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Weaning

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

Original poster

practical parenting mags guide to weaning- annabel karmel says theres a high risk of choking if you do blw

65 replies

gardenshrub · 08/01/2008 21:48

I mean i'm no expert or anything, we have only been blw for a month now with dd & its been fine. How can she comment when she's never done it herself?

Hmm, surely it wouldn't be anything to do with the books & products she sells for purees would it???

OP posts:
constancereader · 08/01/2008 21:50

That is very annoying of her.

stripeymama · 08/01/2008 21:51

Yes well she would! Honestly how does she think the human race evolved without blenders and ice cube trays?

Bit like Avent and their 'Breastfeeding Essentials' kit.

One baby, two boobs. Yes other stuff may be helpful but is hardly 'essential'!

MaeWest · 08/01/2008 21:52

She was on Woman's Hour last year - when they asked her about BLW she just kept repeating 'But, they'll choke' ad nauseam.

kiskidee · 08/01/2008 21:53

doesn't she sell babyblenders or some crap like that?

MaeWest · 08/01/2008 21:55

She is a one woman baby feeding industry

moondog · 08/01/2008 21:55

Oh ffs,what does she know?

i take the advice of anyone who has a product to sell with a pinch of salt. Actually,no I don't, I just think, 'Stop talking shit'.

She sells branded moulis and blendis for God's sake.

MaeWest · 08/01/2008 21:56

Don't forget the special ice-cube trays...

colditz · 08/01/2008 21:57

"But they'll choke!"

Well, they didn't. People have to learn to let go of the thinking that slavishly pureeing = love and protection.

sazzybeehomeforxmas · 08/01/2008 21:58

It's a miracle our babies are still here, it really is (although I have discovered allowing them to eat sticks cheese while lying flat on their back on the changing mat is a Bad Idea )

Olihan · 08/01/2008 21:59

She also recommends weaning at 5mo as the 6mo guideline is 'too long and babies go past the point of wanting to eat solids if you leave it that long' (paraphrase of an article of hers in PP a few months back). So she clearly knows more than the WHO too.

My, the woman is a genius .

I blw'd dd and ds2 and both of them have been absolutely fine too. Never even had to smack them on the back, I don't think.

Silly woman, I'm sure most intelligent people with some sense will think that she has a huge financial incentive genuine reason for being alarmist.

Aitch · 08/01/2008 22:00
ScaryHairy · 08/01/2008 22:00

I suspect that Gillian Rapley and UNICEF have done more research on the subject than AK, but am prepared to stand corrected.

Didn't AK come on here for a webchat once? I wish she would come back. I would like to ask her why, when I originally (for 2 weeks only) went down the path of puree and bought her special ice cube trays it turned out that they were neither dishwasher nor steriliser-proof. But then her book advises that you sterilise pretty much everything in relation to baby food. If I was a paranoid first timer (as opposed to a lazy one) I would have been thrown into a spin by that...

moondog · 08/01/2008 22:01

Ooh Aitch,tell us more.

Olihan · 08/01/2008 22:01

Aitch, spill......

Go on, you know you want to .

Aitch · 08/01/2008 22:02

actually maewest, what she said was 'but what if they choke on a lychee stone?' it is hilarious. i got an email from one of my BLW ladies in China saying that it was lychee season and she accordingly expected the infant death rate to quintuple. it didn't, oddly enough.

Aitch · 08/01/2008 22:03

i mustn't. i MUSTN'T.

moondog · 08/01/2008 22:03

I still can't get my head around the fact that most women can't/won't cook yet buy her merchandise. Do they seriously believe that they will become the kind of people who mke up batches of sweet potato and celeriac mash with a gojiberry coulis when they can't even be arsed to peel a spud or two?

Hell,I love to cook,bloody love it, but even could see there was little point in doing this.My ds was weaned on bits of flat bread,chickpeas and lamb stew and yoghurt in Kurdistan.

LynetteScavo · 08/01/2008 22:04

BLW - sorry, what??

northender · 08/01/2008 22:04

kiskidee, was watching for you on the controlled crying thread! How are you by the way? Sorry for the hijack. Agree Annabel Karmel is nauseating, smug and with a major vested interest in the puree weaning model.

Aitch · 08/01/2008 22:05

BLW, lynette, it's a twonky name for just letting your baby self-feed and not getting hung up on purees.

LynetteScavo · 08/01/2008 22:06

Ah, what you do with your 3rd child anyway... I see!

TheYoungVisiter · 08/01/2008 22:06

sorry but lol lol lol at "what if they choke on a lychee stone".

Yes, what if they choke on the bone in a cuisse de confit de canard? What if they choke on the pearl in a raw oyster? What if they choke on the olive in their dry martini? Because clearly BLW babies just roam around Selfridges Food Hall stuff gourmet crap into their little gobs ad nauseum.

DON'T GIVE THEM LYCHEES THEN ANNABEL. Or at least not ones with stones in. Rocket science it ain't.

FlameNFurter · 08/01/2008 22:06

DD didn't choke with purées and finger food

DS didn't choke with BLW

I just produce non-chokers. Others gag at the sight of any spoon.

Do what feels right.

Olihan · 08/01/2008 22:06

Aitch, tell us.

G'wan, g'wan, g'wan, g'wan, g'wan

please?

ScaryHairy · 08/01/2008 22:07

Moondog, I like to think I am not entirely stupid but I did buy some of the crap stuff. It was more to give me something to do than anything else as DD was a very good baby. But alas, thanks to my short attention span DD was soon eating pasta puttanesca along with the rest of us.