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.

The WHO say something like infants from 6 months must have complementary food in adequate amounts. Nothing about food just being for playing with.

Ah, that's what I was referring to mind. I wondered after I'd posted if it was NICE guidelines not WHO so I'm glad to read your post.

www.who.int/nutrition/publications/guiding_principles_compfeeding_breastfed.pdf

It's here.

"A. Guideline: Start at six months of age with small amounts of food and increase the quantity as the child gets older, while maintaining frequent breastfeeding. The energy needs from comple- mentary foods for infants with “average” breast milk intake in developing countries (WHO/UNICEF, 1998) are approximately 200 kcal per day at 6-8 months of age, 300 kcal per day at 9-11 months of age, and 550 kcal per day at 12-23 months of age. In industrialized countries these estimates differ somewhat (130, 310 and 580 kcal/d at 6-8, 9-11 and 12-23 months, respectively) because of differences in average breast milk intake."

also:

"Breast milk can make a substantial contribution to the total nutrient intake of chil- dren between 6 and 24 months of age, particularly for protein and many of the vitamins. However, breast milk is relatively low in several minerals such as iron and zinc, even after accounting for bioavailability. At 9-11 months of age, for example, the proportion of the Recommended Nutrient Intake that needs to be supplied by complementary foods is 97% for iron, 86% for zinc, 81% for phosphorus, 76% for magnesium, 73% for sodium and 72% for calcium (Dewey, 2001). Given the relatively small amounts of complementary foods that are consumed at 6-24 months (see #5 above), the nutrient density (amount of each nutrient per 100 kcal of food) of complementary foods needs to be very high."

They do recommend waiting till 6mo but are also very explicit that solid foods play a vital nutritional role well before 12mo.

I am also not sure of any proven link between BLW and being less fussy. If that was the case, we'd have loads of fussy people aged between what, 18 and 60? that's clearly not the case.

And in my experience as a childminder, some children who have been BLW are very picky about what they put in their mouth, and generally children become fussier when they learn to say no, so anytime between 10 months old and 2 and start developing a stronger sense of knowing what they like. I have seen many children eating perfectly well their peas and broccoli until they turn 18 months and start saying 'no I'm not eating that'. That's the end of vegetables then....

Mine get more veggies using the traditional way. Blw seems carb based (when they are very young anyways!)

Surely that depends on what you put in front of them mrsGB?

”Blw seems carb based”

With my two it seemed to be mainly broccoli, green beans and banana-based! Or anything really. DS1 had a roast dinner like the rest of us on Christmas Day when he was 7 months. A couple of pieces of turkey, a roast potato, a sprout, few carrots, few pieces of broccoli, and a Yorkshire pudding!

Mine get more veggies using the traditional way. Blw seems carb based (when they are very young anyways!)

Apologies MrsGB this is nonsense.

@Happyandshiney You're never actually adding insightful information you just put others' opinions down. It's boring tbh

You're never actually adding insightful information you just put others' opinions down. It's boring tbh @tlove I suppose this is the part where we should tell you to “Chill”....

I done BLW with my now 4 year old and will be starting again in a few weeks when DS2 hits 6 months.

That's a personal choice to me- works with our family lifestyle etc..

My friends son is also 6 months in a few weeks and has been doing TW for the last month.

No way is better than the other- it's what you are comfortable with- no badge of honour - just doing what you think is best!

People blw because purée is a pain in the arse.

The badge is in my opinion for feeding the baby actual food and not shite out of a jar.

6 grandchildren later I still can’t get the hang of BLW so I just ask what my hang want the children to be fed rather than just get on with it the way I did with all of my 5 children.

I’m lucky though that I’m usually then told just do what you did with us.

@FenellaMaxwellsPony Oh just chill Maxwell

@PollyFlinderz My in-laws aren't good with BL.. freaks them out slightly when he gags which I think is understandable! They did have a rather scary incident with a peanut when their youngest was small so I suppose that's why!

Wow @flowery did he eat all of that at 7 months? That's great.
I've been weaning my DD for about 7 weeks now (she's nearly 8mo) and she loves putting food in her mouth but 90% gets pushed around and then comes back out whether it's finger food (veg, fruit, toast, etc) or any puree/lumpy stuff I'm trying to feed her on a spoon. I'm jealous of everyone who says spoon feeding is easier as the baby then gets more nutrition and there is less mess because I've not found that to be the case. And I find there to be just as much waste if it's finger foods or spoon feeding.
Anyway I don't care what anyone else does I just want my baby to eat some food :(

He's 11 now @Elbob so I can't swear to exactly how much of it he ate, but he certainly had a reasonable crack at a bowful, we have a lovely photo of him trying to shove a Yorkshire in his mouth.

