A New Way For Baby To Eat

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

Lately I have been hearing a lot about a relatively new concept called Baby Led Weaning. Instead of starting off spoon feeding young babies pureed foods at around four to six months, little babies are allowed to self wean from breast milk or formula at their own pace by finger feeding cut up foods from the very beginning. So instead of offering food to them on a spoon, they are picking and choosing what they want and feeding it to themselves.

As the mother of a seven-month-old baby who is very interested in putting absolutely everything in his mouth, this idea has piqued my curiosity. While I have mostly given my little one pureed foods with pretty good success, it seems like this might be a better way to introduce him to the whole wide world of food out there.

With my older son, we both experienced the same wonder together as he tasted a great variety of foods; I would just puree a bit of whatever we adults were eating. Sometimes I would make up big batches of homemade baby food for the freezer, so he was always getting a lot of variety. He transitioned happily to finger foods beginning around nine months.

I haven’t been able to offer my little guy as much homemade food as I would like because we are currently without a kitchen. I have begun to rely on the wide selection of commercial jarred food that is out there but it is starting to get repetitive. I am also becoming a little disconcerted that many of the baby food meals contain something sweet such as apples or pears, even if they are called a "dinner." Many pediatricians try to discourage giving babies too much sweet foods like fruit early on lest they develop a major sweet tooth. So I would like to try letting the little guy finger feed himself a bit earlier than my older guy did and get him started with a greater variety of foods that he can choose himself.

This is where Baby Led Weaning comes in. The idea with Baby Led Weaning (BLW) is that the baby decides how much and what to eat, and is naturally guided to eat the healthy foods he or she needs when ready. The baby sits with the rest of the family at mealtimes and joins when he or she is ready with no pressure or feeding games like airplane (and how nice for the caregiver not to have their dinner get cold while he or she feeds the baby). Baby learns about different shapes, textures, and flavors early on, giving them a greater enjoyment of food and less of a chance to become a picky eater.

The baby should be at the developmental stage where they can sit up and are capable of grasping objects and bringing them to the mouth. This allows the baby to develop manual dexterity and chewing skills. Proponents of this concept say that at this age, baby should be developmentally able to chew and swallow soft foods, even without teeth. Contrary to the mainstream way of baby feeding, BLW allows introduction of more than one new food at a time (although this is not advisable if there is a history of allergies on the family). Two important points are that only the baby should be allowed to put food into his or her mouth and that they are never left unattended while handling food.

It’s not an entirely novel concept. Mothers around the globe have practiced some form of baby led weaning for many years. Be it a zwieback teething biscuit or a rice cracker that melts in the mouth, crackers or cookies that baby can feed themselves have been enjoyed by generations of babies. Many children, especially those that come after the firstborn, have discovered baby led weaning by accident by grabbing food off an older sibling’s plate. Our little guy has already helped himself (or tried to anyway) off our plates and has grabbed things like green beans, bread, and scrambled eggs.

I tried BLW out by giving my little guy some cut up bits of very ripe banana that he could feed himself. I was a little nervous to just start giving my little toothless guy whole chunks of food, so mostly I have begun to put foods he can feed himself into a mesh feeder that is attached to a ring he can hold. He loves to use his self feeder and so far has enjoyed a couple of soft/cooked veggies like sweet potatoes, avocado, and carrots, and also loved to eat ripe banana from it. Soon I will start giving him little bits (baton or stick shaped so they are easy to pick up) right on his high chair tray so he can feed himself and I can lose the spoon. I’ll let you know how it works out!