Ethan's first try at Baby-Led-Weaning @ 23 weeks

We have been reading up on the concept of Baby-led-weaning, which makes so much sense to us, and I wish every moms (and dads) will spare some thought about this before diving into the traditional way of spoon-feeding pureed food into baby's mouth.

Baby-led-weaning is simply a way of introducing solid foods that allow baby to stay in control of what is being eaten. The general idea of pureed food are skipped and baby starts with easy-to-hold solid food. It means allowing your child to feed himself from the very beginning of their experiences with food. Baby-led-weaning is all about exploring, experiencing and enjoying nutritious and delicious family meals from the very first taste of solids. The emphasis is not on how much food baby gets, it's about letting baby play around with flavours, textures and colours of these real food. 

Please do remember, that the term 'weaning' does not mean giving up milk feeds. It simply refers to the introduction of food other than milk! Babies at this age should still get their necessary nutrition from breast milk (or formula), so the pressure is off Moms to make sure they are consuming a certain amount of solid food.

 Benefits of Baby-led-weaning

• Allows baby to explore taste, texture, colour and smell  of food
• Helps to develop baby's hand-eye coordination
• Establishes great eating habits as baby is allowed to eat as much/little as he needs, in their own time
• Mealtime battles are far less likely
• Mealtimes are an enjoyable family experience, develops and encourages strong family bonds
• Encourages confidence
• Being able to reach out and grab things effectively
• Being able to take objects to their mouth quickly and with accuracy
• Able to make gnawing and chewing movements

When to start?

The World Health Organisation recommends the introduction of solids a 6 months of age. At 6 months of age, children start to develop the skills that enable them to instinctively start to feed themselves. Signs that baby is read to start self feeding include:

• sitting up with little or no support
• being able to reach out and grab things effectively
• being able to take objects to their mouth quickly and accurately
• able to make gnawing and chewing movements

At 23 weeks, a week shy of 6 months, Ethan was showing all signs above, and I can also see that he is starting to watch me whenever I eat. So we set up the high chair (that was given to us by a friend) for the first time, cut some cucumbers and bell-pepper into strips so that they are easy to hold, and Ethan loves it!

Just look at him gumming the cucumbers!

Cucumbers and Bellpeppers @ 23 weeks

A short video of him gumming the cucumber. Nyam nyam nyam!

And this longer video to see how he managed to grab those yummy food!

And here's the No.1 Supporter of BLW-ing Ethan

Ethan is Rainbow's new best friend

To find out more about Baby-led-weaning, get Gill Rapley's Baby Led Weaning book. (I was advised to skip the original book and just get the cookbook as it has a more condensed explanation in the first few chapters). I ended up with the Cooking e-book!