Baby Led Weaning

My son never ate purees. This was partially his choice (he never wanted to be fed) and partially mine (I liked the idea of Baby Led Weaning).

What’s Baby Led Weaning? It is the idea that your baby can teach himself to eat, starting at around six months. You offer soft solids in pieces big enough for your munchkin to hold and manipulate (French-fry shaped is often a good bet) and let him play. He may not know what to do with it at first, and that’s okay. Allowing your baby to play with solid food and experience different textures is a good way to teach your baby to be adventurous with food.

(Full disclosure: my toddler still has no interest in eating. Neither did I, so I guess it’s karma. On the rare occasion that he wants to eat, though, he has a great palate.)

Do you need to worry about choking? Well first of all, your baby should never be eating (purees or self-feeding) without someone there to supervise. You should also know what to do in the event of a choking episode, which will probably happen to every baby at least once in his life, regardless of what or how he eats. Baby Led Weaning doesn’t carry more of a choking risk than other form of feeding your baby, but you will probably have a lot of false alarms. Babies gag as they try to experiment with new foods, and if you are committed to Baby Led Weaning, you will learn the difference between a gag and a choke pretty quickly.

Babies who eat purees at first sometimes have some issues adjusting to regular solids. They may not like the textures of the foods, or they may find themselves gagging a bit as well. One benefit to baby-led weaning is that, once they are eating, you never need to retrain the way they eat. You also can offer them your food and have them eat as part of the family. And you save money on baby food (or time, if you make your own)!

There isn’t a right or wrong way to feed your child. All kids will learn to eat adult food eventually. But for those of you who are curious, I really liked my baby-led weaning experience. If you are curious about BLW check out www.babyledweaning.com.

Happy eating!

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