Self-weaning?

[3cherubs]

I was intriuged when a friend told me she had just attened a talk on "self-weaning." Apparently, the idea is that you wait until baby is 6 months old then start introducing proper (i.e. not pureed) food to them and allow them to play with it, taste it etc... As time goes by they eat more and more of it. Therefore no pureeing, spoon feeding, jars etc they go straight onto "grown up" food.

I am not sure what to make of this as all 3 of my kids did the standard spoon feeding thing. Has anyone actually done this and how did it work?

Yep - done "baby-led weaning" with huge success! Waited until DS was nearly 7 months & his first solids meal was steamed carrot sticks. Didn;t eat anything at all, just played with them. Following day he had the same & actually ate some (evidence in his nappy!) Carried on offering veg & fruit cut into sticks & wedges & he's taken to solids fabulously. He is now 15 months and eats pretty much the same as we do (expecpt for wheat as he had a reaction to porridge at first so am taking that slowly). He has always fed himself & I have never spoon fed him, unless you count loading a spoon with porridge for him to feed himself.

The key to baby-led weaning is to let the child take the lead by offering foods they can hold (sticks at first until they develop the pincer grip). I gradually started varying the shapes of food to see what he could hold & manipulate (slices or carrot say) and now he can pick up grains of rice or as eat a whole apple by himself!

AFAIK Babies who self feed are much less likely to choke (as they have control over the speed & direction of food in their mouths), much less likely to develop obesity (as they learn to listen to their body when it is full - no "Oh just one more spoonful") and they are much less likely to reject food later or be faddy eaters as they have grown into solid eating by eating real food (spoon fed babies will often reject a meal because they don;t like a particular taste in the mixture - self feeders simply don't eat that particular food!).

An added bonus is the huge amount of cooking, pureeing freezing, defrosting etc you don;t have to do. I have rarely cooked anything specially for Harry (execpt for gluten free stuff like pasta) & simply cooked all our food plain & added sauces/seasoning after I had taken out a portion for DS. We eat much healthier now as a result - no added salt in anything & loads of steamed veg & fresh fruit!

I cannot reccomend it enough!! Ask away if you have any further questions.

Thanks, that sounds very positive - I am really open minded to anything new and although it is a bit late for my 3, it is interesting to hear what works. I know babies who are over fed often get a bit sick (burp up food) after each meal. I guess this would prevent this as well.

Does your child have sauce at all? That is the only problem I have with my oldest, he totally rejects cheese sauce, gravy etc (He is 6)

3cherubs, my DS1 was weaned with purees and spoons at four months, while my DS2 was weaned on table scraps. I started a week before six months, but it took about a month before anything went down. (I did try purees as well, but he wasn't interested unless it was meat, and even then, he wasn't very interested.)

He's 13 months now, and eats everything we eat. Well, not anything too salty or sweet. Otherwise, he's on grownup food. Makes travel a lot easier!

He does eat sauces, but then, so does DS1. Pasta and sauce is one of his favourites, and has been for months.

Ds is nearly 9mo. Started weaning 2 months ago. I've been giving him purees and fingerfoods. Started accidentally on the fingerfoods at his second meal when he helped himself to my bread roll. However, he really doesn't swallow very much. He'll eat about half of a finger of toast. After that he just gums and spits it out. Some meals I don't think he's swallowed anything. How long does it take before they stop playing with it and start eating?

It's often hard to tell how much they've actually taken. What sorts of finger foods are you trying? Steamed batons of carrot (or other veg) are popular. My DS2 is a big fan of nice big pieces of pasta - fusilli or penne. Initially he would just eat the bit that stuck out of his fist, but then he learned to open his fist and became much more efficient.

It's worth being aware that a tablespoon of puree contains a lot more water etc and is less calorific than a tablespoon of finger food, generally.

That is interesting about the calorie content. I noticed on the Organic baby jars that water is listed as one of the first ingredients (usually the ingredients listed first are in the products in the highest quantities)
I guess another question related to this is the whole sleep thing as well. I remember my first child did not like milk and at 6 months he would eat far more food by spoon feeding and I would be lucky to get him to have 1 bottle a day! The spoon feeding meant he got enough to sleep through the night and to put on weight. (He was not a big baby!)

Have any of you had concerns with this?

Well, I give him a finger of toast or banana and sweep up the bits - the rest he must have eaten! He doesn't like carrot - that all gets spat out.

I've tried broccoli (loves), raw mushroom (liked!), peeled cooked sweet pepper, carrot, potato, cauli, banana, peeled cucumber, toast, pasta. Anything we're eating that I can cut into fingers. He spat the pasta out - will try cooking it a bit longer. But basically I have to prepare about 5 times as much as I think he'll eat - is that normal?

3cherubs; ds isn't sleeping through but he does still guzzle the milk (as long as I time the meals / milk feeds right).

My DD decided on this approach for herself as form about 9 months she would refuse pretty much anything from a spoon (she will take yoghurt or creamed rice now shes 15 months) but everything else is finger food. She would point blank refuse to eat a jat of baby food and I can't say I blame her.

I have a thing about stuffing spoonful after spoonful of food into a baby and really believe they should be allowed to say "no" and eat themselves. Sometimes DD will eat everything sometimes very little, I don't force her or make an issue.

Now she's walking she detests her highchair also so I put out a plate of toast or fruit for her as snacks and she helps herself and grazes on them at her leisure, she seems to like this.

I'm pregnant again and will be trying to avoid the pureeing/ice cube tray approach as much as possible.

