As you watch your precious infant steadily transition into a curious toddler, constantly exploring the world around, you see her reaching out even for the food that you are eating. She has started showing a keen interest in edibles other than milk or formula. But often you can’t hand over any regular adult food just yet, there are so many hazards to be considered; choking, swallowing limitations, allergens. Before this scenario scares you into feeding only purees to your baby, please be assured that with the right knowledge and tools, you can open a whole new world of taste, texture, smell, shapes, and colors for the baby simply through food exploration.
What is Baby Led Weaning ?
A former midwife and health visitor coined the phrase ‘Baby Led Weaning’. Another appropriate and more explanatory term for BLW can be Baby Self Feeding, which is letting the baby feed themselves as soon as you decide to introduce solid food, which in most cases is around 6 months. World Health Organization (WHO) also advises adding complementary food at this age to ensure that infant’s nutritional needs are met, and the growth doesn’t falter.
In BLW, the usual practice of spoon-feeding purees is replaced with offering finger foods or thick consistency mixes and dips which babies can put into their mouths by themselves. The food offered is mostly the same as what the rest of the family eats, albeit in a more appropriate size and consistency to match the infant’s capability to self-feed. The infant is also offered milk as and when she demands it until they are ready to self-wean.
In the very beginning, typically stick-shaped food is offered. Even though the food choice is that of the parents, the baby has the upper hand on what they will eat out of everything served as well as the quantity and the pace to consume. Babies are exposed to wider ranges, flavors, and variety of food, mostly in their original form, instead of being hidden in purees which prepares them for future complementary foods in a better way. Also, care is taken to ensure that the child is comfortably seated, the setting is pleasant without many distractions and the food is developmentally appropriate, healthy, and tasty. The child is fed patiently and slowly; encouraged and not forced to eat.
As per WHO, BLW may be required to be modified at the time of illness and the parents might need to intervene with some spoon-feeding to maintain adequate nutrient intake until the child recovers her health.
When to start BLW :
As per UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) when a baby attains the age of 6 months, the requirement for energy and nutrients exceeds more than what milk or formula can alone provide. To match her rapid growth, nutritional and developmental needs, the baby needs to be fed solid foods along with breastmilk/formula.
There are a few indicators to predict when a baby is ready for solid foods and the first major milestone to look for is independently self-sitting. The baby wouldn’t need her hands for balance and they are free to hold, scoop or rake food and carry it to their mouth. This would also be the time when the baby begins to distinguish between sizes and physical properties of objects and will adjust their reach accordingly.
Another significant ability that contributes towards successful BLW is the physical stamina to keep up with the pace of self-feeding and interest in food offered. A lack of these two puts the baby at risk of inadequate nutrient intake and consequently faltering at proper growth.
Advantages of BLW :
• Fostering Independence – Your baby develops the skill of eating on their own and gain control over how much they wish to eat.
• Gross and oral motor skills – When a baby is navigating around a new food, feeding independently will give her control to manipulate the food inside her mouth and decide whether to swallow it or not. This practice also facilitates hand-eye coordination. Pincer grasp develops further, enabling them to pick varied sizes of food pieces. A diverse meal offering also works on jaw strength, tongue movements and swallowing.
• Avoid picky eaters – When the baby is exposed to a variety of tastes, smells, textures, and colors in food, she is most likely to not reject food or become a picky eater compared to when exposed to it at a much-advanced age.
• Economical – Most of the time the baby’s solid food comprises of the regular family meal and saves the money spent on expensive blenders, store-bought purees, and pouches otherwise.
• Obesity prevention – When parents lead the feeding, they might override the satiety regulatory and internal hunger signals of the child. She might lose the ability to judge and respond to her physical hunger signals. BLW encourages healthy eating habits through a responsive eating style.
Precautions :
• Choking and CPR knowledge – As per current research, there isn’t any significant difference in the risk of choking between a spoon-fed baby and a BLW infant. A common reaction that babies often display is gagging. It’s very common when the baby first starts on solids. It’s a reflexive safety mechanism that accompanies sputtering, coughing and watery eyes. The parent should avoid displaying panic to not scare the infant as well. Choking occurs when the food gets stuck in the windpipe, or the throat and the airflow is blocked. The child might stop making sounds and become unresponsive. Hard foods like an uncooked apple or coin-shaped foods may cause choking. It may also happen if a child is distracted during eating. Whether parents practice BLW or not, it is always a good idea to have practical knowledge of administering CPR and first aid to infants. Food offered in appropriate shapes and sizes reduces the risk of choking.
• Safe Tools – To make this journey easier, a few amenities can come in handy. Waterproof silicone bibs with pouches to catch food, highchair or grounded booster seat, floor mats, utensils with a suction cup, round handle spoons and forks without sharp edges can help the baby make a smooth transition to BLW. But be sure to check the safety of all gears and tools that you use.
• Allergens – If there are allergy concerns for an infant, family meals might not always be appropriate. There are different recommendations by various international health advisory bodies to introduce food in such cases. High-risk foods like nuts, eggs, milk. Peanut, wheat, soy can be introduced gradually and at separate intervals. But delaying the introduction does not contribute to reducing risk in any way.
• Meeting Energy Requirements – Once the milestone of six months is achieved, parents need to make a conscious effort to introduce complementary foods that are high in iron content such as meat or iron-fortified foods and ensure that the meals match the energy intake requirements.
• Poor Feeding Skills – If the child exhibits less than optimal skills for self-feeding, they can’t be left to their own devices. The parents must be flexible and provide some form of assistance till they catch up or they can be at a risk to thrive less.
Useful Resources for BLW :
• Complementary Feeding Counselling – a training course by WHO available at “https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9241546522” This is essentially a trainer’s guide but has valuable information to guide the parents who are new to the concept of BLW.
• https://solidstarts.com/ – This has a very useful and completely free ‘First Foods® Database’ that lists almost hundred types of baby safe food and carries information for each food under the headings Food Type, Age Suggestion, Nutrition Rating, Common Allergen and a recipe. They also have several paid and free guides and recipes.
• http://www.babyledweaning.com/ – This site features informative blogs and handy recipes to make your journey easier.
References :
- D’Auria, E., Bergamini, M., Staiano, A. et al. Baby-led weaning: what a systematic review of the literature adds on. Ital J Pediatr 44, 49 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13052- 018-0487-8
- Sonya L. Cameron, Anne-Louise M. Heath, Rachael W. Taylor. How Feasible Is Baby-Led Weaning as an Approach to Infant Feeding? A Review of the Evidence. Nutrients. 2012 Nov; 4(11): 1575–1609. Published online 2012 Nov 2. doi: 10.3390/nu4111575. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3509508/
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