Anonymous wrote:I don't think there's much evidence to support it. Honestly I'd feed intuitively and follow your kid's lead. We started with purees but our baby pretty quickly decided he hated them, so we moved to mashed food, soft foods, then foods that required more chewing and so on, as he seemed ready. If you start slow and watch your kid closely to see how they're handling food, it kind of clicks. I was really paranoid at first but it worked out fine--our kid is 2.5 and eats pretty much anything and he's pretty good at figure out how to eat certain foods, what's too big a bite, etc. I think too many parents overthink it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am against it because of choking. There are zero peer reviewed studies showing any long term benefits at all to BLW. It’s just a fad, not science.

I also personally know a baby who choked on a strawberry and had to be resuscitated, 911 called, the whole shebang. BLW recommends serving foods whole or in large chunks to babies with teeth. What happens when babies use those teeth to bite off a big chunk then swallow? It’s just not safe and the risk benefit makes no sense when there are no statistically documented rewards. I started doing it then stopped when I realized how dumb/dangerous it is. Years later kid eats a huge variety of foods, no pickiness, excellent teeth and palate development despite doing purées.

I've never heard it recommended to serve food whole or in chunks. You're supposed to cut or mush it to make it safe. Common sense would tell you that.

So you have not used the Solid Starts app then, which is the most recommended BLW resource. It explicitly recommends serving many foods whole, like strawberries, or in huge chunks, such as quarters of whole avocados. Common sense would tell you not to do that but Solid Starts tells you to do it, and that’s the problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am against it because of choking. There are zero peer reviewed studies showing any long term benefits at all to BLW. It’s just a fad, not science.

I also personally know a baby who choked on a strawberry and had to be resuscitated, 911 called, the whole shebang. BLW recommends serving foods whole or in large chunks to babies with teeth. What happens when babies use those teeth to bite off a big chunk then swallow? It’s just not safe and the risk benefit makes no sense when there are no statistically documented rewards. I started doing it then stopped when I realized how dumb/dangerous it is. Years later kid eats a huge variety of foods, no pickiness, excellent teeth and palate development despite doing purées.

I've never heard it recommended to serve food whole or in chunks. You're supposed to cut or mush it to make it safe. Common sense would tell you that.

So you have not used the Solid Starts app then, which is the most recommended BLW resource. It explicitly recommends serving many foods whole, like strawberries, or in huge chunks, such as quarters of whole avocados. Common sense would tell you not to do that but Solid Starts tells you to do it, and that’s the problem.[/quote

No, I had never seen it-I just looked at it and wow, they're nuts! I raised six children and I would never give a baby a whole strawberry (I saw where they said to do that) or those big chunks of other foods. That app is...crazy...

If I had an infant today, I would delete that app ASAP. I'd still do baby led weaning, but cut up or mush the foods-no whole berries for little babies or big chunks of other stuff! Not only is cutting/mushing safer, they get to practice fine motor skills picking up the small pieces, rather than one big chunck like on that app.

It doesn't have to be purees vs big chunks.