Baby-led Weaning, or Infant Self-feeding, is an option that many families choose when they start solids foods. Instead of pureeing all of baby's food and spooning it into their mouth, Baby-led Weaning involves letting babies feed themselves soft finger foods with their hands and utensils.
When families choose to do Baby-led Weaning, they are sometimes met with resistance from friends and family members who might not be familiar with it. We created this printable as a way to explain the benefits of infant self-feeding so that you can share it with loved ones. This doesn't mean that we think all families should do Baby-led Weaning - we simply want to share whey we teach it and some reasons why it's so popular.
Keep in mind that many of these benefits come from practicing self-feeding, including your baby in family meals and letting your baby get messy - all things you can do if you start with pureed baby foods, too! We talk much more about this in our Infant Course if you want step-by-step guidance.
If you’re peeked around our website or followed us on Instagram, you’re well aware that we love Baby-led Weaning (BLW). Megan has been teaching it since 2013 to thousands of families in the Phoenix, Arizona area, and Feeding Littles released an online version of the course in 2017 to help families all over the world learn about Baby-led Weaning from a realistic, non-judgmental perspective.
With that being said, BLW is not appropriate for all families. If your baby has developmental, medical or special nutritional needs, or if BLW doesn’t work for you, that’s OK! What matters is promoting self-feeding as much as possible. If you’re using pureed baby foods, let your baby bring the spoon to their own mouth when possible. Try to transition to other textures besides purees by no later than 9 months. Work with your doctor if feeding doesn’t seem to be going well.
And don’t forget, our Infant Course is full of tips and troubleshooting, no matter if you started with BLW or you started with spoon-feeding and want to transition to self-feeding finger foods.
Click the link below for a PDF version of this downloadable!