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?

@TheLostTargaryen we are going through exactly the same! DD is refusing any form of spoon feeding by me, unlike her brothers and we are inadvertently BLW, or as I call it, “giving her food”.

Thank you for responses, it makes more sense to me now. It just seems all I hear these days is baby led weaning so thought I'd ask what the deal is. I'll do traditional weaning then and will occasionally give him spoon to feed himself as well if I need time to grab myself a coffee or eat my own food

sounds like a plan - good luck!

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OP I highly recommend the above Annabel Karmel book. Explains traditional weaning very well and the recipes are delicious.

Happy weaning. I loved weaning my baby.

or as I call it, “giving her food”

😆👍🏻🤣🍪🍼

For all the talk of BLW, you'd think everyone was doing it but I hardly ever see any BLW babies out and about (probably because of the mess). I've got a spoon refuser so we did BLW and it's great, it's not just finger food, it's just food as you would have it so it's easy to sort out and minimal prep.

As others have said, the traditional way to wean is to do a mixture of spoon-feeding and self-feeding (as opposed to expecting the baby to self-feed everything). It is how most babies have been weaned, right back to the stone age probably when babies no doubt got pre-chewed food from Mum and also swiped bits of food from her meal during mealtimes.

I don't think expecting a baby to self-feed everything makes a lot of sense, unless the baby themselves makes it clear that they want to do this and are able to do so. Self-feeding is quite fun but it creates the most unholy mess, wastes tons of food and requires lots of hanging around waiting for them to actually get something in their mouth. I preferred to reserve this for the evening meal, not deal with it 3x a day. And I don't want a baby smearing and chucking food everywhere in a restaurant or someone else's house.

Nice to find some other enforced baby-led-as-in-really-baby-led-as-in-baby-demanded-because-baby-just-wont-be-spoonfed-even-though-i-wish-he-would people on this thread! Everyone I know in real life does at least some spoon feeding and (a bit like the post above) is a bit judgy about 'can't you just spoon-feed him out and about rather than make a mess or a fuss?', as if I'm basically doing it for attention. My mother also thinks I am essentially trying to kill her precious grandchild through choking him. I wish that switching to spoon-feeding him at least occasionally for convenience (and to ensure he's eating a bit more substantially) was an option - I don't know why you wouldn't avail yourself of it if it were!

Sorrydid not mean for the post to sound judgey-I do get that some babies just don't want to be spoon fed! I was just glad mine was OK with it.

Mine was good with a spoon perhaps in part because she was spoon fed breastmilk. But then the reason she had to be spoon fed breastmilk was because she would not take a bottle.....! So I guess they all have something they have to be "difficult" about.

That's ok, I was definitely being oversensitive! It's just getting me down a bit that I don't really want to feed DS in public and that feels really isolating compared to my spoon feeding friends. He is getting better really fast though (I suppose that's the advantage of having a self-feeding by necessity rather than parental choice baby - he's wanted to do it from the off and so is getting more skilful fast, whereas plenty of babies his age whose parents chose BLW still aren't picking up the food at all) so if I pick 'clean' foods it isn't so bad - it's all the fuss everyone else makes that bothers me ('ooh, I couldn't do that, I'd be too scared of choking' 'oh well luckily I don't care about my baby and so never worry about that at all...')

I'll do traditional weaning then and will occasionally give him spoon to feed himself as well if I need time to grab myself a coffee or eat my own food

I just wanted to point out that this is a recipe for a lot of mess! If you're only going to do occasional self-feeding then I wouldn't bother with pre-loaded spoons - give him food that is naturally finger foods (toast, veg and fruit sticks, rice cakes, sticks of cheese, etc) for that. A baby who doesn't normally self-feed isn't going to quietly put yoghurt in a spoon in his mouth while you drink coffee, he's going to smear it eeeeveeeerywhere.

