BLW is all very well if....

[babybore]

1. Your baby has very good gross motor skills
2. You are not concerned about their weight gain
3. You have the time and money to prepare a wide variety of foods, most of which end up on the floor.

My dd is 7 months, weaned at 6. I was looking forward to weaning her as she was under her growth curve and I thought it might help her get back on it (it has). I have been trying finger foods but have mainly relied on home-cooked mashed or pureed food as she does not yet have the dexterity or the brain development to understand that the stick of brocolli put in front of her is her lunch, no matter how long I leave her with it.

If I had done BLW, my baby would be unhappy and underweight (she loves her solids) and I would be miserable and worried. So while it works for some babies I really think a degree of caution needs to be exercised in believing that all babies can eat finger foods from 6 months.

I blw both my dd's and dd1 slept straight thru from the start but my dd2 iss 14months and still doesn't sleep thru, so can't agree with that sorry

have to disagree re the sleeping as my two both slept through at weeks old

good sleeping seems to be more about just having babies that sleep, rather than the amount of food they eat, or don;t eat

i think if BLW doesn;t work for you, no problem, but my thing is that traditional weaning , for babies destined to be petite, does not necessarily guard against slow weight gain

You have to do what's best for you and your baby, but how can you say you'd have sleep problems if you'd BLW? How can you possibly know? My DS is BLW and he sleeps through, but then he did before I weaned him.

It seems like you are evangelically ANTI BLW.

I accept that the good sleeping may be unrelated although as she would have hardly been eating anything now, I may have had some issues.

Also, I don't think that weaning is the magic cure for weight problems but I have to say it did help my dd get back on track.

'Also...at the risk of being slapped for smugness, my baby has NEVER ONCE woken in the night from 12 weeks of age.'

Babybore - as someone who's had to work very hard to get my dc to sleep ok - yes , I feel like 'slapping you for smugness' now!

Hun, I'm not trying to be a cow here, but looking at your posts on other threads, it does sound like you are very concerned about your DD's weight. I'm not saying this is bad, but maybe it has coloured your thinking a bit?

My DS has dropped from 75% to 50%, but he's uber-lively, always on the go, happy and healthy. I think that's more important than his centile.

Sorry Belgo . I do count my blessings on the sleep score.

I'm not 'evangelically anti-BLW' I just wanted to make the point (again) that a degree of caution should be used when recommending it as a weaning process from Day One. It's not like breastfeeding V formula where it has been proved that breast milk is better for a baby.

Little - I have been concerned about my baby's weight in the past but never overly so. I have always been reassured by other posters regarding it and it has made me feel better. I suppose I just wanted to do the same for the puree mums around here - it's nothing to be ashamed of!!

thing is babybore...and i do take your point

weaning has become this huge industry, down to things like pasta, being marketed as baby pasta! what is wrong with small pieces of normal (cheap!) pasta? you can buy special blenders and things to make your own baby food

it is not in the weaning industry;s interests to promote something as simple and easy as BLW

but just as pureeing does not work for everyone, neither does BLW .

you do what works for you!

babybore, here's some good news: iron stores do not go into a 'rapid depletion' at 6 mths. Breastmilk, which contains iron, is fine, but there is a fairly well-established notion that in the second half of the first year, iron (in solids) will help maintain the baby's iron status....but there's no need for a calendar-driven panic

You talk about BLW people presenting BLW as the only thing to do with the strong implication that this would annoy or worry mothers who aren't doing it....you are far more likely to do both of these things with your strictures about iron, and your idea that you have to be prepared to chuck a lot of cash about in order to do BLW>

I am also puzzled by this: 'she does not yet have the dexterity or the brain development to understand that the stick of brocolli put in front of her is her lunch'.....healthy babies' brain development keeps pretty much up to speed with their digestive development. If a baby doesn't recognise brocolli as lunch, then you can be sure the digestive system doesn't either

I'd hate to think that mothers coming on here are gonna start to worry about their babies' brain development 'cos they don't want to eat a stick of brocolli.....

Who has ever suggested that pureed food is something to be ashamed of? I'd be interested to see that link.

I appreciate that you don't want "puree mums" to feel as though they are doing anything wrong; much as "formula mums" might be made to feel... I think you have put a few backs up because your OP wasn't very well informed.

Lulu - I agree and that's why I would never buy 'baby pasta' - it's cheaper and more tasty to make my own. But that's a whole other thread.

This is prob my last post on the subject otherwise I will sound like a broken record - I know BLW is great for some but it isn't something that has to be aspired to. Bbaies will eat finger food in their own good time.

why would anyone want to follow a plan??

Not having teeth doesn't mean she needs her food mashed up. Ds2 didn't need his food mashed up.

I'd agree with lulumama about the weight thing - both my kids were (and are)very small & slim, DS was 'traditionally' weaned with baby rice & pureed veg from 4 months (this was 19 years ago btw, before the advice about not weaning till 6 months) I started DD the same way, but she hated puree & refused to eat from the spoon, so I started letting her eat from my plate from about 6 months. This was almost 17 years ago & BLW as a concept hadn't been invented, so I was pretty terrified she'd choke, and I never dared tell my HV what I was doing, but if mumsnet had been around back then, maybe I'd have found out that I wasn't the only one doing it, and been reassured.
DD is 17 on Saturday, still hates puree & most soft food & still eats with her fingers as much as possible - but I think that's just a teenage thing....

I disagree completely that you need to use caution. Baby led weaning is using caution, more so than pureeing everything.

Babybore, if you can get a spoon into DS2's mouth, I'll give you a banana.

TC - PMSL! I think she'd give him a good run for his money, eh? Was ROFL that DS2 craned his way out of my arms and into your DD2's highchair to finish those blueberries though

"know BLW is great for some but it isn't something that has to be aspired to"

ok....well, why not? what is wrong with aspiring to do something different, that is a valid way to wean? i aspire to do the best for my children and if i learn about something new and interesting, i may well aspire to do it, be it BLW or whatever else

that coupled with your earlier use of the word trendy suggests to me that you think BLW is just a faddy new concept, designed to make us all be yummy mummys doing the latest innovation in child rearing..when TBH, it is so much easier and less faff than traditional weaning, IMO...we came to BLW relatively late, but i heartily recommend it and see it is a well thought out researched concept and a direct challenge to the traditional pureeing route..

One last post! Colditz - if I didn't have teeth I wouldn't want to be given a stick of carrot for lunch, I'd want something that I could taste and swallow easily. Guess that's why I'm a masher, it's the empathy factor.

Tiktok - I know you are very well-informed so will take on board what you have to say about iron stores.

Right off to wake up my dd who's been asleep far too long....

oh, well I'm only doing BLW cos it's trendy... in our Svan highchair with cashmere bibs, and DS only eats macrobiotic superfoods of course...

Have just had a thought - can you imagine if BLW was the standard way to wean babies and someone came up with this new-fangled pureeing malarkey?

PMSL at the "Why the f would I want to do that?!" responses

isn't BLW what cave people did? and a lot of more traditional culture still do?

i can't see it as faddy or yummy mummy, just what most cultures probably did to one extent or another before childcare became 'regulated' by baby gurus and national agendas.

but why does it have to be one way???