BLW - why or why not?

[tracymom1]

Its getting close to that time... DD is 5 1/2 months old and everyone has already started with the "solids" questions. Ugh!! With DS we did about half BLW and half spoon-feeding, though not with the typical rice cereal or purees. He ate from a spoon if I was eating something or someone else was 'feeding' him (grandma, mostly).

I have been reading more and more about BLW and am curious to what your experiences are - either for or against. Anyone not do it? Why not? Thanks mamas.

[JMJ]

We do BLW, but the biggest arguments I've heard against are less waste of expensive organic foods and you can get more superfoods into your baby or older baby or toddler or however long you want to do purees. Jarred baby food is also easy to shove in a to-go bag, and you don't have to worry about it spoiling.

I used to work in daycare, and there were expectations that kids would start eating substantial amounts of purees between 4-6 months old (at parents' disgression), and we would have to manipulate them into eating it. Then, at a year old, we would have to coerce them into eating the (junk) food that we provided for them in small chunks and leaving all purees and bottles behind. It was difficult to get the kids to eat the purees (probably before they were ready for solids), and it was hard to get them to give them up. I am sure that if such expectations did not exist, that the process would have been more peaceful.

I'm just delighted to see my daughter sit down with us for a family meal and happily feed herself chunks of colorful, textured, nutritious foods from among the choices she is given. I don't worry how much she eats. I just make sure she has a variety of healthy foods and trust her to eat what she needs.

[Plarka]

We did BLW with dd who is now 2.5 and I will never try purees again!!! Definitely BLW all the way!

My favorites about BLW are:

1. You have 2 hands free to feed yourself!!
2. Baby learns good skills of self feeding, and great fine motor skills and hand eye coordination
3. No stress about whether baby is getting enough food or not. They lead, they eat what they want and you trust they know what they need!

We didn't use expensive organic foods, just regular foods we ate. It also made us eat healthier cause I was giving her such a variety, ie butternut squash/parsnips/berries....etc.

Oh, I could not praise BLW enough! A super helpful site is this British forum, but people from other countries are welcome too! Very friendly and helpful! babyledweaning.com/forum

[dislocator3972]

I expect we'll end up doing a mixture of purees and BLW depending on the day, DD's needs, etc. But I'm excited to watch all the answers!

[Auraji]

We've doing BLW since my daughter turned 6 months (she'll be 8 months soon). I got the book and decided to give it a try because my DD was already interested in the food that we were eating and because it made sense to me to just feed her table food. It's easy for the whole family to just eat the same thing. I really dont think the waste is greater with BLW, since I just give her bits of what the rest of the family is having, if she wants more, I give her more.
It was scary when I started and she would gag and cough, but she rarely ever does that anymore. It is true that you can pack more nutritional content into a puree, but at that age babies get most of what they need from breastmilk. Solids are just fun and a small suplement to breastmilk. I feel like doing just purees is adding an awkward step to a more natural transition.
DD has been now eating more, than playing. I know what she likes, but I still offer other things. She will now eat more complete meals. For breakfast we had today southwestern scrambled eggs (from better than eggs and it was spicy!), banana and a whole wheat mini bagel with hummus. She ate a bitof sc rambled eggs, a bit of banana and almost an entire half of the bagel. I offer food to her whenever Im having something, because she always wants some. She seems to love eating and trying new things. She's never had a bad reaction to anything and I dont really pressure her into eating. I do purees too sometimes, or foods like oatmeal, applesauce, yogurt, mashed potatoes. I just give her the spoon, because she will NOT let you feed her.
A negative thing about BLW is that she's so used to having what Im having, that you really cant eat anything that you dont want her to eat in front of her or at least you need to have something right there to offer, but sometimes she figures out she's been tricked.

[LindsC]

I am in the process of researching BLW myself. DD is 6 months old now and is starting to show signs of being ready. My plan is to just give her some of whatever it is that I am eating and see how she does. I have also already spoken to my daycare provider (home daycare) and she has no problems with whatever I decide to do since there is almost always something that the older kids are eating that she could serve DD and if not, she always has fresh fruit/vegetables available that she could quickly prepare.

[Blueone]

BLW seems great, but we opted to do the puree part. We give chunky puree though. My son feeds himself sometimes with the spoon and absolutely loves it. I give him some chunks now and again and he's not interested, but he wants to eat, I can tell.

I don't plan on keeping him on it or forcing him to eat something he's not ready for. I offered him chunkier stuff like brown rice pasta in the beginning but he didn't want to eat it and would get frustrated because it was hard for him to grab and put in his mouth (he's short for his high chair). Even when I offered it to him after we started purees he didn't want the chunky stuff unless it was on a spoon. I'm also introducing foods slowly because I have a lot of food allergies.

So really, it depends on the baby. But I never forced him to eat this food, he leaned forward and I follow his lead. Every baby is different.

[blumooned]

I didn't "discover" BLW until after we had already started purees. I just thought purees were the only way. I started offering the steak-fry size pieces and, for some foods, DS liked it. But, he gagged a lot & he bit off way more than he needed & had huge chunks in his mouth that scared me. Around the same time I offered peas and he loved picking them up with his fingers. So, I started cutting the steak-fry pieces into smaller chunks (a little bigger than pea size) and he loves picking them up and he gets most into his mouth. We still do a few purees, for the foods that don't work in chunks, but he prefers feeding himself!
We don't offer him everything we're eating. I want him to have all organics for awhile and not everything we eat is. I don't know if what we do is really BLW, but we're definitely responding to our LO's wants/needs!

