When my second baby was 5 months old, I began to introduce solids, baby-led weaning (BLW) style. Check out this video of her very first solid food experience. http://t.co/xgmbGXdOCl
First Solids: Steamed sweet potato
No need for mash or puree’s. Baby-led weaning simply means letting your child feed themselves from the very beginning of weaning. It should be noted that weaning does NOT mean stopping breastfeeding, only the introduction of solids. For more information on Baby-led weaning check out these websites or do your own research:
http://www.babyledweaning.com/
http://www.babycenter.com.au/a1007100/baby-led-weaning
http://www.kidspot.com.au/the-benefits-of-baby-led-weaning/
Today, I am going to write about my experience of introducing solids this way for both my children, explaining the pros and cons in terms of nutrition as well as practicality, and provide some information on how to introduce solids BLW style for those mums interested in this method.
Disclaimer: I do not profess to be an expert in BLW. As a Dietitian and mother of two, both whom I introduce solids BLW style, I am often asked for advice about how to start solids, hence I decided it was time to write my advice.
Benefits:
- BLW is easy and saves time. Because you do not need to mash or puree foods, preparing foods for your baby is much easier. Just give soft (initially) finger foods for your baby to ‘play’ with, while they learn to eat. Provided the parents’ diet is healthy, they can easily adapt their meals for their baby without having to prepare separate meals.
Since everyone eats together with BLW, parents do not need to spoon-feed the baby which saves time. Eating out is easier too as BLW babies enjoy eating a variety of foods and eating with the family.
- Family meals. Baby-led weaning encourages babies to become part of family meals early on as they can share most healthy family foods as ‘finger foods’ – fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese, well-cooked eggs, bread, pasta and most fish – cut into sticks or large strips. Sharing mealtimes has a positive impact on family relationships, social skills, language development and healthy eating.
- Health benefits. Babies learn to eat according to their own hunger and satiety because they control their intake in a similar way to when they are breastfeeding. While the research is limited as this is a relatively new way of introducing solids, initial studies suggest that enabling babies to learn better self-regulation of food intake leads to healthier body weight outcomes.
BLW enables babies to be exposed to a wide variety of flavours and textures right from the start, which will potentially result in a varied diet throughout childhood, and make them less likely to need separate ‘kids’ food’ or choose unhealthy food choices later in life. With spoon feeding and pureed foods there is potential for flavours to blend into each other, which discourages babies from learning to eat a variety of flavours. Of course this as a health outcome depends on babies being offered mainly healthy food choices throughout the BLW process.
- Enjoyment and less likely to be ‘fussy eaters’. Baby-led weaning is fun for baby! And eating family meals together provides role-models for baby, both which encourage baby to eat and reduce likelihood of ‘fussy’ eating.
- Motor skills development. Allowing baby to pick up, handle and play with foods right from the start in BLW teaches baby motor skills and encourages speech development, hand-eye coordination, dexterity, and confidence in their own abilities and judgments.
First solid meat: Chop
Drawbacks:
- Mess! Baby-led weaning is definitely messy. Babies ‘play’ with food while they are learning to eat, squishing it, dropping it, rubbing it, and smudging it. While this behaviour should be encouraged as it is exactly what helps baby learn about texture, colour, tastes and how to eat, it can be VERY messy. Placing a drop sheet under the highchair is a good idea to make tidying up easier. And having a simple highchair that is easy to wash (like the Ikea white ones without padding), is a must! In summer, letting baby eat in just a nappy helps reduce washing; and in winter, using a smock bib helps keep clothes clean.
- Wasted food. Providing whole pieces of food for baby to learn to eat with does waste a lot of food as initially baby eats very little and mostly squishes it, sucks it, or smudges it. So it can be a bit more costly than traditional feeding method of offering only an ice-cube amount of puree at a time. However, usually within a couple of months, food waste is reduced as baby learns how to eat better. Spread a clean mat under baby’s highchair so that you can hand pieces of food back to baby to reduce waste.
