As Mia grew and neared the magical age of six months, I got excited about the prospect of making and feeding her this homemade baby food. Other moms on my board were already beginning to give their babies purees at as young as four months, and I read about their experiences on our birth board. And then I read a post from one mom who said she was waiting till six months or older, and that she was going to do Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) with her child. I had never heard of this BLW and decided to check it out myself. I started by finding the BLW board on BabyCenter. The sticky post on the board had a ton of information and links about BLW. I continued to do my research and found that this may be a better system than the usual spoon-fed often force-fed baby feeding that I knew of and even participated in with children I babysat.
The concept of BLW is relatively simple. You give your baby soft, finger sized sticks of food that they can pick up on their own and feed themselves. It is like the table food concept that the main-stream crowd begins around 9-10 months old, except with larger sized pieces of food. The biggest concern for most people is: "won't she choke?". The answer: "most likely not." Of course there is a small chance of the baby choking, but no more than in any other food situation that the baby might be in.
The most attractive parts of BLW for me were that my baby would feed herself, allowing us to eat our meals at the same time! What a concept! Also, she could eat what we were eating, no need to make special food for her or spend hours cooking and blending food that she will probably spit out anyway. BLW is a gradual thing of course; when a baby starts doing BLW, the chance of food actual being chewed and swallowed is minimal. But with time, the baby learns how to bite off the food, move it around with her tongue, chew it (no teeth required, those gums are quite up to the challenge), and finally swallow it. The the eventual evidence in her diaper is like finding gold for most parents! Gagging is par for the course, but it is completely different from choking and is a good thing. The gag reflex helps baby learn how much food she can safely put in her mouth. Finally, babies who are introduced to solids using the BLW method are often better eaters. They are introduced to many different tastes and textures early and are more willing to eat a variety of food.
There are rules for BLW. First of all, baby should be 6 months old before starting BLW and able to sit up on a lap or in a highchair. Six months is the age when baby's digestive system should be mature enough to handle new foods. Also, food should be soft enough to be easily mashed up, although give to baby in a two-inch stick shape. Harder foods can be steamed or roasted, softer foods, such as avocado or ripe pears, can be offered raw.
We've had a great experience with BLW. Now that Mia has mastered the pincer-grip, she prefers her food served in smaller pieces, and she eats so many different foods. Just this week alone she's eaten cooked celery, green peppers, pasta, kidney beans, acorn squash, tilapia, hummus, avocado (one of her favorites), pears, grapes (another fave), banana, chicken, pork chops, potatoes, pita bread, cucumbers, and probably some other things that I can't remember at the moment. It's fun to share meal times with her, having her at the table with us and letting her join in our dinner conversations. BLW has changed the way my husband and I eat dinner as well. We now sit at the table like a real family instead of in front of the TV and we are trying foods we haven't eaten before. And to think, I would have never heard of this concept had it not been for my mommy community!
Green beans at 6 months
Avocado at 9 months, Mia's Favorite!
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