Spoon feeding or baby led weaning????

[sam&pat]

Which is best? I've been spoon feeding my 6 month old so far but heard baby led is weaning is better. Is there any truth in this?

[srisky]

In my opinion, it really doesn't matter, just go with what works for you and your child - more often than not a combination of the two is probably the most likely to be success. I suspect the majority of us were spoon fed and that didn't make us into fussy eaters as adults.

What probably stops children being fussy eaters is to introduce new foods and encourage them to try it and persist trying it.

[midivydale]

Don?t worry to much about it, just try to make meal times as calm and stress free as possible and do a combination of the two. I did mainly spoon fed and we had a lot of allergies at the time to deal with and still my son is a good well rounded eater at 6. Take the pressure off doing the ?best? thing.

[cornelia]

BLW all the way in our house. Gives the baby more control and it's fun to watch how their tastes develop.

I'm not against spoon feeding but think it largely goes back to when weaning mostly started early at 4 months. From 6 months babies have generally been able to manage finger foods anyway.

[sam&pat]

Thanks so much for the advice. I think I will try a bit of both now & see how it goes. I know it's sounds silly but I'm just scared of choking with finger foods or does every mum feel that way? Please say they do & it's not me being a crazy mum lol

[midivydale]

You are not crazy I felt like that too despite everyone reassuring me that they wouldn?t. Do what makes you comfortable. As the process continues and your confidence grows you will be able to include finger foods as well. There are some good snacks for this to start you off. The corn rings and puffy carrot stick types. You can start with something like that maybe and see how the little one gets on. But don?t stress about it. Spoon fed weaning is absolutely fine too:)

[Penguinpost]

I?m pretty sure it?s dependent on the baby. I have twins and one would not eat off a spoon. Period. The other loved being spoon fed and wasn?t very keen for quite a long time on picking stuff up himself. Try both see what works and probably you?ll end up between the 2.

And yes everyone is scared of the choking thing but after a little while you get less scared!

[hammerman]

I spoon fed my three but looking back there was probably some baby led weaning as well. Gave them lumps of cheese, cucumber, breadsticks, bananas to chomp on from 6 months but didn't chance things like lumps of apple, carrot, meat etc as was worried about the choking hazard. Also from a digestion point of view too for a baby/toddler it could cause problems at the other end!

[scareyt]

I would say do whatever?s easiest and don?t stress about the technique, but introduce each new food gradually. My son developed excema after he started solids but because I?d been giving him lots of different things I never figured out what caused it. If you go slowly you could spot any issues with reactions to a particular food straight away.

[sam&pat]

Thanks for making me feel normal, it's so scary as soon as he makes any noise I'm ready to get him out of the highchair I think I'm driving daddy mad lol We just tried him with some well cooked brocoli florets as finger food, no interest in eating them whatsoever just crushing them in his hands waiting to be spoon fed. I will keeping trying. Thanks again for all your comments & advice x