Yesterday was the final straw, I can’t keep my mouth shut any longer, Baby Led Weaning has gone seriously, dangerously wrong (if it was ever even right to start with).
I attend a weekly mums group, of which I (as far as I’ve worked out) am the only one who is doing traditional weaning. Yesterday, I sat quietly and watched a 7 month old baby have a bacon sandwich for her lunch. A BACON FUCKING SANDWICH. After producing this nutritional feast for her toothless child the mother then looks around and asks where she needs to go to get baby vitamins. It took everything in me not to scream out ‘try the vegetable aisle in the supermarket you stupid bitch!’. I asked if this was the childs lunch or just a snack, to which the reply was, oh no it’s her lunch, she loves bacon and it’s so easy for her to hold’, well… so is a fucking shoelace but I wouldn’t give it to my baby for lunch. Meanwhile, another mother next to me opens a tub of humous and gives it to her 6 month old baby (yes, the whole pot) with a handful of toast. The other mothers chimed in and said how incredibly healthy the baby was because it was eating chickpeas, clearly they have no idea how much salt is in a slice of bread let alone a full sized tub of humous (some pots of humous are known to contain 4 entire crisp bags worth of salt). For dinner that night this same child would go on to sit at the table and gum at a piece of carrot and lump of chicken. Try and working out how much nutrition this child has had today?
In reality there’s only so much you can give a 6 month old baby who hasn’t got any teeth and has swallowed nothing but milk it’s entire life. Going from this to sticking a lump of celery of even chicken in it’s hand is bloody cruel. Naturally it’s going to want to play with it before it eats it, which is why all BLW mums say 99% of the food lands on the floor and very little in the childs actual mouth.
I recently found out that not only has virtually no research been done on BLW, but it was also invented by a Healthvisitor. We have been feeding babies on healthy, nutritious purees for thousands of years then a health vistor comes along with no research whatsoever and starts a fad. The only clear research done on BLW shows that it can be harmful to babies who are struggling to gain weight, doesn’t that tell you enough? (for the mum who’s thinking blenders haven’t been around that long remember that in third world countries today women are still chewing food up and feeding it to their babies, it’s naturally what we are supposed to do, BLW is NOT natural).
Then there is the choking hazard which I’m only going to step on lightly, the day you see your own child properly choke (and one day it will happen) will possibly be the worst day of your life. Why risk this earlier than need be? It’s ludicrous, what’s the rush and what’s the point other than putting your child at risk for a fad? One of the mothers at the group recently said ‘oh he’s only choked a few times’. Well for me that’s a few times too many. And no, a baby CAN NOT choke on puree, if you’re confused as to why look up the definition of choking.
Bread is easy, cheap and soft, it’s fast becoming the staple food of choice for BLW mumies and there’s no arguing that, I’ve watched it happen first hand. In those first years of life a babies cells are developing the fastest they will ever develop again, this is the time that as their mummy we need to step up and make sure we give our child everything they need, it not about giving the baby a choice it’s about giving them a chance and a healthy start. Yes if you want to give your child hand held snacks, great - do it all day AS SNACKS, but please get in your kitchens and make up some healthy, nutritious pureed or mashed foods and spoon feed every last little drop into their mouths, this time will go so fast and least then you can look back and say you gave them the best start you possibly could.