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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

BLW is all very well if....

330 replies

babybore · 14/02/2007 13:51

  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.

OP posts:
lulumama · 14/02/2007 15:21

so every new approach to something about child rearing is trendy and by default not worth bothering about?

bundle · 14/02/2007 15:22

oo - not if i get to them first

bundle · 14/02/2007 15:22

i didn't say it wasn't worth bothering about, i said it didn't have to have a silly name and everyone follow it to the letter

junkinmytrunk · 14/02/2007 15:22

Put yourself in the position of a mum with a baby that will not be weaned the "traditional" puree route. How worried would you be then when you can't get a morsel in their mouth?

What a relief blw would be to you then?

Only today I took my dd's out for lunch while in town. They both sat down to a portion of chicken, pots and veg.
dd2 (14months) sat munching away while a child who was roughly the same age was at the next table eating out of a jar....

At least 4 people commented at how well she sat and ate......

She's happy and I'm happier cuz I can eat my dinner as well before it goes cold!

lulumama · 14/02/2007 15:22

i think BLW, is no plan, just food,, and agree re mini egggs !

littlelapinofLURVE · 14/02/2007 15:22

well done you, you are obviously a born mother, above the anxieties that beset us less mortals.

PigeonPie · 14/02/2007 15:23

Ditto Belgo, I'm also very grateful. My DS (15 months) started very slowly and at 8 months I was still wondering if I'd gone down the right route as he was eating very little, but at 9 months everything changed and he just started eating (and eating, and eating!).

We've just had a friend come for lunch who hasn't seen him eat before and she couldn't believe how much he ate, looked like he was enjoying it and didn't make a fuss (well, not till he wanted me to hurry up and peel his orange for hime more quickly!). I think BLW is the most fantastic thing out

bundle · 14/02/2007 15:24

bully for you junk, 4 people

harpsichordcarrier · 14/02/2007 15:26

yes my dds enjoy eating food, mainly.
god spare us from plans
I once asked one of my apparently normal friends how weaning was going and she said oh I am Doing Annabel Karmel, we have worked our way through it and now we are on Broccoli and Cheese Slop (or some such).

have you seen that woman's recipes?!?!? she has about 20 ingredients per dish I mean why I ask you why??

fluffyanimal · 14/02/2007 15:26

I may be wrong but isn't the "pre-civilisation blenders and ice-cubes etc" method of weaning the 'food kiss' where the mother chews food and then passes it into her baby's mouth? (Desmond Morris has written about this.) The human race has been pureeing for much longer than you might think...

littlelapinofLURVE · 14/02/2007 15:28

Junk, I am pleased for you and your DD, and I assume you are making the point that people commented because that was reassuring for you after the previous problems you had.

Bundle, presumably, would have come up to you and shouted "It's only eating FFS!"

harpsichordcarrier · 14/02/2007 15:28

yep, we did used to chew up food for babies when we didn't have knives and forks or steamers
we also used to bf for AGES of course

MrsBadger · 14/02/2007 15:29

the Annabel Karmel books always reminds me of those Tune A Day music practice books - when someone says 'How's the piano going?' you say 'I've done all of Chapter One and I'm up to Fairy Footsteps'.

oliveoil · 14/02/2007 15:30

I followed Lorraine Kelly

Annabel's photo annoyed me and she peels tomatoes so quite clearly barking

junkinmytrunk · 14/02/2007 15:30

Very reassuring after months and months of trying to get some food into her.

If you don't like blw or whatever you choose to call it then don't, everybody has options to suit them and their babies

littlelapinofLURVE · 14/02/2007 15:30

Fluffyanimal, but then we were banging rocks together to make fire back then... .

DizzyBint · 14/02/2007 15:31

one of my friends was struggling with her puree recipes, she asked me if i thought it was ok to leave out the vanilla pod. i said why are you adding a vanilla pod. she said 'cos that's the week i'm on'

littlelapinofLURVE · 14/02/2007 15:31

My DS loves Annabel Karmel.

He ate two pages before I caught him!

Actually, to be far, she does have some nice recipes. I just stop before the pureeing bit.

hunkermunker · 14/02/2007 15:32

Harpsi, did you see she has a ready meal range out now? The woman is a walking franchise!

Junk, DH was astonished the other day when he took both boys to a M&S cafe for lunch. They both sat and ate sandwiches and fruit and several people commented to him that DS2 ate really well, etc, etc, how did he manage it, etc.

I, however, have since taken them both to the same cafe for lunch and had no comments (although I do stick DS1 in a highchair with a sandwich and go off to get my lunch - can see him from where I am, but not everyone is aware that he's with an adult - it looks like a not-quite-three-year-old has rocked up to the cafe to have his lunch by himself - PMSL!), so I think it's possible it was more about it being DH who had the boys than about how well they were eating

DizzyBint · 14/02/2007 15:34

i've seen her ready meals. they are called somthing like fussy eaters aren't they? all about hiding veg. have you seen how tiny the portions are?

Bozza · 14/02/2007 15:34

jimt - both of my children would have eaten that meal like that at that age - especially in a cafe despite being started off on purees. They were both on ordinary family food by about 10 months. And I am lucky that my children save their difficult behaviour for at home and are generally polite and well behaved when they are out.

hunkermunker · 14/02/2007 15:35

DB, it's fucked up, isn't it?

Food's food. It's bloody weird all this hiding stuff and tricking people into eating things and bribing children and fgs no bloody wonder we're mental about food in this country!

littlelapinofLURVE · 14/02/2007 15:37

I think AK is amazing, well done to her. And she used to be a professional harpist as well!

Anyway, you need to hide veg. If you haven't BLWd your child...

DizzyBint · 14/02/2007 15:37

dd would need extra veg on the side of one of those meals to even start to fill her up. makes me laugh at nursery they are so impressed with her eating the toddler food, they say oooh she ate all her sandwich. i'm thinking yes but at home she'd have had three of your teeny tiny sandwiches. luckily she is only there for 2 teas.

hunkermunker · 14/02/2007 15:39

Littlelapin, she certainly harps on about pureeing food.

Have you heard her interview about BLW? She says "but what if they choke on a lychee stone?"

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