Formula Fed Babies and BLW

[Egypt]

Just read this comment from Gill Rapley Website and wondered what FF babies' mothers' thought were on it...

I want to do BLW, my baby was exclusively bf until 17 weeks and now takes one FF a day.

"It is not clear whether a baby-led approach to the introduction of solids is appropriate for babies who are bottle fed; more research is needed to establish this, since bottle-feeding seems to be more mother-led. It is difficult to predict how bottle-fed babies will manage solids, so we need to be careful. However, as long as care is taken to ensure adequate fluid intake (see below), there would be nothing inherently wrong in adopting this approach. It is recommended that parents of babies who are being bottle (formula) fed discuss the matter fully with their health advisers if they wish to use this method".

When people discuss reasearch they are very careful to be clear about the controlled variables. The research into BLW has been performed with BF babies, so the researchers want to be careful not to extrapolate to FF babies. This does not mean that a formula fed baby can't undertake BLW. There are loads of parents, including many a mum on here, who have both FF and BLWned their babies.

I believe Gill Rapley has explained her views about this on Aitch's website (www.babyledweaning.com)... iirc she basically said FF and BLW are fine, but check it out.

DD was ff and we did BLW. It is fine, there is quite of lot of stuff on Aitch's blog about it (and lol at discussing it with your hv, she will look at you as if you are barmy. Probably!)

yes. gill rapley did add to say it's ok. it's just that blw is a more obvious next step to breastfeeding where supply is baby led. totally do able with a formula fed baby though. aitch queen of blog did it.

sorry, havent been able to nick laptop!

Thank you for your replies. I never considered there was/might be an issue until I read that, very interesting. However, will be BLWng dd. Getting q excited about the whole thing....

will delve deeper into aitch's blog

HI Egypt

Hope things are going well with the new baby.

We're BLWing DS and he's been formula fed from day 1 (for obvious reasons). I've nothing to compare it to, but I think it's great (albeit messy......)

I BLW ff ds2 by default - a very independent boy who point blank refused to take a spoon and grabbed roast pots of his brothers plate - has been fab, at 11 months he eats exactly what we have, is so easy to take to cafes, restuarants etc and I would definately do it again - just be prepared for a mess! I will never forget the first time he had mince and rice together - I was picking bits out of the cracks between the floorboards for weeks!

hi ONM! good to hear from you. Of course, i knew you were doing blw - hadn't considered the fact that you were obv FF. hope things are going well. will have to catch up sometime.

sounds like there are no issues on the negative side with blw, apart from the mess, but that happens anyway, hey, to some extent!

thanks for your reassurance, cant wait to start - in one way. dont want her to grow up, in another.

just reading your comments, didn't know about blw until recently. what if baby seems to need weaning before 6 months?

I think the premise of BLW is that the baby tells you when it's ready. In a few circumstances this happens before the baby is 6 months old. The episode with Wallace's DS and the banana is an excellent example of this. But in general the thinking is the baby's gut tends to be ready at around six months and this coincides with the baby developing the motor skills needed to feed itself. HTH.

so do people just increase the milk until the baby can pick up food and eat it?

I think that's the intention, yes.

wow what did people do before mn?? like the sound of it.

Before MN it was baby rice all the way.