BLW pros and cons

jmo823 · January 2013

DS will be 5 months this month and I have held off solids this long. Ive been doing some research on blw and am thinking about going that route after he turns 6 montgs but my DH is not on board. Anyone have good or bad experiences they would like to share?

jlsimon56 · January 2013

PROS:

You can all eat dinner at the same time vs. one parents eating while the other feeds the baby, then that parent eating. (This one is the biggest for me.)

Baby doesn't actually injest much at first (puts off those stinky food-poo diapers!). <-- This was actually the "pro" that our pedi gave, ha!

The whole, baby learns how much food is enough, it mimics how babies BF b/c they choose when they're done, blah blah.

I personally worry less when my LO gets something non-food in her mouth b/c I am confident she won't choke on it as easily, b/c she knows how to move food around in her mouth.

Only making one meal for the whole family, vs. spending time making baby food or spending money on jars.

Forces parents to eat better!

LOs learn to use spoons, forks, plates early. LO's teachers at daycare were impressed. One less kid to spoon-feed. :-)

And of course the long-term effects that are outlined in the book, how they'll be adventurous eaters, and they won't overeat, healthy outlook on food, etc.

CONS:

If you use a daycare, you might get a lot of resistance. Our daycare said BLW is forbidden, and they cut all LO's food into itty bitty pieces. I realize they are just covering their a$$e$ but it was frustrating.

You will never know how much LO eats. Jars, you can measure - Johnny ate 2oz of solids today. Even if you make your own - Johnny ate 1 ice cube worth of solids. Every LO is different, etc. - but I was annoyed when parents asked how many ounces of solids LO was eating. I didn't know. (None of their business!)

It's MESSY. Especially when they are still mastering utensils. We have a dog so it's not a big deal. But when I visit my parents (no dog), I am on the floor cleaning up after every meal. Ick.

Grandparents want to spoon-feed. Especially if you EBF. My MIL asked literally every day WHEN she could give LO a bottle. Sorry, but I don't pump on weekends. I pumped enough at work! So when it came time to start solids, MIL was right there - when can I feed her???? Ha! NEVER! (Ok, maybe this is a pro!)

I personally steered away from applesauce, yogurt, etc. b/c I wasn't sure how to deal with it. Once LO got better with utensils, we started giving her spoon foods. She does awesome with them now but there was quite a learning curve and lots of hair washing. :-) That was sort of frustrating to me b/c yogurt is such a great food for LOs.

Those are just the ones that came to me off the top of my head.

DH and I actually talked last weekend about what we thought of BLW, would we do it again, etc. Our conclusion was that we DID like it, and we would certainly do it for another LO if we have one, but we wouldn't be going around touting the awesomeness of it. It's messy. And it's not the "norm" which can be annoying to explain what you're doing to caregivers. Maybe once it gets more common?

Also, my LO is not a good eater. I believe it's b/c I still nurse her a lot (3x during the week, 6x on weekends, including 1x overnight!). Her pedi says she's "not hurting for calories" aka she's a porkchop (60% for height and weight) so she's fine in that regard. It's just frustrating. Last night for dinner we had pork tenderloin, butternut squash, peas, and rice. She ate....maybe 4 peas. A few spoons of rice. Half a piece of squash. No pork (she never eats the meat). And that was a lot for her. BUT she's also at the stubborn toddler age too. Eh.

Hope this helps. Sorry I got wordy.

TJ1979 · January 2013

Estwd2:

Ditto all the pros and cons from PP.

I just wanted to add a little story. When I first asked our pedi about BLW, she didn't know what I was talking about (the term is fairly new, but the practice is old). When I described it to her, she said "Oh, so it's what STMs do when they realize purees suck. Not a problem. Do it." That settled it for us. Once I started asking around, I realized at least in terms of my family and friends, she was right. All the STMs I know said they had never heard the term, but it sounds like what they did with their second kids. Spoon feeding is boring and sooooo time consuming to me, and it gets frustrating for a lot of kids. We loved BLW and would do it again in a heartbeat.

This. None of my friends knew the term BLW, but every one of them said that was what their 2nd + kid. Have your husband read a book on it... I recommend "Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods?and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater" by Rapley, Gill, Murkett, Tracey. It might also help to remember that this is what most people worldwide do, and it's what was done before commercial baby food. This is nothing new, it's just the term that's new.

PepperBug · January 2013

I chose to use purees with my son. I had friends who did BLW with their kids, and they didn't take to eating solids until they were much older (closer to 1), and once they did, they were picky eaters. While people who are pro-BLW will say that it doesn't matter how long it takes, there are others who say that babies needs exposure to different foods at an early age to develop their palates. While I'm sure there are BLW children who do eat a variety of foods and puree-fed kids who don't, we chose to do home made purees because we wanted to encourage our son to eat a variety of foods. We chose home made purees as opposed to store bought because store bought purees are limited in variety and are fairly tasteless in my opinion. We pureed or mashed a wide variety of foods, including avacado, bananas, apples, mangos, papaya, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, meats, fish, etc. And to this day he still eats almost all of them. We slowly transitioned from purees to chunks or slices of all of the above items when he showed interest in feeding himself (around 9 months). He was really into nursing, so he never replaced any nursing sessions with solids. My son is 2, and unless we are having something that is really spicy or is one of the few things he does not like, he eats what we eat for dinner, and he loves vegetables. We will definitely do the same with our daughter who is due in April. For us, there really was no downside to the purees.

