Navigating the world of infant feeding can be overwhelming, especially when it’s time to introduce solid foods. Among the various approaches, Baby Led Weaning (BLW) has emerged as a popular and empowering method. BLW is essentially allowing your baby to feed themselves soft finger foods right from the very beginning of their solids journey. Instead of spoon-feeding purees, you offer appropriately sized and textured pieces of food that your baby can pick up and explore at their own pace. This method is not only convenient but also encourages independence and helps babies develop crucial motor skills and healthy eating habits early on.
TIP: The Baby Led Weaning method gained significant traction following the release of “Baby Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Food” by Gill Rapley, a UK author, around a decade ago. This book provided a comprehensive guide and popularized the approach among parents worldwide.
Understanding the Appeal of Baby Led Weaning
The rising popularity of baby led weaning can be attributed to several compelling factors. Firstly, it simplifies meal preparation. Often, you can simply adapt the meals you’re already cooking for the family to be baby-safe, reducing the need for separate baby food preparation. This saves time and effort in the kitchen. Secondly, BLW empowers babies by giving them control over their food intake. This self-directed approach fosters intuitive eating from the start, allowing babies to listen to their own hunger and fullness cues, which is a valuable skill for lifelong healthy eating.
Is Your Baby Ready for Baby Led Weaning Foods? Age and Readiness Cues
Knowing when to start baby led weaning is crucial for your baby’s safety and development. The American Academy of Pediatrics provides key developmental milestones to look for to determine if your baby is ready to start solids, including Baby Led Weaning Foods:
- Weight Doubling: Your baby has at least doubled their birth weight. This is a general indicator of growth and development.
- Head Control and Sitting: They can hold their head steady and sit upright with minimal support. This is important for safe swallowing and preventing choking.
- Interest in Food: Your baby shows genuine interest in food. This might manifest as watching you eat intently, reaching for your food, or opening their mouth when they see food.
- Oral Motor Skills: They can move food to the back of their mouth to swallow instead of immediately pushing it out with their tongue (tongue-thrust reflex diminishing).
TIP: Investing in a good highchair that supports an upright sitting position with proper back and foot support is essential for baby led weaning. This posture helps babies have better control over their arms and hands, and facilitates safe swallowing.
Getting Started with Baby Led Weaning: A Step-by-Step Guide
Introducing solids with baby led weaning is an exciting milestone! Here’s a simple guide to help you begin this journey confidently:
- Confirm Readiness: Double-check that your baby meets all the readiness milestones mentioned above.
- Prepare the Highchair: Ensure the highchair is clean, stable, and properly adjusted with straps and footrest in place.
- Introduce Water: Plan to offer water alongside solids. A trainer cup is a great option to help babies learn to drink independently.
- Choose a Single Food: Start with offering just one type of food at a time. This allows you to easily identify any potential allergies.
- Follow Baby’s Cues: End the feeding session when your baby shows signs of being full or uninterested. These cues may include fussiness, turning their head away, or closing their mouth. It’s usually quite clear when they are done!
TIP: If your baby seems completely uninterested in solids at first, don’t worry! It’s perfectly normal. Take a short break of a few days or weeks and try again. Every baby develops at their own pace.
Essential Tips for Successful Baby Led Weaning
To ensure a positive and safe experience with baby led weaning, keep these important tips in mind:
- Understand the Gag Reflex vs. Choking: Gagging is a normal and protective reflex that helps babies learn to manage food in their mouths. It’s different from choking. Gagging is often noisy, with coughing and sputtering, while choking is silent and requires immediate intervention.
- Revisit Readiness Signs: Familiarize yourself with the signs of readiness for starting solids (as outlined earlier).
- Optimal Highchair Setup: Use a highchair that provides upright support and foot support to aid in safe swallowing.
- Supervise Feeding: Always sit with your baby and closely supervise them during mealtimes.
- Manage Expectations: Let your baby lead the way and explore food at their own pace. Don’t pressure them to eat a certain amount.
- Introduce Foods Gradually: Start with one new food per day or every few days to monitor for any allergic reactions.
