This is Day 85 of the Green in 365 series!
We talked last week about breast milk being baby’s perfect first food, and this week I wanted to talk about starting your baby on solid foods.
Around the time that my son was ready to start solids, I learned about a method of feeding called Baby Led Weaning. We didn’t start feeding him with this method right away, because I didn’t feel like I had enough information about it, but when he was nine months old, we began feeding him according to Baby Led Weaning and never looked back!
This time around with Blair, we have used Baby Led Weaning since she started solids at 7 months. She’s now 9 1/2 months and a great little eater who loves all different types of food and loves to feed herself. Now that I’ve fed two babies using the Baby Led Weaning method, I would never go back to traditional baby food!
5 Benefits of Baby Led Weaning
• No baby food to buy.
Baby food can be expensive! And for what? Watered down, pureed fruits and vegetables, or little puffs of grain that are really mostly air? Baby food makers have made us believe that we have to feed our babies these foods, and at a premium price. But the truth is, we don’t! I haven’t purchased one food item from the baby food aisle for Blair!
• No baby food to make.
If you don’t want to buy baby food, you may end up spending a ton of time in the kitchen steaming, pureeing, and freezing homemade baby food. This is what I did for my oldest daughter when she was a baby starting solid foods, and it was very time intensive. I’m so glad I don’t have to spend my precious time and energy making homemade baby food anymore!
• No extra energy or resources used.
Because you’re not buying or making special food for your baby, there is no production, manufacturing, shipping, etc. involved in getting your baby’s food from the field to the factory to the store to your house.
• No waste.
Also, because you’re not buying packaged baby food, there is no waste from baby food containers and packages. Since your baby eats what you eat, there is also much less waste of jars of baby food half-eaten, or baby food that you made that your baby doesn’t like and won’t eat.
• No spoon feeding.
I appreciate this one so much, because when you are spoon feeding a baby, you spend most of your meal feeding them instead of feeding yourself. Or if you feed them at a time other than the rest of the family, it takes time to prepare their food and then sit and feed them. Our baby eat meals with us, and I get to eat my food while it’s hot – no extra preparation or spoon feeding involved.
Check back on Thursday as we talk more about the specifics of what to feed your baby when following the Baby Led Weaning method of beginning solids with your baby!
I also want to recommend two resources if you are interested in learning more about Baby Led Weaning, I read both of these books when we were starting solids with Brenden, and have referred to them often this time around as well.
- Baby Led Weaning by Tracey Murkett and Gill Rapley – This is the comprehensive guide for the method of beginning your baby on solid foods and skipping purees and baby food altogether!
- Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck – This book has lots of great advice about first foods for baby and the importance of feeding your baby real, whole foods.
Find all the Green in 365 posts.
Continue reading…
- Breastfeeding: The Greenest Way to Feed Your Baby
- Following Baby Led Weaning for Starting Solids
- Starting Solids: Best First Foods for Babies
- Baby Led Weaning: Helpful Resources
- Feeding Baby – Breastfeeding and Beyond
- Feeding Baby: Breastfeeding and Beyond, Part II
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When I had my first babe, I tried to start solids at 6 months like you are supposed to – with disgusting brown rice cereal! She wasn’t interested. After a couple tries, I said let’s forget it and wait. So we waited…and waited…and then realized she didn’t have any interest in solids until about 12 months. Then she was eating mainly peas and avocado. She is healthy and fine today at almost 5, and I felt much better with my second not even introducing food until he started taking what I had on my plate…which was around 10 months.
I read an interesting article in the NYT a few days ago about feeding babies solids too early – it shouldn’t be before 6 months. I thought it was an interesting read, and solidified my feelings on baby led weaning.
My mom and most of my aunts and uncles served babies a modified version of what the family was eating, so this approach seems like just common sense to me! My son got teeth kind of late, so he needed mushy foods, but with a hand-powered food grinder it was easy to make our meals into baby food. His sitter enjoyed spoon-feeding him, but at home he’d usually feed himself; he learned to use a spoon easily before he was a year old. When I did spoon-feed him, usually I was sharing my food with him by taking a bite, then giving him a bite while I was chewing. 🙂
Amen, sister! “_
Looking forward to hear what you recommend!