Baby Linguine (a.k.a. Baby Led Weaning)

[Horsedog]

Hey All,

 

We've got a soon-to-be 1-year old son, and have had great success with baby led weaning.  Both my wife and I had fairly disfunctional relationships with either food and/or eating growing up, and wanted to start off on the right foot with our kids.

 

Basically, the gist is this:

 

Starting at 6 months, give your kids food in addition to breast-milk (not sure if this would also be recommended for formula-fed tots, though).  Like, food-food - not purees, not baby food, not pablum or that rice cereal - just pieces of whatever you're eating (assuming you're not eating garbage )

 

We've found it to be AWESOME.  Primarily, it's helped US make better food choices.  Win-win

 

Downside - It. Is. MESSY.  Seriously.  Food ends up everywhere.  Towel/garbage bag/tarp on the floor is highly recommended.  Also, dogs to clean up the scraps

 

Basically, we're trying to instill good eating habits early - mostly not eating any more once you're not hungry.

 

Any other tips on ingraining healthy eating habits are welcome!!

[Frost of the Gloaming]

do you puree the food yourself? I don't remember my daughter having many teeth at 6 months and newo (3 months) so no signs of teething anytime soon

[brmiller0808]

I only fed my oldest son (now 10) actual baby food. That was when I was super young and not as educated on health and nutrition. I pretty much have done the same thing you have outlined for my younger three. They all eat really healthy and feed themselves (for the most part). When they really started getting the hang of eating, we altered our eating habits and patterns (as parents) instead of the other way around. We did meats that out tot could eat, veggies that (s)he could eat, and so on. It was easier to just ALL eat the same thing instead of having to make a special meal for the younger ones. 

 

We also kept lots of finger foods on hand. Avocados, bananas and other ACTUAL foods. I'm not perfect though, and we definitely did the puffs and Cheerios and all the other store bought non sense. But all in moderation. 

[Horsedog]

No purées at all. Solid food (unless the food itself happens to be soft, like avocado). Yes, the lack of teeth made it interesting at first . Keep in mind that this is in addition to breast milk, not substituting for breast milk. So essentially the little guy was just learning the eating ropes at first - but not really getting a whole lot of nutrition from the food he "ate". A typical meal - at 7 months he had a piece of venison steak, sweet potato, roasted carrot, and cucumber sticks - pretty much a mirror of what we would have been eating. I'll upload the pic if I can find it - he just sucked the juice right outta that steak lol! Basically there are 2 big things to baby led weaning: 1. Introduce your child to solid food at 6 around 6 months (no sooner) - this is in addition to nursing. 2. Let your child feed him/herself - no spoon feeding - just put the food in front of them and let them eat (hence, the messiness).

[Horsedog]

Oh ya - definitely did the Cheerios in moderation .

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[brmiller0808]

 2. Let your child feed him/herself - no spoon feeding - just put the food in front of them and let them eat (hence, the messiness).

 

I have friends who are always impressed that my youngest can feed herself and has fed herself for quite some time with a utensil. I tell them that it's because I've never really fed her with one, but always left a spoon/fork/spork on her plate. My kids have also always sat down and ate dinner with us; seeing the whole family eat  together is very beneficial. 

[girljen]

The one food habit I've had to break from my own childhood is that of "eating good," as in, "If you eat good (meaning lots of food), you'll get dessert."  It took me years to get over that.

 

I tell my daughter, "Eat until you're not hungry anymore."  That has resulted in more food down the garbage disposal than I'd like, but it has also resulted in me changing her portion sizes so they're more kid-sized, and it has helped her realize when she's not hungry anymore.

[Lammis]

Interesting.  My baby who is almost 6 months old lunges at my food, but thinks that 'baby food' is bleh when offered.  So I give him little tastes of my food and so far his favorites are; Indian dal (it wasn't spicy hot), pickles (he sucked them until they were wilted), spaghetti sauce, and avocados.  

 

The spoon almost went in his eye, so maybe we'll just do things by hand for a little while as Horsedog suggested.

[DaniRiekwel]

I've been mashing my food up a bit to feed my 6 month old. I can't handle the mess when I'm looking after two 6 year olds as well. Also my daughter seems to be really hungry but she gets frustrated at her own skills of stuffing her face... I've kind of gone half and half. letting her feed herself and helping her with a spoon as well.

[Horsedog]

My son had some frustration as well - he'd stuff his mouth completely full and then be unable to do anything with the resultant wad . That's part of the process, though - learning to chew before learning to swallow (solids, that is). There was also a lot of gagging, which frankly was very unnerving as it seemed he was choking. Probably took about a month or 2 to get over both issues.

