Baby Led Weaning

Starting solids is a topic that comes up all the time with moms.  Personally I felt like starting solids was a huge deal.  When I gave Finn his first bite of real food I was practically holding my breath.  Is he going to choke?  Is he going to scream?  Is the world going to end? (We did start at 5 months and 20-something days after all... don't babies come with a timer that will make them explode if you don't wait the recommended 6 months?)  Turns out it was really not that hard.  And when I found out about baby-led weaning, it became stupidly simple.  So here is how we did it...not precisely by the book (this is the book, which I definitely recommend: The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook), but this is what worked for us.  It might not be how you want to do it (yadda yadda babies are different and not robots that come with instructions proceed at your own risk yadda), but I wish I'd known about it sooner and I'll definitely be doing it this way again with any future babies.

Here we are at (almost) 6 months with our first solid food milestone extravaganza, which was videotaped and photographed with at least three different electronic devices.  It was avocado.  Finn ate some.  We were so proud.

(Why avocado and why not rice cereal is a whole different can of worms but this site has some good info on why we made that choice.)

We are serious about our BABYBJÖRN Bibs around here.

We went along our merry pureed way for a couple of weeks after that, and I used a borrowed Beaba Babycook to make sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, butternut squash, apple, and pear purees.  We did one meal a day, trying a new food every few days.  Finn liked them for the most part.  It was okay; we could have kept doing it.  But then one day I was eating a banana and I decided to let him take a bite.  He loved it!  So I handed him a chunk of the banana to feed himself.

Not that actual banana.  One of many many many bananas that came after.

At that point I'd read about Baby Led Weaning, but I didn't really know if it was right for us.  Once I saw how much Finn liked feeding himself though, I decided maybe we'd do a mix of purees and finger foods.  So at that point (maybe 6.5 months) we started offering him things he could feed himself in addition to the purees.  Among the first things we tried were cooked pasta, cooked baby carrots, peas, avocado chunks, banana, and cucumber spears.  Once the option of feeding himself was there, he really lost interest in the purees.  After about a month of this, purees were out and real food was in.  At that point he could eat almost anything we were eating.  We waited until eight months to introduce berries, dairy products and eggs.  Aside from sweets, peanut products, shellfish and strawberries (those last two because I'm allergic/sensitive so we're waiting until one year to introduce), he can have just about anything.  We plan to skip purees altogether with any hypothetical future kiddos.  At six months, babies are developmentally ready to learn how to feed themselves real food.

Pasta, peas, & avocados.

 There were definitely some things that made me nervous for a bit in the beginning:

Worry #1. Was he really getting enough to eat?  His fine motor skills were definitely in the early stages.  For every piece of pasta that made it into his mouth, three ended up on the floor.  (Duncan is a big proponent of BLW.)  But, Finn was still nursing just as much as he ever was during this time, so a huge majority of his calories and nutrients were still coming from me.  Nervous mommas, repeat this mantra with me: food before one is only for fun. BLW is all about letting your baby decide what he wants to eat, and your job is just to provide healthy options.  No making yourself crazy trying to get him to take one more bite.  No here comes the airplane spoon trick.  No coercing, no tears (from you I mean).  This is one of my favorite parts about the philosophy, and it is really refreshing.  It took a little getting used to, but I have really learned to not stress out (most of the time) about how much Finn is eating.  I mean, for the first six months of his life I offered him food (boob) and let him decide how much to eat.  Why wouldn't I keep doing that now?

Pancake breakfast.

Worry #2. Was he going to choke?  Another mantra, say it with me: gagging is NOT choking.  Finn gagged a couple of times (as in, I think twice) when he was learning how to eat.  This is normal.  This is like falling off of your bike a couple of times before you get it right.  Here is what gagging looks like: cough-cough-pukey face-up comes food (Finn only ever spit out the piece he was gagging on but supposedly sometimes more food comes along for the ride which is normal too).  This is NOT choking.  The BLW book was really helpful in getting me to understand this, complete with a description of how baby mouth anatomy is different from adults, and that the gag reflex is stronger and further forward as a natural safeguard against choking.  You should definitely know what to do if your baby chokes and you should supervise them when they're eating (regardless of how you decide to feed them).  You should also know what gagging versus choking looks like so you don't freak yourself out while your baby is learning to eat.

Mac 'n' cheese and pears

Once I got past those two concerns, BLW has really been nothing but awesome for us.  Let me count the ways...

Pumpernickel bread with cream cheese

Awesome #1: It's lazy.  Now that Finn can eat almost anything we can eat, there is no more pureeing separate food for him. Whether he eats exactly what we eat, or a "deconstructed" version (I call it that so Finn feels extra fancy) where certain ingredients are left out (I might take his chicken and veggies out before I add sauce to a stir fry, for example), it's much easier than making something else.

Chicken and fresh peach.

Awesome #2: It boosts fine motor development.  Finn could pick up a pea with a pincer grasp at seven months.  It was so fun to see him figure it all out, and it happened so fast.  The skills practically show up overnight when there is such a big motivator.  Plus, at this age, there is no other way for babies to practice these kinds of fine motor skills, because anything that small that wasn't food would be dangerous.

Pasta primavera and grapes.

 Awesome #3. No more taking food with you for travel or eating out.  We went on a cruise with our families after Christmas this year, and Finn ate from the menu the whole time.  It was super easy for us, super entertaining for others ("my baby will have the salmon please"), and so much simpler than lugging jars or pouches of baby food with us.

Room service breakfast in bed

Awesome #4. No spoon feeding.  I always watch Finn when he eats, but not having to give him every last bite myself frees me up a bit.  I can eat my own dinner at the same time, pick up the kitchen a little, or cook while he feeds himself.  (Or take his picture, which apparently I do a lot.)

Peppers and hamburger...cheese has been eaten.  (Burrito night for us)

 Awesome #5. There's some good science behind it.  A recent article published in the British Medical Journal came to this conclusion: "Weaning style impacts on food preferences and health in early childhood. Our results suggest that infants weaned through the baby-led approach learn to regulate their food intake in a manner, which leads to a lower BMI and a preference for healthy foods like carbohydrates. This has implications for combating the well-documented rise of obesity in contemporary societies."

Banana bread

You might be thinking to yourself, this doesn't exactly sound like rocket science.  And it's not!  I think a lot of parents just start doing this and think nothing of it.  I'm kind of a neurotic first time parent, and so it helped me to have a little bit of guidance.  Calling it something, reading a book about it, and hearing about other people's experiences was really helpful for me.  (It also helped me feel like I knew what I was doing when people questioned me about handing huge pieces of food over to my eight month-old.)

Imitating a squirrel.

Finn is eleven months old now, and tonight we ate Indian food together as a family.  He chowed down on spinach and paneer cheese with a side of naan.  On Saturday morning we all ate crepes together for breakfast (don't tell Finn his was missing Nutella).  As he gets older there are fewer times when he can't eat the exact same meal as us.  It's really great.

Meatballs and cheese.

So that's our take on the (complicated-sounding yet stupidly-easy once you jump in) idea of baby led weaning.  Bon appetit :)