it's official, BLW is *the* way!!!

[GreenMonkies]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6663560/New-parents-will-be-told-keep-breastfeeding-don t-rush-to-mush.html

"To help parents decide when it is appropriate for their child to move on to solids, the campaign suggests a "banana challenge" .

?A good test is the banana challenge - if your baby is able to sit up and hold its head steady, reach out and grab half a peeled, ripe banana and eat some of it all by themselves, they are ready."

Ta da!!!!!!

I think they've got a bit mixed up though where they say "half give up (breastfeeding) and switch to solids after six weeks". But loving the idea of the banana challenge!

This is good news, but the usual poor reporting about infant feeding. The writer thinks that solids = formula (hence the 'switch to solids after six weeks), and again we see the thing about 'recommending breastfeeding for six months'....NO, it is EXCLUSIVE breastfeeding for six months, with solid foods added then.

Is it really "bad" to give a mashed banana then at 6 months rather than a chunk of banana? Just asking as w/DS1 we went the puree route (over 4.5 yrs ago now). He loved being fed so I didn't think it was "a bad" thing. By 10m or so he was eating cut up food/finger food anyway. I was just proud about the fact that his food was healthy and almost always homemade. He was/is a great eater and I never forced food into his mouth w/a spoon.

DD on the other hand was started on purees but quickly went on to finger food. She hated being fed and she wanted to eat what her brother was eating. She was a different baby to DS1 so I did what was right for her.

I guess I am wondering why doing purees to start is looked down upon. Doesn't it depend on what the child wants and thrives well with? I agree weaning to solids should not be rushed into and milk for 6m is best but once you do wean to solids, surely if you decide to give puree or the finger variety is up to you and how you feel your baby will do, right?

No, giving purees at 6 months is fine - it's when people start shovelling baby rice into 8 week olds to get them to sleep through the night that the problem lies. Don't worry

Actually can I just say I feel that BLW has worked really well for us, I did "strict" BLW for the first few months then once DS had got the hang of self feeding I did start to spoon feed the messy things like spaghetti bolognese/yoghurt/mashed potato - I didn't mind the mess so much when I could chuck him in the sink to hose down But anyway, at 13 months now all my NCT friends are worrying away that their babies will not eat anything lumpy, whereas DS seems to take spaghetti bolognese off a spoon as something solid to be chewed, so never had that problem. He even tries to use cutlery himself if given the chance (though is not very good at it)

I am always recommending the "banana test" on here though - it makes a lot of sense to me (though I think something like brocolli or carrot is better - banana is really slippery)

Bertie brilliant that BLW worked well for you. As I said, I accidently did BLW w/DD after she fussed over the purees but BOTH my children were eating "normal" food before a year. I am surprised that your NCT friends at 13months are still finding it hard to give lumpy food. Maybe they are just nervous/not confident due to choking fears? I puree'd as I said with DS1 and graduated him to lumps at 9m and then cut up food around 10m. I was scared but I did it.

I now have DS2 (21 weeks) and he has shown no interest in food or attempted to reach for food so will just bf until he does. Once he does I may start puree'ing AND giving finger food. BLW does seem easier when you have more than 1 DC, though.

Oh I accidentally did the banana test with ds2 - well it was a roast potato but you get my gist.

I decided when he pulled himself onto the table off my lap grabbed said potato off his brother's plate and shoved in his mouth he was probably ready to wean!!

Did BLW from then on although didn't know it as such... Just gave him what we were having and will do the same with dc3 due in May!

It' not "bad" to give puree as such, but it's not necessary, and can lead to problems with texture later on.

Here's Gill Rapely's guidelines

And this article was originally in the Independent, and has this explanation about purees/texture/lumps;

"Parents may be concerned that their baby will choke.But although anyone, in theory, can choke on anything, nature gives babies a natural prevention against choking by teaching it to chew before it can swallow. The risk factors are if a baby is not sat up straight, and if suction is introduced, such as the action involved in sucking off a spoon.

Rapley explains: ?Imagine eating tomato soup - you suck it in. Now imagine eating minestrone, a mixture of liquid and solids. The way you eat it is different, you can?t suck it in, you chew it.? It?s because of this that purée-fed babies often refuse second-stage baby foods, which involve lumps and purée. They don?t know whether to suck or chew so, as a natural defence mechanism, they do neither."

