This much we know!
I'm mum to a 7 month old baby boy who I've started to wean according to the principles of baby led weaning. I hope that what I have learnt will help when you embark on baby led weaning. This much we know...
After 6 months when you start to introduce other foods to supplement breast or formula milk you would normally puree food and spoon feed it to your baby, this is called weaning. Baby led weaning is different because you don't puree everything and you don't feed it to your baby, your baby feeds himself!
You should start when your baby is showing an interest in what you are eating and this can be any time after 6 months. For baby led weaning you don't need to provide special food, your baby will eat some of the food you are cooking every day for your family.
Good first foods for baby led weaning are sticks of carrot, banana and brocolli as these have natural "handles"! The banana is obviously raw but the carrot and brocolli need to be cooked.
Choking is something I'm paranoid about. All the information about baby led weaning suggests that if a baby can pick it up then it's too big to be a choking hazard. I remain unconvinced and I recommend you exercise caution when choosing foods to offer to your baby, and supervise closely.
Weaning usually involves pureed food, whether from a jar or home cooked. If a baby then gets used to pureed food then later on they need to get used to food with lumps in, which is another hurdle for mother and baby. With baby led weaning, the baby is already used to lumpy food so there is a smooth transition. I know my sister had a lot of problems when she moved her baby on from pureed food with her baby just spitting the lumps out because he wasn't used to them!
If you want to introduce some stewed apple you can either offer it to your baby in a bowl to be picked up in their fingers or hands, or you can provide a spoon for them to feed himself with. If your baby doesn't manage to feed himself with the spoon, then following the logic of baby led weaning, he is not yet ready for it.
I must say I found it very hard, when I had gone to all the trouble of stewing some apple to then throw it away when my baby couldn't manage to put any in his mouth, it was very tempting to spoon it in his mouth myself!
At the beginning, baby led weaning isn't about feeding it is about experimentation, it is a tactile, learning experience.
These are the difficulties I encountered with baby led weaning:
It's a good idea for your baby to be eating what the rest of the family are eating.
It's a good idea to introduce a new food each week.
I introduced these foods first: