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 4.83 (Highly recommend) from 11 votes (599 Visits) |
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Baby-led weaning and the introduction to solid foods. |
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I was chatting to a friend on msn recently and she told about another friend of hers who was going to give Baby-led weaning ago with your youngest baby. It made curious/interested in finding out what info I could about it. Therefore, I thought I would exchange the info with  you, the minti community.
Baby-led Weaning BLW and what is it?
Basically, it is allowing the child to decide when they are ready to trake the plunge and try solid foods, but without the introduction of puree's or use of spoons. Food items can be cut into manageable chunks, but not small peices. The items are then placed in reach of the child and it is up to them to try what they want. Emphasis is placed on experimentation and exploration such as would be conducted at playtime. The result of this is that the trnsition to solid food is more relaxed and the child is able to decide when they are ready to try certain foods, and the likelihood of a meal time battle is reduced greatly. The childs motivation is that of curiousity and learning, not hunger driven, and the child will accept a far greater variety of foods because they are imersed in the discovery of textures, colours, flavours and temperatures.
The basics of BLW
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allow your child to participate in mealtimes with the rest of the family
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the child is to be seated upright and the not rushed, a relaxing atmosphere is preffered
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the size of food should be hand size as this is easier to pick up
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let them eat what you are eating
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the child probably eill not consume the food the first few times, but chew them at least
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off er water if necessary with meal
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offer a variety of food and let the child decide what they will try
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be prepared for mess
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don't top the child up with a spoon meal at the end as they can judge how much they can eat
For more info here a few websites that I have gotten info from
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby-led_weaning
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/tip.htm
and a video clip
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xVBdMDl4RXo
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| ADVICE RATING |
4.83 (Highly recommend) from 11 votes |
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Re: Baby-led weaning and the introduction to solid foods.
Hurray, one article I dont have to get around to writing! 
I didnt read about this til my little one was 6 or 7 months so I kind of missed the boat for doing it text-book fashion. However I'm very into being baby-led, and DD2 and I were kind of supplementing the purees with this already, so I picked up the tips and did it a bit more, and it's working nicely.
I was a bit worried about choking, but if the baby is upright, my DD2 seems extrememly good at jetisoning anything that is going down the wrong way.
I was already posting tiny peices of ham into her mouth, and when I was a bit slow a month ago, my then8-month old reached across and grabbed the whole slice. She then proceeded to rip into it like she does with lettuce leaves, spitting out any bits that have broken off too big in her mouth. She can eat cheese, ham, peach, pear, sausage, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, apple, plum, ricecake, chips and bread, and of course biscuits! 
She's completely different to DD1 who was happy to be fed for 2 years, but who detested lumpy food. DD2 seems fairly happy with lumps already. She certainly doesnt seem fussy - quite adventurous actually. As for table manners, well she's 9 months on Sunday, we'll see how that goes in a year or two!!!
I was going to put some photos on my comments, but I cant see the icon. I'll put them onto my Blog sometime. The celery at 5 (?) months and the plum about a month ago are already in my photos section, if you're interested. (Cheekymonkey, I could try emailing them to you if you want to embellish your article with them?)
In summary, if the baby shows interest, I'd recommend it. Obviously you have to be there all the time to help them with things going down wrong (but then puree can go down the wrong way too) but in my experience, she's great at learning to swallow things now, and we've only had minor coughs to get a couple of things out, nothing that stressed either her or me out anyway. It's also great at keeping a younger sibling occupied during family meals. Yes, it is messy, but not as messy as her cousin a few years ago who insisted on self-feeding yoghurt before she was old enough to hold the spoon (think shampoo!)!
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(July 2007) (
Amanda xxx
