Why is traditional weaning now looked down on?

[tlove]

I feel like traditional weaning is the 'lesser cousin' to BLW recently which is quite frankly bizarre! Anyone hazard a guess as to why this is?

I'm currently weaning my 7.5 month old first with purées and now with much chunkier sauces with pasta for example, and some finger food such as toast and banana.

Some people I know are doing total BLW and seem to almost brag about it! Weird.

My baby knew how to swallow from birth, expert milk drinker that she was.

had twins and didn’t want to spoon feed two at once

I was exactly the same Sell At ten years old my two still eat anything, can be taken anywhere and have beautiful table manners.

Who knows whether BLW made any difference to that or not but it certainly didn’t hurt.

Was I unclear, coats, or are you being deliberately obtuse?

I think it's the labelling of things that makes it all sound like such wank.

BLW = finger food, nothing new fangled but give it a jaunty "name" and everyones' all over it. And when I say everyone, I mean media. And whats in the media seeps into our consciousness that it's the "best" thing to do.

Baby wearing, attachment parenting. Seriously what a pile of shit. Not the action itself or the thought but the constant labelling of the "type of parent" you are, or the "philosophy".

Stop trying so hard. Just parent. Is your kid happy, do they smile, do they laugh, are they alive at the end of the day? Great! You're winning! People need to stop labelling themselves into a corner.

I agree Stroke.

Enough with labels and also defining themselves as members of opposing "teams".

BLWeaners are still feeding the same amount of milk which seems odd to me because surely we're in the game of weaning OFF milk?
Milk is the main source of calories until 1 year old. It’s more nutrient dense than other foods such as veg. Babies don’t actually eat that many calories. Weaning onto food doesn’t necessarily mean weaning off milk. Your baby should still be getting as much milk as he wants. He’ll gradually take less milk of his own accord as he eats more food.

sellmyhouse I wasn't being deliberately obtuse but I was making the point that lots of the BLW canon -like many other aspects of parenting that get marketed as a 'thing' - has these neat little arguments like "why learn to swallow before you can chew?!" that don't actually stand up to reason. In this case, because babies begin life on a liquid diet so every baby learns to swallow before they can chew, no matter how they are eventually weaned.

In general (this is not aimed at you sellmy) it doesn't bother me how someone chooses to wean their child, but it does bother me when one method or another is pushed as being better using spurious reasoning. It creates pressure and a hierarchy when that's the last thing anyone needs.

I was the same as @Sellmyhouse - I did lots of reading, and to me at least it made more sense for DD to learn to chew first than to swallow what she was given from a spoon. It just seemed logical, and in my mind lowered the choking risk as she'd only attempt to swallow what she could naturally get in her mouth. That's not a fact; just how I saw it, and I was very aware of the difference between gagging/choking and what to look out for.

I was also too lazy to prepare/blend/freeze separate food, so could just give her appropriate food from what we were having.

It worked for us, I loved it and will do it again when DC2 arrives next year. I also understand why people prefer to 'traditional' wean; it just depends what people are comfortable doing!

Totally agree stroke

coats, I’m sure you’re not particularly bothered, but for clarity, the chewing before swallowing thing made sense to me. A liquid is different to a solid. A purée is delivered to the back of the mouth by a spoon and the automatic instinct is to swallow. When a baby takes a bite of a solid piece of food they have to learn to chew the food to appropriate-sized pieces, move it to the back of the throat and then swallow if possible, or gag and try again. That doesn’t seem spurious to me, and actually makes a lot of sense, but we can agree to disagree.

tlove your posts read very much as though you look down on anything but your way of weaning and were hopingwe're hoping for affirmation - you claim to want to open up a debate but if people do debate you ask them why they are arguing and tell them to chill..

I hadn't heard of baby led weaning when I had my now 13 year old, but did it by accident because she hated and resisted being spoon fed but fed herself finger food and then also fed herself (messily but successfully) with a spoon by 12 months. She was my first and I hung out with friends made through antenatal class during maternity leave, so of course we talked about weaning. I only heard the term baby led weaning when she was already weaned.

I stopped breastfeeding at 12 months and she wouldn't take a bottle, so she was on sippy cups of cows milk along with food from then.

