Talking About: Baby Led Weaning

I thought I'd share with you some of my thought about this baby led weaning caper. Our baby is now 7.5 months old and we've been eating solids by baby led weaning for about 6 weeks now. I honestly can't imagine feeding him solids any other way. Before we even started on solids proper, we were eating soup for dinner one evening and I offered him some on his little baby spoon, which he grabbed and tried to feed himself with. So I guess that's where it started. 

Because... what could possibly go wrong?

If you're not sure what baby led weaning is all about, google it, but essentially it involves the baby feeding itself from the start, and eating [I use that term lightly] whatever the rest of the family is eating [within reason and common sense]. This means, no 'baby food' in the traditional sense of jars of mush, no homemade combinations of mush, in fact no separate baby meals prepared. I think it can be a little daunting for some, and many people have concerns that the baby will choke on something.

But it seems little babies, once they lose the reflex to push food out of their mouths, are quite capable of mouthing food around, breaking it up with saliva and their gums, and if a large piece does go in the mouth, they seem quite capable of bringing it back up/out again. Obviously you wouldn't ever leave a baby unattended while feeding and I know I watch our little one like a hawk [discreetly mind you, the idea is not to stare at them but to let them get on with eating!].

It is a wonderful thing to see. We have watched our little baby's hand to mouth coordination develop quickly, and his excitement and enthusiasm for meal time is just so lovely. Watching his face when his bowl turns up, seeing him check over everything, touching and rummaging around to see what looks good to eat, and seeing him discard unwanted things over the side of the high chair [yeah, not my favourite part]. Seeing him pick up a piece of food, bring it to his mouth and pop it in. So sweet.

Over the past 6 weeks he has started to eat much more, as he gets better at holding the food in his hands, getting it into his mouth, and chewing it up. I will say though, more food still ends up on the floor than gets into his mouth. I guess something I often think is that we're lucky we can spare the 'wastage' of some food not being eaten [although in this house, there is no wastage as it all goes out to the chooks, so I don't really mind]. But I can envisage that this may be a problem in different circumstances.

Recently we stopped into a cafe after a wander into town and ordered ourselves some hot chips and drinks. Only when our food started to turn up did we realise 'oops!' as we didn't get anything for William, and he's certainly not going to start eating hot chips at 7 months old [unless I make them for him, and I do]. So I went back to the counter to see what I could find, and ended up ordering him a small bowl of fruit salad. It came, and he sat on his Daddy's knee, in the cafe, eating up his fruit salad. A little girl at a table nearby was heard to exclaim 'look, the baby's eating the fruit salad!'. 

I know this baby led weaning thing is not quite mainstream, but I would not do anything else. I would be depriving our baby of the opportunity to explore and learn about food, to choose what he puts into his mouth, to learn about the different textures, and flavours, and colours, and every other sensory aspect of eating. He knows how to eat from a spoon, he's learning that a fork is different [and sharp]. And seeing what he enjoys eating is just so interesting.

I guess in all this, I believe my role here as the mother, is to guide, show, encourage, support. I occasionally get to spoon feed him, when he lets me. I love that our mealtimes are so inclusive, and that what we eat, is mostly what he eats. I am also of the belief that 'food before one is just for fun', as he is still primarily sustained by my breast milk. Motherhood - another instalment of my take on it. 

Have you tried baby led weaning? Or did you use conventional baby feeding to go onto solids? If you have any questions about how this works for us, by all means ask in the comments section and I'll do my best to tell you all I know. I'll also be posting up some baby led weaning meal ideas in the next few weeks if you're interested to know exactly what we eat.

Please bear in mind that this is simply the story of one family - I do not profess to know all the ins and outs of baby feeding or baby led weaning. As always, do your own research and above all, trust your instincts.