Is BLW the best way to wean

[learningallthetime]

Before reading this forum today I hadn't even heard of BLW, I had armed myself with the Annabel Karmel books and was online to buy a hand blender when I discovered mumsnet.

Now I'm seriosly considering BLW, can anyone tell me if this is now considered the best way forward, has anyone had any bad experiences of BLW?

My daugher is 18 wks and I was going to start weaning at 20wks, do I have to wait till shes 6 months if I start BLW?

Where can I find out info on it (i.e how do you start, what foods etc)?

P.S What does DD and DS stand for?

DD- darling daughter
DS - darling son

It's a way. It really really suits some people, me included, and it just gives you another option to look at.

Most babies aren't really ready to do BLW until around 6 months ish - some are, but they're unusual. To do BLW, babies need to be able to sit upright, have lost their "tongue thrust" reflex, and be able to grab food and put it into their mouths.

Good place to start is Aitch's blog: www.babyledweaning.com. There's also a forum if you want to ask more questions.

imvho it is the best way to wean. that's why i did it. maybe i'd be saying different if it hadn't worked for us. to me it was the obvious next step from demand breastfeeding. would have seemed odd to then go into an annabel karmel routine of cubes and moulis.

it can be a huge leap of faith if you've read all the AK stuff and are kind of expecting someone to guide you through every step of weaning, when to blend foods, what times to offer food, when to drop milk feeds etc. there is no guide to blw, just aitch's blog (plus a few dozen others now..not as good of course though!). all you need to do is make sure you offer your baby a good diet, no ready meals or salty stuff. offer bits off your plate, your veg, your toast etc. don't think of it as feeding time, think of it as extra play time. see what happens. your baby might surprise you.

Just to add that if you're not sure, you can always do a bit of both, which is what felt right to me. I'm combining some BLW with some mashed food with my DTs and they seem to enjoy both...and are getting very handy with spoonfeeding themselves!

i thikn it is a good way to wean as you are going at your baby;s pace. if they cannot pick up the food and get it to their mouth , then it is a good indication that they are not ready.

www.kellymom.com has some really good stuff about weaning, including some myths about when babies are supposedly ready

another good thing to bear in mind is that there is no hurry to wean, milk should still be the main source of nutirtion for the first year.. so no hurry to get baby on 3 full meals a day and reduce the milk given

I like it, I like it lots.

It's all about being relaxed about the whole thing.

yes.

ive done mush. and ive done blw. blw won hands down.

yes wait till 6m. people see 'signs' that their baby is 'so hungry, s/he must need food' or 'he watches me eating all the time, i know he wants it'.

i said these things, but neither of them actually mean they need the food. and they dont suffer or complain if you hold out. its much better for them.

I do both BLW and mush. It just depends on what's in the fridge, how DS is that day and what's on the agenda for that day.

E.G. Breakfast might be spoon-fed porridge or mushed banana or, if BLW, it might be a toast finger, half a banana and a couple of orange segments with some of the skin removed.

Having originally plumped for BLW, I thought why shouldn't DS have a go at my (rather thick) potato and leek soup or mushroom pate - and he really took to them.

I found it quite liberating because when we're out and about I can think what will be most appropriate in terms of baggage, mess, facilities, etc...

In the meantime, DS still gets a wide variety of foods. At 7.5 months I don't worry if he doesn't eat much: I'm principally concerned he experiences lots of variety and understands food is fun, relaxed and social.

Guess it depends on baby. for my DD, mush was fine for a few weeks then she stopped being interested so we gave her finger food/BLW style food. She loved it and was the only way she would eat until she could use a spoon and feed herself.

food is fun until the are one. That old saying is so true. I found BLW ensured that DD developed an enjoyment of food. Now she eats most things, and is willing to give new food a try, still does not really enjoy being fed, prefers to hold whatever it is/the spoon or fork herself at 21 months. Very adventurous and think this has a lot to do with the way we weaned her.

I second that, BoysOnToast - I thought dd was ready at 4mo, but, with the encouragement of people on this here forum rode it out, and she was just going through a growth spurt and interested in everything.
I like BLW and it suits my dd (we're only just starting - she's 6mo tomorrow).
I did AK style weaning with my eldest child from 17 weeks, and he was a very good eater - BUT even to this day, he prefers mushy food and baulks at whole bits of veg (he's 2.2). I'm more laid back about my 2nd child and can't face all that pureeing and freezing again, hence BLW. I had the same attitude to milk - demand breastfeeding suited my personality better than ff, which requires organisation (shudder).
Having said that, I will give dd some mush - porridge for breakfast, for example.
Just go with whatever suits you. I think Lottie hit the nail on the head 'I'm principally concerned he experiences lots of variety and understands food is fun, relaxed and social.'

I did a mixture and have a lovely 14 month old gourmet whos quite fond of feta cheese and asparagus spears! Long may it last! Mind you my dinner is never safe grrr

you have to be a bit careful though and not hold the finger food to their mouth or any such tempting "showing them how to do it" behaviour

My understanding of BLW was not that you should avoid mush, but rather that you avoided spoon feeding, but let the baby take control? I hope that was the case, as many was the occasion that I emptied a bowl of sticky porridge onto her tray to eat with her fingers, as I did too with dinner of pasta and light sauce! she really enjoyed it! Maybe thats why she is such a messy creature most of the time now!!

mspotatochip - you wait, by 21 months it wont be your dinner, it will be your LOs dinner! My DD mostly reaches across and tries to grab my food/sticks her fork in my food and steals it most of the time we eat!

I hadn't heard of it with ds and he would have loved it and could spoon feed himself from 6mths.

