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May 15, 2010 10:24 AM Subscribe
baby-led weaning: yay or nay?
I have a four-month-old baby who is exclusively breastfed (& will be for the next couple months at least), but we've been reading about introducing solids & I heard about this idea called "baby-led weaning." My understanding is that rather than introducing first rice cereal & then puréed foods (jarred or homemade) for spoonfeeding, you begin by introducing graspable chunks of soft fruits & vegetables for the baby to self-feed. I think this sounds pretty neat but don't know anyone personally who's proceeded this way. Has anyone introduced solids in this fashion or heard anything about it, good or bad? I will, of course, be asking the pediatrician at our next office visit!
I have a four-month-old baby who is exclusively breastfed (& will be for the next couple months at least), but we've been reading about introducing solids & I heard about this idea called "baby-led weaning." My understanding is that rather than introducing first rice cereal & then puréed foods (jarred or homemade) for spoonfeeding, you begin by introducing graspable chunks of soft fruits & vegetables for the baby to self-feed. I think this sounds pretty neat but don't know anyone personally who's proceeded this way. Has anyone introduced solids in this fashion or heard anything about it, good or bad? I will, of course, be asking the pediatrician at our next office visit!
The book you want to read is Ellyn Satter's "Child of Mine: Feeding With Love and Good Sense."
When the baby is interested in what you are eating, that is a signal that baby is ready to expand beyond breastfeeding exclusively. Introducing solids isn't really the same thing as "baby-led weaning", though. Baby led weaning is nursing until the kid wants to wean, which can be later or earlier than mom might be ready to.
My son was always much more interested in what what we were eating than in pureed jarred baby food. The jarred baby food stage lasted about two weeks, and then it was bananas, avocados, etc.
posted by ambrosia at 10:40 AM on May 15, 2010
When the baby is interested in what you are eating, that is a signal that baby is ready to expand beyond breastfeeding exclusively. Introducing solids isn't really the same thing as "baby-led weaning", though. Baby led weaning is nursing until the kid wants to wean, which can be later or earlier than mom might be ready to.
My son was always much more interested in what what we were eating than in pureed jarred baby food. The jarred baby food stage lasted about two weeks, and then it was bananas, avocados, etc.
posted by ambrosia at 10:40 AM on May 15, 2010
Be prepared for your pediatrician to not know what the heck you are talking about.
We introduced solids in this fashion, and plan on doing so with our next child as well. It was easy and convenient and our baby never choked on anything. She gagged a bit at first, but gagging is the body's natural reaction to prevent choking. Once she got the hang of manipulating food to the back of her mouth with her tongue, she stopped with the gagging.
I think we started with quartered (very ripe) pears. We would cut a few inches from a banana (peel still on) and then peeled a little at a time so it was easier to grasp -- not so slippery that way. Peaches and plums are good whole if you take the first bite to start it. Sweet potato fries were a big hit too. Carrots can be cut into a "fry" shape and roasted, too. Once her pincer grip got really good we would have her practice on chickpeas and other kinds of beans. If it was something that really wasn't finger food (like yogurt) I would load the spoon and then hand it over to her. She was competent with a spoon and fork by about a year.
Good luck! It was great fun introducing our daughter to new foods!
posted by fancyoats at 10:45 AM on May 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
We introduced solids in this fashion, and plan on doing so with our next child as well. It was easy and convenient and our baby never choked on anything. She gagged a bit at first, but gagging is the body's natural reaction to prevent choking. Once she got the hang of manipulating food to the back of her mouth with her tongue, she stopped with the gagging.
I think we started with quartered (very ripe) pears. We would cut a few inches from a banana (peel still on) and then peeled a little at a time so it was easier to grasp -- not so slippery that way. Peaches and plums are good whole if you take the first bite to start it. Sweet potato fries were a big hit too. Carrots can be cut into a "fry" shape and roasted, too. Once her pincer grip got really good we would have her practice on chickpeas and other kinds of beans. If it was something that really wasn't finger food (like yogurt) I would load the spoon and then hand it over to her. She was competent with a spoon and fork by about a year.
