Once Asher turned 5 months, I knew starting solids was in the near future. With Maya, we did purees, period. Didn't think about it, didn't question it, didn't know there was another way.
I first heard of baby led weaning (BLW) through a couple friends here in Washington. When they first mentioned they did BLW with their girls, I honestly had no idea what that meant. As they explained it, I was definitely skeptic! Give my child CHUNKS of food? Are you crazy? He'll choke! Pretty standard first impressions. But they explained the theory behind it, shared their experience, and of course I decided to do some research of my own.
There's lots online about BLW. Basically, the idea behind BLW is to not start solids until 6 months, when children are developmentally ready to feed themselves. From day one, you provide your child with manageable pieces food and allow your child feeds him or herself. I particularly loved this blog post from Life with Luca. It made so much sense and made me feel at ease. From the blog SimpleBites, some of the main advantages are:
- Baby eats what you eat. So, no extra meal prep, dishes, etc.
- Babies are in control of what they are eating. They stop when they are full, or continue when they are hungry. There’s no (less?) power struggles.
- Babies are more likely to be better eaters as toddlers and young children because they have been exposed to such variety of taste and texture, and been in control of their eating, from such an early age.
- Babies feed themselves, leaving you free to use a knife and fork of your own – while supervising, of course.
- Babies learn to chew first, and then swallow, as opposed to just letting the puree slide down, which, in my opinion, makes for a difficult transition to chunkier food and real solids.
Did you notice the third one...Babies are more likely to be better eaters as toddlers?? This made me think of Maya. She eats well enough. I know kids that are worse, but I also know kids that do much better (including my friends' kids that used this approach). I never considered that our approach to solids and food in general could potentially be playing role in her willingness to try new foods (veggies in particular). Not to say that kids who start with purees are not good eaters, I know plenty are, but for us, I think it may play a role. If I could do something to potentially make Asher a better eater and not follow down his sister's footsteps, I'm in! Plus the rest really just made sense.
So here we are. We've been doing BLW for about a month and it's going great! The first couple weeks were a little scary as we got used to the new approach. Over the last month I've watched him grow so much in his ability to handle food in his hands and in his mouth and he's now chewing, so it's MUCH less scary.
To date, he's tried:
Avocado, Sweet Potato, Banana, Cucumber, Watermelon, Greek Yogurt (loaded spoon), Bell Pepper, Acorn Squash, Zucchini, Broccoli, Carrot, Blueberries (in mesh feeder...which is kinda cheating BLW), Pancake, French bread and Waffle
Here's Asher in action over the last month...
I know there are skeptics out there and that's ok. I was one too! But at the end of the day, like every other parenting decision I make, I need to do what I think is best for my kid. Everyone is different and we don't all need to follow the same path ;) I've loved our BLW experience so far and I'm excited to see my little buddy continue to explore and enjoy new foods!