However with dd, she could only just about co-ordinate hand to mouth at 9ths. At 6mths she couldn't hold anything in her hand for longer than a few seconds let alone bring it to her mouth. My nephew is the same. I'm not really sure what you're meant to do with babies who take a lot longer to develop hand-mouth co ordination and fine motor skills.

BTW she has fed herself from a year old and is a perfectly normal 21mth old- just was a slow developer as ababy.

With PFB DD1 I bought AK, the ice cube trays and the blender. She hated mush and did BLW by herself.

DD2 didn't even bother with the mush, she got a bit of whatever her sister was having from about 6 months, at 8 months she could pick up peas one by one and eat them. Both refused a spoon from me from about 9 months.

I have a friend with a DD who will be 3 in August and she still spoon feeds her as she says if she didn't she wouldn't eat. Her meal times are a battle field and I think part of the problem is her DD is so used to being spoondfed everything she won't eat any other way. She also said her DD likes ot be fed sitting on her potty.

Have done both.

With ds1 it all went wrong when I tried moving him over to real food (took it VERY slowly, but it didn't help). He's refused almost everything I offer him since he was 18 months. He's 4 now.

I weaned ds2 at 6.5 months and he struggled for 4 months to feed himself real food (but I was there to cheer him on), but is now 15 months and eats anything and everything himself. I only pray that it continues.

Would definitely do BLW again. It is VERY messy though!

Ds1 was weaned at 4.5 months (as was the advice then). I felt he was hungry and around that age everyone asks you if you've started, so I felt it was for the best.
With ds2 I weathered that stage (ds1 has lots of allergies, eczema when he was small and asthmatic moments) and only started once he was taking swipes at my food.
Both boys got a few teeth through at that age too which didn't help their moods either. I think their sleep patterns at night change too. (Both struggled for a while from 4 months.)

i don't think there's any proof as such of a 'best' way, it's really what suits you and the baby best at the end of the day. i did BLW though, it was a right laugh, and dd is a good wee eater at 2. she's eaten a banana today, half a melon, some cereal and is now demanding porridge...

I bottled out, I have to confess. I was directed to the BLW website and thought it was excellent, still do. However my rather large DS (BF I might add) just cracked it if the food wasn't there immediately and got frustrated if I wasn't there shovelling it in. As a result I have a child who eats everything, however, looked at a whole piece of broccoli the other day like it was a turd. I'd be very surprised if the neep went off his food, but I will still probably be pureeing it at 18.

I can't really say whether it is the best way to wean as we didn't try any other way, however we did BLW from 6 months and DD is now nearly 8 months and sits in her high chair at the table with us enjoying the same meals as we have - can thoroughly recommed it!!!

I did the annabel karmel method and now have a 2.4 yr old who will only eat puréed veg wish I'd heard of BLW as in hindsight blenders are a relatively new invention and babies have been managing for centuries without them!

Also made the mistake that as a big baby I thought he needed weaning at 4 months - oh no - what you do first is puréed veg which is lower in calories than milk and leaves them MORE hungry not less!

Overall it is hard to say what is best - in hindsight BLW would have been best for my LO, but maybe not for all babies. I'd probably go for waiting until 6 months and doing a combination of BLW and mashed food....

I'm a bit mix and match. Started BLW but reverted to purees when DS went on nursing strike and wasn't getting enough fluids. So now he has lumpy/mashed food (soft/small lumps) which makes it handy if we're out and can carry a jar with us; but he also eats lots of finger foods - just yesterday he reached out and grabbed a piece of mozzarella and basil leaf and wolfed it down (the mozzarella; the basil leaf he spat out in disgust!). We all fell about laughing and gave him a bit more, with some bread and unsalted butter. He loves both TBH: the fast shovelling hunger satisfaction of mush; the experimental try-anything textures and tastes of finger food.

well from a purely personal perspective, I would say BLW is much easier and more convenient than mushing everything up.
also much cheaper, and more enjoyable all round.
imo it also gives a good attitude to food and eating, as it puts the control in the hands of the child and away from the fussing of the mother.
d1 was fed mush, moved onto finger foods pretty quickly. dd2 was BLW. both eat pretty well now, although both have pretty strong likes and dislikes, but both are in control of their own eating and their own appetite and only eat when hungry etc which I think is absolutely a complete positive.

Great thread!. I went to a weaning party held by the HVs and came away completely bamboozled and decided it would be easier to bfeed DS until he left home! I heard about BLW on this site and have just been looking into it in preparation for DS when he reaches 6 months. Seems to make perfect sense so I hope it works for me and DS as well as it has for some of you. Agree with Phlossie that BLW is way forward for disorganised mums like me!

BLW one of the best parenting decisions we made I think. SO easy, DS started at 6 mo (growth spurts earlier dealt with by adding extra feeds) with normal food, fingers of veg and fruit, then whatever really. Brilliant when out and about, when we're eating out if the children's menu is decent we'll order him a meal from it, supplemented by extra veg. Otherwise he just has bits of ours, but he eats a lot so we often get him his own.

Waiters are always at him ordering from children's menu rather than us whipping out some mush and spooning it into him . We regularly get comments of 'you really think he'll eat that?' or 'I didn't think he'd want anything'. Most amusing when he is shovelling chicken, veg or whatever in his mouth, to the of the puree-feeding other parents.

And no problems like some people with getting babies on to normal food later, refusal of lumps etc

We did BLW and LOVE it! I have heard a lot of people say it didn't work for them but I think it's more the parents it doesn't work for than the child, you are in for some surprises if you do it and you do need nerves of steel sometimes!

If you wait till 6 months it's a lot easier and less messy. For a good guide on how to do things have a look at Aitch's site as has already been linked. The ladies there are always willing to offer their wisdom and support.

What do you mean by needing nerves of steel Tinkerbelles Mum? Sorry am a bit dim .