Baby Led Weaning

M

Monty

Registered User
Has anyone tried/is currently trying Baby Led Weaning? I had never heard of it until a few months ago when I was reading a blog on introducing solids and the mother was talking about how her baby had been finger feeding himself from 6 months of age.

In a nutshell, BLW is about giving babies softened (think steamed apples, pears etc cut into 'batons') finger foods from the beginning of the weaning process. There is a book about it. The woman who wrote the book claims that babies who are allowed to feed themselves from the beginning learn to handle solids better than those fed purees (ie. they learn to chew and swallow more quickly), they develop more confidence with eating as they are in control and are less likely to grow into picky eaters. The key, she says, is to start at 6 months.

My baby is only 4.5 months old so I haven't even contemplated introducing solids yet. I'm still undecided on the best approach to take.

I'd love to hear what other people's thoughts are on the issue. Whenever I mention it to other mums they look at me in disbelief. :)

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I have a good friend who was a big fan of the idea and did it with all her kids. Her kids generally were late at eating solids though - particularly her first. I don't think he really ate much in the way of solids until he was 10-11 months, and he wasn't completely weaned from breastfeeding until he was over 3. I think it's a nice idea in moderation, but I personally think it may have some flaws if you're totally devoted to it and the baby who is meant to be "leading" just isn't that independent... There are mixed opinions about whether or not exclusive breastfeeding provides enough nutrients (particularly iron, I think) after 6 months - and so that's why the nutrient enriched rice cereal is such a popular first food. However baby led weaning (at least the kind my friend was into) steers right away from rice cereal - my friend never gave it to any of her kids I don't think...

I do think it's good and important to introduce self feeding and finger foods from a young age - however I think that it should be done in a balanced kind of way and I don't know if BLW is completely balanced...

That sums up my feelings on most of the attachment parenting "movement" - it's a nice feeling but you don't want to foster attachment so much that it is at the cost of independence. I think sometimes an ideal is great but when you hold to an ideal too tightly, it can become a bad thing.

But then again, I'm a very relaxed, unstructured person, and I parent in a very relaxed, unstructured way and I'm sure that there are negatives to that as well ;)
 
I have sort of done it with my son who is now 10 months, but not a ''pure' version, as he did/does have some pureed and spoon fed stuff as well, like mixed vegies, yoghurt etc. I have to admit it was a much from laziness/convenience and fitting in with what the rest of the family was eating more than anything. I read that if you do it 'properly' then you put stuff like mashed vegies on a spoon and get them to self feed but that was far to messy and high maintenance for me!
Like Nicole Joy I liked some of the philosophy but only did a small amount of reading on it so am sure I didn't follow it exactly. My first child I hadn't heard of it so just gave purees and gradually thickened them in the more traditional way, although I know i naturally gave her finger foods a lot earlier than some other mums, especially fruit cos she loved it.
Overall I quite like the idea but I think a) it depends a bit on the child ie. some love to feed themselves, others less so and b) depends on how rigidly you follow it. My personality and parenting style is like Nicole Joy's so hence my less than structured approach to this. i actually don't know anyone who has followed it 100% so maybe not that helpful!
 
I meant to add my daughter is a great eater who at 3.5yr eats very well and healthily, she does love her treats but will also eat most other things. We try and eat the majority of our diet as unprocessed and natural food ie fruit, vegies, grains etc but we certainly do have some processed food esp things like chocolate and ice cream as treats. Too early to really tell with my son but so far so good (he is still breastfed as well).
My overall comment about healthy eating is that it comes down to what you give them most of the time ie consistency, whether you make a big fuss about eating or not eating (I don't) and whether you make food into a big drama will have the biggest influence on your children's diet. If my daughter didn't want to eat her dinner (and I knew it was something she liked) then she didn't get any alternative- this is obviously once she was a bit older from memory around 18 months- or if she did it was something boring like a piece of bread. She has basically always eaten what we have, with initially some adaptations ie less spicy or whatever and so that is her 'norm''. following the same thing with my son too so my expectation is the same. He already often eats the same as the rest of the family, just chopped up. He does have quite a few teeth tho
 
I did BLW with my son from the age of 6 months. At this age, H would try to take things off my plate when he was sitting on my lap. I literally let him try anything I was eating providing it was not too spicy or salty. He liked pretty much everything and was immediately introduced to flavours rather than bland puree. Steamed dumplings at dim sum was a huge hit (no soy sauce!). I just held off giving him seafood.

From the age of 9 months he was eating full meals of whatever we had for dinner just chopped up (not pureed) - roast chicken, potatoes, veg. Lasagne. Risotto. Salmon. Fried rice.

He is now 1 and when we go out for lunch, we mostly just order something off the menu for him (depending where we go).

Oh yeah, he only has 1 tooth, but that hasn't stopped him enjoying his food!

A great website/blog I used to cook baby friendly meals (just omit the salt) My Daddy Cooks. The muffins are a great starter food as is the risotto and the hotpot.

Enjoy!
 