Good luck! It was great fun introducing our daughter to new foods!
posted by fancyoats at 10:45 AM on May 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Introducing solids isn't really the same thing as "baby-led weaning", though. Baby led weaning is nursing until the kid wants to wean, which can be later or earlier than mom might be ready to.
I think ambrosia is referring to "child-led weaning" which is when the mother allows the child to decide how long to nurse for -- sometimes even up until the age of 6 or 7.
"Baby-led weaning" is indeed the process of introducing solids. It's called that because any introduction to solids is part of the weaning process -- and it's baby-led because the baby is self-feeding rather than having purees shoveled down her throat before she can even hold her head up by herself. I mean, my mom started me on rice cereal at 2 weeks old! Yikes!
posted by fancyoats at 10:55 AM on May 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
I think ambrosia is referring to "child-led weaning" which is when the mother allows the child to decide how long to nurse for -- sometimes even up until the age of 6 or 7.
"Baby-led weaning" is indeed the process of introducing solids. It's called that because any introduction to solids is part of the weaning process -- and it's baby-led because the baby is self-feeding rather than having purees shoveled down her throat before she can even hold her head up by herself. I mean, my mom started me on rice cereal at 2 weeks old! Yikes!
posted by fancyoats at 10:55 AM on May 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Take this with as much salt as you wish as I am not a parent (yeah I'm pregnant, but it's not the same thing!).
From watching friends, family and neighbours my whole life, I just assumed that this was a normal part of weaning (not necessarily on its own). I've often seen very small babies waving around little trees of broccoli, bananas, maybe even apple pieces etc. It just sounds normal to me.
posted by different at 11:28 AM on May 15, 2010
From watching friends, family and neighbours my whole life, I just assumed that this was a normal part of weaning (not necessarily on its own). I've often seen very small babies waving around little trees of broccoli, bananas, maybe even apple pieces etc. It just sounds normal to me.
posted by different at 11:28 AM on May 15, 2010
Yep, we did it too and it has been fine. I waited till the baby both had a pincher grasp and was interested in my food, which for him was around when he turned eight months old. We've had no choking scares -- he competently gags forward and drops out of his mouth anything he doesn't want to swallow. The only problems, if you can call them that, are that our pediatrician was unfamiliar with the idea and so isn't a good source of advice, and our families were disappointed that they wouldn't get to shovel in the applesauce as early as they wanted to. Oh, and I did think that this method would preclude me from having to bring special baby food to restaurants because he'd just eat off my plate, but I end up bringing stuff anyway because he gets restless before the food comes.
posted by xo at 11:44 AM on May 15, 2010
posted by xo at 11:44 AM on May 15, 2010
In my experience, your baby will give you a lot of guidance in this area. One of my three kids loved baby food; the other two never really did. One of them basically waited until he was 15 months old and could snarf down a hamburger to get serious about solid food, the other did the kind of gumming of finger foods and sampling off our plates you're talking about. I liked not spending the money on baby food, though like xo found that I still ended up carrying snacks for times when the baby needed something now. All three of these patterns seemed to work out fine for the baby.
posted by not that girl at 1:53 PM on May 15, 2010
posted by not that girl at 1:53 PM on May 15, 2010
I call this "too freaking lazy after three kids to pay attention", but we're doing the same thing. We use some packaged baby food for daycare and travel, but a lot of what he gets is whatever we have, made so he can eat it. He loves it and no problems so far.
posted by purenitrous at 5:23 PM on May 15, 2010
posted by purenitrous at 5:23 PM on May 15, 2010
We did this - we were one of the unfortunates who have choking incidents with baby led solids. And of course it was the first time - she managed to gum a chunk of pear off and attempted to swallow it. Cue the gag, then silence, face going progressively darker as tears streamed down her face and me yelling for the other anachronism as I pulled her out of the chair - still one of the more terrifying moments of my life. It all turned out okay as the act of trying to find the pear and then pulling her forward dislodged it. But I do strongly recommend a first aid course that does address kid problems - everyone should do that though! Even if you don't do baby led solids, kids will get into something. And the same thing happened to a girl in my due date club, except it was pureed carrot. So even puree/mash won't guaranteed non-choking.
