we TW my LO and he absolutely loves being feed purees from a spoon.. He opens his mouth for more and gets all excited as im busy loading up the spoon for the next mouthful. He completely lets me know when he's done by turning away or shutting his mouth completely. I dont disagree with tricking with the spoon either, my baby get sdistracted with whats around him but that doesnt mean he is full up either. If i trick him and hes full it will come back out and down his chin. My los first ever try of food was my own and it had a few lumps in as i couldnt get the texture right and he scrunchd his face up so i gave jarred puree and it went down a treat. Iv tred finger foods and it takes 5mins for him to pick it up look at it try to get it in his mouth and then he doesnt even attempt to eat it. AT least with tw my baby is eating. All kids are different and i think if your baby takes to BLW over TW then great and visa versa.

Entire generations were spoon feed purees and not entire generations are obese. You watch these fat programes on tv and the entire family is fat the mum the dad and the kids because of their diet and way of life. If the parents eats crap then so does the kid regardless if they TW or BLW or what.

As long as the child is eating healthily what does it matter.

Personally I think that that is completely untrue.

I TW both DD1 and 2 and have BLW DD3. I would never say that TW is the same as force feeding LO's and I am sure that most would agree, just because a select few may say that doesn't mean that all mothers that BLW think the same.

For us personally BLW has proven to be much better, LO will eat whatever is offered to her, not the quantity but the food in itself, so far *touches wood* we haven't found a food that she doesn't like. Also DD2 who is coming up 4 will still be fed if she can get away with it, whereas LO is now 19 months and has started feeding herself with both a spoon and fork and very rarely do I need to help her, already I can differences in many ways.

That is what works for us though an I appreciate and understand that what works for us is not what works for other families. It is the same with any of the debates that you see going on, whether it be FF vs BF, Co-sleeping vs cot sleeping, Cloth nappys vs Disposables etc you just have to do what works for you and your family. :)

I'm doing a mix of everything & when I mentioned this to my LO's HV this week she said that it was probably the best way. I started weaning our little one a few days ago & so far she's fed herself pieces of apple, pear, banana & tomato, & I've spoon fed her apple & oat cereal/porridge, an Ella's kitchen packet, baby rice & mashed up banana. Whilst I say 'spoon fed her', she reaches out for the spoon & we do it together, & she enjoys holding the spoon herself too & having a go.

I've already seen benefits of trying both methods with the main one being that we've been able to try all sorts. Also & what I wasn't expecting - my LO hated mashed up banana but loved holding a banana & feeding herself. We're going to carry on as we are as so far, so good.

We did the purees, and still are, but Quinn LOVES eating finger foods!! She loves Cheerios, Puffs, toast, cheese, pasta, bananas, avacados.... going to explore more things are the days go by. We just kind of do a mix of things! No rules :) Well, nothing involving possible allergies anyway!