Baby led vs spoon led weaning

[MummEE2]

Reading a lot of posts and information online it seems that people choose baby led weaning OR pureed foods and spoon feeding. My DS is not 6 months yet so EBF but when he is 6 months I was planning on doing both-say spoon feed some foods then give boiled carrot sticks or some other finger food later etc as opposed to choosing one way of feeding method over another. Is that unusual and if so why?? Any disadvantages of doing this?

No disadvantages at all to doing both IMO. Just put food infront of him and see what happens.

With my first I didn’t even know ‘baby led’ was a thing but would give her toast fingers and banana as I knew she’d put it in her mouth and eat it, which is the goal!

Don’t over think it and enjoy the mess 😃

I did blw but next time I would do both. The NHS does recommed that finger food be given from 6 months so children develop the muscles they need for speech.

Entirely up to you. I'm not sure there's much difference in outcomes.

I did BLW with both of mine. It just seemed easier. I put food on front of them, they ate/played with it while i could eat my meal at the same time. I didn't have to pureé anything.

just do whatever is most convenient for you and works best for your baby and avoid evangelicals on either side.

I found batch cooking, mashing/pureeing and freezing a gazillion times less hassle than BLW!

You'll get the BLW evangelists along in a minute, telling you that their dcs were chomping on fillet steak at 6mo, and that if you give any puree whatsoever, your child will only eat beige food and be forever fussy eaters, when it actually makes no bloody difference. You do what suits you and your baby.

Doing both is just called traditional weaning...

The only thing I would say is get him eating as many different tastes and textures as possible in the hope of avoiding fussiness later. I think that’s easier achieved if you do a bit of everything.

If you cook yourself bolognese for example, don’t not chop some up and feed it to him on a spoon just because it’s not your ‘method’. That would just be daft.

You can't do "a bit of both". Traditional weaning means spoon feeding plus finger food. BLW means no spoon feeding at all. Just do what works for you. I wanted to do BLW but ended up doing traditional weaning with a lot of finger foods.

@Reccy2018 I get irrationally annoyed when people say "oh I'm doing both" 🙈😂

of course you can do both - you can do what you bloody well like. There's no law or rule to say what she can or can't do and it's deeply tiresome when people imply there is.

River tam - if you give any spoon feeding then by definition you arent baby led weaning. Baby led means that every meal you are led by your baby in what and how much they eat. If you start giving them a spoon, it's not baby led. They are mutually exclusive. If you traditionally wean - like me and most people in reality - then you are giving finger foods which baby feeds themselves and some spoon feeding.

@RiverTam I am referring to the terminology used

it's giving a baby some food. There's no need to label it and present it as some kind of 'thing'. It really really really doesn't matter.

'terminology'? What kind of terminology is that? Medical? Technical? Or just made-up?

My ds point blank refused to feed himself, he would just sweep everything into the floor. I was all for BLW but he wasn’t. Only now at 11 months has he started feeding himself finger food. Do what works for you and your baby

I think people just get annoyed at the smug blw people getting all evangelical about giving baby some bloody finger foods and not "allowing" some porridge on a spoon.

Giving them finger foods and spoon feeding too is the usual way tbh anyway.

It's a common misconception that "traditional weaning" involves just feeding purees forever, I guess until the kid is 21 and moves out. In fact TW involves giving purees and finger foods.

Tw: purees and finger food
Blw: finger foods only
So it makes no sense to say you are "doing both".

Its like saying I exclusively breast feed, and I also mix feed. You can bf and ff, but by definition you can't ebf and mix feed.

You might want to look into recent research which suggests waiting until six months can contribute to allergies and iron deficiency. A guideline change to 4-6 months is probably in the pipeline.

I suppose I did a bit of both. Started with purées and after about a month added finger food along side spoon fed meals.

They were all using cutlery and eating family meals by 1 year and are not at all fussy.

They also could eat beef pieces before they had teeth despite me using purées 😂

I did both with my DS from 6 months, he's now 21 months and will try anything. His eating is still a bit hit and miss, but he will always try. He picks stuff up with his hands and uses a spoon. I spoon fed him things like porridge and yoghurt from 6 months and would give him finger food afterwards like eggy bread or soft boiled veg. He always eats much better when I sit down and eat too, but as he tends not to eat his main meals when I want to (e.g 11.30 for lunch) I find it's an easy way to put on weight!

and it doesn't matter. Quibbling about what terms to use is just stupid and contributes to people feeling negative about their choices, when all that matters is feeding the baby. in a way that works for them and you.

I bet at 18 it is impossible to know who was weaned how.

Spoon feeding and giving finger foods is traditional weaning, so of course you can do that and I think that's probably still the most common way of weaning in the UK.

I would fully advocate BLW though because while my DD was eating was the only chance I got to eat something myself 😂

I did this with my first but leaning more towards purees. My second totally rejected spoons so I blw and she very quickly learnt how to feed herself yogurt.

You can do whatever you want (baby permitting) and actually the best of both worlds can be beneficial and helpful for you too.

Just do what you want. I wanted to wean DS by spoon and finger foods like his sisters.
It turned out he wouldn't let me. I was the one out of the two of us who had the spoon that was just for holding. He fed himself perfectly fine (with spoon. It was fucking freaky tbh).
However you feed them, the result will be exactly them same. They all eat.