Baby-Led Weaning

As my babies became repeatedly fussy at a particular feeding time. I would drop it. One by one they all went away and by 10 months they were weaned to a cup. No problems. I let them tell me. The last one was hard to drop as I wanted to continue, but I knew it would be harder if I did not follow their lead, so I did. And it worked well.

We mostly followed this model with Matthew. We started offering foods around 7-8 months, and he would taste them but never swallow anything. We didn't force anything and never pureed anything, and finally at around 11 months he decided he was ready to eat. Nursing was his only source of food up until that point, and as he ate more food he nursed less and less. He still nurses at bedtimes (he is 20 months), and asks to when he is sad or hurt, but other than that he just eats good, real, whole food.

We just had a little girl a few weeks ago and plan on using this approach again with her. I really believe it to be the best way and it was a great experience for us.

Good luck in you feeding adventure.

M.

I have used this approach with all three of my children. I suggest you read the book The Nursing Mother's Guide to Weaning. It gives lots of great weaning tips including Child-led weaning. Also, go to some La Leche League meetings. I've always gotten good weaning advice from them.

S.

I did it with my son. He breastfed til he was 2. Of course towards the end it tapered off quite a bit, but it worked great for us and was a wonderful experience for us both. I was very glad I did it.

I didn't suffer from any pain or discomfort when I stopped feeding him. He was of course on solids by then and mostly did it for comfort.

Part of what made it easy was that we used a nipple shield and when I put them out of sight, he would forget to ask and would start to go a day or more without asking. But once he was old enough to learn signs, I taught him the sign for milk. He would use it to ask to nurse. I stopped offering him the breast and let him ask me.

He never took to baby food. Cereals, jar food, none of it. He hated them and wouldn't taste them once he smelled them, even when I mixed things in to make it more palatable.

He went straight to table food, small bits, whatever we were eating, cut up fine or in easy to pick up bits.

All in all it was a great experience and I have zero regrets about doing it that way. I wholeheartedly support your efforts and hope its as wonderful an experience for you as it was for us.

Congratulations on your miracle! Being a parent is the most wonderful, exciting, exhilerating and SCARY thing in the world.

Glad to hear you are brestfeeding your little one. As for solids and weaning, what we have done with ours is this...

Sometime between 6-9 months when our little one is showing interest in table foods (they will show interest before this, but wouldn't give them anything but maybe occasional "tastes" of mashed up things) I start feeding foods. At this point they have developed a pincer grasp and either get food mashed with a fork (so not pureed or anything) or tiny, soft cubed foods, usually whatever we are eating for dinner. I don't worry about 3 solid meals a day at this point because they are still nursing for 95-99% of their nutritional intake. I gradually add foods as kiddo is interested (you know because they eat everything you give them and want more). DD was still about90% breastfed until shortly after her 1st birthday when she cut 7 new teeth in 1 month! Right after that she started wanting more and more solids. She is now 19 months and still nurses about 4 times a day, on average (these nursings are usually pretty short in duration-5 min. maybe, not like when she was an infant). She also eats 3 meals a day.

I plan to let her wean when she is ready, unless it starts getting on my nerves sooner. With ds, who is now 5, I weaned him at 22 months because nursing started to GRATE on my nerves. He was only nursing once or twice a day at that point.

Continue to read and research, but be sure to listen to your own instincts. There is no ONE right way to do all this parenting stuff. I think everyone kind of develops their own "expert" techniques that work best for each child and family. Good luck and I'm sure you will find a way that works for you and your baby!

Ps. Here is a website I really like for breastfeeding/parenting advice. It is very pro-breastfeeding. It is www.kellymom.com

That is what we do and Catherine just turned 1 and is still nursing and just learing to eat solids.

We started at 10 months with avacado and then banana, slowly intorduced adult oatmeal, brown rice, etc...She feeds herself most foods but I do feed her apple sauce, plums, pumpkin, etc...that will be messy.

I would suggest, when the time comes in getting a Vidallia Chop Wizard from your local BEd Bath and Beyond, it has amde making baby food easy. It chops everything into 1/4 inch cubes, perfect for her little fingers. I just chop everything, steam it and freeze it in ice cube trays, stick it in freezer bags and heat as needed.

I have found that when letting baby eat when they are ready, offering nursing often and letting them lead, they will nurse close to theri 2nd birthdays. That is what I am hopeing for her.

Good luck and enjoy, they grow up so fast, don't be in too big of a hurry!

I'm not exactly sure what the rules are to this, but I'm definitely letting my kids wean themselves. I make all our solid food for them. My older child was excited to eat some food starting at 6 months. She is still nursing a few times each day as she approaches 3. My younger daughter hasn't been nearly as interested in food. She didn't really start eating much until age 1. Now, at 13 months she is showing a lot more interest, but only if the food is very soft. She is also still nursing. Since obesity is an epidemic in my family, I think this is a good plan for us.

