What is Baby-Led Weaning?

Baby-led weaning (BLW) is a method of introducing solid foods where infants self-feed whole, soft finger foods from the very beginning, skipping traditional spoon-fed purees. It empowers babies to explore textures, and tastes and develop their fine motor skills at their own pace.

Before embarking on any form of weaning, including the exciting journey of Baby-Led Weaning, it is very important to ensure that your baby demonstrates clear signs of readiness for solid foods. Most importantly, it is essential to obtain the all-clear from your pediatrician before introducing solids via BLW or any other method. Your pediatrician can assess your baby’s individual developmental progress, and overall health, and provide personalized guidance on the most appropriate time and approach for starting solids, ensuring a safe and positive experience for both you and your little one.

Parent-Led vs. Baby-Led Weaning

Parent-led weaning often involves parents deciding what, when, and how much a baby eats, typically starting with smooth purees offered via a spoon. In contrast, BLW puts the baby in control. They choose what to put in their mouth, how much to eat, and the pace at which they explore food.

Benefits of Baby-Led Weaning

BLW offers several advantages:

• Less to Prepare: Often, you can simply offer your baby modified versions of the family meal, reducing the need for separate purees.
• No Rigid Schedules: Babies eat when they are ready and interested, aligning with their natural hunger cues.
• Promotes Physical Development: Handling different food textures and bringing them to the mouth enhances fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and chewing abilities. Pre-mashing food for a baby robs them of the opportunity to mash it themselves, first with their hands and then their lips, gums, and tongue. This process is developmentally important. Would you like to have only one texture for your food?  
• A Path to Healthy Eating – No Overeating: Babies learn to recognize their satiety cues and stop eating when they are full, potentially fostering healthy eating habits and preventing overeating later in life.
• Promotes Social Development: Participating in family meals from the start allows babies to observe and learn about eating behaviors in a social context.

What Does Baby-Led Weaning Look Like?

With BLW, your baby sits at the family table during mealtimes and eats when they show readiness. The focus is on exploration and learning about food rather than solely on sustenance in the early stages. Spoons are typically avoided until the baby can independently hold one, and purees are skipped entirely. Progress is entirely dependent on the baby’s individual development, not on parental prompting. On-demand milk feeding (breast milk or formula) continues as the primary source of nutrition. Crucially, the baby learns to regulate their intake and stop eating when they feel full.

Why Should Eating Be Different From Any Other Developmental Milestones?

Think about how babies learn to crawl, walk, or talk. They are given opportunities, and they progress at their own pace, driven by their internal cues and interests. Eating is a fundamental developmental skill, and BLW applies this same philosophy of trust and empowerment to the introduction of solids.

Why You Should Not Start Before 6 Months

Introducing solids before six months is generally not recommended due to several key reasons:

• Lower Nutritional Value: Breast milk and formula are significantly higher in nutritional value than the small amounts of solid food a baby would typically consume at this early stage.
• Immature Gut: The baby’s digestive system is not yet mature enough to efficiently digest solid foods before six months.
• Disrupted Milk Digestion: Introducing solid food too early can interfere with the baby’s ability to properly digest breast milk or formula.
• Gut Microbiome Disruption: Starting solids prematurely can negatively impact the developing gut microbiome.
• Immature Immune System: The baby’s immune system is not yet fully equipped to handle the bacteria present in food.

But My Baby Is Interested in Food!

It’s common for babies to show interest in food around 4-5 months, but these are generally not reliable signs of solid food readiness. Babies are interested in everything people around them are doing! It’s their way of learning about the world.  Behaviors like night waking, slowed weight gain (which usually slows naturally around 4 months and often indicates a need for more milk, not solids), being interested in watching others eat, and the normal disappearance of the tongue thrust reflex are not indicators that a baby is developmentally ready for solids.

What About the Critical Window for Allergen Exposure?

Current recommendations suggest introducing common allergens (like peanuts, eggs, and dairy) around six months, once a baby shows other signs of readiness for solids. This still leaves us with two months of the allergen introduction window(4-8 months) to lower the chance of allergy without starting solids too early. With BLW, allergens like nuts can be introduced in their butter form (almond butter, peanut butter). Sesame can be introduced using Tahini, cow’s milk protein with cheese, Soy with tofu, eggs with baked goods and frittatas, and fish with patties and fish sticks.

