trust your instincts and feed how you wish. I have some family members pushing pure blw quite heavily on me but I know what my dd prefers; they don't.

Portlypenguin · 09/01/2016 13:55

Ds1 was given purees and finger foods as a mix as he never ate much by himself and kept screaming....we finally started getting the finger foods consumed about 9mo!

Ds2 is almost 7mo, doing spooned food 2 meals and finger foods the other.

Hate all the mess though.

EeekEeekEeekEeek · 09/01/2016 15:59

My priority is to get as many flavours and textures into DD (8 months) as soon as possible, and to get her to associate food with fullness and satisfaction. At the beginning she didn't have the dexterity to get much food into her mouth. Plus she gagged more or less constantly, and didn't understand chewing. Now I do a mix of finger and puree foods which achieves all the aims.

I love cooking and DD has our food. Tonight she's having home-cooked chicken curry (sans salt and chilli). She adores food, and eats like a trooper.

I think it's best not to be too militant about most things. There have been endless approaches and methods in baby rearing, and if you looked back at most of them you'd probably say there was some sense in it but it wasn't The Way We Should Always Do Things. BLW works for many babies but not doing it isn't going to cause disaster.

EeekEeekEeekEeek · 09/01/2016 16:10

Should clarify: not pureed foods nowadays,just mashed, but we're still spoon-feeding the mashed stuff.

my2bundles · 11/01/2016 11:42

I baby led in that my baby's led me. Both had a mix of purred and finger food one preferred purred untill 8 months the other was eating completely independtly by 8 months. Both needed no help by 12 months and now you wouldn't be able to tell whic did what as they both eat good varied health diets without help. You cannot over feed a purée fed baby, that is a complete myth.

scrumptiouscrumpets · 11/01/2016 15:23

I did not do BLW because I think it is a concept based on erroneous assumptions:

  • Feeding purees is unnatural: in ancient times, humans chewed food which they then spat out for their babies to eat, this is still done in some cultures nowadays, and some animals do it, too.
  • Spoonfed babies are overfed: no idea how it is possible to force-feed any baby. Reminds me of the argument that ff babies are typically overfed.
  • Babies don't need help eating: IME, they do until they're 8 or 9 mo. Before that, they just play around with food.
  • Food is for fun until one: milk may be a baby's staple food until it is well over a year old, but solids are definitely an important part of their diet from much earlier onwards.

BLW seemed like a fad to me and still does. I don't see why not helping your baby eat, not even giving it a spoonful of yogurt, is going to teach it that food is a pleasure. Makes no sense to me. I also don't get the appeal of giving a 6 mo a piece of sausage or a pub lunch to chew on.
I went for a mix of spoonfeeding and finger foods, which, incidentally, was what my grandmother did in the fifties with her kids, and I bet she wasn't the only one! Not many of my friends know BLW exists (I live abroad) and none of them did 100% purees.

I think the blw craze is based on the misconception that spoonfeeding means buying jars of industrial purees for a year, and that traditionally weaned babies are never getting homemade meals.

I totally agree with Babyganoush, you have written a brilliant post!

TheEagle · 11/01/2016 15:25

I think the blw craze is based on the misconception that spoonfeeding means buying jars of industrial purees for a year, and that traditionally weaned babies are never getting homemade meals.

Yy to this ^

EeekEeekEeekEeek · 11/01/2016 16:50

I really don't understand the thing about traditional weaning meaning you're not giving your baby home-cooked meals. Almost all of what I eat is eaten with cutlery. That's why I help DD to eat it. How would she feed herself stew? Or bolognese? I appreciate she will be able to use a spoon herself in the future, but for now, spoon feeding means I can give her adult food mashed up.

LaurieMarlow · 12/01/2016 11:13

The BLW argument seems to work on the assumption that everyone is practicing the worst form of spoon feeding - mindlessly shoving food into their mouths, giving only bland, over smooth jars for too long.

Having said that some of BLW philosophy approach made sense to me. But I don't see BLW and pureeing as two binary systems. I wanted to feed my baby real food - and that involved lots of finger food he could pick up as well as some pureed/mashed up versions of food we were having as a family.

For example, it seemed daft to exclude a nutritious food like porridge from my DS diet because it had to be eaten with a spoon.

I had no issues with mess or gagging. DS was horrendously messy at the start and I became quite relaxed about gagging Blush

CultureSucksDownWords · 12/01/2016 12:15

Porridge doesn't need a spoon to be eaten.... remember, BLW can be very messy...

TheCatsMeow · 12/01/2016 12:18

Why on earth would you give a baby porridge without a spoon

BabyGanoush · 12/01/2016 12:45

maybe BLW should go a step further and only let the baby eat food it can forage and prepare by itself. Wink

CultureSucksDownWords · 12/01/2016 12:52

Well, if they can crawl then they'd probably be ok. I'll give it a try with baby number two.

You know, giving a baby thick porridge to eat with their hands is exactly the same as doing messy play. It's a sensory experience as well as a food related one. But if you don't like mess then I guess you'd find the idea horrifying.

Branleuse · 12/01/2016 13:13

i didnt do BLW as I am neither very good at, or particularly bothered about following any particular method when it comes to parenting. I just fed them. Sometimes home made stuff. sometimes jars/tubes of puree, and sometimes finger foods

mrsmugoo · 12/01/2016 13:42

For me it was the mess.

But I did introduce finger food at the very start and never did actual purees, just mushed up soft food progressing to full blown adult food but just pre-chopped.

WilLiAmHerschel · 12/01/2016 13:44

I did a mixture of puréed food and finger food but my dd would not let me spoon feed her so I ended up doing more finger food for that reason. I still managed to spoon feed some things (mainly yoghurt!).

I just think you can't plan too much on doing it one way or the other as your baby may not agree.

Alastrante · 12/01/2016 13:45

I like a purée myself.

In this culture it's pretty standard to let babies feed things to themselves, it's not a thing that needs a name.

I smelled an industry building around an acronym.

WilLiAmHerschel · 12/01/2016 13:45

Although I never actually puréed food, I mashed it.

magpie17 · 12/01/2016 14:24

I will be starting weaning very soon (DS will be 6mo at the weekend) and was a set for BLW. I don't mind mess, I can't be bothered pureeing, I knew we wouldn't wean early blah blah blah... but when I've read about 'proper' BLW it's too much for me. I think it's bonkers not to give a spoon for yoghurt, soup or porridge! I eat those things with a spoon so if I am trying to teach DS about eating then surely I want to be replicating how adults eat? Similarly I eat an apple with my hands so will give pieces of apple and other fruit as finger foods.

Most people I know do a combo of both in reality, I don't know anyone who only puréed and offered no finger food and I don't know anyone who did true BLW.

CultureSucksDownWords · 12/01/2016 14:38

Thick Greek yoghurt is easy to eat without a spoon, soup you put chunks of bread in. It's not bonkers, just not what you'd like to do. It is no different to sensory play with the added bonus of it also being good to eat.

Fairly early on, my DS got the hang of dipping with a baby spoon and was happy to feed himself things like the yoghurt.

But I'm not advocating that you should do BLW. Do whatever suits you and your baby. I made no assumptions or judgements about what spoonfeeding was like, I just looked into ways of weaning and BLW appealed to me.