Baby Led Weaning

[Anonymous]

I saw in another thread that some people seem to be very anti baby led weaning. Why? I still have a young baby so I don’t know anything about the process. Have there been any studies on it?

[Anonymous]

There seems to be alot of "im doing BLW and its better than purees" judgement. I personally found the Solid starts app helpful to decide how to serve certain things to my baby but I still did purees too (esp for daycare). I think the only real evidence is around giving different textures by a certain age, but that doesnt mean you have to do the instagram worthy BLW.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, some of these instagram people are overthinking it. I did baby led weaning, not following rigid methods but really what was easiest and safe.

Basically, when the baby acted interested in solids (around 5-6 months they would start looking at and grabbing at food) I'd put them in a highchair at the table with us and put some finger foods on their tray. Cheerios, mashed up banana/fruit, cooked mashed up veggie, if what we were eating was safe for baby some of that mushed up. Baby fed themselves. I was fine with purees in jars for on the go-some cheerios and a jar of peach puree is fine. But at home, baby ate with us and what we ate(if safe).

I also breastfed until baby stopped, mine were done between 18 mo and 2.

[Anonymous]

I am against it because of choking. There are zero peer reviewed studies showing any long term benefits at all to BLW. It’s just a fad, not science.

I also personally know a baby who choked on a strawberry and had to be resuscitated, 911 called, the whole shebang. BLW recommends serving foods whole or in large chunks to babies with teeth. What happens when babies use those teeth to bite off a big chunk then swallow? It’s just not safe and the risk benefit makes no sense when there are no statistically documented rewards. I started doing it then stopped when I realized how dumb/dangerous it is. Years later kid eats a huge variety of foods, no pickiness, excellent teeth and palate development despite doing purées.

[Anonymous]

I don't know a ton about baby led weaning. With my three kids I introduced baby yogurt (yo baby, stoney field) around 6 months as well as tiny cooked pieces of veggies and fruit. My youngest is 9 months and she has some cheerios now, fruit and veggies (cooked and uncooked), small pieces of fish, hamburger, and chicken, peanut butter, egg, rice, and occasionally a tiny piece of pirates booty or a goldfish that she snags from my older kids (she is very good at crawling and is constantly pulling up to stand/trying to walk, so she gets into everything). I also try to prioritize different textures. The things you cannot give until 12 months are cows milk and honey. I also am very careful about breaking everything into small pieces.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am against it because of choking. There are zero peer reviewed studies showing any long term benefits at all to BLW. It’s just a fad, not science.

I also personally know a baby who choked on a strawberry and had to be resuscitated, 911 called, the whole shebang. BLW recommends serving foods whole or in large chunks to babies with teeth. What happens when babies use those teeth to bite off a big chunk then swallow? It’s just not safe and the risk benefit makes no sense when there are no statistically documented rewards. I started doing it then stopped when I realized how dumb/dangerous it is. Years later kid eats a huge variety of foods, no pickiness, excellent teeth and palate development despite doing purées.

I've never heard it recommended to serve food whole or in chunks. You're supposed to cut or mush it to make it safe. Common sense would tell you that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am against it because of choking. There are zero peer reviewed studies showing any long term benefits at all to BLW. It’s just a fad, not science.

I also personally know a baby who choked on a strawberry and had to be resuscitated, 911 called, the whole shebang. BLW recommends serving foods whole or in large chunks to babies with teeth. What happens when babies use those teeth to bite off a big chunk then swallow? It’s just not safe and the risk benefit makes no sense when there are no statistically documented rewards. I started doing it then stopped when I realized how dumb/dangerous it is. Years later kid eats a huge variety of foods, no pickiness, excellent teeth and palate development despite doing purées.

I've never heard it recommended to serve food whole or in chunks. You're supposed to cut or mush it to make it safe. Common sense would tell you that.

So you have not used the Solid Starts app then, which is the most recommended BLW resource. It explicitly recommends serving many foods whole, like strawberries, or in huge chunks, such as quarters of whole avocados. Common sense would tell you not to do that but Solid Starts tells you to do it, and that’s the problem.

[Anonymous]

I have older kids and this is one of those things that I think you should not over think too much. Kids generally learn to eat lots of kinds of foods whether you give them a whole strawberry, a cut strawberry or a puree at 6 months old.

[Anonymous]

I don't think there's much evidence to support it. Honestly I'd feed intuitively and follow your kid's lead. We started with purees but our baby pretty quickly decided he hated them, so we moved to mashed food, soft foods, then foods that required more chewing and so on, as he seemed ready. If you start slow and watch your kid closely to see how they're handling food, it kind of clicks. I was really paranoid at first but it worked out fine--our kid is 2.5 and eats pretty much anything and he's pretty good at figure out how to eat certain foods, what's too big a bite, etc. I think too many parents overthink it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am against it because of choking. There are zero peer reviewed studies showing any long term benefits at all to BLW. It’s just a fad, not science.

