Baby Led Weaning

It's getting close to that time again for us! Emma is going to join us here in the food world, not just the world of boob. We are all very excited to have her start on the journey into food. Around the 6 month mark, we are let  Emma dabble in foods. Real food, table food, solids, people food, whatever you call it. But it is not baby food, puree's, mashed food or whatever else "traditional" house holds call it. Her first food was apple slices! She loved. We took pictures and a video. Her second food was a banana. More pictures and she totally thought it was yummy. And her third food so far is pears. She likes those too. She definitely still prefers boob-milk over everything. Just because we have started BLW, does not mean she is going to be weaned off Breastfeeding. In this house, it is child led weaning. I hope to continue to breastfeed until at least 15 months, just like with Kayte. Hopefully we can make it to the 2 year mark. She does not get food all day everyday either. She gets to taste a food every few days, because we aren't jumping full force. Just like learning to skills it takes time and practice.

I am sure some of you are wondering what Baby Led Weaning is.

Baby-led weaning (often also referred to as BLW) is a method of introducing solid foods. It allows a baby to control his solid food intake by self-feeding from the very beginning of the weaning process.

Baby Led Weaning is the emphasis of giving the baby control of what and how much she wants to eat. Solid foods are offered as a complement to breastmilk or formula starting around 6 months, while the baby continues to nurse or drink formula until at least 12 months.

With baby led weaning, there's no need for weaning spoons or "baby food". Baby led weaners generally skip purees altogether. Instead, the baby eats finger foods or the same foods as the rest of the family (with a common-sense approach to avoiding choking hazards). Sometimes baby led weaners offer runny or pureed foods, but allow their babies to handle the spoons on their own or with a little help, or use "edible dippers" (like pita bread).

A leading child-care expert has spoken out against pureed baby-food. Gill Rapley, deputy director of Unicef's Baby Friendly Initiative, claims that the foods are unnecessary, reduce the nutritional benefits of breast milk, and that babies fed on them are slow to acquire chewing skills and become picky eaters.
"In 2002, World Health Organization-backed research found breast or formula milk provided all the nutrition a baby needs up to the age of six months. That research said feeding a baby any other food during their first six months would dilute the nutritional value of the milk and might even be harmful to the baby's health," she says.

Baby Led Weaning is not new, it is practiced all over the world in countries where formula is not available and was in this country before formula companies told 1950s mothers that their breast milk was no good...so they started feeding formula. The 1950s formula wasn't able to sustain a baby and so weaning and introducing food had to be done sooner (3-4months) which meant purees for babies.  
Which made sense that you would HAVE TO supplement with pureed baby foods so early.

However, formula these days can now sustain babies and if your breastfeeding you never have to worry about not giving your baby enough.  Breast milk changes it's content as baby grows...pretty cool huh.

So, why do so many parents introduce solids at 4months?? Because they are still relying on outdated information or old school theology. However, World Health Organisation, theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics, Health Canada, Health Insite - Australia and the Department of Public Health (U.K.) as well as theCDC all recommend that babies receive nothing but breast milk and/or formula for the first 6 months of age.  

There has been a large amount of research on this in the recent past, and most health organizations have updated their recommendations to agree with current research. Unfortunately, many health care providers are not up to date in what they're telling parents, and many, many books are not up to date.

Now ya know! :)

I discovered BLW sort of by accident when  I was researching solids for Kayte. I ran it by Joe and he thought it was a good idea and was behind me 100%. So we made a go of it. And now with Emmalee we are doing the same thing and very excited. 

I have found that by doing BLW that Kayte is very efficient with silverware and enjoys a wide variety of foods. And is always up to trying new foods that we don't normally eat.  

Her Apple! Love her face!

Her banana! yum.yum.yum.

Pears!! 

*As you can tell, she gets her food in the morning at breakfast time. And we 'recycle' PJ's*