[neonalee]

No experience with this yet (and not for awhile), but I'm curious about it so was reading. I asked DP sitting next to me (who has a child by the ex) 'have you ever heard of baby lead weaning' and got the STRANGEST look in return. Seems he heard 'baby linguine' and knowing I was reading here about babies, he was understandably confused

[ZeezMom]

DS is nearly two & has been using utensils really from the start of solids at 6 months. He took to it really well. (I have video proof! ha ha). He's never had a puree. The way I figured it, my husband & I eat very little processed food. Why am I going to give it to my child?

He is always willing to try anything we put in front of him at least once before rejecting it. And rejection is rare.

I'm not suggesting his eating habits are due wholly to BLW. But the method suited us as foodies & individuals who care about what we eat. I don't go entirely organic, for what it's worth. But how wonderful that the whole family eats the same foods every day!

My only exceptions for the first year were nothing: spicy, salty, sugary, or crunchy. I did not introduce the big allergens like seafood, peanuts or honey until after the first year. But otherwise, DS ate what we ate, just in smaller portions. I intend to do the same for my second DS when the time comes!

[GreenGranolaMama]

We have been doing purees but now that 8mo DS has a little bit more finger dexterity... and a few more teeth : ) I totally want to try BLW

[Altair]

My baby is 9 months and we did BLW starting at 6 months. He wasn't so interested in actually eating food for the first month or 2, just kinda playing with it and sucking on it a little, but that was fine with me! At 8 months he started acting interested more than once a day and all of the sudden at 9 months he wants to eat and eat and eat! We don't really do purees, except for things that are like that naturally like yogurt and soup and stews and grits and oatmeal... but just this past week he has been SO excited if I use a spoon and mash his food a little, whereas before he wasn't at all interested in that. I think he has gotten hungrier and wants it FAST!

We're actually at the point now where BLW is making him not nurse enough (IMO) and I'm debating slowing him down on the solids or not... I pump at work and it made my supply go down slightly. He's eating 3 meals a day now (DEMANDS IT!)... today he nursed all night/early morning (last nursing at 6:30 AM when I left) then ate breakfast at 9 when he woke up (tiny bit of oatmeal, yogurt mixed with apple/blueberry mixture) then didn't want a bottle until 11:00, then begged for his grandmother's edamame and had some, fell asleep, then woke up and had some veggies and fruit/yogurt, bottle again at 2:45 right before I got him, then nurse a lot then at 6 grape leaves and falafals. TOO MUCH!!!!

[Penny4Them]

Ds (near 7 mos) has been eating food with us but he doesn't digest it at all. Food like rice and brocolli. Is that typical? Also, if he takes a big bite, do you take it from his mouth or just let it fall out of his mouth. I can't help but worry about choking. Thoughts? Thx

[Altair]

It's normal to come out the other end undigested with BLW in the beginning. Whenever I did more liquidy things in th ebeginning like applesauce or soup it came out more digested.

I don't worry about the bigger pieces, he's always spit them out if they're too big. He gags sometimes, but that's how he gets it up.

[kismetbaby]

Funny, this is what my mom did with all of us and it just seemed normal. Like the easiest thing to do with a babe is just give them tiny pieces of what you are eating. Always figured I'd do the same. . .why buy all that jarred pureed stuff anyway? Never saw a single jar of baby food in my moms house and she had 4 kids! I didn't know this idea had a name and a "following" till just now

I would certainly smash some things up a bit though, no sense chocking a child IMO. But lots of food are soft and perfect for little chunks. . . avocado, banana, tofu, sweet potato. And some foods already come pureed already like applesauce (so yummy homemade!), and yogurt.

[annekh23]

we're blw, makes life so much easier, no need to mush anything, or buy anything special, not much is going down yet, but it doesn't need to!

[by-the-lake]

Originally Posted by Auraji

We've doing BLW since my daughter turned 6 months (she'll be 8 months soon). I got the book and decided to give it a try because my DD was already interested in the food that we were eating and because it made sense to me to just feed her table food.

What book?

[Summersquash]

BLW has been wonderful for us. I like having DD really be a part of our meals, sitting in her little chair sharing food with us. I'll definitely use this method with any future children. All DD's grandparents really enjoy being part of our meals this way too. (In fact, my MIL recently commented that she was visiting with a friend whose grandchild was visiting and how odd it seemed to see food spooned into a baby's mouth.)

DD wasn't all that interested in solids till about 8-9 months. She'd play with the pieces and bring them to her mouth, but she didn't start to really get the hang of eating till closer to 9 or 10 months. And then things really took off.

I love how she was (and is) able to explore different tastes and textures on her own time and at her own pace. She has very definite likes (she'd probably eat a pint of blueberries a day if I had them available for her) and dislikes (pasta and carby things, and eggs). I didn't realize that babies had such strong preferences and it's been fun to watch her try new things.

[ShwarmaQueen]

Originally Posted by kismetbaby

I didn't know this idea had a name and a "following" till just now

You and me both!

[hotharmony]

Originally Posted by by-the-lake

What book?

Baby Lead Weaning by Gill Rapley