Getting Started With Baby Led Weaning

Hi there,

We have recently started weaning Polly, as with Marnie we are doing baby led weaning, so I have decided to do a series of post about this. First up, getting started with baby led weaning!

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So, what is baby led weaning? Baby led weaning is encouraging your baby to self feed from day one. Traditional weaning is spoon feeding your baby mashed up or pureed food, with baby led weaning you give your little one the same food that you are eating and allow them to explore it and eat it by themselves. Obviously you may have to adapt your meals slightly, for example not putting salt in your cooking and I now tend to cut fruit and veg into finger shapes instead of small chunks.

Be prepared for mess. You are giving a tiny person who is not totally in control of their limbs at all times food. They then have to aim the food towards their mouths. It's going to be messy! But it's such good fun! Seeing the reaction when they finally manage to get food in their mouths is just brilliant. I feel like weaning really encourages their personality to come through.

When we started baby led weaning with Marnie I was nervous about suddenly bombarding her with loads of flavours all in one go. I tended to give her just the veg from our meal to start with and then she moved on to meals. Whereas Polly, she sees what Marnie has and want that. So she's been eating proper meals since day one!

Six or so weeks in to baby led weaning and Polly is definitely in the messier the better camp. Her favourite things are spag bol and yogurt (she cries when I take the spoon to reload it for her!). She also absolutely loves the Ellas Kitchen melty sticks (another thing she cries for when they run out!).

Come back soon for more baby led weaning posts!

Lottie