Our Guide to Baby-Led Weaning

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Our Guide to Baby-Led Weaning

Your new baby has had a pretty exclusive diet since they were born—breast milk, formula, or some combination of the two. But as your baby approaches their six month birthday, get ready for a major milestone: Introducing solids. 

One feeding strategy that has gained a lot of popularity in the last decade is baby-led weaning (BLW for short), which puts your baby in charge of mealtimes and skips spoon feeding purees entirely. If you’re BLW curious, our guide will fill you in on everything you need to know for baby-led feeding.

What Is Baby-Led Weaning?

Traditionally, introducing your baby to solids began with spoon-feeding purees and cereals, then progressing onto more complex and textural foods, before finally graduating to solids. Whether pre-made and store-bought or made at home, these purees are explicitly baby food and aren’t necessarily what the rest of the family is eating.

In 2008, the British nurse Gil Rapley developed a new method for food introduction, called baby-led weaning, that skips purees all together. The BLW approach emphasizes the independence of your baby, promotes self-feeding, and encourages exploration of finger foods. Instead of spoon-feeding purees, caretakers offer baby-sized finger food versions—preferably what the rest of the family is eating—and allow the baby to decide what and how much they’d like to eat.

What Are the Benefits of Baby-Led Weaning?

  • It’s time-saving and easier on the wallet. Store-bought baby food can get pricey, fast. With the BLW approach, you’re feeding your baby what you’re feeding the rest of your family—that means spending less on baby-only foods, and saving time on meal prep. It’s also likely to reduce your family’s food waste.
  • It supports bonding and creates social interaction. BLW introduces your baby to family meals, allowing them to watch people eating. Those moments of observation lay the foundation for your baby to model chewing and swallowing themselves.
  • It exposes your baby to a wider variety of foods. BLW introduces your baby to a range of foods, textures, and flavors that aren’t typically part of traditional weaning. Your baby’s taste preferences are mostly set by nine months, so a diverse diet develops your baby’s palate and sets them up to appreciate veggies and other healthful foods later in life.
  • It improves self-regulation. Babies who are permitted to feed themselves and gauge their own sense of hunger and fullness will not overeat (and parents won’t unknowingly pressure a satiated baby to keep eating). 
  • It helps strengthen fine motor skills. With BLW, babies self-feed, using their hands. Not only does that require hand-eye and hand-to-mouth coordination, it also finetunes your baby’s gripping skills. Initially your baby will “rake” the food into their palms to eat. After a few months, your baby will develop the pincer grasp and be capable of picking up pieces of food between their thumb and pointer finger.
  • It builds positive food habits. Weaning style impacts food preferences and how well a child self-regulates eating. BLW is positively associated with lower body mass index and a decreased risk for obesity.

Are There Any Downsides to Baby-Led Weaning?

Any feeding approach has its own drawbacks, including BLW. There are plenty of pros to BLW, but a few relatively minor downsides, too:

  • Not all family foods are suitable for your baby (we dive into this, below). There are some foods that are strictly off limits for at least the first year, and some that you won’t be able to modify to make developmentally appropriate for your baby.
  • Mess! Don’t get us wrong—baby mealtimes are a messy endeavor, period. But traditional weaning puts the parent in charge (and the bowl of pureed food out of reach). The goal of BLW is to encourage exploration of food, so expect a lot of smearing, smashing, and throwing. We recommend using a splat mat under the high chair and stay-put dishware for quick and easy clean up.

When Can You Start Baby-Led Weaning?

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months. And remember that weaning is a process—your baby will still get most of their nutrients from breast milk or formula even after you’ve introduced solids for their first year of life..

Most babies start demonstrating signs of readiness by the time they are six months old, including:

  • Your baby sits up alone, without support.
  • Your baby demonstrates head and neck control.
  • Your baby opens their mouth when food is offered.
  • Your baby doesn’t automatically push anything out of their mouth with their tongue (loss of the tongue thrust reflex).
  • Your baby brings objects to their mouth.
  • Your baby tries to grasp small objects.
  • Your baby is very interested in watching other people eat. 

If you can answer “yes” to most of these questions, your baby is ready to start solids. And don’t forget—timing matters. Plan to introduce food when your baby is happy, not overly hungry, and not tired (generally an hour or so after breast or bottle feeding).

What Are the Best Foods for Baby-Led Weaning?

One of the biggest advantages of BLW is that almost everything is on the menu, as long as it’s cooked and/or prepared appropriately (soft and small is the name of the game) and isn’t on the choking hazards list. Focus on offering a wide variety of nutritionally dense foods, paying special attention to nutrients that are especially important for babies: Iron, calcium, vitamin D, zinc, choline, and selenium. 

