Balanced approach
If you’re getting ready to start your baby on solid foods, you may have questions about whether it’s best to go the traditional, spoon-feeding of purees route, or to try baby-led weaning (BLW).
What is traditional weaning? Traditional weaning is generally used to describe feeding your baby purees with a spoon or even small bits of solid food, but is generally led by the adult.
What is baby-led weaning? BLW is a method of starting solids that involves offering baby finger foods from the family table for self-feeding. This approach is centered around letting the baby lead.
The good news is that you don’t have to choose!
When choosing a balanced approach for your baby, you don’t have to be exclusive to one feeding approach or the other! Many parents, such as myself, combine purees and baby-led weaning successfully and go on to raise happy, healthy, eaters.
Technically, BLW skips over the passive spoon-feeding of purees, but contrary to popular belief, it does not mean avoiding purees in general. A combined approach that includes both finger foods for self-feeding and the spoon-feeding of purees is fine when babies are fed responsively, and there is no evidence that a combined approach is detrimental.
Feeding Your Little One
Feeding purees the BLW way involves pre-loading the spoon and then handing the spoon to the baby to self-feed, which ensures that the baby is leading the process and deciding whether and how much to eat. In addition to offering purees in this way, BLW babies are also offered a variety of finger foods that invite them to explore and maneuver different textures in the mouth.
In fact, puree is an important texture for babies to learn and practice. Older children and even adults eat purees throughout life in the form of foods like yogurt, applesauce, cream soup, mash potatoes, so you can feel confident about offering both to your baby throughout the process of learning to eat.
Its important to note that there is no one-sized-fits all approach to feeding your baby. It’s also not something that needs to be strict with timing, serving size, or how you introduce foods to your baby. Do what works best for your baby and your family!
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