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Weaning has become a very specific skill with health visitors, doctors and nutritionists all having a point of view but what about the free spirits among us who don't want to force our children to conform quite yet? Baby Led Weaning may be the answer.
Baby Led Weaning is just what it says. You let your baby lead the way on what they eat. This approach moves away from using spoons and feeding baby progressively chunkier purées and instead is based upon using finger foods and letting baby feed themselves. This is often an approach which many parents fall into without knowing that they are actually using the Baby Led Weaning method.
Finger foods are best started at around seven to nine months. Around this time babies will have begun to learn how to swallow without gagging or chocking and will have the necessary dexterous skills to pick up food and feed themselves.
The benefits of Baby Led Weaning are that baby learns at an early age how to join in at family meal times, the pressure of having to spoon feed baby is taken off the parents, it is easier to get baby used to a range of adult foods, parents don't feel it necessary to buy expensive but usually lower quality baby food jars, it is easier to eat out with baby and baby has the independence to choose to eat different foods instead of being forced to eat them.
Food to Avoid
To have a happy experience remember:
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Avoid any small, hard non-soluble chunks such as slices of raw vegetables
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Avoid nuts and seeds
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Unless you are near a bath avoid chocolate biscuits (trust me!)
Food to Try
Try some of these options:
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Well cooked soft carrot batons
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Slices of hard boiled egg
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Toast
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Bread sticks
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Biscuits
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Bread (but watch out for doughy lumps getting stuck in baby's throat)
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Ripe avocado
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Banana
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Soft cooked meat
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Cooked broccoli spears and cauliflower
So good luck as you and your child take one more step towards independence.
Tags: baby led weaning first finger foods alternative weaning methods |
Feeding by Age 