A Bit of History

Interestingly, the practice of feeding purees is a relatively recent development in human history, not widely documented before the 20th century (with the exception of “kiss feeding,” where mothers pre-chewed food). At the beginning of the 20th century, babies typically started solids around 9-10 months. Historically, babies began eating solids when they could sit independently at the family table – the ability to sit upright was a key indicator of readiness. They would use their hands. Many cultures do not have utensils at all and consider feeling the food a part of tasting it.

So What Happened?

The widespread adoption of purees is more of a modern trend than a historical norm in infant feeding. It was widely spread in the West when formula feeding started to gain popularity in the 20th century, and doctors started recommending rigid schedules for babies. This caused mothers to lose their breast milk supply and, since baby formula was still in its developing stages, many turned to solid food to bridge the gap. But because babies were too young to properly consume solids they had to be pureed for them.

Purees Are Not a Fact of Baby Feeding!

It’s important to remember that spoon-fed purees are not the only or necessarily the optimal way to introduce solids.

Why Not Spoons and Purees?

There are several reasons to consider not using spoons and purees and opting for BLW:

• Not the Same Food as Everyone Else: Purees are often bland and don’t expose babies to the diverse flavors and textures of the family’s diet.
• No Hand Involvement: Puree feeding doesn’t encourage the development of fine motor skills through self-feeding.
• Always the Same Texture: Babies don’t learn to manage different textures and consistencies.
• No Control: The baby has no control over what and when they eat, potentially hindering their ability to recognize satiety cues.
• Limited Oral Motor Development: Purees are often sucked deep into the mouth, limiting the involvement of the gums, tongue, and lips, which are crucial for developing chewing skills.
• Lower Nutritional Value: The processing involved in making purees can sometimes reduce the nutritional content of the food.

Food Under One Is Just For Fun… and Learning

During the first year, solid food intake is primarily about exploration, learning, and developing skills, with breast milk or formula remaining the primary source of nutrition.

The Three Zones of Control

It’s wise to be mindful of the three areas where young children often assert control: what they eat, when they fall asleep, and when they pee and poop. Keeping these zones as stress-free as possible can prevent potential behavioral issues. Ensure that the table is a calm and happy place for your baby to explore food.

How Does Eating Develop?

The development of eating skills is a gradual process:

• Latching on the breast and effectively removing milk.
• The ability to reach for objects.
• The ability to grab objects and bring them to the mouth.
• Fist grasping.
• Tongue and mouth exploration of objects.
• The ability to take a bite.
• The ability to chew.
• The ability to move food to the back of the mouth and swallow.
• Pincer grasp (typically develops around 9-10 months).

Around 9 months, you might notice a breakthrough as milk quantities might naturally start to decrease as solid food intake increases.

Won’t the Baby Choke?

Choking occurs when the gag and cough reflexes are not functioning properly. Gaging is a normal and protective reflex that helps babies move food forward in their mouths. A choking baby will be quiet and unable to cough effectively, requiring immediate assistance. With BLW, babies are typically offered foods in sizes and shapes that they can manage safely with their current developmental skills. The choking risk is not higher with baby-led weaning compared to traditional feeding methods. In fact, babies who are introduced to solids via BLW tend to gag less on non-pureed foods than will pureed-fed babies later in the weaning process when they first encounter unpureed food.

Baby-Led and Preterm Babies

For preterm babies or otherwise medically or physically challenged babies, it’s essential to get approval from their doctor before starting BLW and to begin at their corrected age based on their gestational age.

Safety Rules for Baby-Led Weaning

To ensure safety during BLW:

• Ensure the baby can sit up independently in a high chair or on a parent’s lap with good support (rolled-up towels can be used for assistance).
• Avoid common choking hazards such as whole nuts, whole grapes, and hard candy.
• Never put food directly into the baby’s mouth; allow them to self-feed. Make sure other good-intentioned caretakers or siblings don’t put anything in the baby’s mouth.
• Never leave the baby alone while eating.
• Minimize distractions during mealtimes.
• Always check for any leftover food in the baby’s mouth at the end of the meal.

