Baby Led Weaning!

What do you think?

Never heard of it? Is it something you've tried? Are you planning to try it? Would you not go near it with a ten inch pole?

WYOO??

I'm planning to give it a go with DD2 when she reaches the right age (not for another 5 months!) but I think it will be easier with a toddler to feed as well, as I can't see me having the time to make the purees or have the time to set aside specifically to feed her every day either. Just got to get my head around knowing it'll be a messy process!

I think i did that. My eldest started watching us eating alll hte time wen he was about 3 months so we started givin him the odd chip or carrot. He liked niking food off r plats.

I did it with my youngest who is now 21 months. I can definitely recommend it. There are lots of advantages, for example your baby can eat the family's food (obviously you have to cook baby friendly food so you might have to adapt your cooking eg if you are used to using salt). It's easy because you just let the baby get on with it which means you can get on with your meal instead of spoonfeeding and trying to eat at the same time. This is a great advantage when eating out. And you don't need to worry whether you are giving her too much food or not enough - you just let her decide and trust her instincts. She might eat a bit less than you expect at first but that's fine. Milk should still be providing most of her nutrients and calories at first and solids will be mainly for experimentation for the first few months at least.
The main advantage for the baby is the fact that the food has different tastes and textures and colours rather than just being orange mush! And she has control over what she wants to pick up and taste, rather than sitting passively with her mouth open not knowing what you're going to shovel in.
There's loads of info on the internet and a new book just out by Gill Rapley.

These are all the reasons I'm thinking of doing it! I think convinced DH and even managed to talk my mum round too which was a shock!!! I'm a member of a BLW forum which is good for research, but I'll look up that book too! I think it'll be better for me than the gospel according to Annabel Karmel, which was a bit too preachy even for me - and I'm usually quite happy to be told what to do!

I dont object to it as some fiercely do as it seems perfectly normal if they are allowed the right things and its done correctly...

HOWEVER I have to say with it being my first child some of my fondest memories are of blending up delicious concoctions for those first tastes and seeing his little face scrunch up or smile with delight....I have always hated cooking but found making purees really relaxing and one of the first things where I had a OMG I am a Mummy sort of moment....

Also he choked on a piece of toast pretty badly at 8 months which scared the life outta me....

But as I say each to their own, and I think I paid Annabel Karmels mortgage payment that first part of weaning I had so much of her stuff!! Good job it sells well on ebay...

Before I started I showed DH this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVBdMDl4RXo
and it convinced him. I was quite surprised as I thought he might not like the idea, but it makes so much sense that most people I talk to seem to be very enthusiastic.

I did blw with DD2 and I have started it with DS2 and both have taken to it well. It makes life so much easier, and I am all for that.

Seriously though, I have found that DD2 is far less fussy with tastes/textures and new foods then the older 2.

I only actually even heard about it a couple of months ago, through BC (I really am ridiculously ignorant of so much baby stuff) I had always just assumed that all babies had mush, as I'd never heard of babies being given 'proper' food. I thought my sister was kooky and cool enough for making her own mush, as I thought it was the norm to just have to do jars! I didn't know there were even other options.

I'm slightly skeptical of BLW (won't they choke???) but definitely interested in reading more about it. There's so much I don't know about babies, and I like informed choice, not just baaaaa-ing along with everyone else because it's what they do. Baa baa baa.

I'm a huge fan of BLW now. Having gone the traditional worrisome route of puréeing with my elder children, BLW with my youngest was a pure joy. It felt so natural and instinctive, to allow her to try foods in her own time, rather than spooning gloop into her at set times and in set amounts.

I remember going to a restaurant with two BLW friends when our babies were around 8 months old. We simply popped them in high chairs and ordered a normal meal from the menu for them all, something that (if I remember right) included chicken breast, corn cobs, bread and salad. All three BLW babies sitting there, so small yet eating so confidently was a real eye opener.

My youngest still prefers to eat with her hands though. Ho-hum.

Why do advocates of BLW always have to call pureed food mush and gloop??? I didn't feed my son either I fed him gorgeous purees of a variety of fruit and vegetables fish cheeses and meat. All different colours and textures. As my son now eats olives like sweets, homous, curry, loves all veg and all fruit I think the "gloop" must have worked
Not being arguementative it just makes me laugh the language used and I feel thats why BLW sometimes cause rows unintentionally, as those words are quite provocative and a tad insulting to us who didn't choose the BLW route....

