For all the moms who feel that they are doing something wrong by not doing 100% Baby Led Weaning.
I think the division into BLW and non-BLW has gone too far. At this point, I see a lot of “us” vs “them” kind of attitude and I do not like that.
I am not against BLW and, in fact, I used it to start solids with my kids BUT it pains me to see how moms (again!!!) are made feel inadequate, “not enough” because they are not prepared to adhere to BLW philosophy. The philosophy itself appears to have grown much stricter in recent years because we started using it to divide parents into opposing camps.
But here is the truth.
There is NOTHING wrong with feeding your baby purees.
Feeding a baby puree is completely Baby-Led if done right. And it can be done right if we change our attitude to child eating not only when they start solids but for many more years to come.
Here is a thought: what about making ALL feeding Child-Led, whether at 6 months or 12 years, regardless of the texture or utensils.
And no, your baby will not get “confused” if you feed purees and finger foods at the same time. Babies are capable of mastering a variety of eating skills at the same time and can totally figure it out.
But there is something we, parents, need help with figuring out. If the only way we can allow our babies decide how much or whether he wants to eat is by locking the spoons away in a cupboard, we need to work on our food parenting mentality.
The spoon is not a problem. The parents who are behind the spoon often need help learning how to trust their children.
But without seeing the big picture we cannot swap our controlling feeding approach for the trust-based one. And simply avoiding the spoon is not a long-term strategy. That’s why I know so many parents of three-year-olds who did “everything right” and started with BLW but now are counting bites and bribing with dessert.
But if the feeding is Child-Led at any age and stage, spoons and purees stop being a danger to good eating habits and become helpful vehicles for great nutrition and a boost in eating skills.
So let’s tune out the online noise and tune in to our babies, so we can read their developmental cues better, learn how to challenge them without feeling like we need to compete with another mom on Facebook and stop feeling guilty if we need to take a step back and let our baby learn to feed at his own comfortable speed. #rantover
Starting solids the easy, safe and stress-free way!
Let me show you how to feed your baby using the mixed approach, so you can be guided by your baby and not by a rigid philosophy.
