When I found out I was pregnant (almost two years ago) one
of my first reactions was “holy cow, how on earth do I take care of a BABY?!” I
was excited, obviously, but realized I really had no clue how to take care of a
newborn. Then came my reading obsession about babies; if there is a book about
babies on the library shelf, there is a 99.9% chance I read the book. Because
of all the reading and researching I felt like I knew every “method” of baby
raising, and I was able to modge podge all of my favorite’s into my own version
of child rearing. (which turned out great, by the way. Baby sleeping through the
night by 10 weeks? Yes please.)
When time got closer for Calvin to start eating solids, the
same thing happened (book frenzy). I remembered my sister Natalie telling me
about Baby-Led Weaning, and how it worked wonders for her little man, I decided
to pick the book up, along with a few others. I instantly fell in LOVE with the
idea; bonus, the thought of feeding my child rice cereal kind of gave me the
heebie geebies.
Like the whole newborn rearing, I definitely made my own
version of BLW, and both my husband and I felt comfortable with the way we
ended up introducing solids, and let me tell you; almost everyday I get a
comment like “Claire, he is SUCH a great eater!”
Here we are; now that I have given you that rather lengthy
introduction, you can choose to go to another web address, or just stick with
me as I take you on the journey of BLW.
WHAT IS BLW?
The phrase Baby-Led Weaning first came around in from Tracy
Murkett and Gill Rapley’s book about introducing your child to foods through
self feeding and skipping the mush. The basic ideas are introducing your child
to table food before pureed foods; teaching to self-feed instead of spoon-feeding.
One of the main theories behind BLW is that when introducing
babies to solids, its important to help them learn to chew before they learn to
swallow, thus giving them finger food that they can learn how to gnaw, chew,
and strengthen their jaw muscles with.
Some of my main concerns were about spicy-ness, too much
seasoning, choking and the lack of teeth (he didn’t get his first teeth till he
was 11 months).
Fun Facts: If you are breastfeeding, your child naturally
experiences different flavors every time they eat, so you don’t need to worry
about introducing the seasonings being too much for them to handle. If you are
formula feeding, they will adjust well, but I would season your food a little
less than usual to help their palate adjust. My other big concern was his lack
of teeth. One thing that the book taught me was the incredible strength of
babies jaw muscles. If you are a nursing mama and have ever been bitten by a
toothless baby, you’d understand. Let me just tell you, their jaws are SO MUCH
STRONGER than you realize.
BENEFITS
- One of the biggest and most important benefits I have found to this is completely selfish; I NEVER had to make separate food for Calvin. I have had a few friends tell me it’s hard for them to cook dinner every night because they like to make a “nice” meal for the adults, and then turn around and make a “kid” meal for their little one(s).
- Kids learn to control what goes into their mouths and when, thus helping them learn from a young age their body cues of hunger and satiation.
- Because your kids are eating what you’re eating, you naturally will make healthier, well rounded meals to ensure that your children are getting their proper nutrients.
- You will never have to make the frustrating transition from “baby” food to “kid” food to “adult” food.
- BLW kids are less likely to develop picky habits. Like all people, they will show their preferences, but kids who follow BLW are less likely to become “picky eaters”.
- BLW also encourages more sit-down, family meal time.
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| This is a salad with chicken, avocado, spinach, orange, feta and cranberries. Perfect for tiny hands! |
This is what our baby led solids journey looked like with Calvin:
When he was about 4.5 months old, we started putting him in
his high chair to sit with us during meal times and we would give him things to
play with. By the time he was 5 months old he was sitting with us and would
start to gnaw, and learn how to chew on things. It was everything from steamed
broccoli, rolls, cucumber, roasted asparagus and grilled chicken. He definitely
didn’t get much out of those beginning stages, it was him just getting excited
to eat what we were eating and figuring out his mouth.
At 5.5 months we knew he was ready to get more nutrition out
of solids, because he wasn’t sleeping as well at nights. We tried to
incorporate your typical baby foods at this point, but it didn’t work very
well, so we decided to fully skip out “baby foods” and just spoon-feed him some
table food so we knew he was getting something. It was wintertime at this
point, which meant we were having a lot of soups, and this was PERFECT for
Calvin. If you follow BLW by the book you aren’t ever supposed to spoon feed
them, but I felt like this was essential for Calvin to actually get substance
from food. We had lots of chicken tortilla soup, and he would pick at the
cooked carrots, tomatoes and beans.
By the time he was 6.5 months old he was eating everything
we were eating (actually eating, not just gnawing) and loving life.
One thing that we loved were the “Happy Tots” coconut yogurt
melt ways. They are sweetened with coconut, and it helped him continue to learn
how to chew, but they also dissolved so we didn’t have to worry about choking.
This is something that we DID talk to my doctor about and
there were a few precautions that he gave us.
NEVER FOODS : Honey (until 1), raw carrots/root
vegetables/whole nuts (until they have their back molars). Nut butters are ok
around 9/10 months.
My husband worked with an ENT this past summer and saw
multiple children (5 and under) who had inhaled grapes, nuts and carrot pieces
into their lungs; sadly a few passed away, but a few kids had to go into
emergency surgery to have them removed from their bronchioles.
My husband gave me strict instructions to include that last paragraph
into this post to scare the readers. A safe rule of thumb is to always give
your child cooked vegetables, and if it’s anything raw, it shouldn’t be
perfectly round (grapes and blueberries should be cut in half) or hard and small (like nuts).
Please email if you have any other questions; I could chat
about this ALL day. A few of us sisters have had raving success, as well as a
few good friends of mine.
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