I also personally know a baby who choked on a strawberry and had to be resuscitated, 911 called, the whole shebang. BLW recommends serving foods whole or in large chunks to babies with teeth. What happens when babies use those teeth to bite off a big chunk then swallow? It’s just not safe and the risk benefit makes no sense when there are no statistically documented rewards. I started doing it then stopped when I realized how dumb/dangerous it is. Years later kid eats a huge variety of foods, no pickiness, excellent teeth and palate development despite doing purées.

I did solid starts for my first including big chunks of food. Chicken legs, ribs on the bone, mango pits, pizza crust. I supervised him and he never once gagged or choked. By the time he was biting off food his brain and body knew how to move food around his mouth.

He did choke on a mandarin at age 3. No one in the room—including a nurse and former EMT—noticed or responded. Thanks to Solid Starts I knew exactly what was happening, calmly picked him up, did thrusts, he spit out the mandarin piece, and I sat him back down to finish breakfast. If you do nothing else follow them for info on gagging vs choking and how to respond.

BLW vs purees is a pendulum that has swung all the way and is working its way back to the middle. I didn’t do purées because I was too lazy to make them more than once and to cheap to buy them. I also worked from home for a time and then had several months off during peak food exploration time. So I had the time to deal with food prep and mess clean up. Bottom line is feed your kid however works for you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am against it because of choking. There are zero peer reviewed studies showing any long term benefits at all to BLW. It’s just a fad, not science.

I also personally know a baby who choked on a strawberry and had to be resuscitated, 911 called, the whole shebang. BLW recommends serving foods whole or in large chunks to babies with teeth. What happens when babies use those teeth to bite off a big chunk then swallow? It’s just not safe and the risk benefit makes no sense when there are no statistically documented rewards. I started doing it then stopped when I realized how dumb/dangerous it is. Years later kid eats a huge variety of foods, no pickiness, excellent teeth and palate development despite doing purées.

I've never heard it recommended to serve food whole or in chunks. You're supposed to cut or mush it to make it safe. Common sense would tell you that.

So you have not used the Solid Starts app then, which is the most recommended BLW resource. It explicitly recommends serving many foods whole, like strawberries, or in huge chunks, such as quarters of whole avocados. Common sense would tell you not to do that but Solid Starts tells you to do it, and that’s the problem.[/quote

No, I had never seen it-I just looked at it and wow, they're nuts! I raised six children and I would never give a baby a whole strawberry (I saw where they said to do that) or those big chunks of other foods. That app is...crazy...

If I had an infant today, I would delete that app ASAP. I'd still do baby led weaning, but cut up or mush the foods-no whole berries for little babies or big chunks of other stuff! Not only is cutting/mushing safer, they get to practice fine motor skills picking up the small pieces, rather than one big chunck like on that app.

It doesn't have to be purees vs big chunks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am against it because of choking. There are zero peer reviewed studies showing any long term benefits at all to BLW. It’s just a fad, not science.

I also personally know a baby who choked on a strawberry and had to be resuscitated, 911 called, the whole shebang. BLW recommends serving foods whole or in large chunks to babies with teeth. What happens when babies use those teeth to bite off a big chunk then swallow? It’s just not safe and the risk benefit makes no sense when there are no statistically documented rewards. I started doing it then stopped when I realized how dumb/dangerous it is. Years later kid eats a huge variety of foods, no pickiness, excellent teeth and palate development despite doing purées.

I've never heard it recommended to serve food whole or in chunks. You're supposed to cut or mush it to make it safe. Common sense would tell you that.

So you have not used the Solid Starts app then, which is the most recommended BLW resource. It explicitly recommends serving many foods whole, like strawberries, or in huge chunks, such as quarters of whole avocados. Common sense would tell you not to do that but Solid Starts tells you to do it, and that’s the problem.

No, I had never seen it-I just looked at it and wow, they're nuts! I raised six children and I would never give a baby a whole strawberry (I saw where they said to do that) or those big chunks of other foods. That app is...crazy...

If I had an infant today, I would delete that app ASAP. I'd still do baby led weaning, but cut up or mush the foods-no whole berries for little babies or big chunks of other stuff! Not only is cutting/mushing safer, they get to practice fine motor skills picking up the small pieces, rather than one big chunck like on that app.

It doesn't have to be purees vs big chunks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think there's much evidence to support it. Honestly I'd feed intuitively and follow your kid's lead. We started with purees but our baby pretty quickly decided he hated them, so we moved to mashed food, soft foods, then foods that required more chewing and so on, as he seemed ready. If you start slow and watch your kid closely to see how they're handling food, it kind of clicks. I was really paranoid at first but it worked out fine--our kid is 2.5 and eats pretty much anything and he's pretty good at figure out how to eat certain foods, what's too big a bite, etc. I think too many parents overthink it.

My kid is also 2.5 and will say funny things like “that’s too big for my teeth”. She also tells me to eat nuts with my “big sharp teeth”. It’s because I remind her to chew nuts (pieces, not whole) with her big back teeth, as Solid Starts recommends.