Baby Led Weaning

Baby Led Weaning or Baby Led Solids was coined by Gill Ripply, a midwife and former health adviser.

Eating can be messy!

BLW means giving your baby real foods in their whole states. No purees, baby rice, special baby foods or snacks. Nothing but the same foods you are eating. It is putting trust in your baby to feed them self. Trusting them to eat enough and be done when they stop. No one more bite.

 

I came across BLW when I was looking around for good ways to introduce solids. I didn’t know if I wanted to make my own food or find a good company that made wholesome foods. I found a blog about BLW with amazing pictures of all these babies eating big food! One 8 month old was sucking on a steak! It was almost mind boggling because I had never seen or even heard of this.

I will say my husband was less thrilled. He was afraid of choking and kinda had his heart set on spoon feeding her her first meal. my pediatrician practically freaked. “NO no no, you need to mash the food” he said.

I did it my way and she has never choked. Gagged yes, choke no. Hubby got on board but always cut her food up tiny tiny just in case!

So how do you start?

Baby must be 6 months old.

She must still be getting breast milk or formula as main meal. Start slow, you don’t want to start with a gigantic meal. Trust your baby to explore the food without a focus on getting him to eat it. Sometimes babies need to get used to the look and feel of foods before they actually eat it. Restrain yourself from guiding the food to her mouth, she will get it eventually! Remember that this is a learning process and it may take a while for your baby to really start eating a good amount.

Some good starting foods are;

Banana with the Peel cut away like a handle for grip.

Avocado with some Peel attached.

Lightly steamed carrots.

Slices of plumb or ripe pear

Steamed green beans

Any food that he can grip and get to his mouth!

Once your baby gets the idea of eating you can introduce all kinds of foods!

There is a book called Baby Led Weaning by Gill Ripply that explains every thing pretty well. I found it to be informative but repetitive.

Most of the information on BLW revolves around exclusively breast fed baby’s because they are used to eating what they need and stopping when full. However I believe this approach can fully work for formula fed babies as well.

The basis of BLW is giving your baby control and trusting them to feed themselves and stop when full.

However you decide to feed your baby, the most important thing is to give them your love and attention while doing so. Whether it be breast or formula, purees or a big piece of broccoli!

What was your baby’s first solid food?

An Awkward Mother