What the heck is baby led weaning

Well that’s the problem, we don’t really know, and as grannies we just follow instructions.

That’s true!

I have also see too many babies gagging and in some cases dangerously choking when they have bitten off a bit more than they can chew (life lesson there maybe!)

Gagging prevents choking and aspirating (food going into lungs and causing infection)

Babies are more at risk from dangerously aspirating with purees because purees are less likely to trigger gagging (a good protective mechanism which prevents food in the mouth from ending up in the wrong tube)

OP- your own mother, or perhaps grandmother probably said “What the heck is demand feeding?”

My DGD is 3 and still won’t eat most of what she is offered. She has played with and refused so much food. However, if encouraged and helped, she will eat a reasonable meal. I wouldn’t recommend this type of weaning.

My daughter did this with twins 10 years ago. It worked a treat and they ate anything and everything. At 10 they are the fussiest of eaters. I don’t know what went wrong in the middle!

BLW is actually very safe. AFAIK parents wouldn't give something hard, such as a raw carrot or something - they would give soft foods. The only foods I personally would not give a child under a year old are honey (due to infant botulism risk), straight cow's milk (just give formula or breast milk), and whole nuts (due to choking risk; smooth nut butter would probably be fine).

If the baby is coughing or gagging, you actually don't need to do anything and it could be dangerous to interfere. These are good things and it indicates that their airway isn't totally blocked. It's only if they go silent and/or start turning blue that you need to intervene - that's a complete airway obstruction. Frequently, choking is silent in infants.

Im hopelessly out of date with all things baby and have not heard of this.

I can think of one thing that would stop me weaning a baby onto solid foods ... the absence of teeth ...?

They don't give the baby hard foods. They'll start with things such as meat cooked to be very soft, boiled or mashed potatoes, cooked carrots, etc.

I was nervous at first, and hovered around while she stuffed her little mouth with cucumber, cheese, pasta, and she did gag quite frequently, but seemed to deal with it herself.

agnurse you've got it wrong they do give hard foods. The whole point is not to give them purees or anything too soft. The baby needs to be able to pick it up and hold the pieces.

God! I am so glad I don't have to arse about with this stuff anymore. Much prefer just looking after me.

DS and DiL started this a week ago and, labels notwithstanding, it's pretty much as SirChenjin describes. DGS has enjoyed cubes of boiled potato as well as spoonfuls of mashed.
(Boiled) carrot sticks and mashed. He does not seem to like sweet potato yet!
He's coping well and a reasonable amount goes in!
At 6 months and 100% breastfed he is thriving and ready to take that next big step!

I think my first two grandchildren were given hard things, such as sticks of carrot, so that they could 'gum' them and get used to the general flavour, rather than eat them
.
My third grandchild (my other son and dil's child) was only given soft things - soft enough to be crushed by the gums. Her parents were (and still are, to some extent, even though she is now 15 months old), very careful about the shape and size of the foods offered, to minimize the choking risk.

Well it may have been around a long time but it was new to me when my daughter did it nine years ago. I found it an expensive/wasteful method of feeding children and the only time we properly fell out was at a restaurant when I was totally embarrassed by the mess on the floor and table which stressed my daughter. Not to mention my fear of gc choking. (which is unfounded I know). The children did get to experience a much wider range of food at an early age.

GC2 was weaned this way, messy but loved her veggies and small sausages etc, and ate well. Now is 3.5 yrs and has become a picky eater...hopefully will return to having a better appetite and enjoying her meals.
Not brilliant with child sized cutlery yet, gives it a go then resorts to fingers, school dinners could be fun if they don't get that cracked!

It's a misnomer. It isn't baby led at all in my opinion! I was 'weaned' at around 3 months. My three around 3-4 months. I taught my daughters to follow their instincts. If we were not inundated with 'experts' and their everchanging views, were not exposed to others ideas constantly, then I believe our natural instincts would note when a baby starts to watch you eat, open their mouths with every forkfull of your food, and would consider that to be 'baby led' towards wanting more. My three grew up with healthy attitudes towards food, and my grandchildren appear to be going the same way. Not overweight either!

knickas63 - I agree. There's some fairly strident advocates of BLW however who believe that spoon feeding babies equals force feeding as they are only given what the parent wants them to have, as opposed to letting them choose the amount they eat.

SirChenjin - utter rubbish isn't it! Almost impossible to get a spoon of food in a little closed mouth! We uses to give them their own food from the start. Made a terrible mess! But again - instinct driven.

I saw, a photo posted by a friends daughter of her baby sitting in a highchair, the caption was...x just enjoyed his first spag bol, just a mess left on the tray. Another friend asked where the plate was. Anwser.. He does not use a plate in case it ends up on the floor, no cutlery training either.
I had a mat on the tray of th e highchair which held the plate in place. Am I just being an old-fashioned Granny??

My youngest is 52 now. She has always been very active eg trying to climb out of pram/highchair etc. Never sat still long enough to be fed or eat properly. So I prepared tiny pieces of fruit veg bread cold meat or fish etc and left them on a table for her to grab as she rushed past.
We were living in Singapore at the time, with tiled floors, so any mess didn't matter.

My DIL would never have had the patience to follow BLW! She'd just shovel the food into their mouths as fast as she could before whizzing them off to the next activity! Even now that they are 5 and 4, she frequently feeds them because it is quicker!
I'd be interested to know from those who did do BLW - what happens when the children are older and eat with the family - do they still have a tendency to 'play' with food?

I can think of one thing that would stop me weaning a baby onto solid foods ... the absence of teeth ...?

Babies have teeth. They are in their gums. Babies gums are hard and can chew. Its not like when we have our teeth out then have toothless gums