Baby Led Weaning: Why we do it

When I was pregnant with AJ, I was very excited to make all my own baby food and cook for him.  We are all about saving money while we still can with him, plus I didn't want him to be consuming all the preservatives and things in packaged baby food.  Soooo, fast forward to AJ at almost 6 months old. We were getting ready to start eating solids at 6 months old, because our pediatrician really encouraged me to nurse exclusively until 6 months because of some added benefits.  Anyway, a friend mentioned a class she had heard about at The Motherhood Denver on baby led weaning. Baby Led Weaning (BLW) is a philosophy for feeding infants whole solids from the start, essentially skipping the mush and puree stage.  Babies are given chunks of whole food big enough to hold in their fist, generally steamed or soft, like banana, mango and avocado.  I was definitely intrigued. How easy! I went home and googled it, (of course, because I am a google-er, a real life Hermione), and found their website/blog at www.babyledweaning.com.   The website was very helpful in giving me more information and answering some questions that I had, and I knew my mother would have.  Plus, it's written by a very funny British gal, and who doesn't love Brit things!  Well, here are some of the take-away facts, and  the whys.

-At 6 months of age, babies are developmentally ready to reach for things and put them in their mouth.  AJ was already doing this with EVERYTHING, one key indicator that he was ready for food period.

-BLW allows for babies to have control over how much of what they are eating.  With baby food, a lot of the time we encourage the child to finish the jar, or serving etc., but here they are capable of stopping when they are full.  Babies aren't programed to clean their plate, they stop when they don't want any more.

-With BLW, children learn to eat in a more logical way, chewing first, and then learning to swallow, instead of vice versa like most of society.

So here's some of our experiences with Baby Led Weaning.

(This was literally our first day with solids!)

First off I asked my pediatrician what she thought of it, mostly because my Mom told me to, she was worried about choking.  My pediatrician first asked me what my thoughts were, what I had read and what I planned to feed him first.  Well, I told her basically everything above this, and she said, "Sounds great, he just needs some iron too." Awesome, let's do this!  So, we started off with carrots and banana the first day. Also some iron fortified rice cereal.  Here's what he thought of that...

But now he loves it.
But truthfully, the first day was not as fantastic as I thought it would be.  He ate a little bit of the food, but not a ton.  But we kept at it for a few weeks, with a couple different foods, like avocado, peaches, pears, squash, and sweet potato.  And once he got used to it, he loved it!  He eats so well now, and at 8 months, he is eating so many things that most people would never even think of feeding an infant.  He's had pasta with sausage, pork chops, chicken noodles, and some pulled pork sandwich!  As long as the bites are reasonably sized, and he is always very carefully supervised, there's no reason that he can't eat most of what we eat.

Now the concerns that I'm sure you have... (like my mother did)
Doesn't he choke?! -No, not really.  Does he gag? Yes, it's a natural part of the learning experience, and it would and does happen even at 1 year when babies usually start eating solids.  He is very good at gagging a piece back up and re swallowing it.  Like I said, close supervision is key.

How does he chew?- All the foods that AJ is given are steamed or soft naturally, so he can just "gum" the food until it's soft enough to swallow. He does end up swallowing a lot of chunks whole, but that's OK, it's still food in the belly.  He has recently gotten his first tooth, and he finds it very helpful in taking bites :)

Isn't this messy?- Yes, it is, but so is baby food.  This is less messy I feel, but I also have 2 very cute vacuum cleaners.  Plus think of all the paraphernalia and such that it takes to make baby food, and the disaster that it would make of your kitchen.  Here, I just microwave a sweet potato, or bake a squash, (so easy!) and bam!  We're done making lunch.  It's also very convenient, he can eat something pretty much anywhere we go, or it's super easy to just pack up some fruit or veggies to go wherever with us.

Also, here's a few things I do differently, but that's just me.  I do break off little pieces and put them in his mouth, usually because the food is too slippery for him, or he squeezes so tight that he mushes it all up.  He does just fine with that, and he stops taking bites once he's full.   Also, he does eat cereal, yogurt, and applesauce from a spoon, so he can do both ways, but the majority of food he takes in he feeds himself.  And lastly, no, I didn't wait 4 days between introducing new foods, mainly because I know that food allergies present symptoms within minutes, so I just keep a careful watch while he eats.

So there it is.  That's how we feed AJ and will feed all subsequent children that we have.  It really makes sense to me.  It's very natural, and really, how did people feed their babies before food-processors and blenders, and processed baby food?!  Plus this is so much more cost effective.  He can eat what we eat, and actually eats a lot healthier than we do, more veggies and such.  I hear about so many parents who have a child around 10-12 months who is having trouble starting solid foods, because they do choke, but here, he learned to chew first, so we don't have that problem. What more can I say?  Fell free to leave a message with any questions you have, and no judgement at all if you don't agree with the way we do things.  It works for us, and thats what matters!

Eh, wat's up doc?