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Weaning

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

Checked her to refresh weaning DC3 and oh my goodness we are all up in arms, are people thinking too much these days?

141 replies

Roca · 08/03/2009 11:02

Surely it's baby seems ready for food, try them on this and that and before you know it they are joining in with your meals.

Oh and mine started on puree, then progessed to finger food then 'normal' meals. And now believe it or not they eat just like little human beings - curry and everything, never had to cook a different 'baby' meals for them.

And I weaned my first 2 from 17 weeks (the old guidelines) shock horror

Perlease, life is busy enough without 'my DC played with a bit of brocolli today he is doing so well on the feeding'

Just to clarify - am I now not supposed to give my DC a spoon or something for fear of hindering them in later life?

OP posts:
LackaDAISYcal · 09/03/2009 21:27

ill advised choice of words perhaps, but she didn't crash a thread about BLW, she started it, so I think....open forum and all that....she is entitled to her opinion.

anyhoo, that aside there are some good points being made here, but one thing intrigues me....why can't I spoon feed things like soup or yogurt or mushy weetabix but give finger foods the rest of the time and call myself a BLWer? Provided I take my cues from the baby that they don't want to eat the soup/yogurt/weetabix and stop, where is the harm? If the essence of BLW being they eat what you eat, and I'm eating some lovely homemade soup (whether pureed or chunky) that just isn't practical for them to feed themself?

AitchTwoOh · 09/03/2009 21:28

dd used to eat soup with bits of crusty bread, but then it was quite easy for us as i don't like whizzed soups, i like ones with bits in, so she was always able to pick out the bits of carrot, celery, chicken, barley etc.

LackaDAISYcal · 09/03/2009 21:28

cross posts there!

beaufies · 09/03/2009 21:29

Aitch - yes I understand why BLW is so dominant on MN and don't have a problem with that as such, just the tone that is often adopted.

On my last post I was just suggesting that if you've done your research and have decided that it's puree for you and your DC then you'll get much quicker, easier and useful advice going straight to the puree thread

6inchnipples · 09/03/2009 21:29

daisy that is exactly the point i'm trying to make.

LackaDAISYcal · 09/03/2009 21:33

great minds 6inchnipples

your name strangely reminds me of the industrial grade breat pump that is sitting in the corner of my living room

AitchTwoOh · 09/03/2009 21:36

i know she didn't crash a thread. a better parallel, then, would be me starting a thread in P-N saying that you're all thinking too much and too involved with your children. would go down as well as a fart in a spacesuit i think.

i realise this is splitting hairs about the soup thing, right, but bear with me. LOADS of people who do BLW do begin to use spoons, either by loading them up and handing them over, or just doing a bit of spoon feeding on the odd occasion. of COURSE they call themselves BLWers, it would be ludicrous to think that people are 'struck off', lol, just for using a spoon.

i suppose the only reason i say that the two are mutually exclusive is when people say 'you can do a mix of BLW and purees'. because it wouldn't be BLW, iyswim, if you've sat and pureed carrots and are feeding that with a view to keeping an eye on how much carrot is being eaten etc. cos the whole point of BLW is not to keep an eye on that stuff.

a 'mix', from the very beginning, is a 'mix' of finger foods and purees. that, by the way, is what the government recommends in any case.

whereas if you start BLW, let the babies really get into squidging their steamed carrot and broccoli, and getting their wee hands mucky with spag bol, and THEN the family has soup one day, well, of course most people will just pick up a spoon and let the baby have some that way.

do you see what i mean? it's more the primary motivation, than the actual spoon.

i fear i am sounding like a NOB.

6inchnipples · 09/03/2009 21:37

name chosen because dd sleeps beside me and i always fall asleep while she is latched on and roll onto my back so my nipple gets stretched out and when it pings out her mouth looks like an unusually long raspberry fruit pastille!! Thought i'd share that with you!!

6inchnipples · 09/03/2009 21:42

I know what you're trying to say aitch

As for handing over the spoon however my dd shoves it right down her throat and this cause more gagging than any food has done.

And most of it falls off the spoon on route to the mouth!

AitchTwoOh · 09/03/2009 21:42

aaah, what's in a name, sixinch? a rose by any other etc etc.

AitchTwoOh · 09/03/2009 21:44

thank god.

oh yes, dd1 used to turn the sppon over JUST as it got to her mouth, and we'd watch the food drip down her bib. you can see why i preferred her just to use her hands.

LackaDAISYcal · 09/03/2009 21:46

I'll never look a raspberry fruit pastille in the eye again

No, Aitch not nobby at all. I'm genuinely interested in this (I bought Gill Rapley's book this time round and everything!); more because it suits my lazy parenting style than being a purist about taking the child's lead. Also, because DS2 is my DC3, I just don't have the time to puree everything, and am much more relaxed about getting food into him than I was with DS1 (PFB) and then DD (five year gap so a bit scared and nerotic)

and you know....I'm sure there have been threads like that in the PN section before

AitchTwoOh · 09/03/2009 21:48

god yeah, laziness was my primary motivation, absolutely. although i'm quite sure if i hadn't heard of BLW i'd have pureed my way through the AK book absolutely religiously.

6inchnipples · 09/03/2009 21:48

off to watch he surrogacy thing... i feel ill for this poor girl handing over this wee baby, she has had him home feeding him etc, the women she had him for is a total bitch omg need to go watch this....

6inchnipples · 09/03/2009 21:51

sorry random thread, been watching surrogacy prog while posting....

beaufies · 09/03/2009 21:51

Thanks for the explanation 6inch.

LackaDAISYcal · 09/03/2009 21:55

thankfully AK wasn't as omni-present as she is today when I had DS1 seven years ago

AitchTwoOh · 09/03/2009 21:57

would you believe i was given two copies of her book for my sodding BIRTHDAY by well-meaning chums? tsk. and you puree-lovers think you've got it bad on here. my BIRTHDAY!

ronshar · 09/03/2009 22:05

I really wanted to try BLW but I just cant bear the mess afterwards.
I use jars etc. So what does that make me? Apart from really lazy. Although I do give DS our main meal but mushed up.

Hello Lackadaisy. How are you?

ronshar · 09/03/2009 22:06

Aitch, give them back for christmas.

giantkatestacks · 09/03/2009 22:07

Aitch thats priceless... even though I like mashing things up I have never understood why we need recipes for things like veggie puree. [looks confused]

But maybe thats because I cook a lot and am being a bit snobby and nonunderstanding - thats usually the case.

LackaDAISYcal · 09/03/2009 22:20

rofl aitch

Hey ronny ; all fine here. DS2 is doing great, 18 weeks and a bruiser. How are you?

ronshar · 09/03/2009 22:28

Great. Ds 22 weeks and also a bruiser.
I popped onto the old knicker checker thread. Wheely is about to pop. Not long now.

LackaDAISYcal · 09/03/2009 22:34

I must pop in and say hello

MerryMarigold · 10/03/2009 11:08

Hey, this has turned into a great thread after the first few posts! Thanks Roca. I also needed a refresher on weaning, as feel like I did it wrong with ds1 who is the fussiest child on earth and eats very little of anything other than chocolate cake (tho seem to have done what most people on here were doing ie. a mix).

Oh, btw, Aitch, the PN thread is great. We don't talk about babies all the time, that's the whole point. We talk about ourselves (marriages, sex, clothes, food) where you feel you know everyone so not starting threads in loads of different areas where complete strangers who don't know you may jump on you.