Okay, so this has been debated endlessly on Mumsnet but I just wanted to take a wee poll of what we think about spoons?

As it happens I never spoon fed Babybear but that was largely because it wasn't necessary as she was wolfing down everything she could get her mitts on. I did give her yoghurt sometimes, and very occasionally she stuck her mouth onto the spoon before grabbing it off me, but generally speaking she has always torn any cutlery out of my hand before I could get it near her lips.

I was saying to someone the other day in the comments section, however, that the whole BLW thing is based on such a teensy study so I wouldn't recommend getting any knickers in a twist about using a spoon if it is done in a respectful way. And yes, I am well aware that my use of the word respectful is wanky...

I suppose I think that so long as you are respecting the child's boundaries, not persisting beyond a point where the child appears disinclined to eat, not employing stoopid distraction techniques or tricks and not doing anything that might be described by yourself or a dispassionate observer as shovelling - then what's the harm? Seems to me that the main thrust of BLW is about self-feeding rather than spoon-feeding, that's for sure, and that finger food should definitely make up the bulk of the baby's diet but a little bit of spoon-feeding isn't going to put an end to that, is it? Or is it? What do you all think?

Thinking about it, though, I reckon that the motivation to spoon-feed might also be important... I wonder if doing it 'because you're in a hurry to get your other children to school' would be counter to the BLW thinking, even if it is necessary to your happy family life? And should we evern be talking in terms of 'BLW thinking'? Or is it a philosophy? Or are they guidelines? Am I over-thinking this?

PS. I'm still over-thinking this and it's the next day...
I remember one of the first and most vicious arguments about puree vs BLW came about on Mumsnet after a woman had posted that her child had been enthusiastically self-feeding for a month or so and then had halted abruptly and was refusing to pick up any food. As I recall, my thoughts were along the lines of 'maybe he's teething or sickening for something' so just keep giving him the milk and offer food maybe once a day and see how that goes. Understandably, other people said (or kinda screamed) 'WHY DON'T YOU JUST SPOON-FEED?' because they felt that the baby was being somehow deprived. Which I really, really do not think was the case. So I suppose what I'm saying is... I don't have a problem with spoons until such times as your baby appears to be saying a straight no to food. I'm assuming no disability, by the way, as obviously that would make things different... although if they were getting limitless milk then presumably you would be able to spot the problem at some point in the first year. Hhhmm. Still thinking...