![]() The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that babies are breast-fed exclusively for the first six months of life. During this time, they get all the nutrients that they need to grow and develop. After six months, breast milk no longer supplies the amount of iron that the growing babies need and so parents are encouraged to start introducing food. However, the WHO recommends that babies are complimentary breast fed until two years of age! The information above was relayed to me at mommy class, through my doctor and in the baby development books I read. When Sam was young, it was easy enough to feed him. I was able to breast feed easily and I could do so anywhere, at any time. As he started to near 4 months, I started hearing more and more about the need to start him on solids at six months and so I began to conduct different research. There seemed to be two distinct thoughts on feeding your baby. One was the traditional pureed food method where someone spoon feeds the baby and then there was another newer, innovative approach called baby-led weaning where the baby moves right into finger-sized whole foods. ![]() Everyone I talked to (or chatted with in my online learning communities) seemed to think that the baby-led weaning method was the only way to feed babies. Even the “parenting expert” of the region of Halton was pushing this method. So, like any normal (extremely neurotic) parent would do, I hired a baby led weaning expert to come over to my house to teach me about this new method of feeding. Before I tell you about that experience, let’s back up and learn a little bit more about baby-led weaning as it’s only been the rage in the past 10-15 years. In the article, Baby-led weaning: what a systematic review of the literature adds on, Author Enza D’Auria writes: “The term “baby-led” weaning (BLW) was first coined by Gill Rapley in 2005 [6]. BLW is an alternative method of infant feeding which promotes infant self-feeding from six months of age, instead of conventional parent spoon-feeding.” In a Guardian.com article, Rapley was quoted as saying, “ Sound scientific research and government advice now agree there is no longer any window of a baby's development in which they need something more than milk and less than solids.” She believes that the baby food industry persuades parents to give pureed food even though it’s not necessary. The key features of BLW are as follows:
It all sounded great to me. So, fast forward to my baby-led weaning teaching session. I invited a few moms to join me who had babies that were a similar age to Sam. We sat in my living room while the expert set up posters and charts about baby led weaning. I distinctly remember one of the photos was a baby eating a giant lamb chop. She began to take us through the same information you read about above. The importance of choice for babies, that they eat the same foods that parents eat, that it makes mealtime a family event, etc. She showed us different ways to serve foods like in the following photos. She told us that the babies would gag but that was a normal part of the learning process I was hooked! After she left, I went out and bought a bunch of plates, spoons and was ready to get started. Before we actually fed Sam, I wanted to learn more about gagging/choking so I went online and watched a bunch of videos that explained the difference. I even sent the videos to all my family so that they would know what to do in the case of a choking event. You can see those videos below:
![]() We were ready to begin. The first day, I sat Sam down in his new high chair, wearing a smock (because I knew things were going to get messy), and I put some roasted sweet potato and broccoli on his plate. We had the camera ready for this exciting moment. Sam reached forward, grabbed the piece of sweet potato in his little fist and put it half of it his mouth. My husband got ready to take the photo but Sam’s eyes got big, started to water and my heart began to race. He was gagging. I knew that gagging was a normal response to BLW feeding but as he sat there gagging up the piece of sweet potato, I convinced myself (even after watching all those videos) that he was actually choking (he wasn’t), and so I grabbed the plate of food away and said out loud, “We are never doing this again.” I tried again the next day, and same response. More gagging, more heart racing and I began to doubt myself and the BLW method. Was this really the best way for my little guy? In the article,Baby-led weaning: what a systematic review of the literature adds on, a literature review of 12 articles and and 12 studies was conducted to critically examine the current evidence about baby-led weaning approach and to explore the need for future research. They concluded that there is still insufficient evidence to draw conclusions about the BLW approach, in terms of adequacy of energy and nutrient intakes, due to the low quality of the evidence. They also found that there was not much evidence of pediatricians backing of the concern of choking in BLW. The authors of the study determined that more research needs to be conducted and that anyone who is going to attempt the BLW needs to make sure they understand how to safely prepare foods and ensure that their children are getting enough nutrients. Because baby-led weaning is a relatively new concept, there is not much evidence to support or refute this method of feeding. Melanie Potock, speaks to this lack of evidence, in her article: Baby Led Weaning: A Developmental Perspective. She writes that moving straight to large pieces of food (as opposed to a gradual method of thinner to thicker methods) may be skipping a crucial step in the developmental process but that we won’t know if that’s the case until more research has been conducted to determine if children who follow the BLW model eventually acquire skills traditionally learned prior to chewing chunks of food . So, I think that BLW is an option for some parents but I don’t think it’s for everyone. If you are an anxious person like me, or if you like to know that there is solid evidence backing an approach then perhaps a more graduated approach to feeding works better. That’s what we decided to do. More on that in the next post! References: D'Auria, E (2018, January) Baby-led weaning: what a systematic review of the literature adds on. Italian Journal of Pediatrics Hill, A (2007, June) Pureed food 'isn't natural for babies. Retrieved from: www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jun/17/health.medicineandhealth Potock, M(2014, February) Baby Led Weaning: A Developmental Perspective. Retrieved from: https://blog.asha.org/2014/02/04/baby-led-weaning-a-developmental-perspective/
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