Hello everyone 👋
Have you heard of baby led weaning (BLW) before? We surely haven’t until our son came along and getting him to start solid food. BLW is when babies feed themselves finger foods instead of us parents spoon feeding them purée or mashed food. Now, BLW is of course a totally different approach compared to the traditional ways of spoon feeding babies purees. The sound of it and the concept really gives many parents anxiety and lots of questions. We did a bit of research on it before trying it out.
The main purpose of doing the BLW was to ensure that our son does not grow up to become a picky eater and is able to explore different types of food, flavours and textures.
We started the first month of solids with purees as we weren’t ready to start right away with the BLW method. I learnt that babies have a gag reflex when food touches a part of their tongue and it’s often mistaken for a choke. This reflex is a way of protecting them from choking. There’s a lot of things that go behind the gag reflex, the way the human body works to swallow etc that I’ve learnt and became confident with before trying the BLW approach. By the time we began BLW, he was around 7 months old.
We started with foods that were soft but while such as banana, avocado, omelette, sweet potato…. These were soft and we knew would be easy to chew. We also know that these are low risk for choking. Of course, his gag reflex was still strong at his age and every now and then he’d gag and spit out what he couldn’t handle. Not going to lie, I was always anxious watching him eat as I was worried about a ton of things. I tried my best to not show it though to keep the atmosphere calm. We sat and demonstrated each time how to take bites and how to chew so that he could copy us. We kept our eyes on him each and every time and it all went well as he progressed. As he progressed, we relaxed more but still stayed with him while he ate.
Now at 9 months old, he’s self feeding and managing on his own during meal times. We all eat at the same time instead of feeding him first before we eat and it’s great! He’s currently got 2 teeth but has managed to try a fair number of different foods already. He’s just surpassed his 50 first foods and now we are working towards his 100 first foods before he turns 1.
Our parents and some friends didn’t and still don’t quite understand this BLW approach we took. They still worry about the foods being chunky, worried that he will choke, can’t chew the food or is not having enough food in him. We had to reassure them so many times that he is absolutely fine and is thriving. They’re slowly getting used to it and we don’t blame them for not understanding this approach. If you think about it, back in the days no one would dare offer finger foods to babies and they swore by offering purées on the spoon. We were definitely one of those babies who were spoon fed the moment we started solids. Yes, we are eating fine now but it’s way more than just eating fine behind BLW that I can’t seem to put in words.
With BLW, our son probably eats half the food and the other half ends up on the floor but it’s okay. His main source of nutrition and food is milk right now. Solids before babies turn 1 is to let them explore different flavours and textures, set a foundation and to create a positive relationship with food in the long run.
Here’s a few examples of his meals.
Breakfast here we have banana slices with Greek yoghurt, raspberries cut in halves and cheesy omelette. Other days he’d have his fruits and oats or fruits with pancakes or bread. Always a variety to offer different textures, flavours and for nutritional purposes.
Majority of the time he’d finish all the fruits and maybe half of the mains.
Fruit break/snack are sliced apples that’s been steamed. Some days I don’t steam them and let him take his time munching through the slices of apples but it takes him a bit longer. This way I can be prepping or cooking food in the kitchen and same time able to watch him eat.
Some days a snack could be steamed carrots, yoghurt or other fruits that are in season. Most the time, he finishes all his snacks/fruits without leaving any behind.
Dinner here we have steamed capsicum, mushrooms, pumpkin, chicken, fish and rice. I’ve actually offered more than usual here as I wanted to see what his preference for food is like. Usually he is given 2-3 types of veggies and a protein. Some days he has carbs such as rice or noodles/pasta and some days he doesn’t depending on the type of vegetables or the meal itself.
Although I served quite a lot here, he ate just over half of it and the other half would be on the floor or thrown across the table.
His food is cut in a way that’s easy for him to grab. Some foods I cut up bigger so he can use his Palmer grasp whilst some are chopped smaller to practice his pincer grasp.
Palmer grasp.
Pincer grasp.
BLW is definitely messy and surprisingly I am ok with the cleaning that’s to follow each meal. I know we are working towards having a positive eater and things seem to be going the right direction.
Have you heard of or tried the BLW approach before? How did it go for you and your baby?