Any other baby led weaning parents out there? How has your experience been? [name_f]Do[/name_f] you have any tips to share?
I was an unwilling BLWer with number three. I homemade purées for one and two but three was not having any of it. He had severe tantrums at the sight of a spoon. So he decided he was a BLW baby not me!
[name_f]My[/name_f] tip is find less messy BLW foods that baby will eat which you can take with you when out and about. Toast and bananas are good for pre teeth babies. I also made savoury vegetable muffins which were a godsend! Also Japanese style omelette and Spanish tortillas are great as they are more firm than other egg dishes. All of these reduce the mess if you are in public places!
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With my 7 year old, I made her purees at home. I didn’t know anything about [name_u]Baby[/name_u] Led Weaning yet, and was scared to give her real food. She didn’t have her first tooth until 11 months.
By the time I had my second daughter, I had learned about [name_u]Baby[/name_u] Led Weaning from the Internet, but also we went to Mexico when she was 6 months old. In my husband’s village in Mexico, “Baby Led Weaning” is just how people feed their kids. There is no jarred baby food unless you drive into another town 30 mins away to the supermarket. I let my daughter try almost everything I was eating; soup, tortillas, rice, beans, small pieces of chicken, fruits, etc. She also had 4 teeth by 7 months old. [name_f]My[/name_f] husband claims it’s because I gave her real food that her teeth came in, but it’s probably something his family believes.
Both my kids are good eaters now, but I’ll definitely be doing the [name_u]Baby[/name_u] Led Weaning again with this baby. I don’t have time to be making baby food with three kids. It’s easier to just feed them pieces of what we are eating.
A warning for you though: not everyone will agree with it, or be familiar with it. [name_f]My[/name_f] dad was against me giving my daughter food that wasn’t mashed. I had to talk to him more about it. He would always say, “You can’t give a baby that!”
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[name_f]My[/name_f] experience is similar. With my eldest we did purées. I knew about BLW, but she was already doing purées when I started fostering her, so I made my own. I noticed her fine motor skills seemed behind so I gave her finger foods at about 8 months. During the work week, she mostly got purées with the nanny.
I’m just starting BLW with my son at 6 mo. We’ve already had some negative remarks from a family member who happened to be visiting this week. All family lives in another country so we won’t have anyone nearby to upset. Our community here is pretty open. Others have already done BLW.
So far he’s exploring, but not consuming much, which I know is normal. However, I’m still getting used to the gagging. I know it’s gagging, not choking, but I’m on my feet a few times a meal ready to give him the Heimlich 
I never understood why this concept has a special name… Honestly, we just called it “food.”
At around 4-5 months, we began introducing FOOD to our child. It was very straightfoward and a pleasant, fun, and enjoyable experience for everyone.
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BLW baby here. Started at the recommended 6 months but he was premature so wasn’t ready til 8 months. Had lots of pancakes, cucumber fingers, berries and everything I have. He’s 13 months now and breakfast was pancakes with honey and berries, lunch was a sandwich, cheese, Wotsits, a mini malt loaf and dinner was spaghetti carbonara.
The one tip I relied on was to let him work it out himself before I intervened. I panicked constantly that he’d choke but I don’t think he ever choked, just gagged. He refused spoon feeding and puree repulsed him (don’t blame him if I’m honest 
) so it was his own choice. I just give him what I eat or a healthy alternative if I’m feeling something naughty.
[name_f]My[/name_f] mum was so confused and always commented on the food I gave him, sometimes said I gave him too much (majority goes on the floor so I always give him more than he would eat!) but I’m glad I kept with it as he’s an amazing eater now. His fine motor skills are excellent.
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Baby-led weaning is a method for introducing solid foods that don’t involve purees or spoon-feeding. Instead, your baby feeds herself soft foods that you place in front of her. You should through the basics, from when you can start giving your baby finger foods to how you can make sure she’s safe when she’s eating.
I guess we did baby led weaning, not intentionally but we just let her try what we were having, and encouraged her to try a variety of textures and flavors. We also did purées and things like that but I encouraged self feeding as soon as she was able even with purées (she was using a spoon by 9/10 months, a bit messy but she has excellent motor skills now)
Haha, I’ve heard the term “Baby-Led Weaning” but didn’t quite realize it’s exactly what I’ve done till now.
