https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 17 Aug 2026 23:12:14 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees/page/2#post-733564 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:03:58 +0000 GrapeCrush 733564@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>we started with purees because i was scared of him choking. we did that for about a month and a half. then started BLW after that, with a combo of purees. now he rejects all purees, unless he can feed himself, and eats everything we eat. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees/page/2#post-733541 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:50:34 +0000 hummusgirl 733541@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We tried BLW at 6 months but LO hated it and would just purse his lips and not even try to grab or lick or anything (despite his love of gnawing on board books and everything else non-edible). So we're on purees now (3 weeks later) and he's finally starting to get the hang of it. We'll try BLW again after another couple weeks and maybe he'll take to it more. I think it's about reading your baby's cues and adapting your approach. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees/page/2#post-733486 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:25:19 +0000 LulaBee 733486@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We started with BLW at 5.5 months because LO was obsessed with watching us eat and reaching for food but the gagging was too much for me, so we introduced pureess. We have done a combination of purees and BLW and she loves feeding herself more than being fed from a spoon. She does still gag some at 9 months but it's getting better. Girlfriend just likes to EAT! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees/page/2#post-733371 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 04:30:46 +0000 autumnlove 733371@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We started with a combo at. 6 months because daycare only allows puréed foods and rice cereal until 10 months. We fed her chunkier foods at home but we sent jarred purées to daycare. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees/page/2#post-733353 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 02:21:16 +0000 Sweet T 733353@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We started with purées but I kind of wished we had done BLW. I'm leaning towards BLW for #2. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees/page/2#post-733351 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 02:03:30 +0000 iheartleopardprint 733351@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We started DD on solids at 6 months, and gave her purées. Now at 7 months she eats some fruits and veggies blw style, but is still mostly purées. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees/page/2#post-733010 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:57:42 +0000 mrsmenow 733010@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>LO is 4 months today (yay) and at 6 months I plan to do a mixture of purrees and small bites of softer foods. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-733005 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:49:06 +0000 Penny Lane 733005@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I started fruit purées at almost 7 months. EBF before that. Now at 8 months we do 2 meals a day. a finger food meal every couple of days (avocado, banana, cheese, yoghurt etc), and chunky blended whatever I'm eating the other meals. </p> <p>We started with purées because DH wasn't comfortable giving him finger foods first, so we compromised a little</p> <p>He definitely gags on the finger foods, but it doesn't bother me much at all </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732980 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:31:06 +0000 wheres_c 732980@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We haven't started yet...baby is 4.5 months old, but plan to BLW. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732972 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:26:43 +0000 MaisyMay 732972@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@boiledpnut: Doc gave us the go-ahead, plus she sits up assisted and is really interested in what we eat. We don't give her a lot, but she definitely swallows what's in her mouth and tries to put the spoon in her mouth when she's holding it. At this point, it's more for fun. Her milk/formula eating hasn't decreased, and she gets maybe 1-2 tablespoons of food every other day.</p> <p>ETA - A is 4 months now. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732911 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 15:44:47 +0000 katsupgirl 732911@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We are doing the BLW thing mostly cause I'm lazy. Since she's just 6 months we haven't gone too hardcore with it. I actually stopped for a while because I didn't like the stinky poops and smelly gas. EBF poops are so much nicer! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732891 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 15:23:04 +0000 Kemma 732891@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrskc: it's amazing watching the chunks just drop out of their mouths!</p> <p>Miss A is six months and we're doing a combo of BLW and purées. Favourite finger foods are slices of raw apple, peach etc, raw salad vegetables (tomato, capsicum etc) and grated cheese. </p> <p>When we do purées I tend to pre-load the spoon and let A feed herself which she's getting pretty good at!</p> <p>TBH the gagging doesn't really bother me and A is already getting much better at managing her eating. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732875 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 14:59:25 +0000 chrispygal 732875@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We started with purees and honestly, it was really easy to tell when she wanted to try the real food. Once I noticed her intently watching us eat, I started making her food chunkier and made sure she was used to that texture before trying solid food. It did take her a bit to not gag on any chunks. By 8 months she had started eating some regular food and now, at 9 months, she refuses most purees unless it's a fruit. She LOVES her veggies though and it's amazing how much broccoli this kid can eat! She's done really well and we've had no issues. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732776 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:23:46 +0000 lovehoneybee 732776@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@sera_87: This is pretty much us exactly.</p> <p>ETA: We started around 6.5 months because he was sitting in my lap during dinner one night and grabbed chunks of butternut squash off of my plate and shoved it in his mouth. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732774 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:20:59 +0000 hilsy85 732774@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We started with purees, and I've also given him pieces of banana and avocado. I imagine as he gets older (he's 6 months now), we'll move more into finger foods and do fewer purees. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732753 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:04:21 +0000 BoogieBea 732753@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We did the normal purée route with our son. With our daughter, we started with purees as well but by 7 months, we switched to BLW since she was more interest in feeding herself. