Baby-led weaning was popularized by the book, "Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods", but parents have intuitively gravitated towards this concept for decades. The idea behind baby-led weaning is exactly what it sounds like, the baby lets the parents know when he or she is ready to try solid foods. The biggest part of it: no puree stage!
Purees have become a staple "stage" for families, with some recommendations stating that parents introduce purees between 4-6 months of age. Baby-led weaning notes that babies do not actually need anything other than breastmilk or formula for the first year of life, so why are we trying to push our infants to eat purees instead of taking the time to let them explore food and have a solid, healthy relationship with food for the future?
Baby-led weaning notes that this puree stage is uncomfortable for many babies, and as I have seen in practice, infants can show that they dislike it through turning their head, spitting, and gagging. Spoon-feeding is the hallmark of this stage, which often means the parent is begging or forcing their child to eat by shoving the spoon into the infant's mouth. This results in a loss of control for the infant, creates stress for the family, and is not providing the child with an ability to self-feed or explore the food that he or she is eating.
There is a lot of pressure surrounding feeding, and infants and toddlers who struggle with transitioning to solid foods create anxiety for families. Food is social, food is cultural, and food is how we show love, so it can feel scary to allow your child the control to explore foods on their own time when family members are bombarding you with questions about how much your infant is eating and how big their food repertoire is. However, long term research has shown that baby-led weaning decreases pickiness and future food challenges.
Baby-Led Weaning Quick Tips:
1. Follow the baby's lead! Usually the baby will be ready to "explore foods" with their fingers around 6-8 months. Anther benefit? You are progressing their fine motor skills along the way.
2. Sit the baby at the table with the family or on your lap, and wait for the baby to reach for your food, showing he or she is ready. Let the baby take the lead, and use the experience of mealtime and visual imitation from other family members to encourage and teach the baby.
3. Let the baby play with the food in a guilt-free, comfortable manner. With this method, parents are often told to breastfeed or provide a bottle prior to food exploration in the beginning, so the baby is not hungry, stressed, or frustrated. Mealtimes should be a happy experience (for parents too!).
4. Once the child starts showing interest in bringing foods to their mouth, provide foods such as hard/thick vegetables or fruits for the child to easily "gnaw" on without choking (supervision is key!). In this way, the child is taking the lead, and the child is strengthening the vertical munch, which is great for future oral motor skills.
Unfortunately, purees do not require much oral motor work, as the parent puts the spoon so far back, they usually just swallow! You will see the child sucking on the puree, but usually not moving it around in their mouths. Further, for some children, it takes a long time for them to move away from purees, and there is often a lot of fear associated with children transitioning from purees to solids (probably because they remember how stressful it was!). Baby-led weaning attempts to give control back to the child to create a foundation for successful feeding later in life.
As an occupational therapist, I work with many young children who have feeding difficulties. Some of these children are extremely picky eaters, some have medical challenges that require feeding tubes, and some that have low oral motor strength that make chewing difficult. If your child has a specialized diet where his or her food needs to be pureed due to aspiration or feeding difficulties, always follow those recommendations.
For more information, feel free to reach out to me, or read the book "Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods" by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett." It is a great introduction about the in's and out's of this method, and provides specific "first solid foods" to those who want to follow this method.
Photo by The Honest Company on Unsplash
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