Tips for Baby-Led Weaning Success

Tips for Baby-Led Weaning Success

If you're considering baby-led weaning, here are some tips and tricks to help make the experience work for you and your baby.

Consider a mixed approach

If spoon-feeding is most comfortable for you and your baby, there's no need to abandon it altogether before introducing finger foods. For the first month or two of self-feeding, your baby will do a lot of licking, tasting, and exploring—but not much actual eating. So purées can help make meals more filling and nutritious. Plus, some children aren't ready for finger foods at 6 months.

Serving finger foods directly before or after purées and preparing purées with an increasingly lumpy texture to help advance your child's chewing skills.

Once you start serving finger foods for babies, make sure everything is small enough to pick up with tiny fingers and not too big to chew. However, make sure the pieces aren’t too small since their dexterity isn't well developed and they could have trouble picking up super tiny bits of food.

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Prepare for messes

Baby-led weaning aims to let your little one explore food at their own pace, so that means smashing it, smearing it, dropping it, and probably making a big old mess at nearly every meal.

Getting messy is part of the feeding process and it's an essential milestone in learning to love a variety of nourishing foods."

Your floor will likely see the worst of it. You can place a garbage bag or a plastic tablecloth under the high chair for easy clean up, replace your baby's bib with an art smock, and balance messy foods with less-messy ones (like dry cereal or toast) when feeding.

Eat together

Take advantage of the fact that elements of most adult meals can be made baby-friendly and make it a habit of eating with your baby for some meals. Even better: Give your baby some of the same ingredients that make up your dish. Just remember to introduce new foods to your child every 3 to 5 days, so that you have the opportunity to look for any signs of an allergic reaction.

Let your baby use safe utensils

Let your child reach for the spoon and guide it to their mouth with or without your help and pick the utensils which are safe. Make sure the child is leading the process.

Let your child take their time while eating. Especially in the beginning, when they're learning how to eat solid foods. It can take a while to get through the meal. 

Rest assured they are getting enough nutrients

When your baby is first starting solids, they will still be getting most of their nutrition from breast milk or formula, so don't worry if they don't actually swallow a lot of the food you offer them. If they seem frustrated or unsatisfied with their meals, consider supplementing finger foods with purées until they get the hang of self-feeding.

Don't get overly heated or emotional

Eating should be treated as a natural and routine part of the day.

Don't praise, pressure, or scold about eating. Remember, whether offering finger foods or purées, pressure can negatively impact a baby's willingness to try and accept new foods.