Baby led weaning

[Justreading]

BLW all the way for me.
If you do BLW there is no mixing, baby led is just that, allowing the baby to lead 100%. Once you spoon feed, they're no longer baby led they're just spoon fed and given finger foods.

We loved it. Because we followed it to the letter there was no stress at all! My son was always in charge, no pressure on him to eat up etc, he controlled if and when he ate.

I offered 3 meals a day from day one. I didnt start with any particular foods or rule out foods. Just gave exactly what we were having and if he ate he ate, if he didnt, he didnt. His first day he had tomato pasta and garlic bread, second day a roast and I cant remember much after that.

He is an amazing eater now, hes coming up to 3, hes so clean and tidy when eating, never makes a mess at all! And has been able to use a spoon and fork correctly since 18m ish.

Cant recommend it enough

 

[Bitofthebubbly]

It was a while ago now for me, but I did blw with both of mine and couldn’t imagine doing it any other way. Just chop anything that needs to be cut into easy to pick up pieces (like sticks) and plonk it on their tray. From veg sticks to spaghetti bolognese anything is fair game as long as it’s not too high in salt, the whole thing is you just let them go to town and explore, and they figure out the eating part in their own time. Eating with them helps as they watch and learn from you. It’s messy in the beginning but I’d say after around 3/4 weeks of it they were pretty confidently picking up food and putting it in their mouthes with decent accuracy. We had some gagging but no choking, I made sure I could tell the difference before starting, there’s lots of videos and articles online explaining it which helped me feel more confident but that’s not to say I still didn’t worry. It did wonders for their hand eye coordination and their pincer grip! It also encouraged me to cook more healthy home made meals although I wasn’t and still aren’t adverse to the odd fish finger/nuggets meal, everything in moderation after all. Think I introduced cutlery at about 12 months but didn’t force it just made it available and they picked it up eventually. The main thing is to not stress too much about how much they’re eating, they should still be having plenty of that milk at that age and they will get the hang of it eventually.

Now they’re older, one of them will try pretty much anything whereas my younger one is a bit pickier so I wouldn’t say it’s a guarantee of them being good eaters as they get older, for me it’s 50/50, but they both eat a lot better than I did at their ages anyway so I consider that a win for me.

 

[xoxo GG]

I did BLW with my little girl and it is wholeheartedly the best decision we ever made. My little one is now 16 months, eats anything and literally everything you put in front of her (for now) and uses cutlery to feed herself at each mealtime.

I took a lot of time to read into it and decided whether it would work for us. We decided it was worth the ‘commitment.’ It’s messy, a bit of a slog wondering what to cook every day especially if you eat a lot of the same meals, takes up a lot of time at meal times BUT it has encouraged us to eat as a family from day one where possible, we’ve been a little more conscious of what we put into our own bodies because she has ate the same meals as us from the very first day. I’ve found that we eat a lot healthier now and in turn yes, our food bill did increase a considerable amount but for me it was worthwhile to encourage good eating habits in the future for all of us. Everything in moderation as they say so she has eaten takeaways with us, a happy meal etc as for me, no food is bad. I just monitor salt/sugar intake afterwards.

I don’t think BLW is for everybody BUT I’d 100% recommend reading up on it and deciding if it is something that you’re comfortable with and also willing to commit to. Don’t look too far into what people post on Facebook groups/Instagram either because it can be so false which is disheartening and they play it up to be much more difficult than it actually is.

No need to cook special meals, no need to avoid certain foods, just allow baby to explore and play. Some days it does feel like you’ve cleaned up after 3 lots of messy play and you worry whether baby will ever understand how to do it, but it’s all part of them learning new textures, tastes etc.

 

[Aabbcc]

I don’t understand people saying that there is no mixing baby led and spoon fed.

You totally can mix them, except by spoon fed, you give the baby a preloaded spoon and they feed themselves with it, rather than you putting the spoon in their mouth. You work with (at least) two spoons on rotation. It also helps them learn how to use a spoon.

Of course it’s even more messy because the food will generally fall off the spoon or get flung but it’s all a learning curve. You can also use preloaded forks.

Baby led is about seeing and understanding the signs that baby is finished eating rather than trying to force more food into their mouth. Trusting that your baby understands their body’s cues to tell them they feel full rather than you telling them they need to clear their plate etc.

The hardest part for me is making sure I eat good meals to offer to my kids. I’m good with the evening meal but I barely eat breakfast or lunch so I sometimes get to lunchtime with barely any time to prepare and lockdown is making it harder for me to make sure I have suitable options in. (I don’t do the food shop like I used to!)

 

[xoxo GG]

I don’t understand people saying that there is no mixing baby led and spoon fed.

You totally can mix them, except by spoon fed, you give the baby a preloaded spoon and they feed themselves with it, rather than you putting the spoon in their mouth. You work with (at least) two spoons on rotation. It also helps them learn how to use a spoon.

Of course it’s even more messy because the food will generally fall off the spoon or get flung but it’s all a learning curve. You can also use preloaded forks.

Baby led is about seeing and understanding the signs that baby is finished eating rather than trying to force more food into their mouth. Trusting that your baby understands their body’s cues to tell them they feel full rather than you telling them they need to clear their plate etc.

The hardest part for me is making sure I eat good meals to offer to my kids. I’m good with the evening meal but I barely eat breakfast or lunch so I sometimes get to lunchtime with barely any time to prepare and lockdown is making it harder for me to make sure I have suitable options in. (I don’t do the food shop like I used to!)

Exactly. Sometimes I’d preload a spoon and go to give it to my LO and she’d pull my hand into her mouth instead. Would I say I didn’t strictly follow BLW? No, because it was all her decision. I realised that she was working out the quickest and easiest way to be eating, more often than not it would be her favourite part of a meal that she wanted in her mouth quicker. The difference is following babies cue as opposed to feeding them even if they are full, don’t like it etc.

