(BLW)文章翻譯: Gill博士定義BLW及對混餵的看法 @ 芋圓禮券的24小時貼身秘書

Is what you’re doing BLW? And does it matter?

您在做的是不是BLW? 這有差嗎?

I get lots of questions about whether it’s possible to switch from conventional weaning to baby-led weaning, or to do a bit of both. I also hear stories about parents being asked to leave online groups because they aren’t ‘true’ BLWers. So I thought it was about time I explained my thinking on all of this.

我收到很多問題有關能否從傳統餵食轉換成BLW, 或者兩種都做的? 我也聽到一些父母被要求離開網路社群團體因為他們不是”真正的”BLW執行者。所以我想差不多是時候來解釋一下我對此的看法。

What IS BLW?

什麼是BLW?

Parents are often asked “Are you doing BLW or are you spoon feeding?”. But the real question should be “Are you taking a baby-led approach to weaning or a conventional one?” This is because baby-led weaning (BLW) isn’t a feeding method, it’s a fundamental approach to babies and food. It’s about how you view your baby’s capabilities in relation to eating, not just whether or not you feed her with a spoon.

家長們總是被問道”你們讓寶寶BLW還是用湯匙餵?” 但真正的問題應該是”你們讓寶寶主導進食還是傳統餵食?” 因為BLW不是一種餵食法, 而是一種對寶寶與食物的基本態度。與你如何看待寶寶有進食的能力有關, 而不僅止於你有沒有拿湯匙餵她與否。

BLW encompasses offering healthy foods, sharing family mealtimes, making sure only your baby puts food into her mouth, and trusting her to know whether to eat, what to eat, how much and how quickly – as well as offering her graspable foods from the outset and letting her pick them up with her hands. It’s quite possible to decide not to use spoons and purees without fully embracing the trust and respect for your baby that is what BLW is really all about.

BLW包括了提供健康食物, 共享家庭用餐時光, 確保只有你的寶寶將食物放進她的嘴巴, 還有相信她知道吃不吃?吃什麼?吃多少還有吃多快–以及從一開始就提供她好抓取的食物並且讓她用自己的手自己拿。非常有可能因為完全相信與尊重你的寶寶而決定不使用湯匙與食物泥，這就是BLW。

Can we ‘switch’ to BLW?

我們可以”轉換”成BLW嗎?

Yes! I firmly believe that it’s never too late to switch to BLW. While a baby who has been started on purees and spoon feeding can’t truly be defined as having been fully BLW’d (see Why definitions matter, below), that doesn’t mean that he and his parents can’t be said to be currently following a BLW approach. It’s no different from a mother who starts off formula feeding and then switches to breastfeeding – her baby won’t have been ‘exclusively breastfed’ but they are nevertheless a breastfeeding couple now. Everyone is entitled to change their approach when they learn something new, or when they discover that what they’ve chosen isn’t working for them.

可以! 我堅信轉換成BLW永遠不嫌晚。雖然若一個寶寶在副食品初期被湯匙餵食物泥以後她就不能算是完全的BLW(參見下方為什麼名詞解釋這麼重要?), 但那不表示她及她的家長就不能說她們正在沿用BLW的精神。就像一位媽媽產後先餵了配方奶後轉換成親餵母奶–她的寶寶不能算是”全親餵”但她們仍然是親餵。當每個人吸收新知後, 或當她們發現過去的選擇不適用的時候, 都有權改變自己的作法。

Can we ‘do a bit of both’?

我們可以兩者併行嗎? (芋圓媽補充: 亦即台灣所稱的騎牆派/綜合派/折衷派)

This is a tricky one. I am totally in favour of parents doing whatever works best for them and their child. If this involves a combination of spoon feeding and self-feeding, so be it. What this isn’t, though, is a combination of BLW and conventional weaning – it’s really just conventional weaning, but starting at six months (from when the introduction of finger foods alongside spoon-fed pureed or mashed food has always been recommended). BLW is about more than just offering your baby food to pick up – it’s about trusting him to know what he needs. If you’re topping him up with a spoon after he’s had a go with his hands, then you’re not really doing that. The bottom line is that trusting your baby and not quite trusting him are simply not compatible. So, while doing some self-feeding and some spoon feeding may work for you, it’s not BLW.

