Baby-led Weaning: The Experience of Eating

Eating is so much more than consuming nutrients and energy. If it was only that, we would all live on powdered nutrition or food pills!

Eating is an experience. It is tasting flavours in different combinations. It's the sight of different colours and textures. It's the smell of of each component. It's the social connection of coming together and sharing a meal. It is selecting each bite from a range of choices.

Eating is not having pureed foods spooned into your mouth. It isn't swallowing because something has been placed into your mouth. It is pacing the process so that the feedback from your body indicates you have successfully satisfied hunger.

Eating is a developmental milestone. It happens when an infant can:

🥦Sit up straight

🥑Pick up a piece of food and bring it to the mouth.

🍅Move food around in the mouth to place it in the correct place for swallowing.

🫐Grasp food - initially clasped in a fist and later between thumb and finger.

In the past, babies needed food to be liquefied because recommendations to begin solids were as early as 6 weeks of age. With better science and understanding, we have been advised that 6 months is the appropriate age for almost 20 years!

Babies eat, they are not fed.

Parents present suitable foods and babies choose what they would like to taste. They practice holding it in just the right spot. They identify how to get it into their mouth and how much is too much ... spitting it out and trying again.

Food is the second six months is Eating on Training Wheels! Breastmilk still haste basics covered, with some iron rich foods topping up their levels.

Enjoy baby-led weaning without stress. Treat 6-12 months like a daily tasting platter for your baby to experience the foods your family eats. It's not a competition!!