We also did a bit of a combo with things that need a spoon (porridge, yoghurt, soups and saucy things) and things that don't (broccoli, pumpkin, sweet potato, peas, corn, bread). I've found a lot of people do. Putting a tarp down is a good idea and specially designed protective clothing - when it's warm it's great because you strip baby down completely. Check out your highchair as well - mine is a lovely wooden antique and it is the most godawful thing to clean once baby anachronism has smeared it with squish. We pull it up to the table now but that won't be a long term solution and we're looking at getting a ikea style completely washable one.
For travelling she usually gets what we have (within reason - nothing high salt, overly processed, containing egg or too hard) but we've got some back up snacks in the nappy bag. Some rice snack things, a squeezy tube of mush for non-mess/travel feeding and I'm going to do up some instant oatmeal as well for when we can't get our hands on appropriate food.
posted by geek anachronism at 6:07 PM on May 15, 2010
We also did a bit of a combo with things that need a spoon (porridge, yoghurt, soups and saucy things) and things that don't (broccoli, pumpkin, sweet potato, peas, corn, bread). I've found a lot of people do. Putting a tarp down is a good idea and specially designed protective clothing - when it's warm it's great because you strip baby down completely. Check out your highchair as well - mine is a lovely wooden antique and it is the most godawful thing to clean once baby anachronism has smeared it with squish. We pull it up to the table now but that won't be a long term solution and we're looking at getting a ikea style completely washable one.
For travelling she usually gets what we have (within reason - nothing high salt, overly processed, containing egg or too hard) but we've got some back up snacks in the nappy bag. Some rice snack things, a squeezy tube of mush for non-mess/travel feeding and I'm going to do up some instant oatmeal as well for when we can't get our hands on appropriate food.
posted by geek anachronism at 6:07 PM on May 15, 2010
Response by poster: um, geek anachronism, i am now terrified!!!!!!! oh my.
posted by oh really at 6:30 PM on May 15, 2010
posted by oh really at 6:30 PM on May 15, 2010
Best answer: YES DO THIS. I did not spoon-feed bite one, no mush at all, and thank heavens. I would've felt foolish if I had, having seen how it went. The whole spoon-feeding thing is quite unnecessary.
It was (noticing subject line here) not messy, far less messy than the pictures of infants with mush all over their chins or bowls of spaghetti on their heads one is accustomed to seeing. Around 7mo I started offering a bowl of something fairly sticky (thick yogurt, oatmeal, smushed beans) with a spoon and by 9mo the spoon was being used; at no point was a non-finger-food ever eaten with hands. So the table manners are a nice potential side benefit.
One thing that sent me in this direction was discovering that rice cereal remains popular, which I found totally inexplicable. Pablum is a Canadian invention and one hears about it along with other exciting Canadian inventions in school. Absolutely life-saving stuff, a vitaminized pap, back in the days of feeding infants off watered-down sweetened cow milk. But now? Absolutely useless. Junky, really. And most of the popular advice about weaning to solids is every bit as dated and silly.
Do read this article re. Experts seek to debunk baby food myths -- Little evidence supports ‘any particular way of doing things’ and Gill Rapley's Guidelines for implementing a baby-led approach to the introduction of solid food.
At the start I steamed or roasted a lot of veg -- broccoli and asparagus were ideal, red pepper appreciated too -- and at first stayed with mostly low-frustration stuff that was easy to pick up, non-slippery tomatoes, cucumbers, thinly sliced apple, cheese curds, rotini pasta, toast. Use big pieces rather than bite-size dice so baby controls how much is bitten off. I was creative with dips to round out the diet a bit, but, really, if you resist the urge to "help" your baby eat, it won't be long before s/he really can eat absolutely anything.
As for eating out, everywhere I went was very -- sometimes extremely -- happy to give us a 'baby plate' with some slices of tomato and cucumber and cheese or what-have-you. (Very easy to feed an infant from the stuff sitting on top of your salad.)