I'm sure your DD will get there, at this age she doesn't need to actually ingest much of it anyway.

With regard to “food before 1 is just for fun” what this actually means is that before 1 year old they should receive the bulk of their calories from milk feeds. As they are biologically designed to do. Nowhere has anyone ever said “oh it’s fjne if they eat nothing before 1” it just means that if they’re not eating three three course meals plus snacks by 12 months old then it is not an issue. Likewise it’s not an issue if they are.

I hate the sneery attitudes on this thread. We do BLW because it’s easy. She eats what we eat when we eat it. I get to have hot meals for a change and I don’t have to somehow find time in my day to purée stuff up. I couldn’t give a shiny shite how you wean your baby, much like I couldn’t care less if you breast or bottle feed. They all end up completely capable of eating a meal with cutlery- I’m yet to witness a teenager eating only purée nor carrot batons- so quite why anybody feels the need to sneer at one way or another I will never know.

@PollyFlinderz My in-laws aren't good with BL.. freaks them out slightly when he gags which I think is understandable! They did have a rather scary incident with a peanut when their youngest was small so I suppose that's why

To be honest with you it’s blooming nerve wracking. But as I said, I’m lucky in that no issue is ever made of it and we all just muddle through with many a mix of old and new ways.

I can totally see why puree/spoonfeeding can be a faff in some situations. I can see why some families find BLW easy- if they are already cooking and eating regular meals that are appropriate for a baby then of course it's easy to BLW.

Other families are different and aren't necessarily preparing appropriate meals at appropriate times so end up making something separate for a baby anyway. That's certainly true for me. Shift type work meant the adults didn't eat together, the baby had dairy allergy, I didn't really know how to cook BLW friendly meals etc as I wasn't much of a cook. It wasn't as simple as just giving the baby a bit of what everyone else was having.

I did a mixture of things depending on her preferences at any given time (sometimes she had a phase of feeding herself, other tomes she wanted to use food as messy play and have me spoon feed her. No probs). that worked well for us.

I haven't seen much sneeriness from either side on this thread, I don't think. Definitely a couple of strong opinions.

I agree with you. I blw dd1 at about 5.5 months with no problems. Dd2 wasnt interest at 5.5 months. At 6 months she was showing an interest in food but did not take to blw. She would chomp pieces of and try and swollow. There was no chewing or gumming. She gagged a lot, was clearly hungry. So I have her food mashed up on a spoon. She had the spoon off me after I had put food on and it was a great success. It wasn't until about 9 months that she really got the hang of finger food and is a fantastic eater now. Bettter than her sister was.

If we had a third I would be so much more relaxed about it from the start. Give them some food, see if they are interested. Take it from there. That's weaning!

@Happyandshiney You're never actually adding insightful information you just put others' opinions down. It's boring tbh

Such a deeply ironic comment given your posts on this thread OP.

Following Flowery’s excellent and informative post just before mine I didn’t feel the need to repeat the basics, I just posted to support her.

And it’s not a case of putting MrsGB’s opinions down, it’s a case of correcting a misapprehension she had about BLW.

Check my posts I’ve made no comments on this thread criticising spoon feeding or “putting down other’s” opinions about how to feed their child. None

I’ve merely shared my own experiences of BLW, challenged your baseless assertion that BLW creates children who only snack and fairly politely pointed out to MrsGB that she was wrong about “mainly carbs”.

Oh, and I also picked you up on your rudeness to another poster.

For someone who keeps saying she likes debate and discuss you don’t seem very open to any position contrary to yours...

Like Queenofthedrivensnow said earlier, basically you get a silver badge for not giving them crap out of a jar and making your own sweet potato, scrambled eggs etc etc but the Gold badge is for the BLWs !
In a few years there'll be a new trend and the BLWs will have to relinquish the crown....

@Happyandshiney For the last time, I said that someone else has said that BLW could create snackers! I didn't come up with the notion and I was merely putting it out there! You do indeed need to chill out! 😂😂😂

Essentially I think we're all in agreement that some finger food, some purées, some chunks, some jars, and some homemade food is the way forward! No type of feeding neither creates nor stops fussiness in later life. So it's all down to the individual!

Let's all get chufty badges!!!