- Variety of Textures: Offer a range of textures from the beginning to expose your baby to different sensory experiences.
- Offer Water: Provide water in a sippy cup or small open cup with meals.
TIP: Remember that breast milk or formula remains the primary source of nutrition for the first few months of starting solids. Solids are for exploration and learning, not to replace milk feedings at this stage.
Top Baby Led Weaning First Foods
Both baby led weaning and traditional puree feeding are valid approaches to introducing solids. The key is to choose what works best for your family and baby. There’s no single “right” way. You can even combine both methods to create a flexible and balanced feeding approach.
The primary goal of introducing first foods is to expose your baby to new flavors, essential nutrients, and textures in a safe and enjoyable way. It’s a milestone that should be positive for both baby and parents.
TIP: Prioritize offering iron-rich foods as iron stores from birth begin to deplete around 6 months of age. Introducing iron through food becomes increasingly important.
Best Baby Led Weaning Foods to Start With
When selecting baby led weaning foods for beginners, prioritize options that are easy for babies to grasp and soft enough to be safe. Finger-sized pieces are ideal – large enough to prevent them from being fully 넣어진 into the mouth, yet manageable for small hands. Here are some excellent first baby led weaning food choices:
- Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges (soft and easy to hold)
- Roasted Apple Wedges (skin on helps maintain shape)
- Roasted or Steamed Broccoli Florets (large florets for easy grasping)
- Melon Slices (watermelon, cantaloupe)
- Thick Mango Slices (ripe and soft)
- Banana (with part of the peel left on for grip)
- Toast Sticks with Mashed Avocado
- Avocado Spears (ripe and soft)
- Lamb or Beef (large piece or bone for sucking on)
- Dark Meat Chicken (large piece or bone for sucking on)
TIP: Ensure foods are soft enough to squish between your fingers, except for larger pieces of meat which should be tender. If a baby gnaws off a small piece, remove it and offer a larger piece to minimize choking risk.
Serving Banana for Baby Led Weaning
Banana is a convenient and nutritious first food for baby led weaning. To serve it safely, wash the banana, cut it in half, and peel down only an inch or two of the peel. Leave the remaining peel on to provide a non-slip handle for your baby. They can then easily hold and suck on the exposed banana like a popsicle. You can also assist them in holding it if needed.
Foods to Avoid During Baby Led Weaning
Safety is paramount when practicing baby led weaning. Avoid offering foods that pose a choking hazard or are unsuitable for babies under one year old. Foods to avoid include:
- Hard, Sticky, or Crunchy Foods: Raw apples or carrots, whole nuts, crackers, large spoonfuls of nut butter.
- Added Salt: Babies’ kidneys are still developing and cannot process excess salt.
- Cow’s Milk: Difficult for babies under 12 months to digest. Plain yogurt is generally acceptable in small amounts.
- Added Sugar: Provides empty calories and can establish a preference for sweet tastes.
- Honey: Risk of botulism in babies under one year old.
- Super Slippery Foods: Foods that are difficult for babies to grip can be frustrating and messy.
TIP: Always actively supervise your baby while they are eating. Observe their cues and adjust food textures or sizes as needed. Your baby is the best guide for making appropriate food choices.
Baby Led Weaning and Choking Concerns
Many parents express concern about choking when considering baby led weaning. While choking is a valid concern for any feeding method, gagging is more common with BLW. Gagging is a normal part of the learning process as babies develop their oral motor skills and learn to manage different textures.
Remember, gagging is a sign that your baby is learning to move food around in their mouth and safely expel it if necessary. It often sounds alarming but is typically a protective mechanism and not a true choking emergency.
TIP: If the sound of gagging makes you anxious, consider a gradual introduction to BLW. Start with offering pre-loaded spoons of purees alongside finger foods to ease your comfort level.
How to Cut Baby Led Weaning Foods for Safety
Proper food preparation is essential for safe baby led weaning. The goal is to cut foods into shapes and sizes that are easy for babies to handle and minimize choking risks. General guidelines for cutting baby led weaning foods include:
- Finger-Shaped Pieces: Cut foods into sticks approximately 4 inches long and about the width of an adult finger.
