Family Recipes for Baby Led Weaning (2024)

FAQs

How many meals should I start with baby-led weaning? ›

To start BLW, ensure readiness and begin with one solid meal a day during family mealtime. Use a highchair in a safe setting, allow exploration and play with food, offer age-appropriate soft foods in manageable sized pieces, and let the baby lead the feeding process.

Some parents worry that baby-led weaning is more likely to cause their baby to choke than spoon-feeding. Emerging evidence suggests that baby-led weaning may result in more gagging as babies get used to swallowing but no increased likelihood of choking . Baby-led weaning can be messier than spoon-feeding.

Baby-led weaning (BLW) involves skipping the spoon-fed purées and letting babies feed themselves finger foods when starting solids.

One of the advantages of BLW is that it's very difficult to overfeed your baby. As long as you're providing a good variety of nutritious food it will be up to your baby to decide whether or not they want to eat it.

Foods to avoid

Because baby-led weaning exposes babies to foods with different textures, you should avoid serving up foods that are choking hazards. These include: ​Firm, round foods, such as whole berries and whole grapes. Hard, crunchy foods like tortilla or corn chips, popcorn, nuts.

Beef, pork, chicken, turkey, and lamb all offer exceptional nutrition for babies including protein, fat, iron, zinc, and other essential nutrients. If your baby is on a diet of only breastmilk (or formula), fruits, grains, and veggies, she might miss out on brain-boosting nutrients.

Indeed, one of the main reasons healthcare providers are reluctant to fully endorse BLW is the perceived risk of choking. About 35% of babies choke while starting foods, most often because they were offered food that was a hazard.

BLW has some obvious downsides. The infant may not get enough energy, iron, zinc, vitamins, and other nutrients, or too much protein, saturated fat, salt, or sugar. The risk of choking, which must be distinguished from the physiological gagging reflex, has not been ruled out by scientific studies.

Moreover, if giving solid foods too early, then the child's digestive system does not secrete enough mucus as well as enzymes to help break down protein and fat and lead to overworked organs. Early weaning puts children at high risk of digestive disorders, diarrhea or constipation due to the immature digestive system.

What to start with. To start with, your baby only needs a small amount of solid food, once a day, at a time that suits you both. You can start weaning with single vegetables and fruits – try blended, mashed, or soft cooked sticks of parsnip, broccoli, potato, yam, sweet potato, carrot, apple or pear.

What should be avoided during weaning? ›

Toasted bread is a go-to for babies and toddlers — it's an easy pleaser for little palates and you can top it with all kinds of wholesome ingredients. Families following a baby-led weaning approach tend to introduce bread early on, but it's an equally good option for spoon-fed babies who have graduated to finger foods.

To start with, your baby only needs a small amount of solid food, once a day, at a time that suits you both. You can start weaning with single vegetables and fruits – try blended, mashed, or soft cooked sticks of parsnip, broccoli, potato, yam, sweet potato, carrot, apple or pear.

At 6 months of age, solids are added as well. Babies six to eight months old typically eat two to three meals (of solid foods) per day. From nine months onward, your baby may take three to four meals per day along with one or two additional snacks.

Let your child try one single-ingredient food at a time at first. This helps you see if your child has any problems with that food, such as food allergies. Wait 3 to 5 days between each new food. Before you know it, your child will be on his or her way to eating and enjoying lots of new foods.

Tablespoons: Since your baby is still drinking breast milk or formula as their primary nutrition, slowly incorporate approximately 1-3 tablespoons of food for 1-2 meals a day. As your baby starts to eat more solids, the Mini Mat can help you keep track of portion sizes.