terramum, i totally agree about the naps and eating. the whole three meal a day thing is pretty bogus and a luxury that is available to us in the western world, so if dd slept while we ate lunch then so be it. if she woke up hungry then she as offered milk for sustenance followed by food for playing if i could be bothered. i reckon that she was about 11 months before she was regularly eating three times a day, but she never ran short of milk feeds. it's not that big a whoop, the whole BLW thing, do it if you want, don't if you don't.
everyone's doing that they think is best with regards to weaning in the context of their inclination, the research, their time, their 'routine', whatever... colditz is right, in ten years time you won't be able to tell the difference between who was spoon fed and who wasn't.
extrapolating from the BFing on demand theories, the BLW children may be more accustomed to controlling their own appetites but there will be other factors that will be involved in a child's prevailing attitude to food, not just whether they were spoon fed or not.
at the moment it's interesting to me to find out what happens, and it's certainly easier for me to give dd our food than make up separate. and we do eat strong flavours, in fact dd has been known to turn her nose up at a mild cheddar.
but it's not a war, and it's no more something to fail at than every other part of being a mother. plenty of instinctive BLWers felt that they were failing at pureeing until they discovered the Rapley study that indicated that giving finger food alone was 'okay'. of course it's okay fgs, but you ask belgo or lulu or my friend vitomum (who panicked about the fact that her son didn't eat til he was one) how they felt at the time. in vitomum's case there was months of stress that BLW's 'just for fun until they're one' mantra would have saved her. at least that's what she tells me.
and Enid, you must stop this now, everyone knows you are Annabel Karmel in disguise... but what about a lychee stone..?