Get them to feed themselves right from the start (Baby Led Weaning)

Member Name: ariom

Product:	Baby Led Weaning
Date:	14/11/08 (624 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: improved skills (motor and social), easier, time-saving

Disadvantages: a bit messy

I thought I'd write what we are doing and why with weaning because though it's becoming more popular, it is still far from the norm.

We are following most of the principles of baby-led weaning. This means no purees, we started by putting sticks (easy to grab shapes) of food infront of my son and watching him pick them up and learn to eat them. Advice says to start at 6 months, as is common with all official weaning advice nowadays. We started at 5 months, which really isn't advised but Bryn was frequently swiping and eating my food, and I wanted to make sure he avoided common allergens like gluten, dairy etc until he passed 6 months. So far I have seen a number of stages passed through:-
Before we could start - sitting relatively independently (though I still always make sure he's supported while eating), picking up items and taking them to his own mouth
1. Pick up items and take to mouth, then suck them
2. Pick up items, take to mouth and chew on them
3. Chewing bits off, but then spitting them out, occasionally bits going further back in the mouth and gagging or coughing til they came out
4. Starting to swallow
and the stages we haven't got to yet
5. eating softer/runnier foods (though he can lick houmous off rice-cakes)
6. eating with cutlery etc (though he can sometimes get spoons to his mouth, this is most unco-ordinated and mainly lands on his head!)
2.

Advantages to repeat to others
- the baby uses his mouth muscles better earlier, so he develops better skills in chewing, and also develops these muscles for later use with speech and language development
- it is thought that letting baby experience the textures and separate flavours of food means they are less fussy eater in later life
- eating together as a family increases social skills and awareness of what a normal meal is
- babies of 6 months should be being introduced to finger foods anyway, so if you've got this long without weaning, you may as well go down this route

Real Life Advantages
- it saves time - you don't need to faff about pureeing, you don't need separate time to feed your baby
- with a strong-willed baby like mine, I'd be fighting a losing battle from the start trying to spoon things into his mouth.
- eating family meals from the start (though this may depend on your or your family's working hours

Disadvantages
- it's messy, especially in the early days, especially on the floor (whereas I think purees are a bit messier on the baby and less on the floor)
- it's hard to explain to others, especially if you're putting your child into childcare early in weaning
- sometimes it may take your child a very long time to eat
- it's completely nerve wracking to believe that they can pick and eat what they need to eat and will get enough!
- requires extended milk feeding which may not suit all people

Overall though, I'd recommend it - it's worked fantastically for us.

Here's our story so far.

In the early days I only offered Bryn one type of fruit or veg at a time, always in sticks. The book hadn't been released and I didn't know he should be having a variety with every meal. Similarly I was giving him all stick shapes as I didn't know he should be having a variety of textures to learn how to eat them. You can start to offer food whenever you eat. To start with Bryn had something at lunch and dinner as that was when he was awake when I was eating. He has started being awake when I have my breakfast over the past week, but for now I'm just letting him swipe and eat bits of mine, rather than giving him some of his own. I'm lucky, Bryn has tried everything I've put infront of him. I can imagine I'd feel a bit let down if he wasn't, but with baby-led-weaning you have to just accept things the way they are, some days they eat loads, other days they don't.

Apple
I've tried apple lightly fried as recommended on a forum I was on - this was a disaster - the frying just made it slippery and it jumped straight out of his hands every time he tried to grasp it. I tried it steamed but it mushed in his hands rather than his mouth. What works for me, is just cutting it into quarters, removing the core and then cutting again into eighths. Then I take the top of the peel off with a knife. He can easily chew on it then and also grasp it. This, at the moment while we don't need to worry about eating too much is my saving grace if we're out and I want to eat because nowadays almost everywhere sells apple slices.

Banana

I tried just cutting sticks of banana which didn't work well because they turn to mush and get slippy too easily in his hands. I tried cutting sticks with the skin on which works quite well, especially as he doesn't have teeth properly yet, he can bite against the skin and get the banana off, though this has the disadvantage that sometimes he bites off too big chunks. The best way is to halve the banana, peel back about an inch from the top, cut off these flaps and then give them to hold. At the moment my son needs two hands to hold the banana, and sometimes forgets the second hand and gets frustrated.

Pear
I've tried just peeling the bulb of the pear so he eats from a whole pear. Whether this works depends on the shape of the pear and it's weight. Pears with a slim stem that can be grasped, with the help of peel to grip can be eaten ok if not too heavy. Otherwise, I cut it into sticks like the apple.

