Opinions on Baby Led Weaning?

knolliepollie · May 2015

FTM to be over here, and just stumbled upon baby led weaning. It seems like really cool and cute approach to take when introducing food to your baby. Have any of you done it? Would you recommend it?

lulamagoo · May 2015

We did it with my son and will do it with this baby. It was so much easier to just give him what we were having.
Not sure if you are on Instagram, but there is a user, mylovelylittlelunchbox, that posts great blw recipes b

VexyMommy · May 2015

It sounds very interesting and my boyfriend and I will research it later on down the road. It seems to be right up our alley and I've heard no cons from any of the ladies here about it.

dogsombrero · May 2015

There were a few ladies on my last BMB who did. I was not able to with my son because he had swallowing issues and had to go to speech therapy to correct them. The biggest idea of BLW is no purees are done and the baby is given only soft table foods. We currently do a variety of table foods and purees with our son.

*edit for spelling error

EMLarie · May 2015

Hi I haven't posted much in the past couple years so I just wanted to re-introduce myself a couple times before I start again. I have a 2 year old little girl and another one due on Thanksgiving.

I did BLW with DD and it worked out well for us. Mostly I did it because I thought it would help develop her palate a bit more (we are adventurous eaters and I was obsessed with her eating what we ate) and it just seemed easier for my family. Also, she didn't take well to the normal pureed foods and cereals. I ended up "mama birding" food for her as well, which I'm not sure falls under the BLW category, but I just did what worked for us.

I can't really look back and say that BLW is the best way for everyone, or that it is the reason my kid is a good eater now, because I'll never know. But I will be doing the same thing for #2.

Warning though, it does get messy and I got zero support from family besides my husband so I heard a lot of "OMG she's gonna choke!!" and had to defend myself quite a bit.

Falchas · May 2015

I think we inadvertently did it, without knowing it was a thing. When my first was about 6 months, he was gaining weight really slow, so our pedi had us take him to a gastro specialist. He told us we just had a small baby, but if we were worried about him gaining weight, don't worry about baby food and all that, after all pureed veggies and fruit aren't really high in calories. So his primary diet until 1 year was breastmilk and/or formula. He nursed until he weaned himself at 11 months, so I did a combo of pumped milk and formula until switching over to dairy at a year. From 6 months to a year, solid meals were just about having fun, rather than substance. We put easy to hold/chew fruits and veggies in front of him and let him play. We let him try bites of what we were eating. He loved those pouches of veggies and fruit. He played with spoons, if he managed to use it correctly, great. I can't tell you the weight that was lifted off my shoulders when I could stop trying to figure out how many ounces of BM he was getting vs. how many tablespoons of baby food etc. Knowing that he was getting all his nutrition taken care of through breastfeeding/formula and trying different foods at his own pace was so relaxing. Anyhow, I'm not sure if what we did was technically BLW (I'll have to research more), but I love the way we ended up doing it and plan to try it again.

OSUJaydee · May 2015

We did it with my oldest because he wanted to take control of feeding himself early so we decided it would be easier to do that with real food. He started table foods around 7 months I think. My youngest didn't want anything to do with feeding himself until he was 13 months, so we just did purees with him and started table food then with him. I'd like to do BLW with this LO, but it seems personality dependent so I'll just wait and see.

LSRoo · May 2015

I did it with DS and will do it with this baby. When the time comes I am sure his board will have many posts on it. Lots of good books out today completely dedicated to BLW.

ashleywuli · May 2015

I did it with my third and will be doing it with this baby. It is so much easier minus the comments from people who don't understand it. If you're on Facebook check out the group feeding the littles. It is full of ideas, advice and support. There are also a lot of books on the subject.

MargaretC5 · May 2015

We did it with DS I liked it because we could all eat together and not worry about spoon feeding. I read the BLW cookbook ( the first half is a shortened version of the original BLW book). The one part of it I found really helpful was the chapter on gagging. DS gagged a lot in the beginning but babies gag reflex is much higher than an adults so that is normal and did not bother him at all. I really appreciated knowing about that ahead of time.

