Baby led weaning whats it all about ?

Baby Led weaning is something I knew I always wanted to do with my children. After working in a nursery and seeing all different ways of children being weaned it’s one that appealed to me the most. Mainly because I’m lazy and I don’t want to be standing there for hours on end. Making my own meals for them or mashing things up. I wanted to make my life as easy as I possibly could. I Know this probably sounds really selfish but that’s the way I see it is. If I do BabyLed weaning I will have more time on my hands. More time to do things with them and more time to get the house square.

So Baby led weaning what’s it all about

Well in a nut shell baby led weaning is a more relaxed way of introducing solids to a baby. You simply put food that they will be able to manage in front of them. Then let them explore and feed themselves.

Start with foods soft pieces of food that they will be able to pick up with their hands. This is the part that I know puts a lot of people off Baby Led weaning. It’s messy yes! But it does mean that you don’t have sit their spoon feeding your little one. You can have mealtimes together as a family. Which is such an important thing to do. Mealtimes are a great way of children learning new words and vocabulary. Along with other social expectations.

We did however spoon feed them some things. Mainly puddings like yogurt or rice pudding as using your hands to feed yourself that is just a nightmare. As they got older I left the spoon there for them to explore and over time they started to use the spoon off their own back. I cannot remember having to teach them how to use basic cutlery. They just did it . They watched us do and also had the opportunity to explore it themselves at their own pace.

The one things I would say about Baby Led Weaning is ensure that your baby is ready. Make sure that you give them managble pieces. Start with softer foods then work your way up to more tricky foods.

I know a lot of my friends have been put off because of chocking and all I would say to them is. If you ensure that the pieced of food aren’t huge and you dont leave them alone to eat then they will be fine. Neither of mine have ever had an issue of chocking on their food whilst weaning.

I really enjoyed weaning both of mine. It made me more adventurous with what meals we were having . As I wanted them to try new things and they had the same meals as we did. Just have fun with it don’t worry it will be fine. If it’s the mess that’s putting you off . Then dont mess can be cleaned up and lets face it if you dont like mess then kids are messy no matter what and it only gets worse with age.