Excellent thread! I've been open-mouthed at some of the misrepresentation of BLW in the media over recent days (Peta Bee's Times article being only the most outrageous so far).

Gill, thank you - Piglet and I are having an absolute ball with this weaning lark. She's never choked, she eats a fantastic range of foods, she's bursting with health, and it has been SOOOO much easier and more enjoyable for me than spoonfeeding.

And I have lost count of the number of people who've said "what a ridiculous idea" and then completely changed their tune after seeing BLW in action.

Have rarely posted but am a devoted lurker! My darling 14mo creaturefeatures is totally blw, is a little scrap but very active, happy and healthy and loves eating. Thank you Gill for giving me evidence (my husband is a medic and very evidence-based!) that the best way is to take as easy as you can. The main point for outsiders to bear in mind is that blw is different from the current norm, but it really isn't a big deal at all, it's just giving some support for basic commonsense.

...when we went on a Stately-Home-Day-Out, Small sat in a high chair in the tearoom and ate along side us, watching in bemusement as another baby writhed, grimaced and did everything she could to avoid the spooned puree. We ate as a family, they sat in misery while they took it in turns to poke at their daughter with a spoon.

....I eat better than I ever have done. Cooking for her has made me a more inventive cook, with fresher ingredients and we all eat more healthily as a result.

...mealtimes are fun. She feeds herself, she feeds me and watching her eat a whole pear is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

.....I found this blog and was guided by other Mums - no theories, no pressure, no HV madness - just practical advice and wholehearted support.

The Pickle, my husband and I have had the MOST wonderful time with BLW. We love watching her experiment and try new foods. The excitement on her face, the mess is brilliant, the pictures and video clips we have are just amazing. I get so many comments when we are out and about and my little one is quietly getting on with her meal by herself - I even heard my MIL bragging about BLW.

It just made so much sense to me when I found this blog, and read Gill's information - I packed away the AK books and pulled the steamer to the front of the cupboard (doesn't live in there much it is always being used - made a great steamed fish dish the other day, the Pickle positively shovelled it in).

My gorgeous daughter has not lost weight being weaned this way, quite the contrary she is a very happy, energetic, mischievous, cheeky, chubbly, rosy cheeked little minx.

She has never choked, she gagged a handful of times in the first 2 or 3 weeks, she tries everything I put in front of her (broccoli being the only exception but we're still working on that one), she steals food from our plates, she adores eating out.........

Brilliant, just brilliant - baby led weaning has been the best thing, and 7 months down the line in the whole process a HUGE thank you to Gill for her research and Aitch for this blog.

I am grateful to Gill Rapley because...

I've tried both weaning methods so I know from genuine experience how much better BLW can be.

I weaned my first daughter following the advice of the time: 17 weeks, spoonfed mush for months. We did well enough, but in comparison BLW is:
- quicker
- cheaper
- easier
- less worry or upset for parents and baby
- more sociable
- developmentally sound

The Beeble has never choked, never gagged. She's eaten a wide range of things with enjoyment and without pressure. She enjoys eating dextrously with a fork, weeks before her first birthday.

Gill Rapley's work makes sense: we now know that forcing a child to potty train at a certain age, or using 'sit-in' baby-walkers to force a baby to walk can have negative physical repercussions. Forcing a baby to eat is no different. I am grateful to her for presenting weaning which can be part of a coherent, developmental sound parenting style.

Finally: Gill Rapley's work is straightforwardly and practically presented: it's clearly written and her ideas are freely available on the internet. What a breath of fresh air - someone who clears away the clutter of gurus and their programs!

Thanks Gill.

My daughter is big, I was being told to wean early, and hated all the stuff I was seeing - I couldn't stand the thought of feeding her anything I couldn't eat, but even the most carefully homemade puree looked disgusting. Then a friend mentioned this blog, and we were off. Today we shared a lovely lunch, and this evening she even offered me several bites of her bread and butter as she patiently waited for her burger (homemade!). She is still, at 8 months, on the 98th centile, beaming, smiley, beautiful and eats everything she's offered with a palpable joy that's just infectious. Mealtimes are fun, and I love sitting with my little family and all sharing the same meal. At the Same Time. Thanks, Gill.

Oh, yes - PS thanks, Aitch - really could not have done it without this blog...

I have found a whole new way of feeding my son. He did not like the purees (only did them for 10 days) so when I found out about this I thought let's give it a go. Only day 3 but making progress already and I'm singing its praises!!!

Thank you so much.

...seeing her DVD at the Babycafe just as i was thinking about weaning opened up a whole new world of possibilities. I feel sad that any mums might have been put off by this scaremongering. Still, as an electric-car driving, bikram-yoga-going family, we know the media will never let the facts get in the way of a good headline. For us it's been a fun journey of discovery and now I have a list of 40 foods Elsie (10 months) has tried, from avocado to zucchini, via falafel, sardines and North Staffordshire Oatcakes, she relishs them all. I also couldn't have done it without this site for encouragement and advice in the early days. Knighthoods for Aitch and Gill Rapley, I say.