I would also like to take this opportunity to shameless show off some pics of DS from went we first started BLW and he was still trying to figure out what to do with food

olga1311 · May 2015

Tried with DD and she was not interested. She didnt want anything that wasnt a puree untill 9-10 months. Tbh it wasnt a big time commtment cooking her purees. I'll follow this baby's lead- if they are more interested in BLW i'll do that if not i'll do purees.

3JTMom · May 2015

This was the normal way we fed all three of our boys. If we felt it needed some help with softness, we would just smash it up a bit. But all in all, it was a great way to feed our kids. I hope it works for you.

#notautomatic-

amh0411712 · May 2015

We did it with my boys. They were amazing eaters until they were 2 and hit a picky stage.

It just came much more natural, I felt like it allowed them to explore food without being pressured or without shoving food into their mouth if they didn't want to eat it.

We had a lot of fun with it, and will do it again with LO3

zoihoku · May 2015

FTM here as well, and we plan to do it. I have several friends that have been very successful with it. Another instagram to follow in regards to Baby Led Weaning is BLWIdeas. To me it seems like a win win! It helps with baby's development, is easier due to not needing to make multiple foods for the family, and cheaper than buying the baby jars.

Laurakat81 · May 2015

I highly recommend it! We started around 5 months when DD could sit up unassisted and I'd simply place her in my lap at meal time with the plate within her reach. Obviously I made sure only foods I wanted her eating were within her grasp and she'd get curious and grab things. Sweet potato sticks, sliced avocado, drumsticks! Anything if it was big enough for her to grasp in her fist to gnaw on. I'd say it was at least 2 months before I noticed anything in her diaper suggesting she was actually swallowing any of it. Meal time was insanely messy but we really went with the "food before one is just for fun"! And even then she mostly just played with food, gnawed on it, sucked it, etc until closer to a year old when she did get more serious about actually eating....which from my understanding is the normal process. They do not need very much food before one if they are getting proper breastmilk or formula.

It is just so simple to do. I have never bought baby food of any sort. She eats whatever I'm eating. I might occasionally have to go light on spices but that's the only thing I have to prepare differently. I really enjoyed being able to have family dinners from an early age where I never once had to postpone my own meal while spoon feeding her! And i really think our laid back attitude toward her playing with her food is why she is so willing to try new foods and thoroughly enjoys dinner time as a family. There are no meal time battles thus far. She eats if she's hungry, she doesn't if she's not. She's now old enough to not make a mess but for a while we placed a huge tablecloth just under her because food ends up everywhere.m

I used to bake things like apples and carrots for a bit to soften them up so she could eat them or I'd give her an apple i had already eaten a bit and just let her suck on it, that would get her used to texture and she could get some of the juice. There are just so many options and I'm sure a ton of things I'm forgetting but I will definitely do it again. I just cannot imagine spending money on little jars of processed "food" to feed my LO when babies were made to eat food!

And at 21 months old my child will still eat anything. She has preferences but anything is fair game! And she's never been afraid to try something new, without prompting.

ahowell88 · May 2015

We did a sort of modified BLW with my second. I worked full time, so I still sent homemade baby food to daycare with him, however at home he ate what we ate and only if he expressed interest. He wasn't really interested in any food at all until around 7 months but he is an EXCELLENT eater now and not really picky at all. I also think it helped extend our breastfeeding, which he weaned himself from at around 14 months.

nano1 · May 2015

We did it with our son because after a month of starting solids (puréed) he decided he didn't want anything except milk for the following month. He started eating again when we tested out BLW but wouldn't touch anything puréed.

Pontot31 · May 2015

We did a mix and it was great.
I'm in the "food before 1 is just for fun" camp so I let her experiment with what she liked and never worried how much she was eating.
She was mostly breastfed until 8-9 months.