I'm not being deliberately provocative, but does anyone know of any adults who are still eating purees? Seriously - I can imagine that non-BLW babies may take a bit longer to accept lumps, but all children accept them eventually. So what's the big worry exactly? (assuming weaning with purees at 6 months, not before, obviously...)

DS was showing no interest in solids at all at 6 months and much preferred his milk so we started on purees. Went on to half puree/half mashed a month later, then lumpier food and so forth. I always put finger food in front of him to see if he was interested - but he wasn't until around the 8 month mark.

He's almost 11 months now and eats a spoon fed lumpy lunch (half me feeding and half loading and him feeding himself) and finger food for tea. He has led me to that routine and I will do exactly the same when I have another - in that, if they are not interested in finger food to start with, I'll try purees. BLW is great, but only if the baby wants to co-operate

We also have to remember that every child is different and what works for one will not necessarily work for another. My first began weaning at 5 1/2 months as he lost weight and he took ages to get used to lumps. My second refused everything other than breastmilk until she was over 7 months and was eating normal food just squished a bit from before a year. Had I done the banana challenge with my first we'd still be waiting - he HATES fruit of all kinds!

Joanneg20 - no, but you do see toddlers referred to specialist dieticians because of problems accepting lumpy food. It crops up quite often on those parenting programmes like House of Tiny Tearaways. The hope is that this is less likely to happen with BLW.

The main arguments for BLW aren't all necessarily to do with accepting lumps, they are more to do with learning to eat in a natural progression (get food in mouth, bite, chew, swallow), appetite control and, quite frankly, avoiding all the hassle and ice cube trays if they're not needed! There's nothing wrong with purees though, it's just a different way of doing things.

strawberrie - that's what you get when a political journalist does what is really a health story...

You might want to read the DMs take on this - entertaining in a complete load of bollocks way

And SWMNBM2 gets a mention too.....

"A lot of this advice comes from UNICEF who are giving the same advice to the Third World."

From the DM article - arf.

That's right Dear, babies in the UK are so massively different from 3rd world babies. Who new evolution worked that fast?

Shocking link from DM - Andy Burnham talking sense???

There was no such thing as BLW when my son was weaning but he hated the spoon so we gave him things he could feed himself as an alternative. Looks like I was ahead of my time! He was weaned at 3.5 months because a HV told me that 12oz per feed was too much and he needed solids. He was formula fed because I made a pigs ear of breast feeding and had mastitis and he lost weight. With better advice I would have loved to have breast fed for longer. Managed 14 months with DD though and she's the one with eczema.

Pregnant with dc3 and hope to do both e bf for 6 months and blw

funny how CBC says babies can't be satisfied with just breast milk to 6 months - no one told DD

beginning to realise why MN castigates the silly woman!

This made me : 'If giving a bit of formula or a bit of solids before six months makes a happy baby sleep through the night and gain weight as it should, you are not creating a problem, you are creating a happy family unit.'

CBC is implying that both are options if you want a baby to sleep more. Even leaving aside the evidence that says that this doesn't work, formula is an alternative to breast milk and suitable from birth (inferior in some ways, but you get my point). Solids are something else entirely and research explains why you should think about waiting (or at least be sure, through something like testing real weaning signs, whether they are ready).

It makes me to think that CBC says to women to supplement with solids to improve sleep. We all know people who've swallowed this (excuse the pun!) and it's made no difference at all.

BLW is quite new in my circle of mothers and all of us puree'd with our first DC's and did not have problems with fussy eating/LO's refusing lumps/texture in foods. I think the misconception people have with purees is that it tends to be introduced before 6months hence the leaning towards BLW as the way to feed.

If purees aren't "bad" (if done from 6months) then I say let it be.

I don't think there's anything wrong with pureeing food as such, just that if you don't wean until 6 months plus, there's no need to. I didn't do BLW because I thought it was better for my DS, I did it because it seemed a lot less faff.

I wish solid food had made my baby sleep through the night! Didn't work at all