The basics of it are that you feed your baby the types of food you eat yourself-now I’m not talking burger and chips here obviously, but rather healthy nutritious foods cut into manageable pieces for your baby to hold and eat by themself. Sometimes you might have to steam foods to make them easier for baby to eat, so for example you would gently steam carrots, broccoli, parsnip etc.
The current advise is to wait until baby is 6 months old before weaning. At six months old your baby will be developmentally capable of feeding themselves proper food and that is the beauty of BLW.
I did come under some fire for deciding to wean Rose this way, mostly people telling me that she would choke. You will probably experience your baby gagging and coughing up of some foods. This is your baby’s way of moving food that has gone too far to the back of the throat and moving it forwards so that they don’t choke! We didn’t have any episodes of choking or even near choking, in fact there’s a really good chance that baby’s can choke on mushy puree! The whole point of BLW is that your baby feeds themself, and this way is in control of the amount of food that goes in, rather than being spoon fed by you.
You definitely need to have time on your hands and not worry about the mess, because there will be LOADS of mess! In fact probably most of the food you lovingly prepare for your baby will end up on the floor, but that’s not the point. The point is, this is a way of getting your baby used to different flavours and textures and trying new things. As long as your baby is having plenty of milk, then the mantra ‘food before one is for fun’ makes plenty of sense.
I have older children and have tried the traditional method of weaning, Lewis-my oldest was weaned on jars of food, and today aged fifteen is the fussiest of all my three children.Holly-my middle daughter was weaned on home-made purees, she is much better than Lewis in what she will and will not eat but there are lots of things that she will refuse. Rose has been BLW and has turned out to be the least fussy of them all and I have to put this down to the way in which she was weaned.
Good foods to start with:
Banana
avocado
Blueberries
Carrot sticks
brocoli
Roasted parsnip
Sweet potato
Rice cakes spread with almond butter or houmous
Spaghetti/pasta with home-made tomato sauce
Home made blueberry pancakes
Tuna sandwiches
Sticks of cheese
Good sources of information:
Gill Rapley’s Baby Led Weaning book
The website BabyLedWeaning.com
Most of all enjoy it and have fun!
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@livingwthlayla
I really enjoyed reading this post. We have done a mixture of the traditional and baby led and the mess! Both on her and the floor but its all part of the fun.
Little Gourmet
Love this :) And totally agree that BLW is actually more convenient – ideally you’re just sharing family foods with your baby, in a size and shape that works for their little hands! I would just add that six months of age isn’t the only indicator of readiness – not all babes are ready to begin, depending on where they are developmentally (my wee man was closer to 7 months). I blogged a few tips here if anyone wants to learn more: https://www.littlegourmetbaby.com/baby-led-weaning-recipe-blog/2016/12/10/is-my-baby-ready-for-solid-foods
Amy Treasure
Thank you! This post is a nearly three years old now but still relevant and BLW is still being advised by lots of HVs which is good. I agree about the ‘from about 6 months’ thing: Rose was developmentally ready but really only still interested in breast milk until she was well over a year. Definitely take cues from baby at when is the right time but none of this baby rice at 4 months which was incidentally the ‘advice’ (total nonsense) I was given when my now 17 year old was a baby Thanks for reading and leaving your link!