Baby-Led Weaning has a day…
July 1 is officially National Baby-Led Weaning Day and here is how you can celebrate with your self-feeding baby.
What is Baby-Led Weaning?
Baby-Led Weaning is a safe and effective alternative to conventional parent-led spoon-feeding. Babies who are 6 months of age and showing the other reliable signs of readiness to eat can start solid foods safely using the baby-led weaning approach.
Baby-led weaning recognizes a baby’s inborn ability and desire to feed themselves. The baby is the one driving the eating experience.
This approach opens the door for helping babies to meet their feeding and developmental milestones, helps reduce the severity of picky eating and has the potential to lower the risk of food allergy development too.
The term baby-led weaning was coined by BLW pioneer Gill Rapley, PhD who is also the co-author of the original baby-led weaning book, “Baby-Led Weaning: The Ultimate Guide”.
What is Baby-Led Weaning?
Baby-Led Weaning is a safe and effective alternative to conventional parent-led spoon-feeding. Babies who are 6 months of age and showing the other reliable signs of readiness to eat can start solid foods safely using the baby-led weaning approach.
Baby-led weaning recognizes a baby’s inborn ability and desire to feed themselves. The baby is the one driving the eating experience.
This approach opens the door for helping babies to meet their feeding and developmental milestones, helps reduce the severity of picky eating and has the potential to lower the risk of food allergy development too.
The term baby-led weaning was coined by BLW pioneer Gill Rapley, PhD who is also the co-author of the original baby-led weaning book, “Baby-Led Weaning: The Ultimate Guide”.
If you want to learn more about Gill Rapley and baby-led weaning, here are some additional resources:
- “How did Baby-Led Weaning Get its Name? with Gill Rapley, PhD” interview on the BABY-LED WEANING MADE EASY podcast with Katie Ferraro
- “Combo Feeding: Can I Do BLW + Traditional Spoon-Feeding Together? with Gill Rapley, PhD” interview on the BABY-LED WEANING MADE EASY podcast with Katie Ferraro
- “The History of BLW with its Founding Philosopher Gill Rapley, PhD (Part 1)” interview on the BABY-LED WEANING MADE EASY podcast with Katie Ferraro
How Can I Celebrate Baby-Led Weaning Day?
While a real and emerging body of research supports baby-led weaning as a safe and effective alternative to conventional parent-led spoon feeding, parents are by far the biggest advocates for this approach.
Here are 5 ways you can celebrate baby-led weaning day:
1. Try a New Food With Your Baby
While conventionally spoon-fed babies might only have 10 or 15 foods under their belt by the time they turn one, with baby-led weaning there are an infinite number of real foods your baby can learn how to eat.
In 2016 I created the original 100 FIRST FOODS™ approach to starting solid foods with baby-led weaning. Using my 5-STEP FEEDING FRAMEWORK™ we introduce 5 new foods each week to the baby:
- 1 new fruit on Monday
- 1 new vegetable on Tuesday
- 1 new starchy food on Wednesday
- 1 new protein food on Thursday
- 1 new allergenic food on Friday
It is perfectly safe to introduce 1 (or more) new food every day to your baby. With 5 new foods per week, you try 20 new foods per month and in just 5 months, your baby has had 100 different foods before turning 1. This approach takes the guesswork out of which foods to offer your baby next.
For baby-led weaning day this year, try a new food with your baby.
This can be from a food category you’ve been a little scared to try (....meat, anyone?) or a new allergenic food that you haven’t done yet.
By trying 1 new food each day, 5 days per week, you help your baby eat 20 foods in a month and they can safely learn to eat 100 foods before turning one!
If you want to grab a copy of my original 100 FIRST FOODS list, it’s a great way to identify the 5 new foods to introduce to your baby each day.
Everyone on my free online workshop called BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS gets a copy of the original 100 FIRST FOODS list, and you can sign up here.
Let me know which food you try together and how the family enjoyed trying something new! You can tag me on Instagram @babyledweanteam.
2. Practice Open Cup Drinking With Your Baby
Your baby can learn how to drink out of an open cup starting at 6 months of age.
Ideally by the time the baby turns one, they can be drinking out of an open cup on their own - albeit with some spillage.
To start with open cup practice, do 5 minutes of practice after each meal.
For more information about why water is not ideal for earlier eaters, listen to this episode of the BABY-LED WEANING MADE EASY podcast called Water: Why Offering Water to Early Eaters Can be Dangerous.
The open cup I use for baby-led weaning is the Tiny Cup from ezpz.
The Tiny Cup is an award winning open cup designed by the ezpz feeding specialist Dawn Winkelmann, MS, CCC-SLP.
You can get 10% off everything at ezpz with the affiliate discount code KATIE10. The ezpz Tiny Cups are linked here (this is an affiliate link).
3. Let Your Baby Get Messy!
Making a mess at mealtimes is one of the primary barriers that parents encounter when they start baby-led weaning.