Both is fine, and try not to get hung up on the labels. FWIW I tried leaving bits on the highchair tray for DD at first - nothing. Spoonfed her. A month later she grabbed my toast off the table and from there would feed herself very competently. Now 16 months and points/glares until I give her a spoon to use.

I’d echo what @Aquilla says. This whole ‘food before one being just for fun’ isn’t really the case. Milk is their main food but some solid need to go in. Bf babies are at risk or iron deficiency, and there’s an increased risk of allergy in waiting past 6 months to wean. The nhs now say ‘around 6 months’, Australia have changed guidelines to say that 6 months is the latest to intro solids and (I think) the USA has followed. Personally I’ve always found a mix of purees to start and fingers foods at 6 months as good as any method. On advice from doctor, With a family history of serious food allergy dc 2 has been weaned at 4 months with (very small amounts) of allergenic foods such as peanut butter, egg, milk. And of course the classic veg purees.

I do wonder whether, if spoon-feeding is important to you, it is better to start earlier. My mother insists that a baby who wouldn't be spoon fed was unknown in her day, and I have thought that if I'd started at four/five months (as most of my friends did) he wouldn't have had the coordination to push the spoon away or, perhaps, the awareness to clamp his mouth shut at the sight of it, and he might have accepted it then.

I did both and will do again

My daughter is spoon fed porridge in the morning and a yoghurt for dessert in the evening.
Because I have a 20 month old son who was ONLY spoon fed and he is extremely lazy and fussy and making me tear my hair out all of my poor daughters other solid food is finger food.

I just give her whatever I'm having. Pittas and hummus, crudités, potato wedges, fish, sausage or other meat.

It's just all grab sized. So if I make a curry I'll put 1/2 a chicken breast in "whole" rather than diced and just give her that.

I do wonder whether, if spoon-feeding is important to you, it is better to start earlier.

I also wonder if this tends to be true. My current baby does take a bottle, but I think I will start spoon-feeding breastmilk quite soon as well, so that she is comfortable with taking a spoon. Really don't want to end up with a baby who insists on self feeding everything (and chucking it all over the floor.... and rubbing food through their hair.... and flinging food bowls around....!).

You'll get the BLW evangelists along in a minute, telling you that their dcs were chomping on fillet steak at 6mo

Mine actually did!

Really don't want to end up with a baby who insists on self feeding everything (and chucking it all over the floor.... and rubbing food through their hair.... and flinging food bowls around....!).

All of that is really important developmentally.

Most people I know do both purée and finger food. See what what works for your baby

All of that is really important developmentally.

I should clarify. I don't mind that kind of stuff in the evening when I am going to bathing the baby and cleaning up the kitchen anyway. Just do not want to be dealing with it three times a day and esp not in a restaurant etc.

Never puréed anything. With porridge, yogurt etc gave DD the spoon and let her do her thing.

She’s very averse to squishy bland things like mashed potatoes, soft cheese and custard (always has been) much preferring crunchy foods that are higher in flavour, like Parmesan, olives and chorizo.

With my son, I started off on purees then quickly made the textures more lumpy etc within weeks. Gave him finger foods alongside by 6.5-7m and encouraged him early on to feed himself. It's luck of the drawer with some stuff. He's going through a fussy stage with food but demolishes stuff he will eat such as porridge, fruit, cheese sandwiches, yoghurt, etc. He also uses a fork and spoon well but prefers stuff like chips that he can pick up with his fingers! Everyone comments that he chews like an adult though, whatever that means he's nearly 2.

Pregnant again and although I'll start purees again, I'll also have a bit more confidence of giving finger foods alongside from the beginning as well.

crunchy foods that are higher in flavour, like Parmesan, olives and chorizo.

I promise this is a genuine question not a criticism - are the salt levels in these things not very high for a baby? Have been wondering whether to leave the feta out of dinner tonight because it's so salty...

Sorry - she’s 8 now. I wasn’t feeding her these regularly at 6 months!