Mango
I cut into sticks like the apple, but my mango wasn't very ripe (I'm impatient!). I think if it had been softer I'd have left the whole skin on for him to bite against.

Plum, Nectarine and Peach
A fantastic early food. Quarter the plum and give with the skin on. Bryn then scrapes the flesh from the skin, using the bit where the stone was to put his thumb in to get a good grip. This works well with nectarine and peach too, though it's harder to separate from the stone. He's just reached the point where he'd rather have half than a quarter and eat with two hands.

Avocado
I cut this into sticks with the whole skin on. He found it really easy to strip the avocado from the skin and ate loads - this is an ideal early food because the skin that is left on provides good grip.

Roasted veg
Carrots, parsnip, sweet potato, swede, turnip, pumpkin, beetroot, squashes can all be cut into stick shapes that are longer than a fist (this is important because the baby can't release grip to access the food inside) and roasted are easy to grip and quite soft to eat. My son loves them. I left the skin on the pumpkin in the hope that he'd strip the pumpkin off like he does with fruit but he got a bit carried away and ate it!! No harm done, but I think next time I'd leave it as it is. However, with butternut squash, leaving the skin on while we roasted it worked well and gave him something to grasp.

Steamed veg
Steaming is better than boiling because more nutrients are retained. Cooking times are a nightmare and a bit of trial and error. If it's too short the food is too hard and they can't eat any. If it's too long it's too soft and disintegrates in their hands. We tried carrot, parsnip, swede and turnip all this way, and it worked when we got the cooking right. We also do broccoli this way. Broccoli and cauliflower are other ideal early foods for them to eat as they can hold the stem and eat the floret (make sure you cut the stem long enough for them to grasp and hope they pick it up the right way round). Again though make sure you don't cook it for too long as the broccoli makes an awful mess if it disintegrates. The cauliflower would need to be boiled.

Leafy Veg
These can be hard for little ones to grasp. I make sure there are long strips so he has some sticking out when he picks it up, and plenty of alternatives so he doesn't have to eat it and get frustrated. So far we have tried spinach and chard like this. He eats very little, but at least it's full of iron what he does eat! Updated to say he can also eat pak choi well like this now (7 months)

Starchy foods
So far we have tried rice cakes and toast in addition to the potatoes as starchy foods. With both of these you need to watch the salt content for feeding babies; babies under 1 year shouldn't have more than 1g of salt a day. I buy the Kallo rice cakes which are low salt. My son can manage them whole with two hands, or I split them in half and he manages with one hand. Toast I cut into fingers for him. I top with 100% fruit spread, houmous, lentil puree or leave plain. I didn't introduce bread until after 6 months because it contains gluten which is considered a common allergen. For pasta I have found lasagne sheets most successful, mainly because he can pick them up easily and access plenty of pasta still. I found pasta shapes a bit small for him to grasp.

Runny foods
These can be very messy. I have chosen to give my son runny foods and I do so by loading a spoon and letting him pick it up and guide it to his mouth (hopefully) or hair/cheeks etc (hopefully not). He seems to be getting a bit better with time. If I really want him to have something runny eg yogurt but don't have the time for the mess I occasionally spread it on a rice cake. We tend to do runny foods first thing for breakfast (porridge or yogurt). I didn't introduce porridge or yogurt until after 6 months following the allergen advice. Peanut butter can also be spread on things after 6 months, and for us is a good source of protein.

Cheese
Bryn has managed hard cheeses cut into longer than fist length sticks, though we didn't introduce this until after 6 months as dairy is a common allergen.

Eggs
Again, don't introduce before 6 months because of allergens. We tried it boiled and halved but it was hard to grip. Either fried or made into an omlette and cut into strips work well and are enjoyed (also works well to get cheese into him).

Tomato
We cut the top off the tomato and (once he was eating with two hands) he could suck out the seeds and munch on the side. Tomatoes can be a bit allergicky so best leave til after 6 months.

Other general tips
- You want to eat at the same time as your baby but you want hot food and your baby needs cool food. For this I serve Bryn's immediately onto a cold plate and put it in the fridge, then I serve the our food and put it on the table and a bib on Bryn. By the time I take the food from the fridge it has cooled considerably.
- For a floor mat, save the mattress packaging from your cot mattress and cut to size.

We are only just over a month in so far, and I'll update this review as we go along.

Summary: we love it!