This post is by Dionne – a Mum who is trying out baby-led weaning. She has decided to share her experiences on this website. Please feel free to comment and share your own experiences, thoughts and feedback, so everyone can keep learning and share ideas.
Baby Foodie Project
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Why Baby Led Weaning?
The latest scientific research suggests this reduces obesity and creates better eating habits. It goes beyond giving purées and offering finger food. The idea is that the baby is in control, they can regulate their own food intake.
‘Baby led weaning’ is still quite new and Dionne shares her journey as her baby begins to experience an increasing variety of foods using this method
I am on my second baby and unlike my first, where I went down the traditional purée weaning route, we’re embarking on this much more fun and hassle free approach. With my first child, I thought that by offering homemade Anabelle Carmel recipe foods, that I would come out the weaning process with a child that loved healthy food. No such luck, as she’s grown older the fewer veggies she’ll eat. So I’m ditching the blender and going rogue…throwing the baby chunks of food to gnaw on. It might sound a bit cave man like, but I’ve heard it works.
Bumpy Start
So here goes, this is our weaning journey. Every so often I’ll be popping you an update via Penny’s Recipes.
We started almost a month ago, just before my boy turned the recommended six months. He was showing all the signs of being ready to eat food like sitting up on his own unaided (nothing to lean on or anyone to hold him), was keen to eat my food and could spit food/things out that where too large to swallow.
We started on simple things like pear, banana and broccoli. First time around I it appears I hadn’t cooked it soft enough so he really did struggle. We had quite a bit of gagging at the onset too, which alarmed daddy – but with a bit of reassurance that’s it’s normal and not the baby choking, all was ok.
Baby Led Weaning Really Begins
A month in and we have much less gagging and he’s eating a little bit of most of the healthier bits of meals that we have. I try to avoid the processed and sugary stuff (but I gave in to potato waffles I’m afraid). Rather than just having fun chomping the food and then spitting it out, he is now eating more. How do I know? Well, erm, the nappies say it all!
And the lack of teeth doesn’t pose any issues for baby, who proved that with just gums he could enjoy the pleasures of a lamb roast the other weekend.
Have Fun – Everyone Can Join In!
I just soaked some polenta for a few minutes, mixed in left over cauliflower from the night before, grated in cheese, cracked in an egg and then mushed it all together with my hands. These were then made into sausage shapes because my eldest loves sausages, and baked in a medium oven for about 30 minutes.
I also liked the scotch pancakes we made the other morning. Once cooked on one side I sliced strawberry and banana onto the uncooked side. Forget the kids, I loved these.
Another by product of baby led weaning, is that it also encourages us all to eat more healthily.
I’ll pop back soon with another update to share with you what I’ve learnt.
If you want to know more about Baby Led Weaning – buy the book by Gill Raply
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This kind of approach worked well for me over 20 years ago. We have some cute photos of our first kiddo with a stalk of broccoli in hand. I always tried to divide the responsibility: it’s my job to provide healthy food, and their job to decide whether and how much of it to eat. This seems to have worked well, all mine grew to be good eaters without food issues.
My 2nd child decided to do baby led weaning herself! Basically she refused any thing mushed or off a spoon and would only eat what she could hold and feed herself. Luckily I’d come accross babyled weaning, so although I planned a mixture of “real food” and puree I was able to read up on it and relax rather than worry.
She started weaning in August and I remember her eating brocolli – she would hold the stalk and suck all the flower buds off, corn on the cob (quartered length ways, again she would suck all the corns off and return the woody bit), and on one occassion, a slice of steak, which she sucked all the goodness out of and returned to me grey and soggy! The only problem was at nursery when I went back to work as they were so set up to feed babies of a spoon they couldn’t get their heads round it and they cut up the food for the older children too small for her to hold. I used to send her in with leftovers and suggest they spread the baby puree on toast and let her feed herself.
After being a baby who would eat anything and shame her older brother, she became a fussier toddler (although always still ate a fairly wide range of stuff) and is slowly starting to widen her taste buds again. It helped me cope with her fussy days once I realised that she naturally eats most in the morning, and least in the evening when she’s tired – the opposite of me! Her brother, who went through a fussier stage too, now eats pretty much anything and enjoyed trying every meal on the menu when he started school in september. So stick with it!
The best advice I ever read was that a children need a balanced diet over a week, not a day or a meal. So if they say just eat cheese for one meal, fruit for a snack and just pasta the next meal, that’s fine.