What are the pluses and minuses of BLW?


The main plus is the caregiver gets to skip the time and fuss involved in preparing baby food separately; instead babies are fed foods, mainly finger foods, such as pieces of fresh fruits and vegetables, bread toasts, cooked pasta, soup, meat and fish pieces sans the bones etc. From this, baby moves easily into eating what the rest of the family are having (sans the salt and strong flavorings which are added once baby's portion is kept aside). That is to say there is no fuss in having to puree, freeze, and defrost baby food day-in and day-out which can get rather tedious for busy mothers. Baby also gets into the habit of adjusting earlier to what is served to the rest of the family and therefore less likely to become a fussy eater. The main criticism however is whether baby at this young age is able to benefit nutritionally from the limited range of finger foods and also the risk of choking on chunkier foods seems higher. Further, many foods need to be spoon-fed such as cereal, yogurt, puddings which babies will miss out if they were to strictly follow this method.