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Attachment Parenting
shocked77
member
Trying to decide if LO is ready for Baby Led Weaning
shocked77
member
I am an EBF mamma who has consistently nursed on demand. LO went to daycare when I went back to work Mar 1 so now he gets 3 bottles of expressed breast milk during the day, but nurses all the other times.
He just had his 5 month birthday last week. I have been hard set on holding off on solid foods until he was 6 month old. There are some food allergies and lots of skin allergies and asthma in my husbands family. So I have been planning to wait and also felt like why complicate things with preparing baby foods.
I think LO is now starting to show signs of being ready for food and I've recently started reading about baby led weaning. I really like that approach. It fits so well with rest of our parenting style and just seems like a natural way. LO is already fiercely independent and I think he will just grab at a spoon and want to do it himself. Certainly not a trait I want to squash or fight at this point.
Here are the signs LO is showing. Would you start with maybe a little avocado or sweet potato or just wait a few more weeks?
LO is now sitting up unassisted. He started out in tripod position beginning of week and now lifts one hand or the other.
LO is grabbing everything and putting it into his mouth and chewing. He has been doing this for about a month.
He is incredibly interested in what we are eatting. If you eat with him on your lap he grabs at the food and opens his mouth mimicing. He is also chasing your glass if you drink over him.
He is mainly picking things up with a full fist, not the pincer grip yet.
I bought cereal this past weekend thinking we would start with that since he seems so interested, but that was before I started reading about baby led. Now I think i'd rather skip the cereal and puree and just start with something he picks up on his own.
Would you start him now or give it a few more weeks?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Trying to decide if LO is ready for Baby Led Weaning
If your baby is ready for BLW, then if you offer food he'll eat it unassisted.
If you're concerned about allergies, it wouldn't hurt to wait 3 or 4 more weeks to let his digestive tract be that much more mature.
Really, though, it took weeks before my DS really ate anything. If you feel like offering, just offer appropriate first foods and do it well supervised. Don't be disappointed if he doesn't eat for a while - they often learn to pick up, then to put in the mouth, then to swallow. That process can take a long time.
The behaviour you describe is just what babies do at 5 months, though. They want what you have. They have no idea food = full or glass = drink.
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give him an empty cup and bowl and spoon, let him sit with you at meal times. That way you won't be 'leaving' him out of meal times, and don't have to rush the food. Plus he gets to play/practice with the objects he will be using soon.
Putting things in his mouth is a normal baby trait, not an indication of food readiness.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) acknowledges that there are no"strict" age guidelines on introducing solid foods to your baby. However, "The AAP Section on Breastfeeding, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Family Physicians, Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, World Health Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, and many other health organizations recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life.2,127?130 Exclusive breastfeeding is defined as an infant's consumption of human milk with no supplementation of any type (no water, no juice, no nonhuman milk, and no foods) except for vitamins, minerals, and medications.131 Exclusive breastfeeding has been shown to provide improved protection against many diseases and to increase the likelihood of continued breastfeeding for at least the first year of life."
Little Rose is 2 1/2.
More Green For Less Green
We did this and he LOVES it. It's so cute to watch him "feed" himself with the empty spoon, or play with the bowl.
shocked77 - I would highly recommend reading the BLW book by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett. On page 92, in response to whether to start a 5 month old with BLW the book states "At five months your baby is almost certainly still too young to feed herself with solid food, although she may be able to pick some pieces up and get them to her lips." They continue to say that if you want the baby to have solid foods before 6 months, "you will need to continue giving her pureed food."
There are several developmental reasons for waiting to start solids till 6 months - and they're not things that babies can develop at 5 months. I would definitely wait a couple more weeks.
I am seeing your posts everywhere!
I have no good advice for BLW. I was just learning about it b/c of smilelari's post on the nov11 board. I love reading what you're saying about your LO's milestones..it gets me kind of excited for the next few weeks with my little guy
BLW definitely fits in with my approach to pregnancy, labor, delivery, and EBFing so far - but I'm not sure I'm ready to give up EBFing! I know its so selfish, but being a working mom, I cherish those nursing sessions so much!
Don't worry--my baby has been BLW for 4 months and still nurses just as much!
OP--I agree with PP, just get him a high chair, let him sit and play at mealtime. Honestly, starting earlier is just a whole extra month of weird poop and needing to spray your baby down after each meal.
I posted the same question when my LO was about the same age. We ended up starting very slowly at around 5 1/2 months. He didn't swallow anything until he was more like a week or a few days shy of 6 months, and even then it was very little. Now, at 7 months he eats a ton. I'm a big believer in following your mommy instincts. I had read the BLWing book, read all the info posted above, and was adament that I would wait until 6 months, no question. But my instincts were telling me he was ready, and then actually his DC teacher (who is a big supporter of BLWing and of waiting until 6 months, and also knows my LO better than just based on "he's 5 months and 6, 7, 8 days old...") told me she definitely thought he was ready to start experimenting with food a week or so before he was 6 months, so I felt good about our choice to start a little sooner.
You know your LO better than anyone, so trust your instincts. GL
(lurker raising my head here)
I agree with PP about trusting your instinct, and I also trust my baby. He is 5 1/2 months and I wasn't planning on starting solids until 6 months (reaction to all those people telling me he's too small or he needs to be sleeping through the night by now, and insisting that food or formula will fix everything. BTW he's 25th percentile and no, he shouldn't, if I'm working and EBF, he needs his mama time!).
That being said, at 4 months 10 days, he started literally snatching food away from us - and wouldn't give it back. He slobbered and chewed on a bread stick that day for so long that eventually it dissolved and he swallowed most of it. We kept resisting this rather obvious behavior for a while, but at a few days shy of 5 months we gave in and started handing him pieces of cooked veggies and such (since we liked the idea of BLW a lot). He didn't eat much, but he liked experimenting with them. Then at 5m1w, we bought some purees to see if the variety of tastes might be fun for him, and he took the spoon away from us and learned to reliably spoon-feed himself within a week! Now when his spoon is empty he starts whining until I refill it for him and hand it back! So I guess we're doing a baby-led combination method, earlier than we planned. To me this fits in with the idea of following baby's cues. Every baby is different!
Especially with the allergy concerns, I'd wait. Your baby's guts will be a lot more mature in a month.
Also, as far as the "ready for solids" guidelines, I consider sitting up to be sitting up completely unassisted, no hands. It sounds like your LO is well on the way to that.
My LO was sitting up at 5 months on his own, but I still waited. We were a few days shy of 6 months, but only because he snatched a slice of apple out of my hand and put it in his mouth before I could stop him, so I just let him nom on it. He didn't actually ingest it - or anything else, really, for over a month.
BLW was a great, easy experience. I was more cautious in some ways because of the allergies: he didn't just eat whatever we were eating for the first few months for sure! I think that started around 10 months. Granted, at that point we were eating a very allergen-friendly diet and it was a good progression. He had a lot of allergies via breastmilk in his first year or so, but now he only had 2 food allergies (well...maybe 3, but we haven't figured out what is causing some problems lately yet).