Baby led weaning

[YouFoundMe]

How popular is baby led weaning.. did you do it?

All I see on Tiktok is baby led weaning videos and I'm curious to know if this is becoming a norm.

My baby just turned 7 months and she's only been having purrees and the odd melty stick here and there. She has her two bottom teeth.

If you tried baby led weaning, what foods are easiest to start with without too much risk of chocking?

I did it 15 years ago when it was still a new thing. It's so much better than purees, really easy and actually makes sense when you think that purees were only really invented due to premature weaning being a thing for a while. Now we wean at the right age, six months, you don't need purees at all.

Also, at 7 months your baby really needs to be having proper food, purees are not enough.

Choking is not as much of a hazard as you think it's going to be. If you're thinking of gagging that's a normal reaction to a new texture and taste, just let them get on with it.

We did a mix tbh. I would give him various bits to gnaw on (broccoli was his first food lol) and it was more about exposure to food and learning to use his mouth and tongue than to get calories into him; that's what milk is for.

The algorithm will show you more of what you watch/engage with, so don't let that skew your perception.

Did it with both my kids and loved it, although most people I know with babies didn't. It's my understanding that babies are no more likely to choke on pieces of solid food than purees. Picking up food and putting it in their mouth teaches them how to move food around their mouth and chew. Both of mine were eating toast, crumpets, crackers, all the components of a roast dinner at 7 months and never ever choked, you've just got to keep an eye on them and cut things appropriately and there are lots of great books/websites/apps for that.

Do you mean that you want to start offering finger foods alongside the purées?

That's the way babies have been weaned for a long time.

BLW would usually mean no purées and letting LO feed themselves

There's a good guide from the Caroline Walker Trust here that gives examples of finger foods to try and portion sizes to offer.

If you did wasn't to swap over to BLW entirely then this is a good cookbook

If you do want to stick to traditional weaning that is perfectly fine but at 7 months it would be more usual for her to ve having more finger foods

Starting on purées is fine - we worked our way through the jars and pouches by age range. Spoon fed them. Didn’t do blw as didn’t want any mess. DC’s have grown up eating everything - no time for fussy eaters.

I agree that they can choke on purées too.

If that's a concern and that's why you aren't offering more finger foods I'd have a read of the difference between choking and gagging and also watch this video from the St John's Ambulance

Even doing traditional weaning she needs finger food now anyway along side puree.

How is a puree not 'proper food'? When we weaned the advice was to start with soups/purees with potato, a vegetable like carrot or broccoli, garlic and onion and olive oil! (Mediterranean country). Can't see how that can be classed as not proper food.
(I'm agnostic on the BLW issue by the way, can work for some and not for others and we always did finger food as well, but the not proper food comment doesn't make sense to me).

I agree with Need. I'm not sure what is meant by purées not being proper food.

I've weaned 2 OP one the traditional way and the second one who had her own ideas and wanted what we were eating and wanted to feed herself.

Both were having a good mix of finger foods by 7 months

We did BLW with our little one and its a great way to wean them, no issues with choking here. Download the solid starts app - it's an incredible resource for BLW - gives you all the nutritional information you need and how to cut food for different age ranges.

I did BLW with DD1 and she is now 12.

Thank you all for your responses! I will start giving finger foods with her purées from today and will look at the resources linked

I just stopped putting salt in my food and let the baby eat from my plate at mealtimes. Once they were actually eating a significant amount of food, they got their own seat at the table and their own serving of food and helped themselves. I don't think it had any miraculous effects compared to spoon feeding with puree, but it was less hassle and encouraged as a parent to trust my children to learn independence which has actually been a very positive way to raise them. But I don't think that's one of things where way is significantly better than a different way.

By the recipe book. It's cheap and has all the theory included. We did the same as the posters: mostly ate a better, healthier diet and baby ate our food.

Dippy things are good like hummus. Mine loved sucking on slices of steak!

I think BLW is all a bit silly.

It's just feeding your baby, but with a new name and ridiculous rules, and people who tie themselves in knots about doing "pure blw" and making other mums feel inadequate for using purées.

Traditional weaning is a mix of purées and finger foods.

Some baby led weaners seem to think that traditional weaning is people just spoon feeding their kids purées for years on end.

These are the blw'ers who ban spoons and bowls and relish in their kids making an absolute mess with food just dumped on the table of their highchair.

I admit I bought into it very briefly until I realised how over the top it all was.

So basically the actual premise is fine. But as usual, some people just take it too far and it all gets a bit ridiculous.

Don't forget to take lots of photos as she explores the new tastes.

Gently steamed broccoli florets make a great finger food as the stem can act as a little handle. Her face might be a bit "wtf is this"? though

What would you be taking a photo of?

The baby's face. Haven't you ever taken a photo of a baby smeared in food or trying a new food?

We didn’t BLW. It just seems faddy to me, purées and finger food have worked for a long time so that’s what we did.

Twin DD’s are 7 months and are progressing nicely, as did 2 year old DS. No gagging, food straight into their stomachs and not as much mess.

No - we spoon fed so no mess

Steamed veggies like carrots, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and broccoli, cooked until very soft and cut into finger-sized sticks, so your baby can easily grab and eat them on their own.

I’ve done it with both my kids. I don’t like the idea or expense of endless pouches/jars, which often contain bizarre combinations of food I would never eat, and knew I wouldn’t have the patience to puree stuff myself. With my daughter I was quite the purist about it. With my son I do help him get the spoon to his mouth a bit more as he seems far more keen on waving it around and the food just falls off. This may mean it doesn’t count as pure BLW, I don’t know 😂
at 8 months he just eats the same as his sister usually: porridge, weetabix, fruit, toast for breakfast, then bread, crackers, ham, soup, cheese on toast, scrambled eggs, pasta with various sauces, curry and rice, noodles, homemade chips, veg, etc for his other meals. He generally just has what I’m having or what his sister is having, possibly with some sort of variation to make it safe (eg the way the veg is cut, or cooked apple instead of raw).

this to me seems the easiest way of doing it. Neither of mine have ever choked (touch wood), a bit of gagging especially early on but this is normal. I did a baby first aid course which helped me relax.

Tbf, I did borrow the neighbour's dog when I was doing BLW with DD1. All 3 of us were delighted!

How are you getting on @YouFoundMe?