North Staffs Otcakes! Excellent! How did Elsie eat 'em? did you give with fillings or on their own? Did you give the stokie garnish of tinned toms? ;-)

...she's had them torn into strips; folded into triangles; whole... with hoummous or avocado, melted wensleydale, or banana. Trouble is they always smell so good we end up 'sharing' them, not especially fairly. Down here in London you have to seek them out from selected Sainsbury's locals...how do you have them?

tut tut tut. we have a recipe... do a search on the right hand side.

my daughter is happy and growing better now than ever,

she loves her food,

loves every new experience

food excites her,

I don't have to give her food I wouldn't eat myself,

the "romance" of eating together on the floor, sharing foods (even if it is yucky!)

we don't have to do anything special, we can just give her what we have,

that people comment on how well she eats

the looks that waiters give me when I order her food ("For the baby?)

even though she was 9 weeks premature, she took to BLW straight away and has overtaken her birth peers in development

the arguments Tink's Daddy and I have over what different meal we are going to do/order for her

eating out is so much easier - I can find her something to eat on the menu and don't have to let my food go cold while I feed her

eating at other peoples houses is easier because I don't have to worry about taking food and they don't have to worry about what they cook

my health visitor and I finally agree on something!

my son loves food, is fearless in his eating - he will try anything; he's so EASY to feed (and yes I know that's probably lazy but my god we need all the help we can get these days); I can take him to restaurants and order from a normal menu - and I've been doing that since he was SIX MONTHS OLD!!!

It's been a joy to wean him and watch him explore textures and tastes. Yes, it's been messy! Spag Bol is best attempted clad only in a nappy (him, not me), but a litt clearing up is a small price to pay.

He's a healthy, cheerful, well-fed and highly energetic child who has thrived on the BLW concepts. So thank you Gill, from me and 14 month old Henry!

I can only repeat what the others have said before me - I have fought to bring BLW to France and have now got my French nanny on board who LOVES weaning Munchkin this way against the others she's weaned the "normal" way and she's got 13 years experience of looking after 0-3 year olds. Even my French paediatrician is getting more on board. Munchkin LOVES mealtimes as it's playtime and not fight time, and although we're only 3 weeks in, her eye - hand - mouth coordination is amazing. HUGE thanks to Gill and Aitch - you've made weaning fun and easy, and I will happily tell any journalist that!!

Again....same as everyone else....my little Hari is 8 months old tomorrow...and he just eaten thai curry...homemade naturally with rice......he manages spagetti bolognese, stir fried noodles, sushi....you name it...he eats it....it's incredible to watch him learn at every meal time, rather than fight like so many of the other babies I see. He loves experimenting and making a mess and it is all so much easier than carting food around in those stupid plastic jars...and searching endlessly for places to warm up mush.....like lots of my friends.

Hari has gagged...maybe a few times in the first week......and not since. He's also still a big lad......no signs of starvation here....and is for more advanced with other skills than his peers....i.e. pincer grip is here...and he drinks everything from a cup.....have never bothered with bottles.

Everyone was sceptical..including my husband....but now he is the biggest fan of BLW...and we wouldn't have it any other way. I have managed to convert a few friends along the way too......and they have all reported similar new found bliss at mealtimes.

Thank you Gill...and Aitch.

Hello everyone!! My Layla is six months old, and she's showing us that she's ready to start solids. I'd love to do do BLW, it's seems so fun and natural! I don't know how to start...please, any advices? She already has two teeth.
My email: laubernhein@yahoo.com.ar
I'm Laura, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, but I've been living in US for the last 5 years. I spend lots of time in my country. In fact, baby Layla was born down there, in a beautiful and peaceful home birth.
Thank you so much for your help, I'm very confused with all the info out there.
Gracias!!

hey laura, did you see we have a forum now? come and ask any questions there, we'll help you out.

Yes come and join us all over on the forum...lots of help and advice there
Alison xxx

I read about BLW when I was pregnant, and knew it was the way we would want to go - despite the rant of my AK loving friend. DS will now eat anything and everything, and I love eating in restaurants as he tucks into steak/sushi/noodles and older babies are being fed mush. Oh, and I get to eat hot food !
The only downside is that nothing I eat is sacred to him..

Gosh yes. I've never posted to this blog before, (but love that there's such a resource when I'm explaining BLW) had only the boerstvoeding article when I was looking into starting solids with my first. Gills explanation/research left me excited to start "real food". Neither of my boys have ever been fed anything but milk, although both have been formula fed. I am exceedingly grateful that GR put her findings out there so that I could "let go" and leave my son to self feed, correcting any issues he had with autonomous feeding from being bottle fed.
My 5mo is already BLWing - swiped some apple from big brother last week and belly laughed at the sensation of it against his gums - lovely, and very different from his brother, who first actually wanted solids at around 11mos! =)

Well I kind of discovered baby led weanng on my own the first time, but I'm gateful to Gill Rapley because she has given me confidance that I was doing the riht thing.

I was lucky to meet her last year when we took part in the BLW DVD and she was a lovely, calm, considered person.

I've been incensed by the press misinterpretations and just posted this on the New Scientist blogsite.