We’ve gathered a few good-for-you superfoods to get you started:

  • Avocado
  • Steamed or baked carrots
  • Bananas
  • Steamed broccoli
  • Plan whole milk yogurt
  • Steamed or baked butternut squash
  • Green peas
  • Steamed or baked sweet potatoes
  • Oatmeal
  • Whole milk ricotta cheese
  • White beans
  • Peanut butter thinned with breast milk or formula
  • Pumpkin
  • Cooked chicken, beef, or turkey pureed and shaped into logs
  • Tahini

Are There Foods You Should Avoid?

There are some foods you will need to avoid, regardless of the approach you choose for introducing solids, including:

  • Honey (even yogurts, cereal, and crackers with honey listed as an ingredient) until your baby is one year old
  • Unpasteurized drinks or foods
  • Foods and drinks with added sugar for the first two years
  • Cow’s milk until your baby is one year old
  • Fish high in mercury (including mackerel, swordfish, and tuna)

For BLW, the primary concern is preparing and offering developmentally appropriate foods that minimize the risk for choking. (Choking hazards for babies and children tend to be any food that’s hard, round, or sticky.) When introducing solids to your baby, you’ll need to avoid:

  • Whole corn kernels
  • Whole grapes and grape tomatoes
  • Pieces of hard raw veggies and fruit, like raw carrots or apples
  • Whole pieces of canned fruit
  • Uncut grapes, berries, cherries, or melon balls
  • Uncooked dried fruits, like raisins
  • Whole or chopped nuts and seeds
  • Spoonfuls or chunks of nut and seed butters (although you can add breastmilk or formula to thin the consistency and make suitable for your baby)
  • Chunks of meats
  • Hotdogs, meat sticks, or sausages
  • Chunks of cheese, including string cheese
  • Fish with bones
  • Whole beans
  • Cookies or granola bars
  • Chips, pretzels, and popcorn
  • Crackers or breads with seeds or nut kernels
  • Round or hard candy, like gummy bears or jelly beans
  • Chewy fruit snacks
  • Gum
  • Marshmallows

If you’d like more tips on how to modify foods to prevent choking, Kids Eat in Color has a fantastic write-up here.

When Can You Introduce Allergens?

In 2019, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) updated a clinical report on infant and childhood allergies—it concluded that introducing common allergens (like peanuts, eggs, and fish) early while transitioning to solids helps prevent or minimize allergic reactions later.

Is Baby-Led Weaning Safe?

Fear of choking is the reason most parents express hesitancy about BLW (more than understandable, obviously). But as long as you are preparing and serving developmentally appropriate foods, your baby can safely chew and swallow. Additionally, studies have shown that there’s no increased risk of choking for BLW versus the traditional method of spoon feeding purees.

It’s smart to educate yourself on the warning signs that your baby is choking before transitioning to solids (and sign up for that infant CPR class). A normal cough or gag clears the airway quickly and breathing returns to normal almost immediately. A choking baby, however, can’t breathe or cry out for help, and will appear panicked.

Remember, learning to eat is a major physiological milestone requiring an entirely new set of skills for your baby, so some gagging or coughing is to be expected. Gagging is a reflex and a sign that your baby is preventing a problem themselves. With more mealtime practice, gagging and mild coughing will become less frequent. 

How Do You Start Baby-Led Weaning?

Sharing food is an essential part of family and community, and your baby joining you for meals is such an exciting milestone—hooray! Here are our tips for starting BLW.

  • Be patient. Your baby won’t love everything you serve, and that’s okay! It’s important to keep your reaction to food rejection neutral.
  • Keep in mind that repeated exposure is important. Your baby may refuse avocado half a dozen times before it becomes a favorite.
  • Start with very small portions of single ingredient foods—around a tablespoon or so. When just starting out, you’ll only want to offer one or two foods per meal.
  • Encourage fun! Let your baby explore tastes and textures.
  • Be flexible. Your baby may prefer a mixed approach of finger foods and more traditional purees to bridge the gap. You can preload a baby spoon and still allow your baby to feed themselves.
  • Prioritize eating as a family when possible. 
  • Always stay with your baby when they’re eating.
  • Embrace the mess!

Finding What’s Right for You

Albee Baby is the oldest family-owned specialty baby shop in the US, and we pride ourselves on providing our customers with the best assortment of baby products anywhere, at fair prices, always. We’re committed to being an inclusive resource for parents, and hope you’re feeling empowered to find the right baby gear for your family. Still have questions? Feel free to contact our baby gear experts at 877.692.5233 or by email at [email protected].