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732750 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:00:51 +0000 Weagle 732750@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We started with purees because I couldn't handle the BLW mess. We introduced finger foods really early on and switched to a purée/BLw combo. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732745 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 12:58:51 +0000 SleepyMonkey 732745@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>we started with purees because she seemed really uninterested in food when we started showing it to her, she didn't even know what to do with it, so i doubted she would figure out how to "chew" anything. she has a sensitive gag reflex too, so i thought BLW would be too much for her at first. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732735 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 12:52:24 +0000 boiledpnut 732735@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our plan is to do a combo of purees and blw, but he's not even 4 months yet, so we have a couple of months to go.</p> <p>@MaisyMay: Can I ask why you started solids so early? I know our babies are the same age, right? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732731 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 12:50:16 +0000 skibobrown 732731@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We were totally on board with BLW, and we started that first. But then we realized that DD really liked being fed from a spoon, so we ended up doing a little of each. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732690 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 12:08:57 +0000 CupQuakeWalk 732690@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We started with purees (no cereal, just fruits &amp; veggies) because he had no interest or just did not know how to pick things up and where to put them. He loves food!! He'll eat any purée we give him. He won't eat when I give him food to grab and/or chew.<br /> I plan on doing purees until about 8-9m. Then, I will implement BLW more aggressively/seriously. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732679 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 11:42:26 +0000 bpcmarj 732679@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I said purees and (semi-jokingly) breastmilk for life!! We started purees at 5.5 months, but very slowly. She still nurses often throughout the day, and only recently stoppes nursing at night. So now she gets baby oatmeal mixed with a jar of pureed fruit for breakfast, a jar of fruit and/or veggies for lunch, then half jar of meat and a jar of veggies for dinner. Occasionally, if we are eating something she can chew, I will give her some. But, she didn't have teeth until 9 months and couldn't chew anything. She loves puffs, yogurt melts, cheerios, and freeze dries fruit for snacks. And I plan on starting to give her more cheese and yogurt soon. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732674 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 11:34:16 +0000 plaidpants 732674@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We skipped cereals and just did straight BLW at around 6.5 months. I was definitely in the "food before one is just for fun" mindset and was happy to let my LO play around with food and not really eat very much. She was in daycare at the time and they were super supportive of BLW. I think it helped that there was another kid there who was a few months older and doing really with it. That gave me a lot of confidence in our choice. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732671 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 11:29:36 +0000 sumer08 732671@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We started with purees around 5 months. We originally started with rice cereal at 4.5 months, but LO did not do very well, so we took a few weeks off, then re-started solids at 5 months with sweet potatoes. He took to them right away. LO is turning 8 months this week, and he's been a great eater ever since. We just introduced Puffs this past month, and are working on incorporating more finger foods as we speak. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732669 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 11:23:18 +0000 sera_87 732669@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrskc: I forgot one advantage: it is ridiculously easy to take him out to dinner and/or travel with him. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732654 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 11:03:58 +0000 googly-eyes 732654@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Starting at 6m, cereal followed by purees, per ped reccomendations to check for allergies first w/ cereals then veggies, fruits, meats. We didn't continue on cereals like we were supposed to though. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732647 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 10:58:09 +0000 mediagirl 732647@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We tried blw, didn't like it so we did purees plus small bits of food from 6 months on. At 10 months she still eats some purees but mostly finger foods cut to small sizes so she can pick them up but also not choke on them. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732641 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 10:53:18 +0000 mrskc 732641@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@sera_87: agree with all your pros. I haven't cooked anything special for him and it's so nice to sit down as a family at dinner. And I agree with the disadvantages. It can be nerve racking for me at times when he gets a big chunk in his mouth. I kind of freak and my husband remains calms and he just spits out the chunk. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732638 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 10:50:12 +0000 Rubies 732638@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We started purees at 6 months with great success. Once she knew certain tastes and textures and her motor skills were improving, we ended up doing our own version of BLW (I didn't know it was BLW, I just did what felt right to me and as it turned out, it actually had a name (BLW!)). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/baby-led-weaning-vs-purees#post-732636 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 10:49:37 +0000 sera_87 732636@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We're doing straight baby led weaning. We started a little "late" - about 6.5 months. At first I gave him easily grabbable, softer foods (ie, cheese, steamed broccoli) but now I give him anything. I try to have dinner with him most nights and sometimes lunch but thats not consistent. We also don't have any history of allergies. </p> <p>Advantages:<br /> i literally feed him off my plate. No extra work.<br /> Forces us to eat healthier - no more popcorn for dinner if we're being lazy<br /> I don't worry about how much he eats. "Food before 1 is just for fun". He gets a variety of food.<br /> No added costs beyond a bib and a high chair since he feeds himself directly off the tray.<br /> We can eat at the same time as a family; I'm not busy with feeding him and then trying to eat myself. </p> <p>Disadvantages:<br /> The mess. Most nights it's straight into the bath after dinner. We do have the ikea frog-catcher bib so that helps (he also goes in and gets food that he drops. It's hilarious).<br /> The gagging takes some getting used to. He's figured it out pretty quick but it's still eeeeeeeeek-inducing. </p>