Starting your baby on solid foods is an exciting time. Traditionally, we have been told to start with baby food and purees, but I want to introduce you to the baby led weaning method. If you don’t know, baby led weaning (or BLW) is basically just skipping what the traditional approach to starting solids like rice cereal, baby food and purees, and jumping right into giving baby whatever your family is eating.
When To Start
When using the baby led weaning approach, there are a few milestones that babies must meet before you can start table food.
- They must be 6 months old
- They must be able to sit unassisted
- They must have lost the tongue thrust reflex
- They must be starting to develop the pincer grasp
There is a common misconception that babies need teeth in order to eat ‘real’ food, but guess what?! They don’t!
You should remember that at this age, breastmilk/formula is more important than food. You should make sure to nurse or give a bottle about 30 minutes before mealtime.
What You Need
You don’t need much to do the BLW method, just a place where they can sit up straight and the food.
Your lap is a perfectly fine place to sit, but most people will prefer a high chair. You may also want a bib, but stripping them to a diaper is perfectly acceptable as well. If you want to avoid a mess on the floor, then a floor mat might be nice too, but I have never used one.
I also like to give my baby sturdy utensils with her meals too so that she can start to explore those as well.
What Food to Give
The beauty of baby led weaning is that you can pretty much give baby anything that you are eating (meat, fruits, veggies etc…) with only a few exceptions.
- Babies cannot have any honey before the age of 1 because of the risk of botulism
- Babies should also not have any cows milk to drink before the age of 1
- You will want to limit sodium and added sugar
There are some groups who suggest that babies should not have dairy or any dairy byproducts before 1 because they don’t have all the enzymes needed to fully digest, but the WHO and AAP say it is okay. I would recommend doing your own research and deciding for yourself if you want to do it. If you do decide to give it a try and notice extreme gassiness or colic then I would delay. Dairy can be the culprit of a lot of sensitivities in little ones.
As far as drinks, babies at this age do not really need them, but you can give some water with meals if you feel it is necessary. However, you should not give more than an ounce throughout the day.
How to Give Food
So, you can give them almost anything but how do you prepare it? Well for starters, you don’t give purees at all – that also means none of those baby food pouches. Unless the food comes naturally like a puree (like mashed potatoes or applesauce), you just give it to them as you would eat it just cut a little bit differently.
The best description for cutting is to cut it in the size and shape of your index finger.
NOTE: When they’ve mastered eating then you can give the pouches.. For Isabel it was just under a year.
For foods that would be impossible for baby to pick up, like the naturally purred foods and soups, you can pre-load a spoon for them and sit it on the tray. It will likely be messy the first few months, but they will eventually get it!
I should also mention that you do not want to feed them, you want to let them feed themselves. They might not actually eat anything, but that is okay and totally normal. Feeding them can increase the risk of choking and defeats the whole purpose of teaching them to eat.
Gagging vs Choking
When first starting out, you want to make sure that you are ALWAYS with baby when eating. Choking is silent, and you will not hear it if you walk away even for a second. You do not want to risk this!
Now, there is a difference between choking and gagging, and what you likely think choking is, is really just babies gag reflex. Gagging is baby’s way of figuring out how to swallow solids and how much to swallow. It’s a reflex that helps babies move food forward.
If baby is gagging DO NOT stick your hand in their mouth to try and get whatever is in their mouth – it could be even more dangerous and cause them to actually choke.
They might gag and vomit, it might be scary and be hard to watch -it will take some getting used to 99% of the time they will just go back to eating like nothing happened. (In fact it has been 100% of the time for both my girls thus far). They have an AMAZING gag reflex. It will likely be harder for you to watch than it is for baby to figure out the food. In face, it’s really important that you stay calm when gagging occurs because they read your body language. If you start to freak out, they might too.
Choking on the other hand is silent. Baby is not getting any air and will likely look afraid and alarmed. There are some great videos online that can show you some examples of gagging so that you can see the difference before you get started on the BLW journey.
Before you start, I would also recommend learning the infant Heimlich maneuver of putting your baby in case something were to happen.
Allergies
Allergies can occur anytime you have a food, not just the first time, so there isn’t really need to wait days between having foods. You can also give many foods at the same time, you don’t have to space them out. In fact, BLW suggests giving them a whole plate of food, the same meal you are having, whenever you eat.
If you don’t have a specific food allergy in the immediate family, then there isn’t need to be too concerned; in fact starting tree nuts early on in BLW is encouraged. I will note that when you are offering peanut butter or other butters, make sure to do it with something (ex. on a cracker or apple slice), never by itself. If given alone it can dry out the mouth and make it hard to breathe.
So that is it, those are the basics you need to know to get your baby started on solids using the baby led weaning method. If you have any questions about anything that don’t hesitate to ask!