God, the sooner we get a forum the better...

Anyway, here's how you join in on this site. I know, it's far from perfect but still.

If you have a question, could you first of all do a wee search in the box on the right and see if there's already a post on the subject. Then post your comment there. The reason for that is so that people reading, say for example Allergies, will then be able to find your question and answers and hopefully learn from your experience.

If not, though, then put your question as a comment on here and we'll see it in the box at the top. It's even better if you change the subject line at the top but don't worry if you forget as we'll see it anyway. The women who use this site are terribly helpful and only too keen to pass on their accumulated wisdom, I've noticed, so don't let shyness put you off posting if you have something to ask.

If you want to send a photo, a recipe, or email me directly, press on my name above and you'll get my contact details. I'm only too happy to hear from everyone and if you're having difficulties with something will do my best to respond promptly. If you send a photo or a recipe, though, lord knows, I'll take about a week to put it up as I am Under The Cosh work-wise at the moment.

So welcome lovely newbies and even lovelier lurkers, and thanks ever so much for all your contributions thus far all you oldies, without whom we would not have built up such an excellent bank of BLW information.

Such an interesting area, this. There was an article on the subject in The Times yesterday (written by Peta Bee, who as we all know made a great job of explaining BLW, but let's give her the opportunity to redeem herself.) In a way it's money for old rope journalism, don't make a fuss, don't ban anything, enjoy your mealtimes... seems very obvious to me, but at least it confirms the minimal stress approach of BLW.


Anyway, Lin's question is below, it's a goodie.

...because I realised recently that at 20 months old Babybear has started to use her fork and spoon as much as If Not More Than her hands... [preening emoticon]

Now to be honest I've never been that fussed about her using cutlery - plenty of people I know are very adept at eating delicately and neatly with a cunning flick of a chapati. At the other extreme, I remember being very stressed the first time I tried to use chopsticks in public and it rather ruining my enjoyment of the meal.

Plus, and I know I'm providing further proof of my astounding laziness here, I just couldn't be bothered. From the age of, what, nine or ten months, if not before, Babybear has enjoyed playing with spoons and yoghurt and it has only been when I've been feeling Very Brave Indeed that I've let her go for it. (She always had them along with her toys in the bath, mind, and if they were bright yellow rather than red I knew that I'd forgotten to put the cold water in again.)

I guess for about the last six months we've had proper cutlery floating around for her, as much as a toy as anything else. We didn't tend to put them out with her food so that she could tuck in with her hands first of all, but we found that they provided a useful diversion when she started to wriggle in her seat and her father and I hadn't finished our meal. The ones I got were metal pronged, we did have a plastic fork from somewhere but what she really likes doing is spearing things good and proper and the plastic wasn't sharp enough.

Porridge is great for early spooning purposes, once you move beyond the pancake stage, and ice cream proved a tremendous motivator in a restaurant I remember. ('What's this? I love it. But I can't pick it up?!)

And slowly but surely she's got the hang of it. We don't tend to make much of a fuss about the amount she eats, but when the spoonfuls of food started to make their way successfully from bowl to spoon to mouth we clapped and cheered and she really relished the attention. Now she's neat and tidy and really doing well, unless she's particularly hungry in which case she reverts to type and jams the whole lot in with the flattened palm of her hand.