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Weaning

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

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Original poster

Combining BLW with Purees etc

40 replies

Autumn78 · 26/02/2007 23:30

I'm STILL trying to make my mind up about weather to do BLW or Purees.

Has anyone tried both? Does it work? Or is it just confusing?

I guess I'm really looking for something routine based????

OP posts:

Spidermama · 26/02/2007 23:31

I slopped purees on top of things like oatcakes or toast. Also you can make thick purees and let them squish them and pick bits up. It's all part of the enjoyment of textures and things, although it's alarmingly messy.

PrisonerCellBlockAitch · 27/02/2007 00:01

i don't think it would be confusing at all for the baby, but remember, technically you'd be doing a mix of finger food and purees, not BLW. cos blw is aaaaall about the finger food and no spooning.

but as long as you wait until the 6 month mark then the baby should be able to self-feed and you can puree as well. it won't be BLW, cos that's more of a concept but no-one's knocking it if a mix is what you fancy doing.

fflibble · 27/02/2007 02:38

Or put another way - it won't be as 'baby-led' as the fully baby-led weaning described in Gill Rapley's guidelines (and often referred to here as 'BLW' for short). But perhaps it could still be led quite a bit more by the baby, and give more control to them, than has traditionally been the case with spoon-feeding. This is personal opinion, but i think there's a significant difference between: (a) pushing spoonfuls of puree towards a baby's mouth, and strongly encouraging them to take them (for instance encouraging them to open their mouth by gently prodding with a spoon); and (b) having something which is a puree/soup/gravy, on a spoon, within reach of the baby's mouth, and letting them lean forward and lick it or put their mouth round it, even if they don't hold it themselves. There's quite a range of ways you could offer purees in amongst finger foods, so if the principles of baby-led weaning appeal, but you don't feel comfortable doing it fully, maybe play around with those ways?

fflibble · 27/02/2007 03:49

Just in case it's not clear, I think it's (b) that's relatively baby-led, and (a) that's more traditional and parent-led!

Also, if you offered only purees, I think regardless of what you did with the spoon you'd be an awful lot further from weaning being baby-led than you are with a mixed system, because the baby would be controlling nothing with their hands then, so you'd be breaking that link with what they can manage with their fingers. I think a mixture of finger foods and purees from early on could still be done in more or less baby-led ways, depending on how you use a spoon, whether you let them discover purees with fingers, etc.

fflibble · 27/02/2007 03:51

I.e., even if it might not fit the guidelines, it might still be worth considering doing. I don't personally think it's a case of 'well if you're not going to follow the guidelines to the letter why bother, it just won't work'. It seems to me one of those things where the benefits are perhaps proportional to how much you manage to do, rather than only kicking in if you manage it 100%.

DizzyBint · 27/02/2007 08:27

yes what aitch and fflibble said. if you do finger foods and purees on a spoon (lots of mums do) then that's fan dabby dozy but it aint blw.

what are your doubts about blw and why are you considering 'supplementing' with purees IYSWIM? you either have confidence in the principle of blw or you don't. it's ok to be either way by the way!

if you don't feel 100% about it then just do your purees and give finger foods alongside. or puree some meals and finger food for other meals. no problem!

DetentionGrrrl · 27/02/2007 10:29

DS eats finger foods and gets on with eating on his own- unless it's porridge or yogurt, in which case i feed him that with a spoon. No confusion here.

Enid · 27/02/2007 10:33

oh I really must parp myself from these threads

I have done both finger foods and spoon feeding with dd3 - she is 10 months and can either feed herself or will be spoon fed depending on my whim . I think this is what most mothers do tbh. I would recommend waiting until 6 montsh to wean as it does make things easier - lumpier textures and no worries about what to give/what not to give.

Personally (please note I said persnoally ) I think BLW is just another set of rules that you can fail at - eg if you give purees you cant be BLW-ing - so I'd rather do things as they come naturally to me and my family.

Find a way that works for you. Stay relaxed!!

Ali5 · 27/02/2007 10:40

My ds (8 months now) is fed purees and finger foods, it works for him and me. I like the fact I can get a variety of foods down him in the form of purees that I (personally) would struggle to offer as finger food but love watching him feed himself toast, carrot sticks etc.

beckybrastraps · 27/02/2007 10:46

I agree with Enid.