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[DaniRiekwel]

yes the gagging freaked me out the first time, but I since learned that that's her keeping it out of her airway. clever baby! She gets frustrated that she's not very good at picking up slippery food - apples and carrots and bananas are tricky for her to pick up. I might have a go with some meat tonight though. She definitely loves sucking on chicken bones!

[girljen]

My son had some frustration as well - he'd stuff his mouth completely full and then be unable to do anything with the resultant wad . That's part of the process, though - learning to chew before learning to swallow (solids, that is). There was also a lot of gagging, which frankly was very unnerving as it seemed he was choking. Probably took about a month or 2 to get over both issues. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

OMG the face stuffing!!  I lost track of how many times I had to say "Chew and swallow, and THEN put another bite in your mouth."

[djras]

Food is going to end up everywhere, "downside" of letting them feed themselves. Apart from good choices for food I think the mental aspect is important. They don't have to finish everything on their plate. Don't force them, especially as babies to try some new food. Babies usually turn away when they are done, don't try more than twice if they turn away.

[murphmehard]

Love this! I will be doing baby-led weaning in 2 months when my little guy is 6 months (or when he can sit up on his own). My MIL (who we live with) kept talking about wanting to start feeding him baby cereal so my husband finally just said "We are not doing cereal. We are doing this." and I brought some literature home for her to look at so she knows what to expect. I'm pretty stoked to watch him learn to eat!

 

As for the hungry/frustrated babies...I read/learned to give them boob/bottle first so they are not starving while learning to eat...Although once they start eating more I'm sure they will get a bit frantic no matter what, lol.

[vibrantnotions]

do you puree the food yourself? I don't remember my daughter having many teeth at 6 months and newo (3 months) so no signs of teething anytime soon

 

I realize this is a way old post so your little ones is much older now.  But I know this is a common concern, so I wanted to respond.  They don't really need teeth.  Their gums are surprisingly good at crushing/chewing.  I got the "but he doesn't have teeth!" comment a lot.  Most people are OK giving a one year old table food that requires chewing, but molars often don't come in until 13 months or later, and the molars are what you chew with.  Whenever I felt worried I'd let him bite down on my finger to remind myself how strong those little gums are.    

 

OMG the face stuffing!!  I lost track of how many times I had to say "Chew and swallow, and THEN put another bite in your mouth."

 

Yes!!  We had tears over the fact that he couldn't fit any more apple in his mouth.  At one he still sometimes stuffs too much in his mouth, but he is proficient at spitting it out now if he needs too.  

 

On the mess factor I'll be honest I find puree mess worse than table food mess.  The table food mess my dog cleans up for me.  Soon fed messes I have to clean up myself.  Granted the spoon fed messes might be worse than normal because he helps direct the spoon in.

 

I feel like baby led weaning and any other method that is careful to go slowly and respect a babies signals that it is full is really important to developing healthy eating habits.  Parents get so caught up in how much a child eats.  One more ounce.  One more bite.  Let's finish this last little bit off.  That we accidentally teach our children to keep eating when they are full.  

 

My next step is going to be letting him serve himself when he's old enough to do so. I decided this after reading this article: "Why Letting Kids Serve themselves May be worth the Mess"  It makes logical sense to me and I feel like it is a really nice natural continuation of baby led weaning.

[Glacier]

Regarding the mess... we bought a few yards of canvas from the local art supply store and cut it to make 2 big drop cloths that went under the baby chair. The canvas can be washed with towels or rags or whatever, easy peasy.

[hblyne]

I did BLW with both my kids and never really had that much mess tbh. Although I didn't give them that much in the way of sloppy food until they were a bit older, 6-12 months they had lots of finger foods but showed no interest in soups or stews or anything like that. My youngest is 2.5 now, so we're well past those early weaning months but I still look back fondly on them, especially with my eldest when it was all such a novelty. I took soooo many photos of him eating lol. The gums are amazing at mashing food but also both of mine had front teeth by 6 months, which were handy for slicing through cucumber, carrot etc.

 

They both have an excellent sense of portion control and generally make healthy choices too. I won't lie though, my eldest (5.5) has become quite a fussy eater and still refuses to use cutlery, even though he has had forks and spoons next to his plate for every meal in his entire life. Part of why I did BLW was the claim that it helped prevent fussy eating. I was an extremely fussy eater as a child and even now my diet is nowhere near varied enough and I have an aversion to trying new things. I didn't want my kids to end up like me. It has been disheartening that the fussiness has crept in regardless, but it seems to be very common among my friends, almost all of whom did BLW with their kids, so I try not to blame myself or worry too much about it.