- At risk of reduced intake of nutrients that are important for infants such as iron and zinc while baby learns to bite, chew and swallow. I.e. if baby cannot actually eat/swallow certain finger foods like meat. However, because BLW babies usually pick up eating relatively quickly and often eat a wide variety of foods, they are likely to obtain good nutrient intake in the long run. NOTE: There is limited evidence on exact nutrient intake to date as this is a relatively new feeding method.
- Prolonged requirement for breast milk as main source of nutrition. While not being a negative thing, as breast milk is the best food for babies under 1yr old, for the first few months of BLW many babies only eat small amounts, so do not be alarmed if they are not eating as much as babies fed with purees. In my experience it can mean baby continues to wake and feed frequently at night until they have established good eating.
However, all babies are different. In my experience, my eldest son ate amazingly right from the start, in fact at 6months he started sleeping the through the night (only for a month) due to him eating food so well. On the other hand, my second girl took a bit longer to eat significant amounts of food BLW style and continued to breastfeed frequently at night. Whether this was to do with the amount of solids she was eating or other factors, is hard to determine.
- At risk of inadequate calories to meet growth, especially if premature. In fact, baby-led weaning is generally not recommended for premature babies. For full term babies at risk of inadequate calorie intake, some mums do a combination of baby-led weaning and spoon feeding, especially for foods like yoghurt, porridge or weetbix. However, for full term babies tracking well along weight and height percentiles, calorie intake from BLW seems suitable, combined with continued breastfeeding (or formula).
- Mother’s concerns about choking risk. In fact, if done correctly, BLW has no higher risk of choking than traditional introduction of solids. When introducing the first food BLW style, finger-sized pieces of soft food must be placed on baby’s highchair so that they have to pick up the food and put it in their mouth themselves. You must not put food in their mouth for them, no matter how frustrating it can be watching them.
See video clip of my daughter’s first solid food experience http://t.co/xgmbGXdOCl
The theory is that if baby has the coordination to pick up and put food in their own mouth, they have the ability to ‘handle’ it in their mouth, i.e. move it around in their mouth and either swallow or, more likely at first, spit it out. This is also the reason why it is recommended to commence BLW only when baby is ready (usually at about 6months old) because this is usually when their gag reflex disappears.
See Practical Tips below to prevent choking.
When to start:
It is recommended to commence BLW only when baby is ready (usually around 6months old) because this is usually when their gag reflex disappears. Signs that baby is ready to start solids BLW style are similar to those for traditional introduction of solids:
- watching others eat, and leaning forwards when food is around
- watching food go from plate to mouth when others eat
- opening mouth when food is offered
- reaching out to grab food and spoons
- able to sit up in high chair and able support their own head (this is really important for BLW and prevention of choking)
- stops sticking out their tongue (tongue extrusion reflex drops off around 6months, making it easier for baby to swallow solid food)
Steamed Zucchini
Why I started at 5 months: For both my children I started baby-led weaning at 5months old because I felt they were ready. Both my children were overdue and longer than average (their father is 6’3”) and had very good muscle tone meaning they could hold their head up at a very early age and virtually sit unaided in a highchair at 5months old. They were also both VERY interested in food – grabbing it out of my mouth even!
Given this was the case for my children, I felt it was better to start eating earlier than later so that by 6months they would be established eaters and therefore able to get the nutrients they need from foods BLW style (e.g. iron and zinc). In hindsight this was still the right decision for me.
When BLW would not be suitable: As mentioned above, BLW is not suitable for premature babies as they usually need more calories for catch up growth than what BLW can provide. Full term babies who are underweight may also do better using traditional feeding methods, or with a combination of BLW and spoon feeding (see Practical Tip below).
Practical Tips:
- There is a difference between choking and gagging. Many first time mums think gagging is choking, where in fact gagging is a normal response for baby who finds food at back of their mouth for the first time.
- To prevent choking, babies doing BLW should be well supported and supervised while eating at all times.
- If your baby starts gagging simply pretend to cough in front of baby to teach them how to move the food out of their throat.