It would not have occurred to me to ask a pediatrician about this. (Our doctor is a mellow fellow who around 9mo asked "What's she eating?" and I said "I, er, you mean, what isn't she eating" and he said "Excellent" and that was the end of it.) You may or may not get useful advice. Pediatric advice on this has a bit of a chequered history; Mothers and Medicine: A Social History of Infant Feeding, 1890-1950 is fascinating reading and would be quite useful if you end up feeling unsure about not doing exactly as a doctor suggests.
The longer-term outcome, though I'm sure toddlers vary, is that the soon-to-be three-year-old here is a pleasure to dine with; she eats what I do, not the expected limited repertoire of bland starch. Here and there I have been terribly proud to find her shocking other parents by asking for salads. (On salads: mince veg very fine, add cheese and dressing, serve with a spoon. I also did fruit salads as spoon-intro stuff, again minced very fine.) On preview, on choking? See the choking part in the Rapley link, and keep in mind that your child is going to eat non-liquid food eventually and giving them the idea that everything is soupy and swallowable won't do anything useful. Use close supervision and common sense and everything will be fine.
posted by kmennie at 6:39 PM on May 15, 2010 [6 favorites]
It was (noticing subject line here) not messy, far less messy than the pictures of infants with mush all over their chins or bowls of spaghetti on their heads one is accustomed to seeing. Around 7mo I started offering a bowl of something fairly sticky (thick yogurt, oatmeal, smushed beans) with a spoon and by 9mo the spoon was being used; at no point was a non-finger-food ever eaten with hands. So the table manners are a nice potential side benefit.
One thing that sent me in this direction was discovering that rice cereal remains popular, which I found totally inexplicable. Pablum is a Canadian invention and one hears about it along with other exciting Canadian inventions in school. Absolutely life-saving stuff, a vitaminized pap, back in the days of feeding infants off watered-down sweetened cow milk. But now? Absolutely useless. Junky, really. And most of the popular advice about weaning to solids is every bit as dated and silly.
Do read this article re. Experts seek to debunk baby food myths -- Little evidence supports ‘any particular way of doing things’ and Gill Rapley's Guidelines for implementing a baby-led approach to the introduction of solid food.
At the start I steamed or roasted a lot of veg -- broccoli and asparagus were ideal, red pepper appreciated too -- and at first stayed with mostly low-frustration stuff that was easy to pick up, non-slippery tomatoes, cucumbers, thinly sliced apple, cheese curds, rotini pasta, toast. Use big pieces rather than bite-size dice so baby controls how much is bitten off. I was creative with dips to round out the diet a bit, but, really, if you resist the urge to "help" your baby eat, it won't be long before s/he really can eat absolutely anything.
As for eating out, everywhere I went was very -- sometimes extremely -- happy to give us a 'baby plate' with some slices of tomato and cucumber and cheese or what-have-you. (Very easy to feed an infant from the stuff sitting on top of your salad.)
It would not have occurred to me to ask a pediatrician about this. (Our doctor is a mellow fellow who around 9mo asked "What's she eating?" and I said "I, er, you mean, what isn't she eating" and he said "Excellent" and that was the end of it.) You may or may not get useful advice. Pediatric advice on this has a bit of a chequered history; Mothers and Medicine: A Social History of Infant Feeding, 1890-1950 is fascinating reading and would be quite useful if you end up feeling unsure about not doing exactly as a doctor suggests.
The longer-term outcome, though I'm sure toddlers vary, is that the soon-to-be three-year-old here is a pleasure to dine with; she eats what I do, not the expected limited repertoire of bland starch. Here and there I have been terribly proud to find her shocking other parents by asking for salads. (On salads: mince veg very fine, add cheese and dressing, serve with a spoon. I also did fruit salads as spoon-intro stuff, again minced very fine.) On preview, on choking? See the choking part in the Rapley link, and keep in mind that your child is going to eat non-liquid food eventually and giving them the idea that everything is soupy and swallowable won't do anything useful. Use close supervision and common sense and everything will be fine.
posted by kmennie at 6:39 PM on May 15, 2010 [6 favorites]
oh really: um, geek anachronism, i am now terrified!!!!!!! oh my.
