Blw vs tw

[Dragonfly]

I found blw less messy than tw, I had to shower william loads as he was covered in puree where as finger foods didnt leave a mess.

 

[cissyhope]

Dragonfly did you keep missing his mouth


God i find BLW so messy,never done TW so dont know but i dont care as i have joy watching my LO and sometimes my toddler get in to a mess exploring foods and playing....

I sometimes feel regret when cleaning up but its fleeting as i know it wont last and one day i can have a clean and tidy house back... i hope lol

 

[Dragonfly]

Dragonfly did you keep missing his mouth


God i find BLW so messy,never done TW so dont know but i dont care as i have joy watching my LO and sometimes my toddler get in to a mess exploring foods and playing....

I sometimes feel regret when cleaning up but its fleeting as i know it wont last and one day i can have a clean and tidy house back... i hope lol

LOL no he insisted on feeding himself from 8 months old but liked to wash his hair in it

 

[Irish Eyes]

I worry sometimes that blw isn't as healthy as tw. My friends baby is tw and has veg & fruits all the time. My Lo from 6 months has been blw so will often have meat, potatoes & veg for dinner or toast for lunch which wouldnt have as many nutrients. However I don't think Lo would have liked tw, he loves feeding himself! As for the mess, I have laminated floors & 2 dogs!

 

[albs]

I worry sometimes that blw isn't as healthy as tw. My friends baby is tw and has veg & fruits all the time. My Lo from 6 months has been blw so will often have meat, potatoes & veg for dinner or toast for lunch which wouldnt have as many nutrients.

i get what you mean, but i feel that my son (who is blw) has a much better diet than my friends' babies who are tw. they have rice cereal and carrot, or rice cereal and apple, or apple a pear. often just one combination for several days. DS has a really varied diet with all food groups everyday.

blw weaning makes a lot more sense to me than tw, but i don't think there's anything wrong with tw if that's what makes you happy!

 

[Dk1234]

I don't think I'm passing on insecurities. I don't think prefering to feed messy foods to avoid a huge unnecessary mess is insecure. I think it's just preference. Lazy perhaps, insecure doesn't even make sense though.

 

[Dragonfly]

Messy is how kids learn to explore food. They get past that stage and just eat it after. I also never fed just fruit and veg, Alex stole my dinners on me, loved things like pancakes, toast, speg bol. Its up to the parent what they feed. I dont think any ones going to just feed fruit and veg alone to a baby, you alone couldnt survive on that. Well I couldnt I would be starving. And thinner. lol

 

[Dragonfly]

I don't think I'm passing on insecurities. I don't think prefering to feed messy foods to avoid a huge unnecessary mess is insecure. I think it's just preference. Lazy perhaps, insecure doesn't even make sense though.

I think the lazy is insulting there, parents following babies lead is not lazy, I pulled my hair out offering food for a long time till my son ate.

 

[Dk1234]

Um dragonfly I was calling myself lazy because I didn't want to clean up a mess.

 

[Dragonfly]

Um dragonfly I was calling myself lazy because I didn't want to clean up a mess.

Oh sorry I had a dog for that one.

 

[Wiggler]

I didn't mind the mess too much, it was a pain to clean up after every meal, but watching her exploring her food and learning about it was amazing and made it totally worth it.

Plus I do love seeing babies with food all over their face! It's adorable

 

[CeeDee]

I'm probably in the minority in the US for BLW.

I did a combo of TW and BLW in the beginning and my daughter prefers BLW, so we BLW. As other’s have stated I want her to be in control of what she was eating. She also sat at the table with us and pretty much prefers to eat what we eat. Sometimes she’ll eat half my meal.

As far as mess, my LO does not get anything with a sauce and I don’t put a ton of food on her tray. She’ll get maybe 3 beans, 3 pieces of pasta and 3-4 peas. I add more as she eats. TW was much messier for me because my LO would grab the spoon and start swinging it in the air and if she got a hold of the bowl it would be in her hair!

Oh and if you’re worried about mess now, wait till they get to be 2-3 years old. Watch out!

 

[Dk1234]

Of course kids are messyim not ignorant to this fact. But I'm just not go na create more messes for myself. I'm not gonna give him a can if paint and a brush and say "Go at it " if you get what I mean.

