Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Weaning

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

Advice on baby led weaning vs traditional weaning?

11 replies

spacefacexxx · 03/11/2018 11:48

I'm first time mum to a beautiful 5 month old (22 weeks) and I'm starting to look into the weaning process. I just want as much information as possible before we start so I have a few questions. I should also point out that my main concern about baby led weaning is, like everyone else I'm sure, I'm shit scared of choking. I'm a nurse so you'd think I'd be a bit more chill but nope. I also suffer with anxiety and I'm contemplating if it's baby led is for us because I don't want my anxiety to rub off on our little boy, I want it to be fun and enjoyable for him. Then there's the other issue; I feel pressured into baby led weaning because my sister in law did that with her little girl and always raves about how much better it is for them. My other half is completely taken it by all this, whatever his sister says goes apparently. And I don't think he means to but he makes me feel stupid for voicing my concerns about it, often just dismissing me saying 'he'll be fine'. If he had his way he'd be weaning him now and I've explained multiple times that it just isn't safe for him yet and that every baby is different etc. But as I said, I wouldn't know where to start with weaning! So a bit more information and your experiences would be great!

OP posts:
dementedpixie · 03/11/2018 12:55

It doesn't have to be one or the other. I did a mix of puree and finger foods and that worked well for us. You're supposed to introduce finger foods at 6 months anyway

MrsJayy · 03/11/2018 12:58

I agree do a bit of both I don't agree with rigid methods of... generations of children have been raised on purees first

Bananarama12 · 03/11/2018 12:59

Just Do a mixture of what your comfortable with.

HenryInTheTunnel · 03/11/2018 13:02

It doesn't have to be one or the other. I tended to do purees and jars for evening meal, soft weetabix for breakfast and then finger foods for lunch. You do get more confident with it.

HotInWinter · 03/11/2018 13:07

We didn't puree, but sloppy stuff went on a spoon, so not blw either.
Stuff that could be eaten by hand was - so we did cut carrots into battons rather than disks for a bit, and used penne pasta sort of changes to make like easier, but didnt change what we ate.
Your baby will probably have ideas too. Some of them grab anything remotely edible that comes nearby. Some dutifully open mouths expecting food to be put in. Maybe see what suits you all?

tissuesosoft · 03/11/2018 13:10

We started off with spoon feeding but DD wanted to feed herself so effectively chose to do baby led weaning. Maybe start off with both and go with whichever your DC prefers

boredmum18 · 03/11/2018 13:15

We're 3 weeks in to baby led and honestly I absolutely love it! It's fantastic for hand eye coordination and gives baby control over what they eat and how much. It's also great for developing muscles in the mouth and throat ready for talking. I'm quite passionate about this because I was fed purees for far too long as a child and ended up with a speech impediment.

Choking is actually really rare, gagging is very common but this really isn't something to worry about, they work it out by themselves really well. The important thing about gagging/choking is that babies have a gag reflex much further forward than adults so they gag early, this gives them a chance to learn how to keep food in the front of their mouths until ready to swallow. With spoon feeding you put the spoon in further back than the gag reflex so it isn't triggered. This can mean that when the gag reflex moves back to the adult position the baby doesn't yet know how to avoid choking. So you run the risk of a child with an adults set back gag reflex but a babies inability to know how to avoid choking. So choking is more of a risk with traditional weaning than baby led

I'd recommend the gill rapley book if you're not sure. It will help you make an informed decision

MiriAmmerman · 03/11/2018 13:26

DS is 7m and we're doing neither one thing nor the other, which works for us.
DS gets some traditional baby food - ie, puréed fruit & veg. He also gets spoon fed soft stuff like yogurt. However, he also eats a lot of finger food (pieces of fruit & veg, rice cakes, toast/bread with different toppings). The 'routine' we're in at the moment is that breakfast is some spoon feeding, some finger foods, and lunch is entirely finger foods and self-feeding. Dinner is always purée at the moment because we find DS has much less patience at the end of the day and just wants the food 
We're finding a mix & match approach is working quite well because it's so flexible. If we're going somewhere where a lot of mess will be a problem, then DS will happily eat an Ella's pouch off a spoon, but he is equally happy sitting at the table with us and trying bits of what we're eating.

GrabEmByThePatriarchy · 21/11/2018 17:49

Neither is better. Do whichever method works best for you, always supposing your baby actually lets you choose in the first place! You may well find that even if you make a decision, you have a spoon refuser/too lazy to feed self child!

3WildOnes · 21/11/2018 19:30

I did purées and finger foods.

WisdomOfCrowds · 21/11/2018 20:03

We did blw and funnily enough like you I have a medical background but still felt anxious, while dp was suuuuuper keen because his sister had done it. We did it but only after I insisted he attend a baby first aid session to learn what to do in the event of choking! Anyway, our son didn't really start eating much until about 9 months but his weight stayed on track so we didn't worry about it. He has never choked, never even gagged TBH. He's a typical picky toddler now so I don't know if it actually had a benefit over traditional weaning, but I really enjoyed doing it once I let go of the anxiety. It's basically just like messy play but with food! My only advice would be to stay away from any blw Facebook "support groups" as they are, from my experience, full of militant sanctimonious prats who think blw makes them better than people who use purées and that anything containing sugar is the food of satan.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.