Am I alone in thinking that BLW is ...well a bit gross really???

[macdoodle]

I know I am going to get slated - but reading some of these thread just uggghhhh and when do these babies learn table manners (seriously??).....its not just the mess am currently weaning my 6 month old and the mess is pretty spectacular and thats a combination of purees/spoons and finger food

I refer the Honourable Goodshag to my post of 21:20:34.

I thenk you. Bows.

(Whispers - I never read all the threads)

all babies are messy eaters whether blwed or puree-fed. puree-fed babies have to learn table manners too not just blwed ones.

LOL at Habbibu though a would have helped

Don't do emoticons. But that means I do get into trouble!

I second lilyloo - you need a labrador, macdoodle

Mine weren't actually that messy when self-feeding, and any stray food was quickly sorted out by bibs with sleeves, a facecloth and a dog under the table.

ds had yoghurt. i would give him a spoon to try and do it himself and he would try for a bit and then just delve in with his hands. i found greek yoghurt the best.

paolosgirl...you don't cook separete meals for the baby....they get whatever you are having. Definately for the lazy as no spearate cooking involved.

We have done a combination of BLW and spoon feeding (for soups and yogurts and porridge etc) and DD, now 12 months can use a spoon and a fork herself (although when she gets something on the spoon she is sooo giddy that she shakes it in glee and it pebbledashes the wall) and gets food on them and into her mouth.

As an aside, I was letting her eat raisins out of the box at playgroup today and a mum with an 11 mo old DS came along with one of those netting things filled with grapes. She was shocked at DD eating raisins ("aren't they a choking hazard?"). I was genuinely puzzled about the net thing, especially for an 11mo old!

i never get how those netting things work.

lolol

it's not like all the spoon fed babies suddenly pick up the spoon one day you know, and use it perfectly

sadly, you are going to have to get used to mess til, ooh, on ds2's performance to date, about the age of 7 (years not months that is)

dd otoh has been purely blw (and seems naturally inclined to tidiness) and uses a spoon beautifully and makes barely no mess at all at 15 months. goodness only knows where she learned it all from, as her brothers eat like pigs in front of her

out of interest (and for a bit of a laugh - not in a nasty way though), how did you envisage the change from you spoon feeding to baby self feeding going?

baby sucks all the juice out of the fruit but gets none of the fibre....as far as I could tell....and they cost about a tenner each

as to amounts that they eat...babies and children have a much simpler relationship with food than we do and they eat when hungry and don't when not. there is current thinking that spoon feeding takes away or detracts from this natural ability to regulate their own food intake.

I agree it takes a lot of faith as it goes against all we have seen/been taught in our own families...but I'm a bit of a convert now and will probably do it more fully with DC3.

you know, habs, the more i think about that blending thing the more i'm convinced. i like crunchy sandwiches, not pate, i like chunky soups, not blendy, i like spiky, lumpy sauces, not creamy wet things. i don't even like yogurt that much (or custard, or trifle, or creme caramel or even dessert, i'm more a cheese board gal).

i BET that's why the idea of not spooning purees into dd seemed, to coin the OP's phrase... 'well, a bit gross really'.

horses for courses, absotootley.

It was the idea that I'd have to put them into my own mouth to test for temp, etc that made me squeamish. And I like veg raw or lightly cooked, so cooked and blended is a bit blee for me.

or rather, that's why the idea of spooning seemed gross etc.

lacka, i think that many, many parents do spoon food in and absolutely respond to satiety cues, i'm sure you do too. but there is a pervasive and imo poisonous culture of childrearing that wants children 'aiming' to eat x amount of cubes of puree etc etc etc and this imo undermines both the parents' and the child's ability to just unclench and let everyone get on with what they need to do.

apart from the blending yick, for me, i wanted to be the kind of parent who said to my child 'i don't know, can you do this by yourself?' and gave them a shot at it before stepping in.

so given that i wanted to be the parent that let dd fall over (onto pillows) while she was learning to sit up, or to fall off the steps (with me to catch her) while she was learning etc etc etc it made sense to me to let her have a shot at eating by herself before i'd start stressing about it. as it was, she chowed down from the start (and the mess, while not inconsiderable, was 'clean' mess iykwim?) i never had to think of a plan b. does that make sense? i think i'm thinking of much of it for the first time...

yep, habs. i could probably trace it back to my aunt's overcooked carrots on christmas day... i LOATHE mushy veg.

DS had purees, DD has never really done spoons.

By the time they were just over a year old (which I understand seems ages away if you have a 6 month old), they were both self feeding and equally messy.

I think the only way that I could reduce the mess from my point of view would be to outsource DD's mealtimes to somebody else - maybe a nanny who just came over at breakfast lunch and tea with food and a mop?

Having said that, its a close call to decide whether I spend more time clearing up sand and mud from the garden, or weetabix. Toddlers are just messy people.

Personally, I think purees are a bit gross!! Long-sleeved bibs, an easily-wipeable floor/mat and a tolerance for mess are blw essentials. Think i fall into the slatternly category as i often find bits of food in dds hair long after mealtimes have ended, despite a good wipe down with a flannel, and i don't usually bother wiping the floor under the highchair until she's gone to bed . She's getting better though - today she only dropped two bits of pasta (at 9mo) - i've been known to drop that much and i'm 34 & know how to use a knife & fork

good point aitch...it's like a competition sometimes this parenting thing. I have quite enjoyed learning to unclench.

And I know most parents respond to the satiety cues most of the time, but I know from my own experiences with DS (spoon fed) and DD (initially spoon fed) that I've been guilty in the past of pretending the spoon is a plane/train/car/bus etc to try and encourage my DCs to eat just a little bit more when they have obviously had enough.

See, Milky, you're fitting The Theory perfectly. Did you have traumatic over-cooked carrot/sprout incidents as a child?

lol Milky, wait til she's a bit older - ds signals that he's done by taking anything left on his tray, looking me in the eye, and throwing it overboard.

lacka, one time i was spoonfeeding my friend's wee boy (this was a few years ago). he is a famous non-eater but i think in order to please me (favourite auntie) he absolutely wolfed the fromage frais down. his mum was v surprised and delighted, so was i, and he was thrilled that everyone was happy etc.

and then the poor soul vommed EVERYWHERE. through his nose, into his hair, he was SO upset and crying.

it made such a mess that his mum's face turned from thrilled to horrified, as did mine etc etc. i felt TERRIBLE. it was all Completely My Fault and it had never occurred to me that i was pushing him, because he really seemed so pleased to be eating it.

anyway... just another reason that i may have for having been attracted to the no-spoon element of BLW. cos unlike most BLWers, i never did use a spoon with dd, as i never needed to. this is turning into an interesting thread for me...

[genuinely traumatised by recovered force feeding memory]

this was a good few years before i had dd, obv.