How to Start Baby Led Weaning
Baby Led Weaning or Baby Led Feeding is when you skip the purees and mashed foods and directly introduce finger foods to your baby. Your baby is incharge of feeding herself and in the process learns about self regulation, finer skills, openness to try different foods and textures early on, reduced risk of obesity later in life and it also means you save time, money with easy and simplified meal preps. The trend is catching on and many parents are raving about it but it does come with a few risks but mostly a lot of benefits so let us dive deeper in to both.
Baby Led Weaning Benefits
It has a number of benefits from healthy weight gain, feeding habits, skipping expensive purees, spoon feeding to trying a variety of foods. It has a lot to offer on the social, developmental, and personal front as well.
Trying New Foods
Babies are more likely to try new foods, enjoy their texture, color, smell and taste when self feeding and exploring foods the way they want to. They may enjoy the idea of being in control, explore new options and it also avoids parents force feeding the child making meal time a negative experience for them.
Social Experience
Finger foods opens a lot of new experiences for your baby. They could now eat with the family at the table, have them sit on a high chair and enjoy their meal while engaging with rest of the family. It is a great way for babies to see and learn new skills like chewing, eating, picking up food, and more from others in the family. You now don't need to have a whole different menu for your baby, rather you can pick baby appropriate things from the family pot.
All The Savings
Baby Led Weaning actually helps you save a lot of money as you don't need store bought ready made purees and baby foods to start with and also it means you can do away with seperate meal menus and preps for your baby. You can give baby appropriate food from the family menu or make a few changes to the food while cooking for your baby.
Learning New Skills
Baby Led Weaning encourages babies to self feed, regulate, feel the food and textures. This means a lot of finer skills required for your baby to master the art of hand eye coordination, using hands skillfully, picking up the food, taking it to the mouth, moving it in the mouth, chewing and swallowing.
Makes Life Easier
Self feeding makes meal times fun and engaging for your little one and dinning out, get togethers and family time can now mean a fun stress free experience for you as well. You don't need all that cooking, prepping packing foods anymore as your baby can try suitable things from the menu
Signs Your Baby is Ready for Baby Led Weaning
While most babies are ready at around 6 months of age, the timeline varies from baby to baby based on their developmental rate, if prematurely born and acceptance. Some of the telltale signs are
Baby is able to hold its head up and has good neck control
Baby has good hand eye coordination
Baby is able to sit upright with unassited or with minimal support, like in a high chair
Baby is able to use both hands and can bring the hands to mouth
Baby is able to self feed and swallow
Baby no longer exhibits tongue thrust - pushing food out with the tongue
Baby Led Weaning Starter Foods
It is important to choose the right foods that are age appropriate for your baby to try and always stay around and keep an eye on your baby when you give them any food to try. Some of the baby led weaning starter foods are
Avacadoes, their texture and buttery taste is often a hit with babies. It is soft to eat and can be cut into long slices so your baby can pick them up easily
Soft banana slices
Steamed apples, without skin cut in to strips or steamed soft carrots / shredded
Steamed broccoli
Boiled/ steamed beans, pumpkin, sweet potato cut into small slices
Boiled egg slices
Soft steamed peas
Yogurt
Oatmeal
Whenerver you try any new food, stay close to your baby to check for any allergic reactions, gagging or difficulty swallowing the food. Gagging is a natural reflex and actually helps baby bring out the foods difficult to swallow.
Baby Led Weaning Foods to Avoid
Start small, see how your baby is doing before introducing new foods and also its important to not mix different types of foods initially till your baby has learnt to eat a particluar type of food successfully. Remeber that breastmilk / formula will still continue to be your baby's primary source of nutrition till they gradully increase the quantity of solids over the months. There are many foods that you should absolutely avoid giving your baby who is just starting on solids.
Nuts, seeds and dry fruits
Grapes, round foods, candy
Honey - absolutely a no no to babies before 1 year of age
Raw eggs
Sticky foods like peanut butter that are difficult to swallow - choke hazard
Raw uncooked hard vegetables and fruits like apples, carrots, pumpkin, broccolli and likes.
Foods that crumble like dry bread, popcorn, etc.
Raw meats
Processed foods and sugary or salty foods
Cow's milk before 1 year of age
Unpasterized diary products.
Risks of Baby Led Weaning
While Baby led weaning has a lot of benefits and makes parents life a bit easier, it is not risk free. Parents need to practice caution while introducing solids to your baby. Let us look at some of the risks of Baby Led Weaning to keep in mind
Ensure your baby is developmentally ready to start solids
Offer right kids of food in the right shape and form.
Always stay close to your baby to avoid any choking accidents.
Look out for allergies.
To ensure baby led weaning is a success you need to be patient and encourage your baby to try new foods. It will be messy so stay calm, don't yell or pressure your child to eat better. Choose right kinds foods so they get the right nutrition and fats. Let them use kid friendly utensils and spoons so its fun for them as well.
Try to eat together so they learn from you and its okay for you to feed them once in a while if you are in a hurry or want to try a mixed approach. Choose what works best for you as there are no hard rules but trial and errors to find what works best for you.