Who did baby led weaning?

L L CG · April 2011

Can you tell me about your experience with it? What are the pros and cons? Or, did you consider it and decide against it? 'Splain it to me!

ali-1411 · April 2011

I kinda did with Layna. I hadn't heard of BLW and didn't read the book or anything. I just used common sense.

She never liked purees/baby food so we gave up on those pretty quickly. I started giving her table food about 6 months. She was very interested in what we were eating so I would let her try things. I would test foods first, if I could mash it up between my tongue and the roof of my mouth, then I would give her some. I never had her on a feeding schedule. When she wanted food, I gave her food. It really was that simple.

fwiw - I don't think it makes any difference in the long run. Jakob had baby food in a very traditional style. I started cereal at 4 months, went on to fruits and veggies. He didn't have table food until 9 or 10 months. And that kid has always been good at trying new things and always finishing his meals. But Layna was a baby-lead and she's become the pickiest eater I've ever seen.

Taytee · April 2011

I did not with Abby even though m_and_m was doing it with H. The concept kind of freaked me out. But then Abby wouldn't touch cereal, hated purees and pretty much went straight to finger foods anyway. I've mentioned before that trying to feed Abby with a spoon put a lot of strain on our relationship. I really took it personally that she wouldn't eat from me and especially when she wouldn't eat foods I cooked, pureed and made into neat little cubes for her. It was made worse since she also started refusing to nurse around that time.

We did BLW with Emily as soon as she lost her tongue thrust, could sit up on her own and could get food to her mouth. It's been heaven. Meal time is so easy. I'll admit it's very very messy at first. At times it still is. But I'd rather do laundry than have very negative feelings toward my child because they won't eat. And she'll eat pretty much anything. I can order when we go out to eat and just ask for no seasoned salt on veggies etc. But we

Reading the book is really what made the difference for me. There are so many little points and explainations. Most importantly, knowing that gagging is not choking. Gagging is fine. Gagging is good. They learn from it. They learn how to get things out of their throat that are not supposed to be there. Emily projectile vomited twice in addition to many smaller gagging episodes. She learned quickly not to take such big bites. Babies are designed that way. The book explains in detail how we actually bybass and handicap our kids by only giving them purees etc and essentially teach them "food goes down just like milk does!". Then as we try to advance to stronger flavors and more texture, their palate just doesn't accept it.

I now have one picky eater and one "Chow Hound". Who knows, maybe Abby was always going to be a picky eater? But I am fairly certain Emily IS a good eater because of BLW.

We do still take precations with some foods. I cut hot dogs longways. Unless I'm sitting RIGHT in front of her, which most times I'm not, I still cut grapes in half. etc. I've never had to do a choking maneuver on either of my kids nor do I want to. I've had to finger swipe something from Emily but I don't remember what it was. She was gagging and just couldn't get it all the way up. I could see it at the back of her throat so I got it out.

kiarox2002 · April 2011

We did BLW and I *loved* it. It was soooooo easy. Taytee pretty much covered everything and I ditto everything she said. It is hugely messy, but now Kate is a very neat eater. She also developed her pincer grasp early because she was quite motivated to work on it. I loved the book by the way. Like Taytee said, it reassured me about the gagging thing.

jakbtx · April 2011

We did for #2 and #3. Didn't know about it for #1. Ditto Taytee. I liked it so much better than the purees, etc. my #2 and 3 eat a much wider variety of food than #1, still. My 3 boys are 5, 3, & 16 mos. We started when they were 6 mos old but they really didn't take off on food til 8-9 mo. Good luck!