Sorry! I know it's a scary story BUT it's a rare one. Baby anachronism is the only baby I know who had anything even close to a choking incident with baby led solids. To the point I thought maybe something was wrong with her (associated but she does indeed have an oddly strong gag reflex) (and yes I am a panicky first time parent). It's really been worth it - apart from not needing to buy pureed pap or make it myself, it's really made us aware of what we're eating. It's made meals a far more family oriented routine as well. I do think it's a natural sort of progression from breastfeeding and feeding on demand - it continues the eat when you're hungry and eat til you're full ideal. So please don't take the choking story as a negative of baby led solids, it was just part of our experience.
Also, rice cereal gave baby anachronism horrible constipation. Every time. Apparently the taste is bad too but I remember loving it as a child (I didn't eat it as a baby though - my mother did baby led solids as well). We'd been given a box and it was banana flavoured so I didn't try it and eventually pitched it.
posted by geek anachronism at 2:40 AM on May 16, 2010
Sorry! I know it's a scary story BUT it's a rare one. Baby anachronism is the only baby I know who had anything even close to a choking incident with baby led solids. To the point I thought maybe something was wrong with her (associated but she does indeed have an oddly strong gag reflex) (and yes I am a panicky first time parent). It's really been worth it - apart from not needing to buy pureed pap or make it myself, it's really made us aware of what we're eating. It's made meals a far more family oriented routine as well. I do think it's a natural sort of progression from breastfeeding and feeding on demand - it continues the eat when you're hungry and eat til you're full ideal. So please don't take the choking story as a negative of baby led solids, it was just part of our experience.
Also, rice cereal gave baby anachronism horrible constipation. Every time. Apparently the taste is bad too but I remember loving it as a child (I didn't eat it as a baby though - my mother did baby led solids as well). We'd been given a box and it was banana flavoured so I didn't try it and eventually pitched it.
posted by geek anachronism at 2:40 AM on May 16, 2010
I dunno how to phrase this without sounding creepily doctrinaire about 'BLW,' but. If baby anachronism was having cereal and other spoon stuff spoon-fed, this was a different route than baby-led solids and the heap of anecdotes I've heard says you should not expect the same results if you're not, well, doctrinaire about it. I don't think there is anything really wrong with doing some spoon-feeding; I don't see the point but, hardly harmful, however, I feel that skipping the mush and leaving things ENTIRELY up to the baby does more to help him figure out what should and should not be swallowed without chewing. Again, just my observation going off our experience plus a lot of anecdotes from other families; there are not studies backing this up AFAIK.
posted by kmennie at 6:52 AM on May 16, 2010
posted by kmennie at 6:52 AM on May 16, 2010
Best answer: kmennie: . I don't think there is anything really wrong with doing some spoon-feeding; I don't see the point but, hardly harmful, however, I feel that skipping the mush and leaving things ENTIRELY up to the baby does more to help him figure out what should and should not be swallowed without chewing.
S'ok - baby anachronism hadn't actually had any spoon fed food at that point (like I said, it was the first time I'd deliberately given her food) (she had grabbed food off our plate before that) and the choking did make me far less comfortable with being strict with it which is probably why we did spoon feeding as well. I got tired of the continual adrenaline rushes every time she gagged. But yeah, my anecdotal evidence lines up with yours - the kids who strictly did BLS haven't had any choking incidents. And baby anachronism only ever had that one serious incident (twice since then we've had the 'gag and then vomit everywhere' incidents with food that wasn't really soft enough for her). If I were doing it over again I'd probably avoid all spoon feeding.
Actually, along those lines I really do recommend getting out and talking to other families who are doing BLS if you can. Seeing how other kids eat can really make you feel a lot less panicky about it. Videos are okay but actually seeing other kids move the food around their mouth and eat is a great way to get yourself comfortable with what your kid does.
posted by geek anachronism at 6:20 PM on May 16, 2010
S'ok - baby anachronism hadn't actually had any spoon fed food at that point (like I said, it was the first time I'd deliberately given her food) (she had grabbed food off our plate before that) and the choking did make me far less comfortable with being strict with it which is probably why we did spoon feeding as well. I got tired of the continual adrenaline rushes every time she gagged. But yeah, my anecdotal evidence lines up with yours - the kids who strictly did BLS haven't had any choking incidents. And baby anachronism only ever had that one serious incident (twice since then we've had the 'gag and then vomit everywhere' incidents with food that wasn't really soft enough for her). If I were doing it over again I'd probably avoid all spoon feeding.