When did feeding a baby become so complicated?

And ideological?

prawnsmum · 27/02/2007 10:51

Hi there I give my son both finger food and purees. finger food when we are at home and purees when out and about

hubbahubba · 27/02/2007 11:04

i dont mean to hijack the thread but with blw how do you know the baby is getting enough food if theyre just sucking at bits and pieces???? its all new to me this idea

prawnsmum · 27/02/2007 11:31

From what I've read about it milk is still the main food till the baby is 1 year old and the idea of BLW is more about them getting used to different tastes and textures and learning to chew etc. rather than getting enough foods

PrisonerCellBlockAitch · 27/02/2007 11:45

prawnsmum is right, hubba, you just offer them the food and let them muck about with it, safe in the knowledge that the milk is actually doing the job of nourishing them.

Jillyadoodledoo · 27/02/2007 11:49

Having just started weaining in the last few weeks, it did look like she wasn't getting any of the stuff she was gumming to death. The nappies tell a different story. And as the others said, she gets enough from milk.
DD has had only finger food up until now, but had porridge this morning. I loaded up the spoon and gave it to her (quite thick gluey porridge) and she sucked it off the spoon, and spread the rest over her face. Still blw I presume?

Jillyadoodledoo · 27/02/2007 11:50

sorry - didn't look like she was...

PrisonerCellBlockAitch · 27/02/2007 11:50

in fact, i suppose that answers the ideological question as well. once you're on top of the idea that 'food's just for fun until they're one' then it all flows from there. but it's not for everyone, some people don't feel that way about food and feel better knowing that the baby has eaten a particular amount. which is fine, of course, as absolutely every single person on this thread has said.

PrisonerCellBlockAitch · 27/02/2007 11:51

of course that's still BLW, jilly.

DizzyBint · 27/02/2007 11:54

they don't just suck food though, the chew it up and eat it.

Jillyadoodledoo · 27/02/2007 11:54

Not that I would care if it wasn't. it just meant that I could eat mine while she got on with it...

PrisonerCellBlockAitch · 27/02/2007 11:58

Precisely Jilly...

Jillyadoodledoo · 27/02/2007 12:05

Dizzy, Yes, she did chew it, or rather gum it. I was mean though as I put demerera [sp?] sugar on mine after I had taken hers out

kels666 · 27/02/2007 14:12

my ds gets a bit of mashed mush and a lot of finger foods. I prefer not to put labels on the way I feed him. Did the same with my first and she was self feeding herself proper meals by 8 or 9 mths

fflibble · 27/02/2007 15:13

"yes what aitch and fflibble said. if you do finger foods and purees on a spoon (lots of mums do) then that's fan dabby dozy but it aint blw "

Hmm think I might have been misunderstood, as I wasn't trying to say "do it if you like but it's not blw" - because as far as I can see it could easily still be relatively baby-led, so if that appeals to you, do it, and who cares whether or not someone else thinks it fits some official definition.

Maybe it's the difference between applying 'BLW-the-system' (as set out in such and such rules), and 'weaning in a baby-led way' (something which you can do to a greater or lesser extent). Personally I'm quite pro the latter, having read a bit about it, and the arguments about control of intake by the baby and so on do make a lot of sense to me. But I like it as just one of the different variables when weaning, which people might do more or less, not as a rigid system.

Anyway, if what appeals to you is knowing you're following a set of rules to the letter, then you might be interested in whether or not what you're doing is 'officially BLW'. If not, I'd go ahead and do whatever you want when weaning based on what makes sense for you - including using your own judgement about when your baby is controlling their own intake a good amount, rather than worrying about whether or not anyone else thinks you should or shouldn't be describing what you do as at all baby-led. And personally I wouldn't call it 'mixing blw and purees' as I don't think there really are proper separate systems there at all, and it makes everything seem a lot more difficult (and people more divided) than is actually the case!

funnypeculiar · 27/02/2007 15:20

I did purees (in baby-led way ) and finger foods because
a) the only person in rl I knew who did blw is a bit mad, so I wasn't 100% confident of it ( I was new to mn, or would probably have felt different)
b) I LOVE making purees - all those little cubes of mulit-coloured stuff made me feel like a provider of bounty and Good Mother.

This worked brilliantly for us, until dd decided she was anti-spoonist. At which point we switched to all finger foods.

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