Henri wrote:
I'm slightly skeptical of BLW (won't they choke???)

A baby can choke on anything - even milk. Think about the last time you choked. Chances are it was on a mouthful of coffee that went down the wrong way and not on something solid. In some ways a BLW baby is less likely to choke because he picks up the food in his hands and knows its texture. If you are spoonfeeding, the baby doesn't know whether the food is smooth, lumpy, runny etc and he's quite likely to choke on an unexpected lump. And sooner or later you're going to have to give proper food. As a previous poster discovered, an older baby can choke on solids even if he has started on purees. Usually if a baby can't manage to swallow the food he will gag rather than choke. The gag mechanism actually protects the baby from choking because the food is eliminated before it gets to the baby's throat.

I'm not saying that a BLW baby will never choke, and you have to be sensible and take the same precautions you would with any baby eg never leaving your baby alone to eat.

northern soul wrote:Why do advocates of BLW always have to call pureed food mush and gloop??? I didn't feed my son either I fed him gorgeous purees of a variety of fruit and vegetables fish cheeses and meat. All different colours and textures. As my son now eats olives like sweets, homous, curry, loves all veg and all fruit I think the "gloop" must have worked
Not being arguementative it just makes me laugh the language used and I feel thats why BLW sometimes cause rows unintentionally, as those words are quite provocative and a tad insulting to us who didn't choose the BLW route....

That's true I think. And the same with most 'different' things. Like cloth nappy advocates (of which I am one!) always call disposables dispicables and things like that!

And I didn't make gloop for my DD1 either, but she's being a bugger at the moment with her food. Don't know if it's a phase (she's a week off 2) or if she's always going to not eat her fruit, veg, certain meats and cheese. I'm hoping DD2 will love everything!

Zog wrote:

Henri wrote:
I'm slightly skeptical of BLW (won't they choke???)

Think about the last time you choked.

LMAO! I invariably choke on drinks!!! (And there's always some idiot shouting "OH NO!! Quick - have a drink!" at me!!! ) Can't remember the last time I actually choked on food!

I am really going to have to watch some videos and things and familiarise myself again with the gag reflex! It's been a long time since I've seen it!!

northern soul wrote:Why do advocates of BLW always have to call pureed food mush and gloop???

Because it *is* mush and gloop? It's always been called mush and gloop, well before the advent of BLW. I fed my older children mush and gloop 12 years ago, and my mother fed *me* mush and gloop and it did me no harm!! No point getting offended now, go back to the sixties (or possibly before!) and tell THEM to call it something more appetizing.



Edit to say - even BLW babies eat mush and gloop. Have you SEEN the food once they have mushed it in their hands and gummed it several times??

I chocked on something this afternoon but it was most definitely not a cup of coffee. It was definitely something really rather solid indeed. *immature snigger*

Northern soul: No offence meant. I call it mush because when I was in hospital they fed me nothing more solid than some seriously overcooked cauliflower and I always associated it with baby food but it wasn't puree so I just called it 'mush'. And now it's stuck. And besides, it's almost onomatopoeic, isn't it? Mush mush mush mush.

Zog: That makes a fair amount of sense, I guess, thanks for explaining! I'm still concerned though, aspirating liquids is different than getting a chunk of carrot stuck down your throat, no? And with puree, even if it has lumps, it's likely to be soft and not get stuck? But again, I know very very little about this stuff, my sole experience of weaning-age babies is of staying with my sister and her 6 month old for two or three weeks.

I guess my main concern with BLW is also, how do you monitor what your child eats to look out for allergies? I thought that was necessary when starting babies off on anything other than milk? I always wondered why, since surely a few generations back they didn't do this, but that's what I've read and heard?

Henri wrote:I guess my main concern with BLW is also, how do you monitor what your child eats to look out for allergies? I thought that was necessary when starting babies off on anything other than milk? I always wondered why, since surely a few generations back they didn't do this, but that's what I've read and heard?