jmo823 · January 2013

Thank you ladies! Still not sure what we will do but I have another month to think about it! Now I will have some experiences to share with DH

pepomntpat · January 2013

PepperBug:
I chose to use purees with my son. I had friends who did BLW with their kids, and they didn't take to eating solids until they were much older (closer to 1), and once they did, they were picky eaters. While people who are pro-BLW will say that it doesn't matter how long it takes, there are others who say that babies needs exposure to different foods at an early age to develop their palates. While I'm sure there are BLW children who do eat a variety of foods and puree-fed kids who don't, we chose to do home made purees because we wanted to encourage our son to eat a variety of foods. We chose home made purees as opposed to store bought because store bought purees are limited in variety and are fairly tasteless in my opinion. We pureed or mashed a wide variety of foods, including avacado, bananas, apples, mangos, papaya, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, meats, fish, etc. And to this day he still eats almost all of them. We slowly transitioned from purees to chunks or slices of all of the above items when he showed interest in feeding himself (around 9 months). He was really into nursing, so he never replaced any nursing sessions with solids. My son is 2, and unless we are having something that is really spicy or is one of the few things he does not like, he eats what we eat for dinner, and he loves vegetables. We will definitely do the same with our daughter who is due in April. For us, there really was no downside to the purees.

Huh..this is so opposite my experience and I find it very strange. Why do you have to grind up the food to give LO variety?

Anyway, I don't really see any cons except getting the side eye from people who say your child will choke. Ro was always a big eater and while she is 2 now and is pickier (because she can be-she is 2 after all) she has always enjoyed a wide variety of foods and has eaten a large amount since she was 9 months old.

lh80 · January 2013

I wasn't really looking forward to starting solids, but 3 weeks or so in I am loving it. We decided to go down the BLW route after reading a lot about the subject. I planned on offering dd her first taste of anything on Christmas Day, 1 week shy of 6 months, but in the week or so before Christmas I could tell she was very ready to eat (she was sitting unassisted very well and was practically licking her lips and shouting for food when I was eating) so we started a little early.

i have been shocked at how quickly she has taken to it. So far nothing has been rejected and very little has ended up on the floor. There has been gagging, but no choking, and the vast majority is being swallowed. The nappies (diapers) are definitely more interesting now, but I wouldn't change a thing. So much easier than sitting spoon feeding, and much easier when you're out and about too.

i'd say go for BLW, but don't force it. Your LO will let you know when the time is right.

PepperBug · January 2013

pepomntpat:
PepperBug:
I chose to use purees with my son.  I had friends who did BLW with their kids, and they didn't take to eating solids until they were much older (closer to 1), and once they did, they were picky eaters.  While people who are pro-BLW will say that it doesn't matter how long it takes, there are others who say that babies needs exposure to different foods at an early age to develop their palates.  While I'm sure there are BLW children who do eat a variety of foods and puree-fed kids who don't, we chose to do home made purees because we wanted to encourage our son to eat a variety of foods.  We chose home made purees as opposed to store bought because store bought purees are limited in variety and are fairly tasteless in my opinion.  We pureed or mashed a wide variety of foods, including avacado, bananas, apples, mangos, papaya, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, meats, fish, etc.  And to this day he still eats almost all of them.  We slowly transitioned from purees to chunks or slices of all of the above items when he showed interest in feeding himself (around 9 months).  He was really into nursing, so he never replaced any nursing sessions with solids.  My son is 2, and unless we are having something that is really spicy or is one of the few things he does not like, he eats what we eat for dinner, and he loves vegetables.  We will definitely do the same with our daughter who is due in April.  For us, there really was no downside to the purees.
Huh..this is so opposite my experience and I find it very strange. Why do you have to grind up the food to give LO variety?
Anyway, I don't really see any cons except getting the side eye from people who say your child will choke. Ro was always a big eater and while she is 2 now and is pickier (because she can be-she is 2 after all) she has always enjoyed a wide variety of foods and has eaten a large amount since she was 9 months old. 

Because he wasn't ready to pick up food and put it in his mouth himself until he was 9 months or so old. Some people find that to work for them, but other people find that if you wait that long, kids tend to be less receptive to trying a variety of foods. I'm not saying that BLW doesn't work for some people, but purees really helped us expose our son to a variety of flavors before he reached an age where he was no longer willing to try new things. And in the long run, we have a great eater who feeds himself a variety of foods without complaint. So all in all, I was happy with the approach we chose for our son.

bellelamb · January 2013

You don't have to do one or the other! We've done a mix of both, but have mostly skipped the store bought purees. Lucas gets mashed sweet potatoes that he self feeds, he started with smushed bananas and not eats larger pieces at 8 months. I do cut most things smaller than blw but he does feed himself.
He ate fish last night and loved it, has had taco meat, rice, veggies and all other things.

jmo823 · January 2013

bellelamb:
You don't have to do one or the other! We've done a mix of both, but have mostly skipped the store bought purees. Lucas gets mashed sweet potatoes that he self feeds, he started with smushed bananas and not eats larger pieces at 8 months. I do cut most things smaller than blw but he does feed himself.
He ate fish last night and loved it, has had taco meat, rice, veggies and all other things.

Hmmm maybe we will try this? I know that purreed meats gross me out haha

Want a personalized experience?

BLW pros and cons

Re: BLW pros and cons

Choose Another Board

Search Boards