What the heck is baby led weaning

Iam64 -I just chat with parents and grandparents as we pick up our children / grandchildren and hear the means and groans about homework and being tired after a day at work, among other things. I reckon children will grow up eating what they like and refusing what they don’t like however they’re weaned.

I did feed our children with pureed food, and the DGC had some too ( but more cut up solids) but I doubt as a baby that I was given much in pureed form, as there were no prepared baby foods around then.So apart from mashed up potato, and carrots, runny boiled eggs and porridge, and fish cut up and cooked in milk (poached) I think other foods would have been cut up solids given to me to munch on.

No problem

Apologies - I’m getting confused with the posts here. My mistake!

sirc, was that to me? Joyfullnanna tried to explain how a forum worked to me upthread

Sorry - I don’t understand what you mean?

I understand how a forum Works.

I’m not understanding why you think I don’t? Is it because I disagree with your comment?

And I imagine most people are - which is why it’s best to only offer advice when it’s needed/asked for/etc. I’m sure many of us have been on the receiving end of ‘helpful’ advice which serves to undermine our attempts to do things in a way that feels right for us - it’s not very nice.

SirC however I put it would have provoked that comment. I think I'm quite measured in my comments. Thanks

Providing the advice is asked for, wanted and relevant then sure, why not. Otherwise it’s probably best to keep comments along the lines of ‘oh what a shame for baby, there’s no eye contact if you don’t spoon feed’ to yourself.

Summerlive
Why not just let them get on with what they feel is best?

Sometimes a bit of experience and advice stops the wheel constantly being reinvented.

Sumnerlove, this thread is about BLW, and comments are peoples opinions as well as experience & advice. That's how a forum operates. Sad to use use it as a platform to criticise others opinions.

As soon as I commented here, I jinxed myself

For three days now, my little guy has refused all offers of the spoon and is insisting on feeding himself all the time...

It's not a new thing and I think it makes a lot of sense. People are often tempted to take things too far, though.

It does stop anxious parents spooning loads of puree into a disinterested child (a sure way of causing food refusal) and most babies don't need solid food before the stage where they can feed themselves, anyway.

I had to laugh when I clicked on the link to BLF and it said read blogs and watch You tube videos to get an idea of what BLF is. How did we ever manage to bring up our children without the internet.
13 years ago when my ekdest DS and his wife had a baby when it became time to wean him they did ut religiously by a book which I imagine was akin to BLF. But it was very insistent in what order food had to be introduced and the very first thing the baby was to be given was mango. Now mango wasn't quite so common 13 years ago so I was very surprised that the writer said that should be the first solid food a baby should try. He and his brother have always been very hearty eaters so it did them no harm. When he was 3 and a half he came to visit and whenever we went out for a meal he wanted a ham omelette but he wouldnt eat any part of the omelette that didnt have ham in it.

Baby led weaning seems to be omitting spoon feeding the baby, which is a shame because its a nice way to have eye contact with your baby while you are feeding him/her.

This whole comment just reads as another way to shame today’s new mothers. Doing things differently has no bearing on how things were done. It’s not a criticism. Why not just let them get on with what they feel is best?

Not really - I used to purée batches and freeze them while I was batch cooking other stuff. That way I could defrost some and they could have that plus a banana or something while we were having a pizza or something I didn’t want them having. I found the mix and match approach easier and more flexible.

Surely pureeing is more time consuming because there is separate prep!

With BLW they just eat a bitbof whatever you are having for lunch/dinner. So no extra work.

I remember friends spending whole sundays making batches of purees in little pots for the week! I couldnt be bothered with that! BLW seems much less time consuming!

I fed my son then my daughter.
My daughter breast fed both boys for quite a long while and started by putting pieces of soft enough food on a plate then he could "gum" what ever he had in his hands .
Anything suitable and not liable to choke on.

Just getting small children to taste different foods is a good way. Then they can at least find it for themselves.

Very different to what I did in 1980s . Breast them for a few months and stopped when they stopped.

I fed mine on Heinz tins of puried baby food.

Mind you they were both very fond of their food . Which helped a lot.

When my grandkids came the other day they raided my cucumbers. They are now at 4 and 7 are very good eaters.

That's fine if the parents have the time to tidy up after every BLW meal - many don't. There's no right or wrong way.

Iam64

This is why I tell my nursing students that they can advise parents to strip baby down to the diaper, ensure that baby is sitting on a high chair that can be easily cleaned, and put the high chair on a non-carpeted surface or put down a plastic sheet under the high chair. If baby makes a ginormous mess, he/she can simply be thrown in the tub and everything else wiped off.

For my DGS my daughter had a two pronged approach. He was given some foods to eat by himself - cucumber sticks, pepper, fruit etc but she also fed purées. We now have a two year old who eats pretty much anything and feeds himself cleanly and competently with a spoon and fork. I don’t think it matters what you do as long as baby is happy and healthy.

Ive just watched a clip of our 8 month old grandchild eating breakfast. A bowl of porridge with a slice of melon on the side. The child held a spoon and put handfuls of porridge into his mouth, then pick up the melon with very sticky hands and take a chunk out of that,
A very happy little one - enjoying food with gusto. BLW isn't for the faint hearted or for those who like a clean child, clean floor and No Mess.

I was supervising dgd today with her BLW, and there was no shortage of eye contact, I promise you.
It's not as if you should take your eye of them for more than a few seconds at a time any way, in case of choking (whatever weaning method you are using), which as others have already pointed out, is a silent danger, and she seems eager to make eye contact with me almost continuously when she isn't choosing what to put in her mouth next.

Going back to the 60s, when mine were born and I breastfed as long as possible - eventually the poor child showed signs of hunger. So we were advised to give them solid food.
There was a cereal mush, can't remember the name, and rusks, which also helped with teething.
In spite of all that, our 4 are still fit and well TG and none of them are overweight.