- Easy to Grasp: Ensure pieces are large enough for babies to pick up and hold easily. Babies develop their pincer grasp (picking up small objects with thumb and forefinger) around 9 months.
- Non-Slippery Surfaces: For naturally slippery foods like avocado, banana, kiwi, and mango, leave a portion of the peel on to improve grip.
TIP: If you are still concerned about size, you can offer even larger pieces, such as half a slice of bread or a large wedge of watermelon.
Will My Baby Eat Enough Food with Baby Led Weaning?
Initially, baby led weaning is more about exploration and sensory learning than significant calorie intake. Expect more tasting, mouthing, and playing with food than actual eating in the early stages. Breast milk or formula will continue to be your baby’s primary source of nutrition during this time. Don’t expect full meals right away. It takes time for babies to develop the skills and coordination needed for efficient eating.
Do Babies Need Teeth for Baby Led Weaning?
Surprisingly, babies do not need teeth to successfully start baby led weaning. Gums are remarkably strong and capable of mashing soft foods. Front teeth are primarily for biting, not chewing. Chewing becomes more relevant when back molars erupt later on. Teeth are not a prerequisite for starting solids.
TIP: For more insights into infant oral development, learn about what to expect from teething here.
Combining Baby Led Weaning and Purees: A Balanced Approach
There’s no need to strictly adhere to one feeding method. Combining baby led weaning and purees offers flexibility and can be highly beneficial. This mixed approach expands the variety of foods and textures your baby can experience. A great way to combine methods is to offer pre-loaded spoons of purees. You load a spoon with puree and hand it to your baby, allowing them to self-feed and maintain control.
TIP: Offering some purees can be practical, especially if your baby attends daycare, as caregivers may be more comfortable with traditional spoon-feeding methods.
Best First Foods for Baby: Purees (Self-Fed)
When introducing purees, remember that the goal is still to allow baby to self-feed as much as possible. Offer purees on pre-loaded spoons and let your baby bring the spoon to their mouth. There’s no nutritional advantage to starting with vegetables before fruits. Choose flavors that you enjoy and that are readily available. Start with single-ingredient purees, served smooth, and offer just a small amount on the spoon initially.
TIP: Amara Organic Baby Food is a recommended baby food company that uses a nutrient-preserving technology to create organic purees that are comparable to homemade. They offer convenient and nutritious options, and even include baby led weaning recipes on their packaging! (paid affiliate link)
Recognizing Baby’s Fullness Cues
Knowing when your baby has had enough to eat is just as important as knowing what to offer. Pay close attention to your baby’s cues during mealtimes. If they start turning their head away, refusing to open their mouth, or becoming fussy, it’s a clear signal that they are finished. Learning to eat solids is a new and tiring experience for babies, so keep meal sessions relatively short and focused on exploration.
Self-Feeding Purees with Pre-Loaded Spoons
Using a pre-loaded spoon is an excellent way to encourage self-feeding with purees. The parent loads the spoon with puree and then hands it to the baby to guide it to their mouth. This method provides some of the benefits of baby led weaning, such as self-direction and fine motor skill development, while still offering the smoothness of purees.
Remember, you can alternate between purees and baby led weaning finger foods. Offering the same food in both forms allows for varied sensory exploration. The key is to avoid forcing bites and respect your baby’s appetite cues.
Introducing Allergenic Foods Early
Current guidelines recommend early introduction of potential allergens, including peanuts, eggs, and shellfish, unless there is a strong family history of food allergies. Early introduction may actually help reduce the risk of developing allergies. Consult your pediatrician if you have specific concerns.
TIP: For peanut introduction, thin unsweetened peanut butter with water to create a very thin Peanut Butter Puree with a yogurt-like consistency. Offer a tiny amount on a spoon or spread thinly on a toast stick.