Learning how to eat is a full sensory experience, and your baby touching the food and smooshing the food and squashing the food and sniffing the food…it’s all part of the learning how to eat experience.
Your job as a parent or caregiver is not to eliminate the mess, and if you can even work towards embracing the mess, you’ll realize it is a crucial part of the learning how to eat process.
4. Watch Videos of Other Babies Gagging on Food and Recovering on Their Own
Gagging is a necessary and natural part of learning how to eat and is different from choking.
With gagging your baby turns red or pink and sputters or coughs, which is good - because it indicates that air is passing through. Your baby who is 6m of age + sitting relatively independently can recover from a gag on their own and does not need you to intervene.
With choking your baby turns blue or purple and is silent because there is no air passing through. Choking is a potentially life threatening situation that requires you to intervene and begin administering CPR.
The online CPR class I take myself each quarter and recommend is $10 off with the code KATIE10. Click here to register for CPR or the Choking Prevention and Response Course I co-teach (the code KATIE10 also works for that course).
I know it’s uncomfortable to watch, but gagging is a natural and necessary part of your baby learning how to eat and the more practice your baby has with new foods and textures, the less frequent and intense the gagging will become.
Watching videos of other babies gagging on food and recovering on their ow can increase confidence in your baby’s ability to do the same. Here are some gagging videos from my YouTube channel that are good to watch if gagging is freaking you out:
- Gagging Compilation: How to Get Over Your Fear in Minutes
- 10 Babies Gagging on Their First Foods (Why it’s a GOOD Thing!): Baby-Led Weaning
Preparing baby-led weaning foods properly is the most important consideration for giving your baby a safe start to solid foods.
Inside of my digital program called BABY-LED WEANING with Katie Ferraro I show you exactly how to prepare all of the 100 foods on my 100 FIRST FOODS list.
With this program you get instant and lifetime access to all of the instructions and recipes you need to succeed…so you don’t have to hunt and peck all over the internet trying to figure it out on your own or relying on other resources that don’t really show you how to correctly prep your baby’s food.
Here’s what you get when you join the BABY-LED WEANING with Katie Ferraro program:
- Every module and lesson is organized and streamlined to move your baby through the three distinct phases of baby-led weaning, so that by age 1 almost all of your baby’s nutrition will successfully be coming from food
- A strategic roadmap for helping your baby master trickier textures, safely eat allergenic foods and gain exposure to a wide variety of foods to help lower the risk of picky eating and save yourself valuable time, money and sanity while doing so
- Over 100 combination food recipes for Phase 2 of baby-led weaning…these are recipes your whole family will love so that you don’t have to worry about what your baby is having for dinner tonight, because the recipes are right there
- Support resources, including grocery lists, meal plans, checklists and cheat sheets designed to help you and your baby achieve important feeding and nutrition milestones so that you don’t have to go hunting and pecking all over the internet to figure it out on your own
- Access to the original 100 FIRST FOODS content library with instructions, videos, resources and recipes on how to safely make every food for your baby’s current age and stage, so that you’ll never wonder if you’re doing baby-led weaning the right way
- An easy to follow, evidence-based plan for helping your baby safely eat over 100 foods before turning 1 so that you can enjoy this next phase while your friends and family comment on what an amazing eater your baby is
Click here to join Katie’s Baby-Led Weaning and 100 First Foods Program
5. Share a Video of Your Baby Self-Feeding
No matter where you are in you and your baby’s BLW journey, remember it’s YOUR journey.
Parenting can sometimes feel a little lonely especially when you’re learning how to do something new, but you’re definitely not alone in baby-led weaning!
To celebrate BLW Day, share a picture or video of your baby eating REAL FOOD.
Use the hashtag #blwday and tag me on Instagram @babyledweanteam to celebrate you and your baby while also giving some encouragement to other BLW families out there.
Here are some ideas you could share that will inspire others:
- Show us the last food your baby tried
- Show us your latest baby-led weaning win (absolutely okay if your baby isn’t eating much yet and your win is just getting the food on the plate and the baby in the chair!)
- Show us family favorite meal that your baby got to be included in
- Show us how you’re doing baby-led weaning while traveking or on the road
- Show us learning about baby-led weaning if you’re not quite ready to start yet (check out my FREE Baby-Led Weaning for Beginners at babyledweaning.co :)
Happy Baby-Led Weaning Day! However you celebrate, be sure to tag me on Instagram @babyledweanteam and use #blwday so that I can cheer you on :)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Katie Ferraro, MPH, RDN is a registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of 7. She specializes in baby-led weaning and is the creator of the original 100 FIRST FOODS™ program. Katie hosts the top-rated parenting podcast BABY-LED WEANING MADE EASY and runs the baby-led weaning YouTube channel and @babyledweanteam Instagram account. Her BABY-LED WEANING with Katie Ferrao digital program is the go to resource for exactly how to start solid foods safely with baby-led weaning and to help your baby eat 100 safe, baby-led weaning foods before turning one.