Also, with regards to self feeding, H always used his hands to feed himself, unless I was in a hurry, then I would spoon feed him. Now he just HAS to hold a spoon himself and try to feed himself. He is quite determined! I let him sit at the table for breakfast for 1/2 hr whilst he spoon/hand feeds himself his cheerios! And yes, there is always a mess on the floor. I just put more in his bowl so I know that a good amount does end up in his mouth.

I bought the book, read it when H was six months, made a few mental notes and haven't referred to it since! So I know I did not follow it 100% plus the fact I stopped breastfeeding at 5 months!
 
We're blw as well. It's not very prescriptive as in there isn't a set of rules to do it right, it's more about the idea that "until they're one, solid food is just for fun".

The plan is that you just put more-or-less whatever you are eating in front of them and they investigate it, throw it around a bit and sometime in between six months and one, learn to eat it.

The advantages of blw are that it's great dexterity practice for the little ones (it's amazing how co-ordinated the boy can be when it's something he likes!) and they learn to relate taste to texture, colour and shape straight away instead of later on when they switch from purees to solids i.e. orange carroty shaped things generally taste carotty (except when they're oranges!).

I haven't done purees but I think the advantages to that are that it's easier to control how much they eat and they get off milk faster.

It's good for us because the boy visibly enjoys it and so do I, he loves investigating new foods and eats quite a lot - he loves pasta, steak, steamed fish, curry, dim sum, yoghurt, porridge (I load up a spoon for both of these and let him feed himself with a bit of guidance - he's pretty good!). He's got no teeth yet so some things especially steak just get sucked and gnawed at but he has no problem eating fish, pasta, veggies and fruit.

I'd also agree with TNT that it's much, much easier to eat out with a blw baby as they just eat off the menu and because they are feeding themselves they take about the same time you do so they occupy themselves happily while you are eating.

BLW is not for everyone and I don't think either method, purees or blw or something in between is 'better' it's about what you and your baby are most comfortable with. If you are going to worry about intake and iron levels then it's not for you, if you're not and want to watch your baby really enjoying some messy, tasty eating then it might be worth a try.

Check out my blog for a video of The Boy 'eating' a roast dinner at around 7 months Mum in HK

Best of luck with whatever you decide.
 
Sorry, meant to say I agree with Happyvalleygirl about the eating out - can't find where to edit, must be having a dim moment.
 
jvn I agree with both you and Happyvalleygirl about the eating out anyway, exactly what you said, it is very easy!
 
I always gave my girl bits of what we're eating. Now at 18 months, a lot of the time she prefers the adult menu to the kids menu. It does make it so much easier to feed her, for sure. And I think if they can eat it, go for it.

I do think though that there is some sense in introducing new foods one at a time to see if there are any allergies. My daughter has no allergies so it wouldn't have been an issue - but if you were introducing a bunch of things at once and there was a reaction, it would be much more of a nightmare to try and figure out which ingredient was the culprit!! And allergies are not that uncommon. Most they will grow out of though...
 
I agree with everyone too :-)

It's a good point about the allergies, we started off with a fairly limited palette of food but after a week or so with no severe reactions offered him a lot more variety - we don't have a history of allergies in the family so weren't that worried, I'd certainly have done it differently if we'd had a history bad reactions.

A bit off topic but I sometimes wonder if the increase in allergies is related, in part, to the increase in variety of food we have access to, not just being in HK but in most supermarkets in UK there are heaps of things I'd never even heard of in the '70's and '80's.
 
I really must get my hands on this book! I think a trip to Central Dymocks is in order. My 8 month old barely eats the purees, hates the tastes. I've started trying him with steamed sliced apples and some cut up bananas and he had a lot of fun but didn't really eat it. I guess it takes time for them to get used to it. I'll try him with sweet potato tomorrow. He has 4 teeth so he likes biting the food but then spits it out, puts it back in his mouth and repeats the process. I really like the idea of baby led weaning. Must get the book. I think my problem is that I still see him as a tiny baby and am really scared to let him try real food! He seems too little still! I'm terrified that he will choke. But the main problem is that I just plain am clueless about what he can and can't eat and how to go about it. Once again, I must get that book! Sunday...
 
i do a lot of googling (what would i do without google?!) on weaning, the solid foods and self-feeding, etc. but i do worry about him choking too so he is currently fed pureed veggies/meat/rice, he has his bread/biscuits dipped with milk and has the odd nibble on a peeled piece of apple every now and then.

when we're having our meals, i tend to give him whatever is on my plate but in very small pieces. the thing with my bub is that he likes being fed but won't take the initiation to feed himself so i'm just waiting for him to take that step next - soon!

he weaned himself from the breastmilk so i'm just going to get baby-led once again and again and again. :smile:
 
I was worried about choking to begin with and the boy did a lot of gagging and nearly stopped my heart on several occasions during the first couple of weeks but now, two months in, I don't even think about it any more.

