Favourite foods. Due to the element of choice with baby-led weaning, you may get a better sense of which foods your baby really likes.
Lots of parents wean their babies by giving spoon-fed purées, but a different approach called baby-led weaning is growing evermore popular. This method forgoes purées and spoon-led feeding. Instead you simply let your baby feed himself. The ethos behind this method is that it gives a baby the chance to explore a variety of foods, tastes, and textures for himself.
In baby-led weaning a range of finger foods are offered to give the baby an element of choice, as well as soft food that the baby can spoon-feed himself. It is normal for babies to play with the food rather than eat it, but this is all part of their development. They will soon progress to sucking, chewing, and swallowing.
• It is believed that baby-led weaning helps a baby to develop healthy eating habits for life.
• Babies can explore a variety of foods, tastes, and textures for themselves, at their own pace.
• Babies can stop eating when they are full. Although most spoon-fed babies make it clear when they’ve had enough, parents often persist and some babies, eager to please, accept more.
• Babies learn to manage different food shapes and textures from the start, so they become skilled at handling a wide range of foods. This can help improve hand-to-eye co-ordination.
• It can simplify mealtimes as you give your baby foods from your meal and it encourages healthier eating for the whole family.
• Being seated at the table for meals with the rest of the family encourages social skills.
• In baby-led weaning, babies can sometimes eat less than those who are spoon-fed and so are at a greater risk of receiving insufficient critical nutrients, which are required in the first 12 months. Insufficient iron, zinc, and vitamins are a worry, particularly for a breastfed baby as formula contains a multivitamin and mineral supplement but breast milk does not. This is where some form of puréeing or mashing of nutrient-rich food becomes important.
• Not all babies are developmentally ready for successful self-feeding, so it may be better to spoon-feed alongside giving soft finger foods. Some babies simply don’t cope as well as others with starting solids and need a more gradual transition. For babies who are weaned earlier than six months, purées are a better bridge between milk and solids.
• A baby who was born prematurely is unlikely to be developmentally ready for baby-led weaning. If your baby was premature, seek advice from your Health Visitor or a Registered Dietitian.
While your baby is experimenting with self-feeding, take a deep breath when things get messy. Fully exploring food is an important part of the sensory experience of eating for your baby – constantly cleaning his hands with wipes or spooning food from around his lips can hinder this important part of his development. Placing a mess mat or washable tablecloth under your baby’s chair will allow you to recycle food that has been dropped. Invest in some large bibs with sleeves, too.
• Never leave your baby alone while eating, and ensure he is supported in an upright position.
• Be careful about the textures you offer as some will be difficult for your baby to manage. At the start of weaning, finger foods should be able to be squashed between the finger and thumb.
• Avoid finger foods that your baby could break into large chunks, such as raw carrot, and small, round foods, such as cherry tomatoes, grapes, or giant blueberries. Halve, or even quarter, them.
Yes. Some parents feel a need to choose one method, but you don’t have to. At around six months, you have the freedom to combine an element of baby-led weaning alongside spoon-feeding if you feel that’s right for you and your baby. Some babies thrive on purées, others on finger foods and yet some on both. Instead of committing to a certain feeding method, it’s okay to be flexible and to follow your intuition and your baby’s developmental signs.
In speaking to parents, dietitians, nutritionists, and healthcare professionals about the various approaches to weaning, combining both methods is a popular option and one that many parents are finding the most realistic to adopt. Offering a mix of puréed foods as well as soft fingers foods at the beginning is also advocated by the Department of Health and the NHS and the British Nutrition Foundation. Both baby-led weaning and spoon-feeding allow your baby to explore a variety of different tastes, flavours, and textures.
However you decide to wean your baby, the important thing is to provide a variety of foods (particularly much-loved family foods) and allow your baby to go at his own pace.