She was very independent and wouldn't let us spoon feed her. So we would give her pouches and she would drink them herself. Then we would give her strips of what we had

Be prepared for gagging. It's part of it. They have a strong gag reflex for that reason and will test how far they can get food down.

A lot of the food she would just gum and spit out but she still got the taste for it.
She was not a picky eater until recently and she's still a pretty good eater and I think it's because she was eating a huge variety at a young age.

lopezalonso · May 2015

What exactly is this? Just not puréeing their food? I started off with puréed and baby food and then started feeding her from our plate. My MIL did this as well but my mom is convinced that DD (14mo now) has to have puréed food without any of the spices we eat in our food. She insists that DD not have any salt. I think she's a little over the top and that spices are fine, I mean, the freaking baby food has spices. Anyway, I think that my comment was a mix of asking for info, venting, and agreeing with the rest of you all.

Pontot31 · May 2015

lopezalonso said:
What exactly is this? Just not puréeing their food? I started off with puréed and baby food and then started feeding her from our plate. My MIL did this as well but my mom is convinced that DD (14mo now) has to have puréed food without any of the spices we eat in our food. She insists that DD not have any salt. I think she's a little over the top and that spices are fine, I mean, the freaking baby food has spices. Anyway, I think that my comment was a mix of asking for info, venting, and agreeing with the rest of you all.

If you google it you can learn more.
Basically giving the baby what you eat. No bothering with purees.
You cut your food in big strips so they can gum it.

==Mrs=Pagan=2015== · May 2015

What is BLW?

ddkistler · May 2015

It's easy! Don't let the scary "baby led weaning" title turn you off. It's fun to explore new food with your baby and it is so simple and hands-off. No spoons, no blenders - just regular food. And she feeds herself!

With my first, we started around 5 months when she started reaching for my bananas. But real food wasn't her main source of nutrition until about a year.

I'm all about keeping things simple...

krae771 · May 2015

I did BLW with my first and will definitely do it with my 2nd.

I took a modified approach and started with BLW only at 6 months but due to some food allergy scares, at 7-8 months, I also started doing purees as well so I could monitor what he was consuming more easily. So we would do one meal of purees which I used to introduce new foods and then BLW meals the rest of the time. I considered breastmilk his primary nutrition source until he was a year. It worked great and he is 19 months now. He is kind of picky but has never had any issue with eating otherwise and did great with solid food, better than other babies I witnessed that did a more traditional approach. It seemed to make him more aware of what he was putting in his mouth. We had minimal gagging but only in the first month or two and then only very rarely afterwards. I did have to answer a LOT of questions about it - some family members couldn't believe he was eating solid food when he was and were always hovering like he was going to choke, but they eventually got more comfortable with it.

mamavbs · May 2015

Id say see how it goes when bubba gets to that stage. With my son I planned to do BLW but he just couldn't get to grips with it at all so I ended up with purée's for a bit. He's almost 4 and is an amazing eater (he chose calamari in a restaurant last week). My DD took to it perfectly and didn't touch a puree! But as a second child I wonder if that's because she was surrounded by food all the time!? She's 2 and eats well too.

So if you're going to try it, I'd definitely try and include baby at your meal times- If it sees you all eating it will hopefully copy and make it more enjoyable too! Either way, don't put any pressure on yourself and see what works best for you both :-)

Ooh and something I found useful, think of their food intake on a weekly basis not day to day. They may eat more some days and much less on others

jbean1081 · June 2015

We did this with our 4 year-old and our almost 2 year-old. They both did great and are fantastic eaters to this day. If you do this, expect everyone you know to freak out a little that your baby isn't eating baby food. Seems like my parents and in-laws couldn't get used to it.

jscasher · June 2015

I had to Google this to know what it even meant! Sounds interesting. I'll probably give it a go myself!

thefithuntress · June 2015

My cousin does it with her daughter and it's pretty adorable. She eats steamed green beans and pieces of squash.. Talk about cheap! I think it's great to give your baby the chance to explore foods and learn to eat at their own pace.

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