Parents have traditionally been filled with questions about how to transition their babies from milk feeding to including solid foods. It is a fun and important stage that parents understandably want to get right! Now added to their list of questions about when to start and what to feed is one about how to feed their baby. Should babies be parent fed or, should they feed themselves right from the start?

Baby led weaning (BLW) is an approach to introducing solid foods to infants that emphasizes infant self-feeding rather than adult spoon-feeding. The baby controls what and how much they eat starting at 6 months. No more spoons. No more games of airplane to get them to take what is on the spoon!

BLW may have several benefits for infants …show more content…
Of note - the studies done so far on BLW indicate that many parents are offering babies foods that pose choking hazards - regardless of how the baby is fed.
¥ Inadequate iron-containing foods. Babies run out of the iron stores gained from their mothers over their first year and if not fed food high in iron they can become anemic or have a low red blood cell count. This is traditionally avoided by starting iron-fortified cereals early on.
¥ Inadequate calorie intake. Some studies on BLW have shown an increased risk of low weight gain in solely self-fed babies. One recent study did not show this problem. More research needs to be done to understand this possible risk.

Much research remains to be done to clarify if BLW has benefits that outweigh the perceived risks. Until that work is done there a few clear take-away messages for parents:
¥ Trust your baby's appetite and let them lead you however you feed them. If they turn their head and close their mouth - they are full.
¥ Once your baby can sit up and bring their hands and objects to their mouth, you can offer finger foods to help them learn to feed themself. Some great foods to start with are: small pieces of banana, well-cooked small pasta, squashed beans, scrambled eggs, grated cheese, cottage cheese, finely chopped