I waited till 6 months with both my boys, though they had a few tastes of solid food before then. I started with eggs, scrambled or hard-boiled; bits of salmon; avocado with my second; cooked vegetables and soft fruit. I held off on grains and added sugar till later, but by a year old they were pretty much eating what we were eating. It just makes sense to me.
@auroradawn
Yeah. And I will say, as am avid “BLW-er” , the name is ridiculous. It isnt baby-led; it’s parent-led. And it shouldnt be used to wean. No pediatrician anywhere is advising weaning from milk at 4-6 months. Babies at this stage still have minimum calcium and fat requirements (from the milk) necessary for proper brain development. You’re merely introducing them to healthy gummable foods and helping develop their pincer grip, gag reflex, and other core motor skills. I’m all for naming things to more easily reference a paradigm, but the name of BLW just feels … Ridiculous? It’s just … Supervised eating? Heh
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It needs a new name 
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@LynnG Okay, “supervised eating” literally made me chuckle!
The concept makes a lot of sense to me though and I plan to try it. I remember all those purees being a huge pain when my youngest sibling was a baby.
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@LaurenAlexis
Yeah, the purees always 1. LooKed and smelled gross to me. And 2. Apparently there is waaay less safety regulation on them than actual food (in the US anyway).
There is SO much to try and enjoy, anyway, with food. Colors, sizes, shapes, smells, textures, different densities, some are chewy whereas others make a snap sound! There’s so much to explore and have run with. Carrots raw and whole vs raw and shredded vs steamed vs boiled are all so different. The idea of reducing everything down to a sugary sticky glob as my kid’s introduction to food just makes me so sad.
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Yes! I did a baby food tasting game at a shower recently, and the adults were gagging.
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@LynnG I’ve been reading about the lack of regulations on baby food – even though a lot of the articles are using clickbait and scare tactics for the headlines, it’s still concerning to me. Definitely a point in favor of real food!
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I have a cookbook that refers to it only as [name_u]Baby[/name_u] Led Feeding.
I’m not a BLW parent- Inwould say I’m a “I’m trying to survive while giving my kids a healthy start” parent [name_f]My[/name_f] first two were going nuts at 5 months for trying food so as much as I tried to hold off with each of them I introduced purées then. Neither of them stayed in the purée stage long but it’s where we started. I will say three kids in I have never bought one jar food or pouch- it’s all been homemade. So purées doesn’t necessarily have to equate filling your child with tasteless, bad-smelling unregulated glop. For me it has definitely taken some research and determination.
Food introduction with my third has been more unpredictable. I’m not sure if he ever had that “food need”that the other two had so I didn’t feel the need to introduce at 5 months but still started with purées at 6 months. But a short time after introduction he suddenly started refusing them even though he intily liked things. I thought like his siblings maybe he wanted stuff he could pick up to no avail. So I looked into some BLW techniques and still he’s not really sold- even after several months he’s just not that into food. I try to offer him stuff when we eat but he’s just not that into it and that’s ok… I’m sure he’ll catch on eventually.
@LaurenAlexis yeah, there have been some congressional inquiries recently that have mads headlines.
Nonetheless, most are at a minimim loaded with either preservatives or sugar (or both) for shelf stability. I say, let a carrot be a carrot. Carrots are fun. Let the baby enjoy exploring a carrot!
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When my children were babies, giving them real food was called “Introducung solids”, because that is what it was.
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I loved it with number 1 and am so doing it again with this one (though I’m going to try to do fewer fruits and more green veggies! Hahaha).
As someone said… This is how almost all humans have been weaned… Your baby is smart and will figure it out. The only things my son ever choked on were not food (tree bark and a stupid paper receipt … Both happened really quickly! ). Foods were fine.
I would add I did give him spoon foods, but only where these are foods that we also at by spoon (ie soup or yoghurt) and we let him spoon the yoghurt himself (the soup we experimented but he cried because he never got any in his mouth and he was hungry 
)