Baby-led weaning is very popular in the parenthood world right now! Baby-led weaning (BLW) is a method to introducing solid foods where the baby only feeds themselves. The parent does not feed the baby any baby food or purees with a utensil. The baby picks up the food (from the very start) and feeds themselves. Here is our experience!
Why Do Baby-Led Weaning?
The main reason that we decided on doing baby-led weaning is that for us, it sounded cheaper and easier! You don’t have to buy baby food, you don’t have to puree your own baby food, and the baby just eats whatever you’re eating? Sign me up! I also liked the idea of all of us eating together as a family. One parent isn’t spoon feeding the baby while the other parent eats. Everyone eats all together and that is very important to us. I also wanted her to learn that behavior, that we all eat together for all of our meals.
In terms of child development, it also helps with oral motor control (chewing swallowing, gagging) and fine motor skills (how to pick up food!) It also helps to make sure the baby likes everything and it isn’t picky. Picky eaters are my LITERAL pet peeve. Another important benefit is the ability to introduce allergens early. Tony has a food allergy, so I wanted to make sure that Rosie was exposed to the big 8 allergens early and often.
How We Started!
At 6 months (after discussing we her pediatrician) we starting doing baby-led weaning. I didn’t take a course or anything (kind of made up my own thing!) but I loved following @babyledweanteam and @feedinglittles for lots of good information and tips. We started giving her a variety of solid foods all shaped like fingers. She would pick something up, suck on it, and (a lot of times) not even eat it. But this is how she learned! Babies just explore all of the different tastes and textures and figure out how to swallow eventually. Pretty cool!
How Do You Choose Which Foods?
Her first few foods were soft (avocado and tomato) and then I started to introduce more and more textures. I chose avocado first since it was mushy (easy to eat) but also a a finger food. After that I just went for it! Whatever we were eating for that meal, I would just pick out the items that Rosie could eat too. When I gave her something that was not a finger food (like yogurt) I pre-loaded a spoon and gave it to her so that she would feed herself. The Instagram accounts I mentioned above have great tips on how to prepare the foods and which foods to do in what order. But for me, the benefit of this method is the freedom! Give baby what you are eating and don’t stress too much about it!
100 Foods Before 1
Another big trend within baby-led weaning, is to give your baby 100 different foods before they turn 1. Right before Rosie’s first birthday, she ate her 100th food. I was so proud of her (and us!) for getting there. Here are the 100 foods we gave her and the order that we gave her them.
Foods We Gave Rosie in Order
- avocado
- tomato
- bread
- sweet potato
- banana
- watermelon
- whole milk yogurt
- chocolate
- cheddar cheese
- tortilla
- butter
- eggs
- white potato
- tomato sauce
- noodles
- ground beef
- mushroom
- ketchup
- cod
- raspberries
- pickles
- mozzarella cheese
- provolone cheese
- garlic
- mango
- deli turkey
- carrots
- pork
- blueberries
- broccoli
- greek yogurt
- tilapia
- apples
- peanut butter
- unsweetened apple sauce
- chickpeas
- sesame (oh no! allergic)
- pinto beans
- refried beans
- steak
- strawberries
- butternut squash
- golden berries
- turkey hot dogs
- ground turkey
- tuna
- lettuce
- turkey bacon
- olive oil
- goat cheese
- kiwi
- almond butter
- corn
- onions
- ice cream
- bell pepper
- peas
- beef hot dog
- brat
- green beans
- green onions
- mayo
- whiting
- artichoke hearts
- mustard
- coconut
- plain bagel
- plain cream cheese
- marshmallow
- shrimp
- ham
- barbecue sauce
- tofu
- pears
- celery
- italian sausage
- ribs
- graham crackers
- marinara sauce
- gnocchi
- parmesan cheese
- black olives
- cottage cheese
- oatmeal
- brie cheese
- salami
- cherries
- tortellini
- blackberries
- croissant
- red potatoes
- mac n cheese
- pepperoni
- lime
- salmon
- lamb
- kale
- english muffin
- oranges
- lemon
Helpful Products for BLW