Actually, along those lines I really do recommend getting out and talking to other families who are doing BLS if you can. Seeing how other kids eat can really make you feel a lot less panicky about it. Videos are okay but actually seeing other kids move the food around their mouth and eat is a great way to get yourself comfortable with what your kid does.
posted by geek anachronism at 6:20 PM on May 16, 2010
We too did unofficial BLW.
I found the BLW people in the forums to be a little too hard core for my taste.
What we did:
- no rice cereal or anything like that.
- at 6 months started with soft foods like bananas, avocados, applesauce... not TOO mushed, but not solid either. As time went on, we gradually got into more solid chunks.
- we occasionally did baby food from a jar when it made sense time and stress wise...
- we also did a lot of handheld food like Baby MumMums and as he started really getting crawling, yogurt melts and puffs.
- tons of tortellini and other pastas.
- our daycare REALLY emphasizes self-feeding and so he hasn't had me shovel stuff into his face since he was 8 months old.
And as others have said, it really isn't that messy. Baby purreed food is worse.
I HATED "Satter's "Child of Mine: Feeding With Love and Good Sense" - although I bought it via a MeFi recommendation. It was pretty anti-breastfeeding and pretty out-of-date with today's parenting trends. And it has nothing to do with BLW.
posted by k8t at 10:42 PM on May 16, 2010
I found the BLW people in the forums to be a little too hard core for my taste.
What we did:
- no rice cereal or anything like that.
- at 6 months started with soft foods like bananas, avocados, applesauce... not TOO mushed, but not solid either. As time went on, we gradually got into more solid chunks.
- we occasionally did baby food from a jar when it made sense time and stress wise...
- we also did a lot of handheld food like Baby MumMums and as he started really getting crawling, yogurt melts and puffs.
- tons of tortellini and other pastas.
- our daycare REALLY emphasizes self-feeding and so he hasn't had me shovel stuff into his face since he was 8 months old.
And as others have said, it really isn't that messy. Baby purreed food is worse.
I HATED "Satter's "Child of Mine: Feeding With Love and Good Sense" - although I bought it via a MeFi recommendation. It was pretty anti-breastfeeding and pretty out-of-date with today's parenting trends. And it has nothing to do with BLW.
posted by k8t at 10:42 PM on May 16, 2010
Satter anti-breastfeeding? What? Are we talking about the same book? In the very beginning of the chapter on bfing she states quite plainly that she thinks breastmilk is best, and encourages mothers to try before ruling it out. She's not judgy about it though. I found it very useful when figuring out when and how to introduce solid foods, and I found myself wishing I'd read it earlier, because a lot of the chapter on breastfeeding had info I could have benefited from if I'd read it when my son was a newborn.
posted by ambrosia at 11:50 PM on May 16, 2010
posted by ambrosia at 11:50 PM on May 16, 2010
The Satter book said something like try to wean them before 12 months and said something vaguely offensive about older children that breastfeed having issues with trying new foods.
I can try to skim for what the issue was exactly, but I read it about 8 months ago and was really annoyed/offended, so I put the book away.
posted by k8t at 9:17 PM on May 17, 2010
I can try to skim for what the issue was exactly, but I read it about 8 months ago and was really annoyed/offended, so I put the book away.
posted by k8t at 9:17 PM on May 17, 2010
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If we were having spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, I'd give them some noodles and some small small pieces of cut up meatball. If we were having bananas for breakfast, I'd either cut the banana up into small chunks or just let them take bites from the banana. They got toast, roast beef hash, softened pieces of carrots, peas, meatloaf, pretty much whatever we were eating, they got a modified version.
posted by Sassyfras at 10:35 AM on May 15, 2010 [2 favorites]