BLW at 5 months??

[bumpy121]

Is BLW at 5 months possible? My HV has been advising me to start spoon feeding for 2 weeks because he seems ready for food, but i would like to try the BLW. Is it to early, I've been trying to hold off for as long as possible because I'm afraid of him choking

 

[Rachel_C]

Yes you can do BLW from whenever age really, as long as you do it properly - no sneaky spoon feeding, no coaxing LO to eat etc! If LO's not ready, he just won't be able to eat. However, I'd be very concerned at a health visitor encouraging early weaning with no real need. What 'signs' is she seeing? Copying you, needing more milk, waking in the night, being big, reaching a certain weight etc aren't signs. The only real signs of being ready are being able to sit unsupported and being able to pick up a chunk of banana, bite a piece off and swallow it. Anything else is just rubbish, unless LO has health issues or certain situations like being premature can mean weaning early might be advised.

If your HV doesn't have any real reasons, I'd either find a new HV or just stop going. There's no need for a healthy baby to be seeing a HV regularly just to receive bad advice.

 

[Firef1y72]

My little man is 20 weeks, so not quite 5 months and I really wanted to go down the blw route. But he wasn't going to wait and a hv was not happy with me allowing him to take food off my plate to eat, she wanted me to give pureed instead. Which I did, but I also allow him some finger foods and he can manage well cooked carrot and gluten free pasta, rice cakes and those Organix crisps. But he can sit unsupported for 30-60 seconds and can pick food up from his Bumbo tray and transfer to his mouth.

Sorry but if the idea that a baby is only ready for weaning when they can pick up a piece of banana, bite and eat it were strictly true my next eldest wouldn't have been ready until he was over 2. All children develop different skills at different times and some are ready for food earlier than others.

 

[AngelofTroy]

If he can sit up and feed himself then go for it! Micah could sit unsupported at 5 months and joined us for meals, we'd put things on his tray to explore, sometimes cutlery, sometimes food, then one day he just picked up some pepper and started eating

 

[MindUtopia]

I agree with one of the above posters that a HV who is recommending weaning for a non-medical reason is just rubbish and the NHS specifically recommends not weaning until 6 months (unless there is a true medical reason). If you want to do BLW, just wait until closer to 6 months. You don't have to wait until 6 months on the dot and if you want to start a few days earlier there's no harm, as long as your baby can sit up safely to eat. They mostly don't eat much for the first month or so anyway. It's just touching food and practicing bringing it to the month. But all babies do better at eating once they've lost the tongue thrust reflux, which tends to happen around 6 months. It doesn't mean they can't safely eat before than, but they may be more likely to gag on finger foods in really awful dramatic ways until that reflex goes away. That tends to put some people off BLW weaning because they freak out and think their baby is going to choke. There's no added benefit to starting early and it might be a more relaxed and enjoyable experience for you if you give him a bit more time to grow and develop before diving into finger foods. There's nothing 'wrong' with spoonfeeding, but there's no point to spoonfeeding for two weeks and then changing the game entirely and switching to BLW.

That being said, weaning, even with BLW, is a lot of work to start and it takes up time and you'll spend time preparing foods and planning meals that you could spend doing other fun things with your baby. This is the case even when you are doing BLW and feeding baby mostly what you're eating. You still have to adjust things for sugar/salt content, sometimes meaning you have to cook two lots of things (one for you and one for baby), and you'll spend more time cooking from scratch, if you're someone who tends to have a ready meal or takeaway a couple nights a week. It's just extra work and extra planning. BLW is wonderful. But if you have an extra month just to relax and not worry about making healthy meals on top of all the other things you already do as a mum, take it and enjoy it. Weaning will come around soon enough and you'll realise there was no need to rush it.