can someone explain BLW?

emilyknelson

Does it mean you don't spoon feed your baby solids?  I am so confused.  I know I have no idea what it is.  Any help is appreciated.  Thanks

tokenhoser

The baby self feeds normal (appropriate) food. Like instead of spoon feeding him sweet potato puree, I gave him sweet potato oven fries and he ate them on his own.

Alliebooberz

tokenhoser:

The baby self feeds normal appropriate food. Like instead of spoon feeding him sweet potato puree, I gave him sweet potato oven fries and he ate them on his own.

This. Or banana strips or green beans or chunks of watermelon. Etc, etc.

jcsumm0

www.baby-led.com and www.babyledweaning.com are 2 good resources.  There is also an excellent book called Baby Led Weaning.

You offer the baby food, he decides what to eat, when to start, and how much he wants.

ncbelle

I have some more links in my post - https://www.becomingmamas.com/baby-led-weaning-an-alternative-approach-to-starting-solids/ about our experience.  Love BLW - so easy and lots of fun ;-)

Izybel18

Thanks for asking this, as I was wondering myself! I'm feeling really lazy/apathetic about solids and this seems more up my alley

tokenhoser

It's very lazy mom friendly.

The book is great; if you're interested, it's worth the read. My library had it.

cecilyandgautam

General idea: 

start when your baby shows signs of readiness: sits up on his/her own, grabs things & brings them to the mouth, grabs/reaches for your food

how: lay out strips (approx 1" by 2") of various healthy, unsalted foods on a tray, or a plate if baby is in your lap, and let baby play with it. Eventually s/he will eat some of it.

Some no-no's with BLW: putting food in baby's mouth, salt, refined sugar & sugary drinks, unhealthy processed food (we do most of our own cooking, don't use premade or frozen any more, don't add any salt to our cooking, and don't fry things)

Some Do's with BLW: offer a variety of healthy items, let baby eat as much or as little as s/he wants, continue to breastfeed (or formula) & offer a milk feeding when baby's hungry because it'll take awhile to become efficient at eating food, offer your baby food whenever you're eating, eat together as a family, as much as possible give baby the same food you're enjoying, follow baby's lead, keep food seasoned but unsalted (my daughter loves non-spicy curries!)

Some things that don't apply with BLW that you'll hear your puree-feeding friends talk about: waiting 3 days between new foods (of course you can if you have a family history of allergies or want to other reasons, but the book has a good discussion on why this isn't generally necessary), only offering food 1xday in the beginning then slowly working your up to 3xday by 9-12 months, sequencing of foods: starting with cereal/veggies then fruit then meat, chunky purees . . . probably more but my puree friends have a laundry list of rules and it sounds like its own language sometimes. BLW is so much fun and none of what I've seen about puree feeding makes it look appealing to me.

boilerup227

I have read the book and was really gungho about doing it.  But, now I am really getting scared of the choking aspect.  Can anyone explain EXACTLY how/what you stared with?  We were plannng on starting this weekend.  I love the idea that it is baby led but really am starting to freak over the potential of choking. Yes, I realize that you can choke on purees just as well but I need some convincing of this!

jcsumm0

boilerup227:

I have read the book and was really gungho about doing it.  But, now I am really getting scared of the choking aspect.  Can anyone explain EXACTLY how/what you stared with?  We were plannng on starting this weekend.  I love the idea that it is baby led but really am starting to freak over the potential of choking. Yes, I realize that you can choke on purees just as well but I need some convincing of this!

Your baby will probably gag, but it is very unlikely that he will choke.  We started with a wedge of avocado with the peel on.  Then baked sweet potato fries in a steak fry shape.  Then I think banana with most of the peel on.  Applesauce on a pre-loaded spoon. Here's a really early picture. 

cecilyandgautam

boilerup227:

I have read the book and was really gungho about doing it.  But, now I am really getting scared of the choking aspect.  Can anyone explain EXACTLY how/what you stared with?  We were plannng on starting this weekend.  I love the idea that it is baby led but really am starting to freak over the potential of choking. Yes, I realize that you can choke on purees just as well but I need some convincing of this!

If you let your baby self-feed foods cut into 2" by 1" shapes, those spears will not get lodged in the airway. Gagging is your gag-reflex that can be activated by just about anything, including fingers - my daughter mini-gags herself with her fingers daily. That's uncomfortable, but no biggy really. Choking is when something is lodged in the airway and it is a lot less likely to happen when 1) baby is feeding him/herself and 2) the shapes of food are too big to get lodged there. So moral of the story, don't put food in baby's mouth, let them navigate it themselves, and don't start off with peas or cherrios. Start out with strips of real food - your baby will not choke on a strip of steak.