Baby Led Weaning vs purees

So, we’re 3 weeks in to baby led weaning. We’ve had no choking episodes so far. And have a baby who is trying everything that’s put in front of him. It’s a success so far.  And I’m so relieved we didn’t opt for standard weaning with purees.

Starting out baby led weaning

If you don’t have everyone in the family onboard, baby led weaning is hard. Unless you’ve been through it and understand the benefits, people tend to believe in purees style weaning is the only way to go.

The OH is still unconvinced (mainly because of the mess). While I was away, they ended up mushing up some melon for N while he was being looked after by my sister-in-law. They were all too scared of him choking when having finger foods so young. This wasn’t surprising as they all brought their children up doing purees, so going straight to finger food can seem odd.

I wasn’t impressed that they didn’t try the baby led weaning as that’s what I’d started with N.  Giving him must doesn’t help N learn to feed himself. Especially if everyone else round him gets worried and stressed out while he’s eating. Especially when he’s doing brilliantly on his own.  

This evening, he didn’t like it when he dropped some broccoli and he wasn’t given it back…he cried until I’d finished my meal and could sit him on my lap with some butternut squash and pear I’d already prepared. The OH then put a bit of lamb in his mouth…feeding babies directly goes against baby led weaning methods, as the child should be choosing what to put in his mouth, That was they learn to cope with it themselves.

Yes baby led weaning can be messy. But puree weaning can be too, especially when babies start feeding themselves. Baby led weaning means that we’ll get over the messy stage earlier than puree weaners. I don’t think the mess is that bad. Generally N eats rather than plays with his food, so there’s probably less mess than there might have been.

It’s frustrating when others don’t understand or follow the method we’re using. It would be easier to only feed N our food when we’re on our own to avoid further arguments. But I’ll continue. Iit’ll just take some time for others to get on board as well

How did others react to whatever weaning method you chose?.