HV's and BLW

[pigleychez]

My DD is 4mths and nowhere near ready to start weaning but a friend of mine has a DD who is almost 6mths and told me her HV has spoken to her about when she begins to wean.

I intend to do BLW and was just wondering on the HV's take on this. Is it something they recognise? If asked should I say thats what I intend to do or just keep stum to save the hassle of a debate?

Am a HV and did BLW with my DS who is now almost 6. It was a fairly new concept then and my Mum was incredulous when I said I wasn't giving baby rice. Just kept looking at me and calling it a "new fangled idea" - also told me that while I "knew all the theory there's no substitute for experience my girl" .

DS weaned himself - took food off my plate and started with a roast potato (that's my boy) which he crammed into his mouth (most went on the floor)and we never looked back.

I rave about it to other Mums now and our local children's centre are doing sessions on it as well.
Brilliant idea is BLW

As far as your HV goes - just say "I'm doing BLW". She'll either say "Great" or she'll be a numpty and look at you blankly before asking "what's that then"?

my hvs are v supportive and think it's great, thankfully. say that you're doing it very confidently so if they don't know what you mean they are the ones who feel stupid! HVs are coming round to the idea I think especially as it is a HV who did the research and the book (Gill Rapley).

Cool, thanks Ladies.

Think ill just tell her that's my plan and if she don't like it tough!!

Hi Lockets- Hope your all well and fine

Funnily enough I had a visit from my HV today and she was talking about weaning (even though DS2 is only 2 weeks old ) - but she was quite firm that it shouldn't be done till 6 months and she mentioned that at that point, you could just offer soft finger foods rather than pureeing/mashing. She didn't refer to it as BLW but clearly she meant the same concept and she was definitely 'pro' it.

The HVs that I see when I go to the weekly BFing drop-ins are really pro BLW (as you would expect). They aren't DD's assigned HV.

I havent been to see the assigned HV since 3 weeks, when she told me to give DD top-ups. DD has her 8 month check tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see what the assigned HV will say about weaning.

Oh dear, I chickened out of mentioning BLW to my HV yesterday when I took my 24 wk DS to be weighed. I had even taken the Gill Rapley book along in case she looked blankly at me. Why did I chicken out? Well she asked me how I was, "sleep deprived" I said. "Well give him baby rice and hypo allergenic fruit and veg" she said. Couldn't see the point of talking about BLW at that point. I am such a coward. The visit confirmed that I was right not to have taken DS to be weighed for the last 12 weeks, she had told me then to give him baby rice at 17 weeks because he was hungry which I also ignored. At least I know that my baby weighs in at 22lbs having been starved on BM for nearly 6 months. Sorry for the ramble, feel better having got that off my chest.

DDAOAH - baby rice probably won't make your baby sleep! I'd just do BLW still.

Depends on the HV. Ours told our postnatal class that BLW existed but that she didn't know a great deal about it and that there was a website where you could find out more if you were interested.

Didn't occur to me to discuss the method of weaning I'd be using with my HV tbh. She said wait until 6 mo, I said yes I was planning to do that, end of conversation. Mind you, by the time he was 6 months I think I'd more or less stopped bothering to take him to be weighed anyway.