Baby Led Weaning Meal Ideas for 7-8 Months
As babies progress to 7-8 months and beyond, their meal structure can evolve. After they are comfortable with single foods, aim to offer 1-2 self-fed finger foods alongside a puree at each meal. This approach ensures they have opportunities to practice self-feeding and explore textures, while also getting a chance to ingest more calories via the puree. Adjust the amount of food based on your baby’s appetite and cues.
TIP: Refer to a Baby Food Chart for a wide range of age-appropriate baby led weaning and puree food ideas categorized by month.
Recipes for Every Stage of Starting Solids
For comprehensive guidance and recipes for starting solids, whether you choose baby led weaning, purees, or a combination, check out the Yummy Baby Food cookbook. This resource provides stage-by-stage guidance, specific food recommendations, simple recipes, and practical feeding tips.
For more insights into the fundamentals of baby led weaning, listen to this informative podcast episode featuring Megan McNamee, MPH, RDN, CLT, a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist specializing in pediatric nutrition from Feeding Littles.
Share Your Baby Led Weaning Experiences and Questions!
What questions do you have about baby led weaning? What were your baby’s favorite first foods that aren’t listed here? Share your experiences and tips in the comments below!
Ultimate Guide to Baby Led Weaning Foods (and Best First Foods)
Here is a summary of some of the best first foods for baby led weaning. Remember to choose ripe and soft fruits and vegetables for optimal flavor and texture. (Nutritional values will vary depending on the specific foods.)
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5 from 77 votes
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
Author: Amy Palanjian
Cuisine: American
Course: Dinner
Calories: 28kcal
Servings: 1
Ingredients
Banana
- 1 small ripe banana with peel on
Roasted Sweet Potato
Roasted Apple
- 1 small apple + 1 teaspoon butter or neutral oil
Roasted Broccoli
Sauteed Green Beans
Melon
- 1 small piece watermelon or cantaloupe
Avocado Toast
- 1 slice whole grain bread
- 1 tbsp ripe avocado
Avocado Spear
- ⅛ ripe avocado
Lamb or Beef
- 1 lamb chop, roast, or steak
Pan-Seared Chicken Thighs
- 1 chicken thigh
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, optional
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Instructions
Banana with some of the peel still on
- Cut a banana in half. Use a knife to gently cut around the peel about 2 inches down, leaving some of the peel on so that the banana is easy for baby to hold and less slippery.
Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges
Roasted Apple Wedges
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place the butter or oil into a pie plate or baking dish. Warm in the oven for a few minutes to melt. Remove from oven. Slice the apple into approximately 1/2-inch slices and discard the core. Place into the baking dish with the oil and toss to combine. Add cinnamon if desired. Bake for 28-34 minutes, or until tender when poked with a fork. Let cool slightly and serve.
Roasted Broccoli Florets
Sauteed Green Beans
- Warm the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the green beans and stir. Cover and cook for about 8 minutes. Remove cover and taste one to see if it’s soft enough. Cook for an additional minute or two as needed.
Melon slices
- Cut into a thick stick or a wedge and offer to baby.
Avocado Toast
- Mash the avocado very smooth with a fork. Spread a thin layer onto a toast stick and serve.
Avocado Spears
- (Make sure the avocado is ripe and soft): Cut a thick strip of avocado and offer to baby. You can leave the peel on if that makes it easier for baby to hold (just wash it first).
Lamb or Beef
Pan-Seared Chicken Thighs
Notes
- Add spices like garlic powder, cinnamon, cumin, oregano, or any other non-spicy flavor you like to make these more interesting.
- Offer just one piece at a time when starting out.
- If baby gnaws a piece down into a smaller piece, replace it with a larger one to avoid her putting a chunk of food into her mouth.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-5 days. Reheat briefly if needed.
- Remember that it’s normal for babies to take time to actually ingest the food. Part of the process is exploring all of the senses related to the experience of eating.
Nutrition
Calories: 28kcal, Carbohydrates: 2g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 2g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2g, Sodium: 6mg, Potassium: 75mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 23IU, Vitamin C: 2mg, Calcium: 2mg, Iron: 1mg
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