Baby Led Weaning

There are so many benefits to baby-led weaning. You know me, I did my research! Your baby gets to try different food textures, they have fun exploring and holding different foods, supposedly this can help later down the meal journey...and it is certainly fun watching them! Max has tried a whole range of vegetables individually. I decided to choose the evening (5pm) slot as our meal time and started our journey with the following veg..carrots, broccoli (not so successful!), green beans...you can see from the list we've got through quite a few. There's loads of weaning charts you can purchase and download but I just created my own. I also thought it would be helpful to keep tabs on how many times he tries the veg (though mainly the ones he wasn't keen on) to ensure that he doesn't become avoidant. They say it takes 10 tries/exposures to foods before they except them! So Max has more broccoli to look forward to in the future!

It is advisable to chop the veg into baton shaped portions so the baby can hold and place part of the vegetable or fruit into their mouth. It is incredible that a baby is born with the innate ability to grasp objects. I waited until Max was 6 months to start baby led weaning as I wanted to give him the best chance of success! The above picture of Max shows him using what is called a 'palmar grasp' which he then draws to his mouth. He hasn't mastered the 'pincer grasp' just yet so I placed peas slightly squished onto a spoon for him to place in his mouth. He loved them! It was great seeing him use a spoon so confidently as well. Certainly a surprise to me!