'I will be doing a mix of BLW and puree'. Discuss.

[Aitch]

http://www.babyledweaning.com/some-tips ... ment-65130

sparked by that, really, and i see it a lot around and about. what are our thoughts on this?
mine, as i say on the blog post thing, are really not very dogmatic at all, but then it's not my style to be dogmatic. if i could embroider cushions, they'd pretty much say 'do what makes you happy'.

[Jem]

I have to confess to being a bit hardcore about it, which is why I don't generally reply to comments on the blog (put people off before they've even started...!) I think if you're "mixing approaches" that's pretty much just mainstream/traditional weaning... most people I know who spoonfeed offer the occasional finger food too.

But yeah, do what works for you. What works for me is 'proper' BLW :p

[Noir]

I still just think that you can't "Do a mixture". Fair enough decide to puree wean and give your child finger foods too, but I'm not sure if the giving of finger foods can constitute BLW if you're also spoonfeeding. But then I don't think a lot of people get the whole ethos of it- they just think purees or finger food, which it's not- it's far more about what finger foods can mean, such as them having self control and taking that into childhood and hopefully adulthood too. That's pretty important when it comes to food which is something that can kill you if you have too much or too little. And now I'm preaching to the priest! And I think if you actually answered with that anyway then you would b shot down as being a nutjob, which I'm happy to be .

X-posted with Jem, who witters less and managed to say it much more precisely!

[Aitch]

lolol, you are so monster. I totally, utterly did 'proper' BLW but that's cos it totally, utterly worked for us. what would you have done if it hadn't?

[Aitch]

see i do agree with you in so many ways, Nori, but i also wonder if BLW itself is a phase that will eventually move the window of what weaning should be back to a healthier place, with a head Very Much for letting the child stop eating when they want to? as an avid finisher of plates, it's pretty much the most important thing for me i think.

btw i was looking after my six month old nephew last week, he has finger food but my mother was in charge of giving him his yoghurt. (she loves a bit of BLW but she didn't have a high chair in the house and poor DH, on whose knee he had been sitting, indeed whose meal he had been demolishing, while he ate broccoli and cauliflower and pork by the FISTFUL, couldn't face self-feeding when it came to yog). it was really amazing how passive he became, i thought. and at the same time how CROSS when she didn't get it to him fast enough. so a weird mix of passive and furious...

[Pics]

I think it can mean different things. My 2 were DEFINITELY blw, but that didn;t mean that they were never spponfed. When a baby grabs your hand as you are preloading a spoon and guides your hand to their mouth, it is clearly baby led. And they can make it very clear that this is what they want you to do. FOr 2 months, Iona insisted that all yogurt was spoonfed as she realised it was the quickest way to get it in - but didn;t want anything else like this. I never 'convinced' her or insisted, or did aeroplanes etc but she was happy and so was I. Elodie was similar - but found using a spoon really hard and would quite often show that she wanted me to fdo her porridge etc, but would feed herself everything that wouldn;t go on a spoon (so soup etc from cup).
I think because i was confident in my approach, i didn't feel the need to explain it (although if i look back over old posts i may find that i did!) whereas people starting out may feel that the hardcore among us may not accept it. I don;t know - maybe Jem will now strike me off .....!!!!! ( i dare you .....!) But i never pureed anything.

[Eleanor]

I think what matters is the attitude. You can spoonfeed in a relaxed sociable way and follow the baby's lead, even though not to the same extent as complete self-feeding. And conversely, for someone who's approaching weaning with the mindset of "I must get 6 tbsps of solids down her throat 3 times a day" or whatever (whether they've got that from their family or HVs or books), they can spoonfeed or they can offer as many vegetable batons and porridge pancakes as they like, it ain't baby-led.

The 'mix of puree and BLW' method does still have a massive advantage over the old Annabel Karmel-style weaning regimes where you start with smooth puree, then mash, then weird minestrone-textured concoctions of lumps in a smooth base, then you finally dare to introduce finger foods once the baby is about 9 months old ... which is how I was firmly instructed by various people as the only way to do it! I believe even AK has modernised her methods since then.

[Aitch]

for me it's got to be about keeping your head open to responding to the baby, and i think a baby is perfectly capable of saying 'i actually prefer yog off a spoon, mother'. some kids are more sensitive to texture anyway, we know that, and others don't like mess so much.
hark at me, i sound like an attachment parent...

[Aitch]

(i think she saw the opportunity for a finger food book, El)

[jvnt]

I always imagine people doing this are planning to make more of a point of offering a variety of finger foods more often than someone who labels themselves as purée weaning, perhaps that's true perhaps not. I think it certainly tackles the 'learn to swallow before chew' thing as they are getting regular experience with solid solids. I think it's mostly about the parent, if you're a worried type of parent then blw may well cause heaps of anxiety around food whether it's about choking or the quantity or types of foods eaten, that's no fun for the parent or the child. You have to do what works so a mix would be the best thing.

Sorry, on phone so may not be making sense!

[Aitch]

yes, i think that's what i mean about the window... so if you are a worried type of parent and the most you can see yourself stretching to is offering finger food as well as purees, that's got to be a bonus, yes? you were never going to be the type to do BLW full-on anyway...

[Jem]

lolol, you are so monster. I totally, utterly did 'proper' BLW but that's cos it totally, utterly worked for us. what would you have done if it hadn't?

It "not working" didn't / doesn't cross my radar .. if they don't take to eating straight away, well, Izz was boobing every bloody hour til past 12 months anyway, weight loss would have been unlikely. I don't know how else it could fail?

Look at me, naive mum to just the one, haha. Guess we'll see how this pans out with #2...

I think it helps that I am a VERY relaxed parent. And by relaxed I mean lazy and slightly neglectful.

[Jem]

I don;t know - maybe Jem will now strike me off .....!!!!! ( i dare you .....!)

Form an orderly queue for spanking with the BLW book

[Eleanor]

(i think she saw the opportunity for a finger food book, El)

Ooh you CYNIC.

[Noir]

I think it helps that I am a VERY relaxed parent. And by relaxed I mean lazy and slightly neglectful.

This is why it worked for us too. I just cannot get worked up about my kids not being hungry. Even if I have slaved for hours over a hot stove, it's always a family meal anyway so even if they don't want it I do which is enough of a reason for cooking it! DH manages it, but if they're sat up nicely I don't care whether they're eating or not. They will do it when they're hungry!

It does irritate me even more when someone says they're BLW- but what they mean is that they're giving finger foods, but ripping them up and putting them in the baby's mouth. That's dangerous as well as mis-named, and I'm not too much of a nutter to know that the former is worth me getting het up about more than the latter.