Blw had worked so well with dc1, despite me not knowing the term, that I assumed that I'd do it with dc2 - he got frustrated as his fine motor skills weren't as good as dc1's had been, so although I had nagging doubts about that possibly meaning he wasn't really ready I ended up doing a mix. I didn't feed him baby food though, just suitable parts of what we were eating.

Dc3 was different again as he had no interest in soluds and only wanted to breastfeed. When I stopped at 13 months he got quite skinny as he really didn't want bottles or cups of milk whether formula or cow's, nor purees nor finger food in any quantity, except buttered toast... The doctor told me to feed him high calorie foods but he didn't get that dc3 wasn't interested. We got there in the end and he's the low end of a healthy weight and slightly above average height at 7.5...

Dc1 is by far and away the most adventurous eater, dc2 would eat anything until he was 2 and a half then became increasingly fussy, though he's getting better again now he's 11!

Blw had the major advantage of being incredibly easy and relaxed, but people who are houseproud or get upset about mess won't like it. Really though different nethods suit different babies imo.

Surely it's weaning onto food not off milk ? I've always heard the "food for fun until their one." And I gave the usual breast feeds / as demanded plus food.

Personally I started purees at 17wks and then went to mashed down stuff they picked up by around 6/7 months. It's a gradual change and my DS made loads of mess but had fun and ate something.

I didn't actively reduce some breastfeeds until about 18 months, as I could then see when a feed would affect solid eating. ie a feed before lunch meant no lunch was eaten.

My DS ate everything to start with and then they seem to go through fussy stages and find the things they like the most.

Like everything, should weaning not just be responsive to the child's needs?

DD1 was happy to do BLW. She never had a purée.

DD2 struggled with BLW and had purées until 8 months.

I stuck to traditional weaning too, after the HV told me to cook pork chops for my 6m old and let them 'suck the juices'! Found it a bit bizarre to be honest, but maybe it was just my HV putting me off.

BLW was never going to work with my dd1 who grew a lovely set of gnashers pretty early on and was able to bite great chunks off things way before she had learned how to swallow them. Watching your child suddenly turn blue is pretty terrifying.

I don't see what difference it makes. We weaned using purée then moved on to small lumps. It's what we wanted to do and it worked. Everyone needs to do what is right for them.

I don't remember it being anything other than laziness not to do purees. I was hippy enough not to want to use pre-made jars, but couldn't be asked to make purees.

I agree op

Chufty badge 😂 I def didn't get one as a routine loving, puree loving, parent lead type 😉😂

Mind you my lovely 12 yo dd has turned out fab despite it all....

In my experience, the baby itself is quite likely to have a strong preference and you pretty much end up going with what suits them! Some babies would starve if only given finger foods to start with, others just don't like mushy textures. I did a fair bit of reading at the time and there didn't seem to be a particularly solid body of research pointing towards either method, so I pretty much went with the flow. Virtually all the toddlers I know are fussy little sods at least some of the time, regardless of weaning method!

@Girliefriendlikesflowers Cheers to that

The evidence with regards to 'food for fun until 1' is very thin. and in general, the evidence for BLW is also thin.

Babies need to learn how to push food from the front of the mouth to the back of the mouth. A spoon doesn't deliver food close to the throat like when they are sucking for milk. The nipple goes right to the back of the mouth. For food, they need to learn to push the food from front/middle of the mouth to the back. For some babies this is very easy, for others it takes longer. My personal experience with 8 years of childminding and many, many weaning babies is that puree is better for the first few weeks (even if it's only for two/three weeks) and then to move straight away to lumpier textures and to the baby eating bits of food with their hands ie not to give smooth puree for months on end.

@Goingonandonandon sensible and fair!

Also, to those that are saying I think I'm right.. of course I think I'm right! I wouldn't be doing my son badly would I!!! Fgs

tlove you could think your way is right for your son and you without needing to put other ways of doing hings down, and trying to shut down anyone not providing you with an echo chamber.

Agreed goingonandon

I think there's some official guidance (WHO) that directly states the opposite of "food before one is just for fun". But it's not as snappy a soundbite!

I've got it saved on my work computer (I think) I cant find it on google.

@blueskiesandforests I sorry if I've put other ways down. I haven't consciously been doing that.

I'm interested to hear others' opinions.