這真的很Tricky(芋圓媽補充: 這裡我保留原文因為我希望大家自己去揣摩Gill Rapley博士為什麼使用這個字)。我完全支持家長做任何對她們及孩子最好的選擇, 如果這意味著家長覺得用湯匙餵食+讓寶寶自我進食(芋圓媽補充:也就是社團所稱TW+FF傳統餵食+手指食物)對她們家最好, 那就做啊. 雖然這樣不叫做BLW+傳統餵食–這其實真的就只是傳統餵食罷了! 只是從六個月才開始(也就是一般建議在湯匙餵食物泥以外加入手指食物的時機)。BLW不只是提供寶寶食物讓她們自己拿著吃而已–更重要的是相信寶寶知道自己需要什麼。如果你在寶寶用手自己吃完後, 又拿湯匙把他塞得更飽, 那麼你就不是真的在BLW。意思是你不可能既信任你的寶寶同時又不信任你的寶寶, 這兩者是不可能同時成立的。所以，即使讓寶寶自己吃同時又用湯匙餵對你而言是好方法, 但這不是BLW。

A lot of parents who say they are ‘doing a bit of both’ are in fact just following conventional weaning, without realising it. The reason is to do with timing: BLW was beginning to be talked about at around the same time (2002) as the minimum recommended age for solid feeding was changing from four months to six months. The result is that many parents don’t realise that finger foods were already recommended from six months – alongside purees – prior to this. They therefore believe that offering their baby any finger foods means they are ‘doing (some) BLW’.

很多說自己正在BLW+傳統餵食的家長, 事實上就只是在傳統餵食而已, 只是他們自己不自知。原因跟歷史背景有關：BLW是在大約2002年開始被討論，在差不多同時副食品引介的月齡從四個月改成六個月。結果就是家長們不了解其實本來的建議就是: 即使是吃食物泥的寶寶, 在六個月大也就建議加入手指食物了。所以他們以為提供寶寶手指食物就是在做(一點)BLW。

Why definitions matter

為什麼名詞解釋這麼重要?

Does the definition of BLW really matter? I believe it does, for two reasons. First, it matters for parents who are hearing about BLW for the first time. If they are to make an informed decision about how they want to approach weaning with their baby they need to understand the underpinning ethos of BLW. If they don’t, they may implement only part of it and then be dismayed when it doesn’t ‘work’. Worse, they may do something dangerous, such as putting lumps of food into their baby’s mouth ‘for her’, which could lead to her choking.

BLW的名詞解釋是否真的這麼重要? 我相信是的, 基於兩個原因：首先, 這對於初次聽到BLW的家長來說很重要。如果他們要對於如何與寶寶進行副食品做出一個明智的決定, 他們需要了解BLW最核心基礎的精神。否則他們很可能只做半套然後在不順利的時候感到很沮喪。更糟的是, 他們可能會做些危險的事而不自知, 例如把切小丁的食物”替寶寶”放進嘴裡, 而這可能導致寶寶噎到!

The second reason I believe the definition matters is to enable an increase in knowledge about children and food – globally. If what we think may be the lifelong benefits for babies of being BLW’d (better eating habits, less risk of obesity etc.) are to be proven – or even disproven – by research, then studies need to define clearly and unambiguously what ‘true’ BLW is. If researchers set out to compare babies who have been BLW’d with babies weaned the conventional way without accurately defining what those terms mean, then there is a real risk that some babies will be said to have been BLW’d when, for example, they had purees for the first two weeks, or were routinely spoon-fed at certain meals, or were always fed separately from the rest of the family. This muddying of the waters would make the results of the research meaningless, and could well mean that some of the real benefits of BLW don’t show up. (It’s the same as researchers’ insistence, nowadays, on a clear definition of ‘exclusive breastfeeding’; it’s only since the importance of this has been appreciated that the real differences between breastfeeding and formula feeding have begun to emerge.)