 

[bubbles123]

TW with finger foods from 6 months. She is very good with her finger foods but she finds it hard to eat enough to satisfy her hunger so I usually spoon feed her to fill her up after finger foods. I don't make baby food though. I make a lot of soups and as we are veggie we eat a lot of naturally soft foods (lentil based dishes etc) so I just give her the same as us either as it is or fork mashed. I chose TW as it is the most flexible approach I feel as you can spoon feed or let them feed themselves; you can give puree, mashed or finger foods. Whatever works best on that day. I understand the reasoning behind BLW and I believe finger foods as early as possible is a good idea but purely allowing them to feed themselves is not something I would be happy with.

 

[cissyhope]

I worry sometimes that blw isn't as healthy as tw. My friends baby is tw and has veg & fruits all the time. My Lo from 6 months has been blw so will often have meat, potatoes & veg for dinner or toast for lunch which wouldnt have as many nutrients. However I don't think Lo would have liked tw, he loves feeding himself! As for the mess, I have laminated floors & 2 dogs!

see the thing is... one of the theory's behind BLW is they pick the foods they need,so as long as you are offering a wide range of foods,bub will just pick what they need that day and if they refused to eat something,it doesn't mean they wont again,just not wanting/needing that particular day iukwim x

 

[CeeDee]

For those TW when will you eliminate the spoon feeding?

 

[bubbles123]

For those TW when will you eliminate the spoon feeding?

With my son it went naturally about 9/10 months ish. He just started picking the food up or loading the food himself and eating it without help. Before that he would chew some of his finger foods but not consume much. By about 9 months he could eat enough on his own to not need help anymore. My daughter's going the same way, getting better and better with foods and I expect soon she'll be able to satisfy her hunger without spoonfeeding.

I think, judging by my friends who BLW, another difference is that TW babies drop milk feeds sooner than BLW babies as they consume more food earlier on and less milk.

 

[overcomer79]

My daughter is starting to feed herself.

 

[Dk1234]

I guess when he can feed himself with a spoon.

 

[FarfromHome]

TW seems to be a better fit for us. When I first had LO/was pregnant I was really interested in BLW and was excited to pursue that avenue as well as being totally adament that I would only BF until 6 months. Fast forward to 18 weeks and I started to feel like it was in LO's best interest to start introducing a few solids slowly as she has always been nearly off the percentile chart for weight( she's still only 14 lbs at 6 months) and the Ped said it might be a good idea to get her a little more filled up. I Pediatricain " shopped" and really trust her opinions and advice. She's been wonderful and supportive.

Anyways, we did everything very slowly and didn't feel feel burdened to do solids every day but just went with the flow and enjoyed giving her the purees. We skipped the rice cereal and did organic oatmeal and then started to slowly introduce the organic fruits and veggies. I think there's freedom in not having to "label" everything you do and even though we do "TW" we still enjoy letting her feed herself some meals also at this point. She gets purees/finger foods/ and some of what we eat depending on what it is.

Here's the main reasons I like what were doing... ( a lot of these have been mentioned already by other BnB members)

1. I feel like she gets the healthiest options. First of all DH and I do not always eat the most healthy meals as were both extremely busy and I want to give my DD the best start I can. I understand this wont be the case in every family but alot of what we eat is not "baby friendly" imo. Even if it's on the healthier side I feel strongly about minimizing the amount of sodium DD is exposed to that this point.

2. I can feed her completely organic. DH and I DO eat organic ( especially dairy and whats on the " dirty dozen" list) but we're far from eating 100% organic. We also rarely eat organic meat at this point and I would feel uncomfortable giving non-organic meat to my LO.

3. It's less messy. I'm already buried in laundry and dishes and a lot of mess really stresses me out...

4. I love the options we have for food. I would probably feel differently about BLW if we didn't have a lot of pureed options. In our stores there's nearly everything under the sun available in organic options. I love that a lot of pouches are adding healthy things too that i do not normally buy ( ie Kale and Chia seeds). If I can't find something I'm looking for I can buy fresh and puree or just give as a finger food.

5. The choking DOES concern me. It's just not a stress I feel like I need in my life right now. I know with BLW you're supposed to just " sit on your hands" for all intents and purporses and let LO get on with it and figure it out but that would be really tough for me to watch my DD potentially struggle. I HATE gagging and I don't want LO to go through that. We do finger foods for some meals and that's tough enough, I wouldn't want the stress of doing it every meal at this point. I also read a thread on baby club the other day where a member mentioned that she had to get her LO out of the chair and give back blows =(

6. My big sister is an amazing mom AND pediatician and she has given me a lot of advice and ideas about how to approach weaning. She's a huge advocate of BF'ing ( and she BF both her boys for a year) and is up to date on all the research and ideas out there. She supports TW and what we're doing at this point and I completely respect her opinions and expertise.