How to Start?

You can often start with modified versions of what the family is eating. Babies initially use a fist grasp and can’t open and close their fists, so they need food to be long and graspable. All food needs to stick out beyond their fist grasp, or they will not be able to get at it.

What to Offer and When?

• 6-8 months: Baby reaches for food and grabs with a fist hold (cannot yet open the fist fully) and starts bringing food to the mouth. Offer 3-inch long, 1-2-inch wide pieces of soft foods like omelet strips, cooked chicken strips, soft fruit, vegetable sticks (like steamed carrot or zucchini), and toast fingers.
• 7-9 months: Baby can open their fist and has better hand-to-mouth coordination (may use two hands). Continue offering previously introduced foods, plus slippery foods like avocado wedges, and experiment with lumpy textures (mashed sweet potato with small lumps).
• 8-10 months: Pincer grasp typically develops. Introduce smaller, bite-sized pieces of previously offered foods. You can also start introducing pre-loaded utensils (spoon with yogurt, fork with mashed banana).
• 9-12 months: Pincer grasp improves, and more actual eating begins. Offer a wide variety of healthy and nutritious foods (excluding honey and cow’s milk as a main drink).
• 11-14 months: Baby often goes between using utensils and their hands. Continue offering a variety of healthy and nutritious foods (excluding honey and cow’s milk as a main drink).
• 18 months onwards: Neophobia (fear of new foods) can emerge. Variety and perseverance in offering different foods are key.

How Much Should I Offer?

Start with just a few pieces of one or two different foods per meal. Remember that food under one is primarily for exploration and learning. A good rule to remember is that a portion of any part of the meal should be about the size of the fist of the person eating the meal.

Oh The Mess!

Mess is an inevitable part of baby-led weaning. Embrace it as a sign of exploration and learning! You can spread a large muslin under your baby’s seat while they eat. At the end of the meal, all you need to do is throw out the food that fell on the muslin and toss the muslin in the laundry. You can also use a whipable mat. Make sure to let your baby get messy. There’s no need to be constantly wiping your baby mid-meal. Embrace the chaos.

Can I Switch to Baby-Led After Using Spoons for a While?

If you’ve started your baby on spoon-fed purees, making a sudden leap to Baby-Led Weaning isn’t typically advised because it involves a significant shift in how your baby handles food in their mouth. When babies are consistently given purees, they learn to swallow the smooth food with minimal chewing or oral manipulation. The puree is often placed towards the back of their mouth, and they primarily use a sucking and swallowing motion to consume it.

Introducing whole, solid finger foods abruptly can be challenging and potentially risky for a baby who hasn’t developed the necessary oral motor skills. They may not know how to effectively move the food around in their mouth, how to gum or chew it appropriately, or how to safely manage different textures. This can increase the risk of gagging excessively or, in rare cases, even choking, as they might try to swallow larger pieces of food without properly breaking them down.

Instead of an immediate switch, a more gradual transition is recommended. This involves slowly increasing the texture of the food you offer via a spoon. For example, you can start by offering lumpier purees, then progress to mashed foods with soft chunks. This allows your baby to become accustomed to different consistencies and encourages them to start using their tongue and gums more actively to manage the food.

Alongside these textural changes in spoon-feeding, you can begin to introduce soft, easily manageable finger foods for your baby to explore independently. This allows them to practice grasping, bringing food to their mouth, and learning how to gum and chew at their own pace under your close supervision. By gradually increasing the texture of spoon-fed foods and simultaneously offering appropriate finger foods, you bridge the gap between the swallowing action of puree eating and the chewing skills required for successful Baby-Led Weaning. This gentler approach allows your baby to develop the necessary oral motor skills and coordination, making the eventual transition to more independent self-feeding with a wider variety of textures much safer and more enjoyable. While babies who are primarily BLW can handle finger foods from the start of weaning, babies who have been primarily parent-led with pureed foods often show readiness for more independent finger feeding around nine months of age, but always observe your baby’s cues and development.

Are There Foods I Should Avoid?

