Introducing solids to baby

Definition from Wikipedia:

Baby-led weaning (often also referred to as BLW) is a method of introducing solid foods. It allows a baby to control his solid food intake by self-feeding from the very beginning of the weaning process.

Baby Led Weaning is the emphasis of giving the baby control of what and how much she wants to eat. Solid foods are offered as a complement to breastmilk or formula starting around 6 months, while the baby continues to nurse or drink formula until at least 12 months.

With baby led weaning, there's no need for weaning spoons or "baby food". Baby led weaners generally skip purees altogether. Instead, the baby eats finger foods or the same foods as the rest of the family (with a common-sense approach to avoiding choking hazards). Sometimes baby led weaners offer runny or pureed foods, but allow their babies to handle the spoons on their own or with a little help, or use "edible dippers" (like pita bread).

A leading child-care expert has spoken out against pureed baby-food. Gill Rapley, deputy director of Unicef's Baby Friendly Initiative, claims that the foods are unnecessary, reduce the nutritional benefits of breast milk, and that babies fed on them are slow to acquire chewing skills and become picky eaters.
"In 2002, World Health Organization-backed research found breast or formula milk provided all the nutrition a baby needs up to the age of six months. That research said feeding a baby any other food during their first six months would dilute the nutritional value of the milk and might even be harmful to the baby's health," she says.

Baby Led Weaning is not new, it is practiced all over the world in countries where formula is not available and was in this country before formula companies told 1950s mothers that their breast milk was no good...so they started feeding formula. The 1950s formula wasn't able to sustain a baby and so weaning and introducing food had to be done sooner (3-4months) which meant purees for babies. 
Which made sense that you would HAVE TO supplement with pureed baby foods so early.

However, formula these days can now sustain babies and if your breastfeeding you never have to worry about not giving your baby enough.  Breast milk changes it's content as baby grows...pretty cool huh.

So, why do so many parents introduce solids at 4months?? Because they are still relying on outdated information or old school theology. However, World Health Organisation, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Health Canada, Health Insite - Australia and the Department of Public Health (U.K.) as well as the CDC all recommend that babies receive nothing but breast milk and/or formula for the first 6 months of age. 

There has been a large amount of research on this in the recent past, and most health organizations have updated their recommendations to agree with current research. Unfortunately, many health care providers are not up to date in what they're telling parents, and many, many books are not up to date.

I recently asked my pediatrician when they recommend we start Emily on solids (kind of a trick question because I was hoping they wouldn't say "right now"). And he said 6months! He said most parents like to start at 4months of age with rice cereal or something similar but it is unnecessary and can be damaging to baby's digestive system and increase the risk of food allergies!!

Reasons for delaying solids:

• Delaying solids gives baby greater protection from illness. 
• Delaying solids gives baby's digestive system time to mature. 
• Delaying solids decreases the risk of food allergies.
• Delaying solids helps to protect baby from iron-deficiency anemia.

With all that being said, we are going to start to introduce finger foods to Emily around 6months or a little sooner if she shows interest (which I think she will). We are going to bypass the whole puree stage.

We are going to offer her a selection of soft finger foods that can be easily grasped (cooked vegetable sticks, boiled or steamed broccoli florets on their stems and softened apple and pear sticks or banana pieces).

As Emily becomes more adept at moving food to the back of her mouth and swallowing, we will increase the range of foods and textures we offer (sticks of cheese and soft meats, etc.).

Babies who do BLW tend to eat a wide variety of foods, learn to feed themselves quicker, benefit with being more involved in mealtimes and tolerate textured food. Some puree weaned babies go on to refuse lumpy food.


I think it's going to be so fun to introduce finger foods! Although, I have to admit that I am a little bummed out because before I started researching this topic, I planned to make all of Emily's pureed food using organic produce and veggies.  And I was looking forward to it! But I am slowly getting over it and can't wait to start introducing finger foods.  Emily is already reaching for food (on my plate).  I think she will be ready at 5months.

For more information on BLW see the following links:
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/babyledweaning.htm
http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/
http://www.netmums.com/food/Baby_led_weaning.2028/