- Avoid high-risk choking foods when starting BLW such as raw apple, small round foods like sultanas, nuts or peas. However, because baby has to pick up food themselves in order to eat, they are unlikely to be able to pick up sultanas or nuts initially anyway, and therefore unlikely to choke.
- Even if you plan to do a combination of spoon feeding and BLW, introduce finger foods first, before spoon feeding. If you do puree or spoon feed first baby is less likely to be able to manage finger foods and is more likely to need the gradual texture progression of traditional weaning.
- I found that leaving the skin on many fruits and vegetables helped baby to pick the food up (without it slipping out of their hands) and to eat it by sucking the contents off the skin. E.g. steamed zucchini, potato or steamed apple with skin on, baked sweet potato or pumpkin with skin on. Whole small plums or nectarines with skin on. Pieces of ripe pear with skin on. Usually baby will not eat the skin or if they do get it in their mouth it’s in a large piece (as they cannot bite through it yet) and then they simply spit it out. Occasionally I would remove excess skin from baby’s mouth that they were having trouble with.
- Introduce family foods quickly. After starting BLW with simple fresh foods such as steamed large pieces of sweet potato, zucchini, pumpkin, broccoli, soft fruit like pear, stone fruit, steamed apple, followed by plain soft meat such as stewed beef, or chops with a thin strip of meat left on them; you can quickly progress to healthy family foods such as vegetables, meat, chicken, fish, well-cooked egg, frittata, quiche, pasta, wholemeal toast, tofu, cheese.
- I found that after initially tasting steamed broccoli and zucchini, my son would refuse most greens, so I pureed broccoli and spinach and mixed it with ricotta as a spread on wholemeal toast or mixed through penne pasta. This provided a finger food that still contained green vegetables.
- As I said earlier, all babies are different. While my son ate both finger foods and allowed me to spoon feed him natural yoghurt and porridge or Weetbix, my daughter mostly refuses to be spoon fed anything!
- Just like traditional weaning, it’s important not to get frustrated and continue to offer a variety of textures and flavours, and to eat with baby where possible to so that they use you as a role model and learn to eat by watching you.
Meal time is fun!
Example introduction of BLW foods:
There is no one way to introduce solids BLW style, healthy family foods are the best options. Just as with the recent traditional weaning guidelines, there is no longer any need to stick with one food for a period of time or to delay the introduction of potential allergens such as wheat, egg, seafood, dairy etc unless you have a strong family history. However, it is recommended to introduce new foods one at a time and early in the day so that you can watch for any reaction.
For people wanting a bit of guidance, this is generally how I introduced BLW foods with my children (this is by no means the only way to do it):
1) Steamed large soft pieces of vegetables such as sweet potato, pumpkin, zucchini, potato, carrot, broccoli. Roughly in that order.
2) Fruit e.g. soft large pieces of pear, stone fruit, watermelon (I’d leave a small strip of red fruit on the skin so that baby had something to hold and let her suck it. I’d increase the amount of red fruit each time). Eventually ripe banana, but this can actually be quite hard for baby to eat as they can easily break off a chunk and then not be able to swallow / chew it. Unripe banana can also be quite constipating.
3) Meat e.g. stewed beef (I would take a large piece of well cooked beef and rinse of excess sauce which might be quite salty), steamed chicken, chop bones with thin strip of meat left of the bone.
4) Fingers of cucumber with skin left on. Baby can suck flesh from the skin. Whole small raw carrot (baby cannot chew this, but it is great for them to suck and rub on gums). Large strips of raw red capsicum to suck/gnaw on. Wedges of tomato.
5) Wholemeal toast fingers with home-made hommus, natural nut butter, ricotta cheese or avocado. Avocado can also be constipating so don’t give too often at the beginning until bowels have become used to solids. Or pureed broccoli/spinach mixed with ricotta cheese.
6) Natural yoghurt I would spoon feed.
7) Large pieces of firm tofu
8) Scrambled egg or large pieces of hard-boiled egg
9) Large pieces of white fish or tuna
10) Pieces of cheddar cheese.
11) Healthy family foods. By this time I would just give healthy family foods.
