If you have been around here for awhile you know that I really love Baby Led Weaning. I have done it for both of my children and I am a strong believer in feeding your baby what you are eating. I had the opportunity to put together a journal club presentation for our local NICU Journal Club on the topic of Baby Led Weaning. I thought it was time to write up another post on the topic and hopefully help to answer some questions you might have or at least alleviate any concerns you might have.
https://images.app.goo.gl/pFeXVG6aDvtV8FiS6
What is traditional baby food feeding method and do I have to do that? I thought it might be easiest to put together some questions and talk about some of the background behind how we feed 6 month old babies into their toddler years. You are probably familiar with traditional baby foods that you purchase at the store or even puree and make yourself. You might have started your child on some type of cereal and then tried vegetables, fruits and even meat purees. The first baby foods were developed in the 1920s and then increased in popularity into the 1930s. Before that there was no commercially available baby foods. With this launch of marketed baby food, parents were instructed that they needed to purchase these items. This has been a rite of passage for most infants, trying cereal and then advancing up through the various stages of packaged baby foods.
What are the pros/cons to traditional baby foods? Obviously purchasing foods that are already “prepared” and ready to feed to your child is extremely convenient. It is also very familiar to families. Most people understand the idea of purchasing baby food. Purchasing these baby food products can be expensive and then there is limited variety of these items. Don’t get me wrong, more blends of foods are made and marketed to families, but it is still limited. Another draw back to this method, is that the child is eating something that is different from the rest of the family. They are missing out on that experience of watching others eat and learning how to do that themselves. They can still work on those skills but it is a lot different when they aren’t able to mimic what is happening around them.
So what is Baby Led Weaning (BLW) and how is it different from using traditional baby foods? The idea of baby led weaning has been around forever and is not a new concept, but the terminology might be a “new” way to describe this method. The main premise of BLW is that the baby sits at the table for meal time with the rest of the family and gets to feed themselves. The food that is offered is the meal that the rest of the family is eating. The food can be modified to make it easier for a 6 month old to eat and hold. For example, the veggies offered would be cooked so they are soft enough to manipulate in the child’s mouth. Plus, those cooked veggies are cut in a way that they are long strips that will stick out from the child’s fist so they can bite it. That is all developmentally appropriate for a 6 month old child. As the child grows and gets closer to 12 month, they have a better pincer grasp and can more easily pick up small food pieces. BLW is appropriate to start with child who are 6 months of age and who are able to sit up, have good head and neck control and who are showing interest in foods (reaching for what you are eating and wanting to be with the family at meal time).
What are the pros/cons to Baby Led Weaning? This method of feeding can be easier on families, because they don’t have purchase baby food and the caregiver only has to make one meal. This family meal time has been shown in research to help children as they grow develop to have good social skills and help build stronger family relationships and positively correlate to better weight control. The foods that the child is exposed to at meal times tends to include a wider variety of foods compared with just traditional packaged baby food items. This can be a very unfamiliar feeding method for families and that can be intimidating. Plus, if there is a daycare provider or someone else helping to care for the child, they might be unfamiliar with BLW and not want to be supportive of the parent’s wishes.
If I am interested in trying baby led weaning, where do I begin? Start by using some of the resources listed below to do some research. Most parents are concerned about choking and giving table foods to babies. Becoming familiar with the difference of coughing and choking is helpful in understand that your child is learning how to manipulate food in his/her mouth versus getting that food in their airway and being unable to breath. If you have questions or concerns, let me know! I would love to chat with you about this feeding method or even work with you to figure out the best way to feed your child.
List of Resources:
Rapley, Gill and Murkett, Tracey. Baby-Led Weaning The Essential Guide. 2019.
Rowan, H and Harris, C. Baby-led weaning and family diet. A pilot study. Appetite 58 (2012) 1046-1049.
D’Auria, E et al. Baby-led weaning: what a systematic review of the literature adds on. Italian Journal of Pediatrics (2018)44:49.
Brown, A, Jones S, Rowan, H. Baby-Led Weaning: The Evidance to Date. Curr Nutr Rep (2017) 6:148-156.
Helwig, J and Stasenko, N. Baby-Led Feeding. 2018.
What products or things do I need? Well you really don’t NEED anything, but there are some great products out there that you might find helpful. With BLW, the child is getting to decide how much they eat of something and you as the caregiver get to decide what they eat and when they eat. So to help encourage more self feeding some of these products (listed below) are helpful! The goal would be getting a bib to help protect your child’s clothes (whatever one works best for your child), then a plate or bowl that can’t easily be thrown to the floor, an open cup or a sippy cup that your child likes and then some type of small utensil that your child can easily manipulate.
Products to Try:
A good bib: Bapron
Plates/bowls that stick to the high chair: EzPz cups and plates
A cup: EzPz Tiny cup
Small utensils: Grabease or NumNum GOOtensils
Hopefully this is a helpful tool for you as you learn more about ways to fed your child. It is amazing how fast these little ones learn and how the watch the world around them and mimic what they see. Being able to develop those healthy family relationships with each other and with food is so important!