I've been a health visitor for 15 years and have always been sceptical of "Government Guidelines" on weaning with no research basis.
Baby led weaning has been around for a long time and IT WORKS. It takes all the stress out of weaning and makes it fun for parents and babies.
I'm very grateful to Gill Rapley for publicising this and giving parents the chance to relax and actually enjoy weaning their babies, instead of being worried about when to start, what to give, what texture etc and being exploited by the baby food industry.
Babies weaned onto commercial baby foods tend to get hooked on them and later refuse fruit and veg and other basic foods.
Much health professionals time is taken up with the fall-out from this, toddlers who "won't eat anything" but somehow manage to keep putting on weight, mealtimes turning into battle grounds, morbidly obese 5-year-olds...
If baby led weaning becomes mainstream I think it will have a huge positive impact on public health. Of course there will need to be more research. Who will fund this? The health service - you must be joking. Baby food manufacturers? I think not.

well done, you lot. i notice that the new scientist chap hasn't addressed any of the comments, which he could do, given that he's specifically an online guy. and spider, which of the mums were you in the DVD? are you on the clip on YouTube?

I cannot describe how happy I am that my 7 month old will try virtually any food I put in front of her. So many other mums I know are still spoon feeding from jars and do not have the confidence to even try finger foods yet. My daughter has not choked and has only gagged a couple of times and quickly coughs up any food she cannot swallow. BLW means that we can sit down together and eat our food at the same time. I do not have to coax her to eat and therefore we are both much more relaxed.

I had mentioned to HV that I was trying BLW, but she just said "We recommend baby rice as a first food..." and seemed to not have even heard of BLW. I think this just about sums up the lack of willingness by some to even consider that babies can and want to feed themselves from six months.

So thank you Gill, Aitch and all the other posters to this blog for keeping me on the right path!

Hi,
This is my first post so 'Hi'.....

I am gratedul to Gill Rapely (and this website for that matter!) because I am feeding my son in a way which feels totally natural, is endless fun and which he seems happy with. I have been BLW for about 2 weeks and have loved every minute of it.

My high point was this Sunday when my parents came over and we sat down to a sunday roast with my little JJ who: joined us at the table, ate what we ate and fed himself every mouthfull. Everyone loved watching him eat and I felt so proud (of my son, not my scrummy roast potatoes...well those as well!).

So thank you for giving me the confidence and information to try this method and for making every meal time so enjoyable (very important when a family loves food as much as we do!)

Hurrah! go JJ! welcome to you, mumlollipop.

Hi, I too am a first time poster but have lurked here for almost four months. I love this site, I'll be forever grateful to Gill Rapley and don't know what I would of done without it. My family live on the recipies we get from here and my husband is an addict of spinachy beanburgers.

I'm lucky in that I moved to Vancouver from Scotland when my little frog was three months old, but before we left I was already getting those "oohhh she's a big girl you'll have to start weaning early" comments. Here, in Vancouver, it seems everybody breastfeeds exclusively for the first six months so we avoided that hurdle. Unfortunatly it's not so progressive that BLW is the norm. I don't even know what made me search for something new but after about two days of baby rice, and the inevitable constipation, it just felt horribly wrong to be shovelling that stuff in her. So, like so many others before me, we found, and switched, to BLW and have never looked back.

Mealtimes are a joy, to the extent that I get embarrassed when we eat with friends and their babies. It always "er..yes she is going to eat all that" , "yeah, she is always this happy at tea time" and "I'm sure X will get used to the lumps soon" as they struggle with the second stage jar of mush and finally give up. Sometimes I want to scream, very loudly, when they panic over the tinest bit of non-pureed real food going anywhere near their childs mouth, and these are 10 month to 1 year olds we're talking about here.

It seems SO obvious to me that BLW is the best route for babies, most of the time I completly forget that there could even be another way. Compare the experiences of BLW's and pureed weaners, as far as I can tell we all have happy, healthy children and we all enjoy mealtimes. Whereas most of us probably have to listen to our "puree" friends moaning about picky eaters, not liking lumps, and trying to distract the baby with something so they can attempt to get a spoonful in. You couldn't distract my little frog from food if you gave her every toy ever invented. My point is that surely, over time, BLW will become the norm, despite the current round of less than helpful articles.

I know this is far too long for a first post, I guess I've got four months of wonderful experiences desperate to get out, but I am a passionate believer in BLW and I also believe that the results will eventually speak for themselves. Thanks again for everything on here, I'm off now to whip up some fishcakes for dinner and laugh as she demolishes a peach in less than then ten seconds...with only two very tiny teeth.

We took our daughter to a 6 month well baby checkup today. I was surprised to hear that we can feed her ANYTHING except honey. My husband was thrilled because we both hate the idea of jarred baby food and he wants to make sure she can eat her birthday cake in March.

I love knowing that there is research that can make meal time a family time in our home. We live in the States (it sounds like many here don't) and my own mother is still reeling that I fed my baby pureed bananas (before I heard about this) because I refused to buy the jars. Her dad and I agree... if we wouldn't eat it, why should she have to?

HOORAH! that is completely the point as i see it too! good luck with weaning, it's a right laugh.