I did this by default with DD as she had a spoon phobia and would not let one anywhere near her. She was probably 10 months before I could really say she was weaned. With DS2 have used a spoon (as he likes it) but never bothered with any pureeing, he eats the same as us. He is now a year and eats a much greater variety of foods and textures than his peers

Anything I give ds on a spoon has to be pureed pretty smooth or he won't have it.

I don't really understand how it is possible to spoonfeed a baby more than it wants - I mean they just purse their lips don't they? Or spit it out? No chance of ds eating anything he doesn't want.

It makes sense about proper food having more calories than purees though. But I do find that making fingerfood for ds is more work than making purees. With purees, I just puree a bit of our evening meal (don't cook with salt anyway) using a hand blender that takes 10 seconds to clean. With finger food it feels as though he is having the same old thing all the time - toast and carrots mostly. And I've often got to prepare stuff specially for him. I'm doing it cos it seems like the quickest way to get him to eat normal food, since he won't eat lumps off a spoon.

Another question - whats the breastfeeding thing about? The "baby-led weaning" advice says something like "if you are bottle-feeding consult your hv before doing this". Like my hv would know anything about it. Why would bottle-feeding mean they need purees? Formula has all the nutrients in (well, as much as toast & carrots, anyway!) and ds drinks as much or as little as he wants.

Anyway, I'll keep going with the fingerfoods. At the moment he has fingerfoods for lunch, followed by milk. And puree'd dinner, some fingerfoods, and then yoghurt in the evening. Suggestions for more variety would be useful!

Fruitful,

Having had a very picky older child who mainly had bland food which was our meal pureed for him and finger foods like toast and carrots, I have done things quite differently with my third:

• introduced a very wide range of finger foods as small snacks between meals (they don't eat much of it at first anyway, but gives them the taste of it. e.g. sliced red/green pepper, cherry tomatoes/grapes halved, celery sticks, cucumber, bits of ham slices, bits of bread with phildelphia on, etc etc anything really! (within reason!)

• I do give her organic jar meals as well. Main reason being that these days they do do great meals in jars for babies and while I am not suggesting it is better than home cooked food, the baby gets used to different tastes that you may not necessarily prepare at home. (cheese sauces, gravies, tomato sauces) My 6 year old will still not eat any sauce!!! Plus they get used to lumps which is very important for future speech development etc...

• Add herbs and spices in small quantities to the food you puree for baby. Get them used to as many different tastes as you can. They don't have to wolf it all down, just tasting and playing is enough, then you can fill them up on the things they like - joghurt etc.

I really wish I had been more adventurous with my first child, as his eating habits affect my younger son who copies his brother, but I am hoping that my third will be different!

Of course most of this is applicable to those who spoon feed, I guess if self weaning I would just suggest babies get a very wide variety of finger foods and that sauce is put on top of pasta etc even if it does make a mess!!

Ah, see, finger food is less work for me, as I just give DS2 whatever I'm eating. No pureeing, no bother. Spices don't seem to bother him at all - he likes things with chilli in.

Trouble is, most of our meals tend to be something like stir-fry on rice or casserole and potatoes. Most of which he can't pick up, let alone get into his mouth. It needs to be stick shaped and not too squidgy (or it disintegrates before he gets it to his mouth) and not too hard (or he bites bits off and spits them out). So he ends up with a couple of bits picked out of the meal, and then some of it pureed. Like last night we had meatloaf in sauce, potatoes, and green beans. So he had pureed meatloaf sauce & potatoes, and some beans to pick up and chew (and spit out). I'm posting because I'd like to get to the point where I can just give him what we're eating as it is. But I can't see how you get there.

3cdherubs - I'm happy about the range of flavours he is getting. He'll eat chicken curry, chilli, whatever - pureed. Its the fingerfood part I have trouble with. It all comes back out...

Eat more pasta?

My DS2 struggles with rice and potatoes and so on. Well, he can self-feed some, but I have to spoon-feed him, which is work.

He can eat stir-fries, though, a bit messily. Chunks of meat are fine (cut steak/chicken/whatever into chip shapes).

Eating finger food is just a matter of practice. It's messy and wasteful for a while. But then he learns, and feeds himself just fine.

Pasta wasn't a hit. He had that "you're poisoning me" face on. Will keep trying with different sauces.

My original question was, how long before he starts eating rather than just playing / spitting it out? He's 9mo, been weaning for 2 months. He's eating maximum half a finger of toast (quantity-wise, whatever the actual food IYSWIM) per meal. Rest gets spat out.

Fruitful,

At 9 months it is still very normal to be spitting it out. Then over the next couple of months they seem to eat more of it, but then you get to a year and they start to get very aware of their likes and dislikes! Never a dull moment. It is just so important to keep perservering with the finger foods and variety. If you doubt baby's ability to be able to manage finger food, give him a baby rusk (not my favourite finger food but they tend to love them!!)see how he gets on with that because they often love the sweetness of it. If he wolfs that down, then you know that he can take the food in well himself, but that he needs more time and encouragement to do it with the harder/less tasty foods. In the long term they all eat proper food eventually and don't live on mush forever, so it will get there!

Oh and I meant to add that sometimes giving him the finger foods before the pureed meal at one feed a day means they are more likely to eat some of it because they are hungry. Sometimes a nice idea is to put them in their highchair with fingerfoods while you are preparing the rest of the meal.

Yes, broccoli is great, as are bits of fish, roast chicken, snap peas. Also diced sweet potato or butternut are great, but be prepared for mess!

Thanks everyone! I guess I'm just getting bored... I'm an 'instant' kind of person and sadly babies are not.

Broccoli is always a big hit. And banana. And anything his big sister has in her hands, actually. Its just that he is all keen and eager, munches away ... and spits it out.

We will persevere. I know I will look back on this, and this period will seem so short!