Yes, some foods are best avoided in the first year:

• High salt content foods.
• High sugar content foods.
• Honey (not before 1 year of age due to the risk of botulism).
• Cow’s milk (not as a main drink before 1 year).
• Processed and junk food.
• Raw meat and fish.
• Moldy cheese.
• Rice and soy milk (as primary drinks).
• Caffeine.
• Choking hazards (nuts, whole grapes, hard candy, etc.).
• High-fiber foods like bran flakes in large quantities.

Baby Dietary Needs

• Whole Grains? Introduce them early but in moderation, no more than about 1 ounce a day.
• Babies need a higher fat content in their diet. If your family is reducing fat intake, continue giving your baby whole milk yogurt, and other sources of healthy fats.

How to Make Baby-Friendly Food?

• Meat: Cut chicken, beef, turkey, and pork into strips or make long patties from ground meat. Schnitzel and drumsticks (with small bones removed) can also work.
• Eggs: Offer hard omelet strips or scrambled eggs in large pieces.
• Vegetables: Steam or roast vegetables (remember they shrink when cooked!) into long, soft strips. Soft vegetables like ripe avocado or cooked bell pepper can be served raw in strips.
• Fruit: Cut soft fruits into strips (larger fruits like apples can also be cut in half). Soften harder fruits like apples by briefly microwaving them. Offer bananas with some peel left on as a “handle.”
• Pasta, Bread, and Rice: Initially, offer these without sauce. Use dips like hummus with toasted bread strips or breadsticks and rice cakes.
• Safety is Key: Remove all seeds and pits from fruits and vegetables. Remove skin from sausages and tough skin from fruits. Cut round foods like grapes and cherry tomatoes in half or quarters. Ensure cakes and muffins have no nuts; nuts should only be given in paste or butter form (peanut butter, almond butter, etc.) and thin layers. Be very careful to remove all bones from fish or avoid bony fish altogether. Remove skin and tendons from meat and chicken. Soften hard fruits and vegetables through cooking.
• Soups: These can be offered as a dip with a piece of toast or breadstick until the baby can independently use a spoon.
• Porridge: Can be made thick and lumpy enough for the baby to grasp with their hand, suitable after the baby can open and close their palm while grasping (around 7-9 months).

Perfect Baby Foods:

• Lightly steamed or broiled broccoli and cauliflower florets.
• Vegetable sticks (carrot, zucchini, sweet potato) lightly cooked or steamed.
• Cucumber sticks.
• Hard omelet or frittata strips.
• Chicken drumstick (cleaned of small, sharp bones and skin).
• Fruit sticks (lightly cook hard fruit like pear or apple to soften without losing shape).
• Greek yogurt pancakes (enriched with fruit, almond butter, tahini, etc.).
• Patties shaped into sausage-like shapes (from ground meat, lentils, etc.).
• Toast strips with healthy spreads like cheese, tahini, hummus, and avocado.
• Falafel with shape adaptation (like the patties).
• Shave thin strips of any hard fruit or vegetable with a peeler for an easy on-the-go snack.

Remember, anything the family is eating can usually be adapted for your baby. Use less or no salt and sugar, shape foods into graspable strips, and soften hard fruits and vegetables through cooking.

How to Start with Water:

Offer small amounts of water in an open cup or a straw cup alongside meals from around six months. Don’t replace breast milk or formula with water. When introducing water to your baby, it’s beneficial to offer it in a small open cup or a straw cup. This helps them develop the skills needed for drinking water and provides a more authentic experience, as water is not commonly consumed from a baby bottle beyond infancy.

Think About Snacks as Mini-Meals: Fueling Growth and Exploration

Instead of viewing snacks as mere quick bites to tide your baby over until the next meal, consider them as valuable opportunities to offer a balanced array of nutrients, just like you would during breakfast, lunch, or dinner. By thoughtfully constructing snacks to include a source of protein (like a small piece of cheese, a dollop of nut butter on toast, or a few pieces of cooked chicken), a carbohydrate (such as a slice of fruit, a piece of toast, or a few cooked sweet potato wedges), and a vegetable (like soft steamed carrot sticks, cucumber slices, or a floret of broccoli), you are providing a wider spectrum of vitamins, minerals, and energy to fuel your baby’s rapid growth and exploration throughout the day. These mini-meals can help maintain stable blood sugar levels, preventing energy crashes and supporting sustained focus during playtime and learning. Offering variety within these snack components also helps to expand your baby’s palate and introduce them to a broader range of flavors and textures, laying the foundation for healthy eating habits in the future.

