Can we clear up once and for all whether you are 'allowed' to mention the possibility of spoon feeding on a BLW thread?

[Enid]

If the consensus is no, then I will happily bow out of any thread asking for advice on weaning, specifically BLW.

I always say that IMO it is fine to do both - ie a mixture of finger foods and spoon feeding.

Surely this cannot be in any way controversial?

I don't get it! Who gives a damn whether you use a spoon or not? The kids are being fed aren't they?

Surely there are more "important" things to worry about than whether you should use a spoon or not!

I think there are far too many people worrying unnecesarily about things because people like to write books and articles where really none are required

there is just too much parenting mystique and clobber to worry people now it's geting silly

Bizzy - he LIKES yoghurt. I am not going to not offer it to him on a spoon just because I might contravene some mythical BLW law.

Hear Hear Rhubarb! And on that note I'm off to give dd a sandwich and a yoghurt - I'll let you decide which will be offered on a spoon

Enid when you start threads like this, it does kind of look like you are hung up about the way you are feeding dd, and feel like other people are criticising you about it. Which doesn't make sense, because I think you are obviously a very confident and superbly able mother, so why would something like that get to you?

So I am confused.

I think the distracting thing then shoving a spoon in is actually force feeding and is not necessary they will eat when they want to eat. I spoon feed and give finger food and consider myself a baby lead weaner as I am lead by my baby I don't use distraction if he doesn't want to eat he won't and I don't get stressed about it. My idea of BLW may be different than the Umbrella title of this new way of weaning but if i'm lead by my baby than as far as i'm concerned i'm a baby lead weaner.

dear god. i was only making a suggestion. spoon feed the yoghurt, i don't care. if someone questions how to offer yoghurt as part of blw i make suggestions. one of them is to not give yoghurt, another is to pour it on fruit. no big blardy deal.

well i wholeheartedly apologise for saying that if it hurt your feelings, that was never my intention. i did include a wink, however, so i thought you would know i meant it as a joke.
but it does seem to me that you are the person who brings up 'failure' before anyone else.

and it was you who started the longest thread ever on BLW, which actually was the exact point that the the attritional nature of this BLW vs spoons began , with a title something along the lines of 'isn't BLW just another thing for mums to fail at?' plenty of people came on to say 'no of course it isn't' and every minute detail of BLW and trad weaning was thrashed out in as i recall about 500 posts but you nevertheless bring it up again and again.

i am terribly sorry to have hurt your feelings, though. it was not my intention. i thought that we were having a bit of cheeky MN banter.

People said the same to me when I started a similar thread F&Z. I am not at all hung up on feeding but was genuinely interested in the BLW method/philosophy.

I didn't mean to offend or come across as insecure but somehow my comments and questions were translated wrongly (it was all sorted out in the end though).

totally agree ledodgy... i do wish that Gill Rapley had called it something else as the title really gets up people's noses as if by not doing BLW you are therefore force-feeding... hence my earlier suzy wong prediction that we were about to get hung up on the Baby ledness of blw.

Really though guys, this would be laughable were it not true. There are mothers out there who are having problems with colic, chest infections, sleepless nights, continous crying - and you are squabbling about whether to feed them with spoons or not!

fgs get a grip!

well said Ledodgy!

Does it Franny? That is a shame. (adds slight criticism of own personality to list of problems Enid has with BLW ). I am not, I can promise you. I love feeding dd3 and she is happy and healthy (feeding dd1 is another matter ). I get upset because I see the BLW threads as a closed shop. That irritates me. I really, genuinely, worry that BLW is applying an ideology to feeding a baby from such a young age. I don't like the references to 'controlling their own food intake'. To me, it seems needlessly controlling on the part of the mother. All this would be fine, I would have nothing to do with it, if it wasn't for feeling picked on if I dare to say you can do a mixture of finger foods and pureeing. Because I bet any money that most new mums think thats what BLW is - finger foods. I bet 80% don't realise that You Are Not Allowed to spoon feed if you are BLW. And while of course Aitch and dizzy are free to tell them exactly what it is, and remind people of the ideology behind it, I think people (eg me ) should be able to remind them that if you are getting worked up over it, you CAN spoon feed, and don't feel that you have failed at something.

Gill Rapley and Spoons - from an online chat on I Want My Mum, someone asks "This is my problem, too - how do they feed themselves if utensils are required?

[Gill Rapley] OK. it's fine to give runny foods off a spoon if you want baby to have them, though there's probably no particular need. I've heard it said that most runny foods (other than breastmilk) were probably not intended for humans to eat anyway! having said all that, some babies can manage amazingly with their fingers!
[Gill Rapley] It's also amazing how soon they can learn to use a spoon themselves."

Although still not clear whether she means the adult can spoon it in to the baby or the baby should do it themselves.... A mumsnet chat with Rapley would be great. Organise pleeeeasse.

Why can't peoiple who call what they do BLW be allowed to get on with it and those that do finger food and purees get on with it and so on. None of it matters. No BLW has ever siad 'my way is the right way', it's just what works for you.

I didn't know that what was happening to me and DD2 could be described as BLW as I just did what seemed logical and right for me and for her.

So yes I used a spoon for weatabiox and yoghurt but she always,always reached out and guided the spoon in herself. Other than that she was the sort of kid that wanted to do things herself so I let her.

So what that BLW has a title? Isn't it easier to refer to this different way of feedign your child as blw rather than food that they put into their own mouths? And as there is an alternative and some parents want to try ir as opposed to just going witht he flow and letting their kids take the lead then there are things to discuss, what works, what doesn't, see Eitch's very interesting blog.

I don't get what the problem is, it's jsu another way of getting food into you kids, that's all.

Some never use a spoon.
Some use a spoon and let baby guide yoghurt in
Some do finger food and purees
Some only do purees
Some cook food from scratch
some use jars

None of it matters as long as you and your child are happy.
So what if one of the above forms of feeding has a title!

It's just alla bout getting food into our kids, there's no right or wrong way. Although if you use jars you're evil and lazy!!! JOKEEEEEEEE!

Love you all, now shut up!

right now I am confused

so ledodgy spoon feeds and finger foods and consideres herself a BLW'ner and aitch thinks thats OK?

so where's the problem with me suggesting it then?

yes enid. i said that right at the start of this thread.

I wonder if these people think we should all eat with our fingers then? Let's get back to primates shall we?

Just remember which hand you used to wipe yer bum with!

what are ice cubes for?

I don't get that bit

and actually, funnily enough i think there is real value in parents reading a bit about BLW and then deciding not to do it for their own reasons, just because if you've seen pictures or film clips of babies eating at 6 months then you might feel more confident about offering finger food from the get-go and avoiding the whole 'lumpy food' thing that some babies find stressful. it's just part of a shift in weaning techniques since the guidelines changed to 6 months.

that did cross my mind too Enid.

primates? oh dear. my family in morocco eat with their fingers, they sit on the floor too.

Oh I loe a food debate, I relaly do, I dodn't mean it when I said shut up, let's debate round in circles all day, i love it! I do, I love food threads.

Can we throw organic blw into the mix, just for the larf!

This makes me want to smack a few people around the head with their own books and prescribe huge chunks of COMMON SENSE to others.

If this is all you have to worry about then yours is a charmed life indeed!

ledodgy says "but if i'm lead by my baby than as far as i'm concerned i'm a baby lead weaner" and that, I think, is the key, I think.