I have taken this into account too... and plan to introduce the foods in the same way as I would introduce purees - one or two new tastes per day so I can be on the look out for allergies. I'm not going to just throw a load of stuff in front of her. So say Penny and I were having a jacket potato and tuna one day, then I would just give Harriet a bit of potato. (Yuck bland potato! But still - quickest example I could think of!)

I honestly couldn't recommend BLW highly enough. It's so much easier than purees! It just makes sense to me - babies naturally regulate their own milk intake and will do so with solids too if allowed. I believe that this generates a healthy relationship with food, something I was anxious to do with my dd as I have always struggled with my weight.

I also believe that it is entirely the reason why my dd is (mostly!) happy to try anything I put in front of her. She's a very independent confident child and BLW played a large part in that. Who wouldn't want to be able to choose what they eat and in what order they eat it?

Henri wrote: I'm still concerned though, aspirating liquids is different than getting a chunk of carrot stuck down your throat, no? And with puree, even if it has lumps, it's likely to be soft and not get stuck?

To start with you will be feeding quite soft foods with BLW too. Carrot sticks will need to be cooked (roasted carrot is really tasty) until they are pretty soft. You won't be giving raw carrot for a long time. I was always quite cautious with apple too, as it can be quite hard and doesn't really mush down in the mouth like ripe pear does. I used to zap slices of apple in the microwave for a couple of minutes to soften them. And when I did give him raw apple I gave him a whole apple rather than slicing it as it's much harder to bite a choking-sized piece off a whole apple.

I was goin to wean on to mushed up stuff cos thats what my mum did but i read something on another site and it made me want to try blw cos then you can give your kids the same stuff what you have. obviously you cant salt their chips or put tuns of tommy sauce on it but it saves making mushy stuff for them and havin pizza and chips for you, you can just slice the same stoff you eat into bits they can hold.

I think mushroom has just basically outlined another of my main huge concerns with BLW. I worry that it's code in a lot of cases for 'giving children really age inappropriate food'. Is Pizza and chips actually even MILDLY ok for any child that young?

This is where I get stuck. Am I completely baby-ignorant, and yes it's perfectly ok to give 6 or 7 month old children chips and pizza and that sort of thing, or am I right to be fairly horrified at the thought of feeding a child who up until then has only had milk something that is packed with sugar, salt, allergens and fat?

I dont salt kids chips i dont salt any of there food

Yes, you do realise that food actually naturally contains salt though? especially stuff like pizza? And unless yore making the chips from scratch yourself at home, they contain salt when they get to you.

BLW is not suitable for families who live on junk food. There's nothing wrong with pizza if you make it from scratch without salt. Instead of chips I make potato wedges in the oven (but I tell my kids they are chips!) I always make food from scratch. Once the baby is a bit older there's no harm in the occasional bit of junk food in my opinion, but I wouldn't feed a 6-month old McDonalds.

But BLW could be a good incentive to get the whole family eating more healthy meals. I stopped using any salt in cooking when I started weaning.

Allergens like wheat are not such a problem if you wait till the baby is 6 months old. As for fat, babies need fat. A low fat diet would not be suitable for a baby. That's why you're supposed to use full fat milk once you give the baby cow's milk.

we make our own pitta bread pizzas. i learnt it at school. I didnt no there was salt in oven chips

My DS2 is 7 months and he had his first McDonalds the other day....


....he had a couple of slices of apples from a fruit bag as we had taken the other children out for a treat (yes I know McD's is not fantastic, but now and then doesn't hurt)

Zog: I know babies need fat, but there's a huge difference between different KINDS of fat. Fat naturally occuring in milk? Awesome. Fat naturally occuring in fish? Fab. Avocado's, seeds, even nuts if you grind them up and watch carefully for allergic reactions, all fine in my book (although I'd obviously have to check how suitable any of those things actually ARE for a weaning babe). Fat used to artificially flavour and cook stuff like chips, used to bulk up other foods, fat used to fry things in? Wouldn't have it anywhere near a child. It's the kind of stuff thats ok for an older kid in small doses, but a weaning baby just should be exposed to that kind of stuff, imo.

Mushroom: What do you use to make your pizza's? I'm assuming tomato sauce as a base? Look at the ingredients, it's loaded with sugar.