Mealtimes with your kid can be a lot of entertaining for both parents and child. It could be amusing preparing and giving spoon-fed purées, accompanied by airplane whooshing sound effects and making a lot of funny chewing faces. This is an all-too-familiar scenario for most parents out there. It helps babies and parents to reduce food being wasted, and it keeps mealtimes a lot cleaner. It also serves as a fun bonding experience between the child and their parents. However, keep in mind that babies have a lot to learn and adapt to. It could be of great help to your child if you let them begin exploring their food and feeding themselves at an early age.
What Is It?
Baby-led weaning is the process of slowly introducing your child to what would soon be their adult diet with the twist of letting them eat all on their own, but still with your help and guidance of course. It involves skipping purées and jumping straight to finger foods. At the tender age of six months, you can already introduce your child to baby-led weaning. It has been proven that this method can provide a number of benefits for your child’s development. According to some experts and researches, some of these are:
-
It can help your child become familiarized with varying textures and flavors that can eventually help them develop a more diverse palette and preferences for healthier food. It also shows that this can minimize your child’s potential in acquiring food allergies.
-
It reduces the chances of your child being overweight. When you are in charge, feeding can be in huge amounts and at a faster pace. Letting your child eat on their own will allow them to learn self-regulated eating based on their hunger levels.
-
Allows your child to develop hand dexterity as well as hand-eye coordination skills
-
Lets your child learn to chew properly which aids in digestion
As a parent who’s trying baby-led weaning for the first time, you would probably have a lot of questions circling in your head. You’d think about which are the appropriate types of food your child should start with, figure out how you can cook and prepare them the best for your child to have ease in eating and digestion, and you’ll probably wonder what are the things that you should remember and avoid when letting your baby eat by themselves. To answer these questions, here are some tips to help your preparation for baby-led weaning.
What To Do
-
Prepare for messes. It is bound to get messy so investing in a big bib can reduce mess and ease up cleaning. You can also try putting newspaper under their chair to prevent floor stains.
-
Cut the food into thick strips. Size matters. This will allow your child to hold it in their hands and eat the food slowly from top to bottom.
-
Offer a variety of food.
-
Let your child use safe utensils. Allow them to at least hold a spoon to encourage learning on its proper use.
-
Forget the bowl. It is more likely that their food will just go over the place so using a plate or a bowl will be completely useless. Just put the food on their table and let them have a go at it.
-
Secure provision of nutritious foods. Keep in mind that your child should be receiving enough amount of nutrients from different food groups. Your child should be receiving enough grains, healthy fats, protein, fruits, and vegetables, as well as dairy.
What To Avoid
-
Don’t introduce new food too quickly. Start with one food a day and adding another one the following day. Laying down a ton of different foods in front of your child can become too overwhelming for them.
-
Avoid choking hazard foods. Highly textured or over-sized bite-sized foods can potentially choke your child, so it is highly advised to ensure that the solid foods will be soft and smooth enough to easily chew and swallow.
-
Don’t leave them alone. Since solid foods are still foreign to them, you should always keep an eye on your child in case something goes wrong. Eating with your child also gives them the chance to mimic you and learn to eat properly.
-
Don’t get overly emotional. Some parents may subconsciously have too many expectations. Treat it as something natural and avoid praising or scolding your child too much.
Those are just some of the do’s and don’t in baby-led weaning. If you still have other questions, it’s okay to ask. Don’t be afraid to ask your family and relatives, as well as friends who have experience with baby-led weaning. Another option would be joining and participating in a baby-led weaning forum. Through these, you’ll be able to ask many mommies and daddies who may have encountered the same situation as you have, and advice you on how they handled it.
If you’re still struggling to figure out if Baby-led weaning is right for your child, you always have the option of consulting your baby’s pediatrician. They will be able to give you the green light and help you decide if it’s already okay or still too early for your child to start. It is understandable if you still have doubts about introducing something unfamiliar to your child because after all, not all babies are the same. Parents will always want what’s in their child’s best interest.
Worrying about your child just shows how much you love them, but do not be afraid of introducing your child to something new and letting them explore. Your child will love you for it. Always remember, there is no single right way to introducing solid foods to your children. Baby-led weaning is just one of the approaches to it. As their parent, you will be the one to determine what’s best for your baby, and the fact that you’re doing your best just proves that you’re doing a fantastic job as a parent. Keep it up!