我相信名詞解釋很重要的第二個原因：是能夠增加關於兒童與食物的知識–而且是全球性地。如果我們認為BLW寶寶能夠終身獲益的好處(較好的飲食習慣、較低的肥胖風險等等)要能夠被研究證實–或甚至被推翻–那麼研究就必須清楚明確的定義什麼是”真正的”BLW。如果研究人員們要比較BLW寶寶與傳統餵食寶寶的不同, 卻沒有正確的定義這些專有名詞, 那麼就會產生一個風險, 也就是某些號稱BLW的寶寶, 卻其實在接觸副食品最初的前兩週是吃食物泥, 或固定在某幾餐被用湯匙餵食, 或總是跟其他家庭成員們分開來單獨地被餵食。這種混淆的情況將使得研究的結果變得毫無意義, 也表示真正執行BLW的好處並不會展現(芋圓媽補充:亦即那些不是正確執行BLW的寶寶無法得到與BLW寶寶相同的益處)。(這跟現今研究人員堅持要清楚定義”全親餵”一樣; 唯有大家都能夠明白名詞定義的重要, 親餵與配方奶的真正差異才能夠開始浮現)

(芋圓媽補充: 研究與實驗一樣講求實事求是, 若大家對專有名詞都有自己的解讀, 那麼未來的研究報告也就失去了參考價值)

Belonging to the ‘club’

加入社群團體

So what does this mean for BLW groups and forums? Should parents who are ‘doing a bit of both’, or who started off following a conventional approach and then ‘switched’ to BLW be allowed to be members of the BLW ‘club’? My answer is yes, I think they should. While I do believe it’s important for everyone to be clear whether what they are doing is or isn’t ‘true’ BLW, I don’t believe anyone should feel ostracised for not choosing (or being able) to follow it to the letter. Everyone is different: for some, their support network of family and friends is pro-BLW, while others face resistance every day. Some babies have specific medical or developmental challenges that impact on their eating. For many parents, being able to share others’ experiences is what gives them the courage to keep going at the level they are, or to make the leap to ‘full’ BLW.

所以BLW社團與論壇的意義是什麼? 那些混餵的家長, 或是剛開始採用傳統餵食法然後”轉換”成BLW的家長, 可以加入BLW社群嗎? 我的答案是肯定的, 我想他們也應該要加入。因為我相信重要的是每個人都應該要清楚知道自己在做什麼, 不管他們在做的是不是”真正的”BLW。我不認為任何人應該為了沒有選擇(或者無法執行)完全的BLW而感到被排斥。每個人都是不同的: 對某些人來說, 他們的親友支援系統是贊成BLW的, 對另外某些人來說, 要面對的是每天的反對阻力。有些寶寶有特殊的醫療或發展狀況, 會影響到他們的飲食。對許多家長而言, 能夠吸取別人的經驗分享, 讓他們有勇氣繼續走在現有的階段, 或者跳到”全”BLW。

People meet at different points along the parenting route but we can still be friends and travel together, sharing what we have in common while at the same time respecting our differences. While it’s not helpful to admit people whose intention is to make trouble, I like to think anyone who is genuinely interested in finding out more about BLW would be made to feel welcome in a BLW group.

育兒的路上, 人們有不同的觀點, 但我們仍然可以是朋友並且同行, 分享我們的共同之處同時也尊重彼此的差異。與其認為有些人就是想要惹麻煩, 我比較喜歡任何真心想要認識BLW的人, 都可以在BLW團體裡感到被歡迎。