Baby Led Weaning

With our little guy being 5 1/2 months old (already!) we have been gearing up to start solids. There's a lot of opinions about this subject and age old wisdom (and lots of people we know) started their kids on cereal, then purees or baby food a few weeks later. We thought about going that route, but after we did some research online and talked to a few friends we decided that Baby Led Weaning (BLW) might be the way to go for our family. I hope Steven is excited about broccoli as this little cutie!

The general idea behind BLW is that at 6 months babies are at the developmental age to start foods and just like with crawling, walking, etc. eating is not something you have to teach them to do. They are able to teach themselves. Basically, baby is making the decision to start solids, and what to eat, not the parents. (Spoon feeding can be thought of as parent-led weaning). Baby is able to explore and enjoy food on their own terms and eventually they begin to feed themselves and get some of their nourishment that way. With BLW it is important to continue nursing on demand to make sure baby gets everything he needs until he is able to feed himself and get more of his daily nutrients from solid food.

The major benefits of BLW are:

• Baby is allowed to start on solids at their own pace for their development encouraging confidence and independence
• Helps baby develop eye hand coordination and dexterity
• Allows baby to eat as much as he needs on his own time, developing good eating habits
• Makes picky eaters and meal time battles less likely as there is no pressure to eat
• Allows babies to explore taste, texture and smell of a variety of foods which lets them have a wider food palet
• Baby is a part of the family during mealtimes, eating right alongside mom and dad and often what mom and dad are eating

So after hearing about all these benefits, we were really interested and thought this might be the right choice for our family. So we ordered the Baby Led Weaning book to find out what this was all about.

It was a really informative book and after reading it, we felt this was a good option for our family. So when we thought about how to start with BLW, this book provided some great ideas. Basically you eat healthy foods and baby can eat them too. You don't need to puree or prepare the foods you are eating in a special way, except for maybe overcooking their veggies a bit to make them easier to gum down without teeth (but still firm enough for them to hold). Basically you give them a bit of what you are eating and let them go to town. You don't encourage or discourage them, you don't try to feed them or anything. Just let them explore and discover food on their own. Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well we have a few friends who have tried this approach and its worked great for them. Here is an article about a family that also tried BLW and had great success. There are more resources are BLW here, here and here.

So we are really excited to try BLW with Steven very soon. We know this might not be the best choice for every family and we are in no way experts, but we are hoping this is the right choice for our family and we will keep you updated as to our progress with solids.