 

[Kim Mild]

I think it's a bit of a myth that 'food before one is just for fun' , babies do need to start eating in small amounts to get a balanced diet .

You get some proper blw nazis lol . My babies have all had sloppy porridge for breakfast cos that's what I eat most of the time.

 

[caitlinbullen]

BLW all the way! Good luck; there’s loads of great advice here !

 

[Platypusfattypus]

I don’t understand people saying that there is no mixing baby led and spoon fed.

You totally can mix them, except by spoon fed, you give the baby a preloaded spoon and they feed themselves with it, rather than you putting the spoon in their mouth. You work with (at least) two spoons on rotation. It also helps them learn how to use a spoon.

Of course it’s even more messy because the food will generally fall off the spoon or get flung but it’s all a learning curve. You can also use preloaded forks.

Baby led is about seeing and understanding the signs that baby is finished eating rather than trying to force more food into their mouth. Trusting that your baby understands their body’s cues to tell them they feel full rather than you telling them they need to clear their plate etc.

The hardest part for me is making sure I eat good meals to offer to my kids. I’m good with the evening meal but I barely eat breakfast or lunch so I sometimes get to lunchtime with barely any time to prepare and lockdown is making it harder for me to make sure I have suitable options in. (I don’t do the food shop like I used to!)

Blw does not just mean finger foods and traditional weaning equal purees and thats it. It's the fact that blw equals the baby feeding themselves. If you preload spoons and the baby places them in their mouth you are blwing. If baby is feeding themselves only you are blwing. If you feed baby at any point you are traditionally weaning. It's the theory not the actual food.

 

[LittleMy]

I did BLW with both my children, and if I had any more kids I’d do the same with them. It takes the stress out of feeding them because they can then have the same meals as the rest of the family (although slightly altered to suit them depending on what it is) and it’s surprising how well they manage on their own. Nowadays my 2yo will at least try most foods, but 5yo is far pickier with foods due to ASD. My mum tried to spoon feed 2yo as a baby when keeping him overnight once (she wasn’t for BLW) and she ended up wearing it.

 

[Imainlylurk]

Exactly. Sometimes I’d preload a spoon and go to give it to my LO and she’d pull my hand into her mouth instead. Would I say I didn’t strictly follow BLW? No, because it was all her decision. I realised that she was working out the quickest and easiest way to be eating, more often than not it would be her favourite part of a meal that she wanted in her mouth quicker. The difference is following babies cue as opposed to feeding them even if they are full, don’t like it etc.

I agree with this, but I've never been much for strictly following just one theory when it comes to parenting. I am pretty sure my daughter could not have fed herself weetabix when she was 7 months

 

[Definitelyme]

Have done blw with all of mine. The main advice I have is read up about the difference between choking and gagging. Gagging is normal, and is a way of them learning how to manipulate food. Obviously choking is not. If you’d feel safer, take a baby first aid course beforehand so you’re comfortable in case the worst does happen.

None of mine have ever gotten even close to choking.

We just do straight up family food from the outset. I would also recommend looking up the division of responsibility, and maybe following someone like family_snack_nutritionist on Instagram as that’s a great way to prepare yourself for feeding kids in the long term.

 

[Carrie2019]

Thank you sooo much ladies.
we’ve decided to move forward with blw. Baby is 6 months.
I’ve done a baby first aid course. I’ve read the Gill rapley baby led weaning book - we are ready!!

 

[Platypusfattypus]

Thank you sooo much ladies.
we’ve decided to move forward with blw. Baby is 6 months.
I’ve done a baby first aid course. I’ve read the Gill rapley baby led weaning book - we are ready!!

Have fun. I loved the weaning stage (as did my dog)

 

[Deepsigh2018]

I did blw with both of my kids and if I ever have more kids I honestly would not wean them any other way. Its so easy, I remember a great aunt of mine being really impressed that my eldest was feeding himself with a knife and fork at a young age.

 

[Bluetomato]

I did it with my youngest (now 9) - so a while ago now! We loved it - just cooked a family meal, put some on her tray and let her get on with it! I have some lovely photos of her caked in food and one particular favourite of trying to stick a broccoli florette in her ear. It was definitely more about play, textures, exploring etc at the beginning, but she was soon eating a really wide variety of foods. I used the babyled weaning cookbook, but there seems to be more choice now, as well as Pinterest so the world is your oyster for recipe ideas!

 

[wizardora]

Baby led weaned both of mine (age 7 and 2).
My mam also did ‘baby led weaning’ with me, just without the label 33 years ago.

It’s SO easy, I’d do it with any future children too.

 

[Definitelyme]

Have fun. I loved the weaning stage (as did my dog)

Our dog was put down in the summer and she was AMAZING at cleaning up the kids’ mess, especially during BLW. Not sure what we will do when we wean No4 the other dog is the most useless vacuum cleaner ever! I’ll have to actually clear the mess myself!

 

[Emmas83]

I’d say just give it a go and see what happens,I didn’t do it purely because I had twins who were premature so were 6 months actually but only 4 months corrected old when we started to give them taste of food, there’s no way they would be able to coordinate putting a piece of food I their mouth at that age!
I think blw is probably the best way to go if you can and the baby is able to just give it a go and if they don’t like it you can always go down the purée/finger food route!
I don’t understand the whole fussy eater thing with either route am sure there theory behind it but I think it just depends on the baby regardless of what route you go!

 

[Gemgemgemgem]

Our first 3 (much older) children were traditionally weaned with purees. Our woopsie daisy baby is 9 months old and we are doing BLW. The mess is incredible but we love it. It is so much better in my opinion.