Periods of Losing Interest

It’s a very common and perfectly normal occurrence for babies to experience periods where their enthusiasm for solid foods seems to wane. Just like with any other developmental milestone, a baby’s interest in exploring new tastes and textures can fluctuate. This temporary dip in appetite for solids can be influenced by various factors, such as growth spurts where their primary need might be for the familiar comfort and nourishment of breast milk or formula, teething discomfort that can make chewing less appealing, or simply a natural phase of focusing on other emerging skills like crawling or pulling to stand. Rest assured that in the vast majority of cases, this decreased interest is indeed temporary. Your baby’s innate curiosity and nutritional needs will eventually guide them back to exploring and enjoying solid foods when they are developmentally ready and feel comfortable doing so. Continue to offer a variety of safe and appealing options without pressure, and trust that their interest will reignite in its own time.

Think About the Week, Not the Day

It can be easy to feel concerned or even pressured by how much your baby eats (or doesn’t eat) at any single meal. However, it’s often more helpful and less stressful to adopt a broader perspective and consider your baby’s overall food intake over a whole week, rather than scrutinizing the amounts consumed at each individual feeding. Babies, just like adults, have days where their appetite is larger and days where they eat less. Various factors, such as teething, growth spurts, activity levels, and even their mood, can influence how much they choose to eat at any given time. By looking at their intake across a seven-day period, you’ll gain a more accurate picture of their nutritional consumption and avoid unnecessary worry over occasional smaller meals. As long as your baby is showing signs of healthy growth and development, and you are consistently offering a variety of nutritious foods, the ebb and flow of their daily intake is usually within a normal range. Trust your baby’s internal cues and focus on providing consistent opportunities for them to explore and enjoy food throughout the week.

Portions

A good guideline for portion sizes is roughly the size of your baby’s fist for each food item. Remember that babies are often snackers and eat small amounts frequently.

What to Expect with Poop Changes

As your baby embarks on the exciting journey of solid food introduction, be prepared for a noticeable shift in their bowel movements. The familiar consistency, color, and even smell of their poop will likely transform, reflecting the new variety of foods their digestive system is processing. You might observe a wider spectrum of colors, ranging from shades of brown and green to even hints of orange or red, depending on the fruits and vegetables they’ve sampled. The texture can also change, becoming thicker, more formed, and potentially containing visible pieces of undigested food, particularly fibrous vegetables or skins. Furthermore, the scent might become stronger and more distinct as their gut bacteria adapt to the new dietary components. These changes are generally a normal part of the weaning process. Paying attention to these variations can even offer insights into how your baby is digesting different foods. However, it’s always a good idea to consult with your pediatrician if you notice any concerning changes, such as persistent diarrhea, constipation, blood in the stool, or significant discomfort during bowel movements.

Baby-Led Weaning Outside of the House

The beauty of Baby-Led Weaning extends far beyond the confines of your kitchen. Once your little one has grasped the fundamentals of self-feeding, you’ll discover that BLW can seamlessly integrate into your life wherever you go. The key lies in thoughtful preparation and packing easily manageable soft finger foods. Think beyond traditional baby food pouches and embrace the freedom of offering real, whole foods on the go. For a picnic in the park, consider packing steamed sweet potato fries, soft avocado wedges, or slices of ripe pear. A visit to a friend’s house can include cooked carrot sticks, strips of hard-boiled egg, or pieces of cheese. Even during travel, BLW is entirely feasible with options like banana “handles,” well-cooked pasta shapes, or soft, peeled apple slices. Remember to always prioritize safety by ensuring the foods are soft enough to mash easily between your fingers and avoid common choking hazards. Packing a small, portable high chair or utilizing your lap with good support will create a familiar and safe eating environment wherever your adventures take you. With a little planning, you can confidently continue your BLW journey, exposing your baby to new environments and experiences while they explore the wonderful world of food.

This comprehensive guide provides a foundation for understanding and implementing baby-led weaning. Remember to always follow your baby’s cues and consult with your pediatrician if you have any concerns.