The first point I've bolded - there is less risk of choking with BLW than with starting on purees and moving to lumps, as the gag reflex prevents choking, like a safety valve. Spoonfeeding can override this. Babies can chew at around 6 months. The developments of being able to feed themselves, and move food round their mouths etc happens at the same time as being digestively ready for solids, so according to the BLW theory, you wouldn't want them to eat before this was the case.

Yes it is messy when they want to squish the food, but I totally see why babies want to do this! For starters they want to see and feel what it is that is being offered to them, I know as an adult I would really hate for someone to spoon something into my mouth that I didn't know what it was, so why should babies be different? Ruby messes with new food (squishes it, stares at it) for a while before she tastes it and why not? She wants to decide if it is something she wants to eat, not just eat it regardless, which to me can only be a good thing! I hate the whole 'you will sit at the table until you eat everything on your plate' attitude, i want food to be a pleasure and a choice for Ruby.

We kind of did a combination;

baby cereals at 4.5 mos,

purees from 5/6 mos,

finger foods from 6 mos,

and now at 10 months old she is pretty much eating anything and feeding it to herself. The only things I feed her on a spoon is yogurt or soup. And I rarely have to pick up say a piece of toast and put it into her mouth for her.

TBH I must have given OHs aunt the weirdest face one night, we were at his other aunt's place and I think it was a whole wheat cracker Elyse was grabbing at, as she eats them at home... and his aunt said "no no baby you can't have these yet"... she cares for her granddaughter who is only 2 weeks younger than Elyse from 3-8pm daily so I wondered what the heck that kid was eating!... not wanting to get into some sort of debate I took her downstairs and let her have one and the cheese she was eyeballing. Elyse isn't the slightest bit interested in 12mo jars (the "toddler meals") or the "dessert" jars for older babies that are out.

I have always "fed on demand"- when she wants to eat and the quantity she wants to eat. Within reason of course, like one day she took no formula really when she was cutting a tooth so I made her take 2oz with a medicine dropper.

About the choking, yep, it's scary, but you have to remember that a baby's gag reflexes are much "higher up" than ours are, meaning that the food doesn't go as far down as it would down our throats before they start to gag, so I think true choking is quite uncommon. Gagging is not though, and whichever method you choose, you will have to deal with that until they are used to eating, swallowing, etc IMO.

We are BLW with Emma. We have however had the choking incident that people say is unlikely to happen. It was terrifying and most certainly not gagging. Emma choked on a piece of banana and was unable to get any sound out or air in at all.

We have stuck with it and it is working for us. We do use spoons for cereal- I load and Emma takes and feeds. She has started letting us know very clearly when she has had enough which is interesting to see. I am in no hurry to get her to 'grow up quickly' but a lot of the things BLW is supposed to promote lie well with OH and I and this is why we made this choice.

I do have a concern however that BLW/ traditional is starting down the same road as ff/bf- that there is a bit of one upmanship going on. I just think that people should make their own choice about what is right for them. Puree feed, BLW or do a bit of both. Just do what is right for you and your baby. Babies haven't read the BLW book so they just might not do things exactly as they are written down. I don't like when I have have heard people saying (forums and at baby group) that others are not doing proper BLW because they sometimes use puress etc.Being a mother is so tough sometimes and it always fascinates me how woman can make each other feel worse rather than supported sometimes.

I weaned Joseph the 'traditional' way. I started him before 6 months on fruit and vegetable purees and then at 6 months I started giving him toast, pieces of cucumber, carrot, breadstick etc. I also gradually made his dinners lumpier. By about 10 months old his food was just chopped up smaller than ours but he eats everything that we do (I don't use salt anyway). Now (15 months) he spoon feeds himself weetabix and yogurt and is learning to feed himself his dinner too. Admittedly he isn't a fan of fruit (except raisins) but he will eat everything else! He loves his food but he always tells us when he doesn't want any more, we never force him to eat any more than he wants x

You've obviously not read some of the heated discussions that have gone on regarding BLW. There have been some pretty nasty remarks from BLW's arguing that TW babies are unhappy and forced to eat.

Which is completely untrue.

Jasmine has always had finger foods, however she has had purees because she never ate enough finger food to count as an actual meal. So she has always had the chance to explore and get used to food.

She was fully able to feed herself pretty much anything by 11 months anyways... which is kind of what my comment about growing up too quickly, she wasnt even spoon fed for 6 months.

There are ways to tell when a baby is full when you are spoon fed too. Jasmine simply wouldnt open her mouth anymore. Much like with nursing or bottlefeeding, babies know when they are full and simply wont eat anymore.

RE: choking, i've actually read quite a few posts on this site alone about their child choking while BLW. Too scary IMO. Jasmine has never once choked... The point of going from purees, to mashed to lumps etc is a gradual and natural progression.

I dont think anyone has gotten nasty in this thread yet. I dont have anything against people who do BLW, its completely their choice. I simply have my choices for not doing it.

This is traditional weaning - or at least the way I did it with my DD, I intend to start introducing finger foods as and when Myles seems ready, I think this is the thing, people who BLW seem to think that with traditional weaning it is all purees for months and months, my DD was weaned early at 10 weeks (weaning was recommended at 12 back then!!) and by 6 months was eating lots of finger foods after progressing from pureed to mashed and getting used to different textures

I agree, it does seem that blw and tw are rival gangs!!! I believe everyone has the right to choose as they do with bf and ff and only started this thread out of interest really, we should all support each other as there are definitely pros and cons for each method

I have probably told people who say they do a combination, that they are doing traditional weaning. I always thought that when you do traditional weaning you introduce finger food at about 6-7m and give alongside purees that get progressively lumpier until LO is eating normal food cut up.
BLW is doing NO feeding at all, LO feeds themselves all of the time. I am sorry if this has left anyone feeling like I was putting them down, I wasn't, I was just clarifying what BLW is. I would hope people would correct me if I wasn't understanding something correctly

Unfortunately, I think the BLW and TW thing is starting to turn into a BF v FF type thing which I think is a shame. I honestly don't see myself as superior in any way for bfing and BLWing, it's just what works for us. I think most of us who are currently doing BLWing and are active on the weaning board are of the same view. Ryder you're right, I haven't seen any of the heated BLW v TW debates and I really hope I don't in the future, there's no need for it.

Claire is right though, introducing finger foods alongside purees is traditional weaning and when people say they're combining the two, it's not a case of putting them down for doing TW, just pointing out that this is how TW works and therefore it's not BLW. Not better or worse, just different.

I do find myself coming to the defence of BLW and I think that's because it can be so misunderstood, especially the choking issue. In the few months I have been on the weaning board, I have only seen one case of actual choking and that was with indy&lara. The rest all sound like gagging and it's just important to distinguish between the two.

However our babies are weaned, I think they're far better off than alot of babies out there as all our babies' mums care enough about their welfare to go to so much trouble to research options etc

Och, we just like to be the odd ones out!!!!