The idea is that blw babies learn how to deal with food first by feeling it and picking it up, learning about size and texture. Then by putting it into their mouths and adding taste to texture. Then after that they learn about chewing and actually moving the food around their mouths and finally, about swallowing. The gagging is them learning how to deal with lumps of food that are too big by moving it from the back to the front of their mouth.

The idea is that by allowing them to go at their own pace, their eating keeps pace with their development, i.e. they are not able to get food from the table into their mouths until they are capable of manipulating the food once it is in their mouth, hence the risk of choking is lowered.

That's all just so much theory, but for us blw works because the boy enjoys it and we haven't had a problem with choking. (Choking is silent as no air can get into the lungs, gagging is loud and is the baby moving the food away from the back of their mouth.)

Lisa, lots of mums try blw as some babies are just to independent to do spoon feeding :-) I also think for some babies they don't like the surprise of not knowing how a spoonful of food is going to taste, imagine if you were expecting baby rice and got a spoonful of stewed apple, I wouldn't like it! I've got a copy of the book if you want to borrow it.

Aava, just wondering how small the pieces you are giving him are, if he doesn't have pincer grip yet then it might be a problem picking smaller pieces up and getting them to his mouth? We found the most successful first food was spiral (fusilli) pasta as it was easy to pick up and soft enough to swallow easily.

This is a great resource which I used a lot to find out about good first foods etc.. baby led weaning :: Main Page
 
I decided to start baby-led weaning as soon as my wee bub can sit on his own. Reading all that you have written has removed any doubts that I had. :)
Now my only worry is that I'll have to share my hargow with him... haha
Thanks :)
 
Yes we will definitely keep trying it. I think he is definitely too 'independent' for the spoon feeding. He just takes the spoon from me, wipes all the food off it with his fingers and chews on the opposite end of the spoon. Baby led weaning doesn't seem any messier than trying the purees anyway hah.
 
Lisainhk - just try your 8mth old with regular food that you eat. You may be surprised with what he can cope with! Since he has teeth and likes biting, he is most likely frustrated with puree food that has no texture. Gagging is a natural reflex. Scary the first time I will admit, but he needs to do it in order to eat safely. All part of the learning process. So far H as choked once and that was right at the beginning. It lasted all of 5 seconds and there was lots of noise so maybe it was more of a big gag?! I think as long as the food is big enough to hold and then some, then he will only bite off the right size. If the piece is too small then, gagging/choking may occur.

Aava - use big chunks of food. He needs to be able to hold it as well as have enough outside his grip to put in his mouth. He may well try to put it all in his mouth but he will spit some out!

Even now, H will seriously overload his mouth but he will spit some out so that he can actually eat the rest.

jvn - I like your allergies post (yesterday). It gave me food for thought (ignore the pun!) I read somewhere that unless your family has a history of allergies you shouldn't hold off giving your baby a certain food. The longer you leave it the more likely a dislike/allergy can happen.

Happy eating!
 
Aava, just wondering how small the pieces you are giving him are, if he doesn't have pincer grip yet then it might be a problem picking smaller pieces up and getting them to his mouth? - he picks (and drops) things pretty well but think he's used to the helper feeding him even though i've told her to let him pick it up. she doesn't like the mess and neither do i but he has to learn somehow. she along with my bub is getting the hang of it now. he choked twice yesterday while eating a slice of apple and i nearly got a heart-attack!!!

Aava - use big chunks of food. He needs to be able to hold it as well as have enough outside his grip to put in his mouth. He may well try to put it all in his mouth but he will spit some out! - a slice of apple is just right for his grip and he nibbles it bit by bit under our hawk-eyes! he is ok on the biting of the top and the bottom parts but it's the small middle part that he's having trouble eating. as you said, he tries to take it all in or just throws it as a sign of giving up. i cut the remaining part into smaller pieces and let him finish it. job well done with a few hiccups. :missingto
 
I know I'm a bit slow on the response but just wanted to say thank you all for taking the time to respond. I loved reading about your experiences and attitudes towards infant feeding.

Now that bub is 6 months old we have started 'playing' with food. For the first few days I did start with a bit of rice cereal mixed with breastmilk but had a complete lack of interest from my boy. He found playing and munching on the spoon much more fun. Given he is so accurate with picking things up and putting them in his mouth and can sit pretty well now, I thought he might enjoy trying BLW. So far he has held, munched and swallowed banana, apple and butternut squash. He loves it and has so much fun with it. I find the whole process quite fascinating. It is amazing what he can handle!

I don't really think there is a 'right' way to introduce solids and agree with what was said about doing what's most comfortable for both mum and bub. I suppose the concern with purees is that there is this reported 'window of opportunity' for learning to chew (between 6 and 10 months) and that babies who are feed purees for too long will reject more textured foods if they are introduced too late.

I suppose if you plan to give BLW a go you do really need to stay on top of the milk feeds and make sure they remain the main source of nutrition in the first year. I find it crazy that some pediatricians in HK tell mums that after 6 months there is no nutritional need for breastmilk anymore!

Thanks for the links to the blogs about BLW. I've enjoyed reading about other people's experiences with BLW. :smile:
 
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