If you've never heard of baby led weaning, you are not alone. To many infant parents baby led weaning is a new concept. Others who have heard of it, are almost immediately intrigued, but still sometimes unsure of where to begin.
So What Exactly is Baby Led Weaning?
Baby led weaning is an alternative way to starting food that focuses on babies feeding themselves solid foods instead of being spoon fed by a caregiver.
With baby led weaning, your baby is in control of what and how much they eat. Your job as the parent is to prepare foods safe for your baby to eat and introduce your baby to a variety of flavors, textures, and kinds of food to develop their pallet and give them the chance to form their own opinions of food. All while learning to be healthy and independent eaters.
What Are The Benefits?
Baby led weaning is known for a variety of benefits for your baby as well as the entire family. Benefits include:
Helping your baby build a diverse diet
Decreasing the risk of your baby becoming a picky eater
Teaching your baby to follow their hunger cues and decreasing the chance for obesity later in life
Introducing allergenic foods early, leading to a decrease in the risk of developing allergies later in life
Building your baby's fine motor skill development
Supporting better conversational skills, as baby led weaning includes sitting down and eating together as a family, not separate
Preparation and shopping time is diminished, as your baby eats what the rest of the family eats
When Can I Start?
Although care givers are often told they can begin introducing their babies to basic rice cereal and other similar and non complex food, at their 4 month check up, these food show no nutritional value. Baby led weaning focuses on a diet of breast milk or formula only until a baby is at least 6 months of age. Other signs that your baby is ready to start solids include.
the ability to sit up (pretty much on their own)
showing interest in food (when watching others eat)
the ability to sit without in a high chair with full stability
If you are interested in learning more about baby led weaning or already wanting to jump right in, check back soon to see how our first few weeks went trying it with our 6 month old as well as a first week list of what foods to feed your baby.
Leave a comment letting us know what questions you have about baby led weaning.
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