I let my son, now 2, decide when it was time to wean. I continued to nurse through all the baby-food, solid food and supplementing with formula. As he got older, the number of times he nursed diminished, and he eventually weaned himself at 13 months. That's was definitely easier on both of us and I'm glad he decided when to stop. Needless to say, I sure was nervous on how to wean when the time would come. You and & your baby will know when to eventually give it up. Until then, keep on nursing and congratulations for keeping with it.

I let each of my children self-wean - they still ate solids when they were old enough - when my youngest was over age 1 - I had a don't offer don't refuse policy - she weaned by 2 1/2.

Good luck with your little miracle!!

I didn't do baby-led WEANING...I got pregant and stopped nursing. However, I did not feed him solids until he was wanting them. We followed his lead, and he didn't eat solid foods until 9 months (and not much at all then.) I don't know if this had anything to do with it, but he is a HORRIBLE eater!!!!! I mean, he won't eat anything, and even now he eats like a bird. I really don't know if maybe it's the way he would have been anyway, but I know that with this baby, we're going to do things the way we did it with our first (who is a fantastic eater:)) You asked for warnings, so whether this was a cause and effect, I don't know...but I wanted to tell you our story!

S.,

I just googled "baby-led weaning." I think I've got the gist. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't push solids until the baby is interested and then you let them feed themselves real food. It's not totally free as you are still controlling what's introduced and looking for allergic reactions with the 3-4 day wait period. You can introduce pureed food first, but that's kind of optional. It's a smidge more complicated than that, but I'd have to type a would website.

If that's it, then I've pretty much been doing that without knowing they had a name for it. I know they have a name for everything these days.

I've always made my own baby food. I started both of my kids at six months on pureed homemade food. My son was very independent, so he was feeding himself soft steamed veggies and whole grain rice crispies by ten months. We've got allergies around here, so there were no cheerios or bread products available at this age even though it would have worked out ok. Self feeding meats came later. He pretty much ate his own portion size and what he wanted (which was everything) from an early age. We never had problems with food rejection. It all went down. He never played "drop the food to get a rise out of mom." Food was too important; it must go in the mouth. My son nursed twice a day until 20 months. Partly that was because of milk allergy. He could have weaned sooner, but never showed any interest. As I've said he loves his food.

My eight month old on the other hand is very petite. She's healthy, very active, but very petite. When six months rolled around. She showed lots of interest in food. However, she spit all the pureed food back at me for almost three weeks. She made funny faces, but never cried about it. One day she decided she wanted to swallow and now we're doing great. We've tried the rice crispies, but she'd rather watch those fall to the floor. Some make it in her mouth, but most hit the floor. She'd rather have all food flying than have it go in her mouth. Her favorite is drinking water out of a big cup. We're still too early to tell if and when she'll want to wean.

The only thing I make sure I do is introduce new foods repeatedly whether they like them the first time or not. My son finally likes green beans at the age of three. His sister loves them. It took the peer pressure to get this one acceptable for him. However, I have a three year old who begs for salad, especially spinach, and adores steamed broccoli (no cheese necessary). He'll try almost anything and generally loves it. My daughter may be more of a challenge. My theory is that if they see me enjoying healthy food, they they will. I also don't keep boxed, processed, sugary, or junky food in the house. Almost everything is fresh and healthy. Trail mix is considered an exciting snack at our house.

If it makes you feel any better or different, this is very similar to what my peditrician recommends. He does not recommend baby food. He doesn't really say anything about the breastfeeding aspect of this method, but he does recommend going straight to soft/mashed table foods starting after 6 months of age. He doesn't really address the finger-feeding versus spoon-feeding aspect either, but I know both my boys (who went to table foods very early and easily) have quickly wanted to feed themselves, so I've let them mostly (I do feed things like yogurt and applesauce, or stuff like spaghetti, but they feed themselves fruit chunks and veggies). So we've done a version of this method with our kids and it's worked well. I think the biggest key is the table food, they eat what we eat and it seems to carry-over better into their feeding later in life in my experience with my toddler.

My only warning is that 'baby led' weaning usually turns into child led weaning. I have never met a baby who weaned themselves - they were usually 3 or 4. My first two children weaned at 3.5 and 3, and it was because I finally had to say enough is enough. My third baby was 14 mo - and that was because I had to stop nursing cold turkey, due to hospitalization. She is my most independent child, my boys were/are very clingy. Usually weaning is a two party process, following a child's lead, but setting limits. The children I know who were truly child led were still nursing at age 4 or 5. My last child is 10 months old, and I will probably slowly wean him by the time he's 18 months old.

My children (I have four) usually didn't start eating solids regularly until around 10 months, we skipped the jar baby food entirely; once they were old enough to sit up themselves in a high chair and feed themselves chunky food.

Like the other poster said, I didn't know this was a named system, but it's essentially what I did. I think everything depends upon your dd's personality--mine has always been very independent, and wants to do what she sees mom and dad doing. We did feed her purees, and she loved the fruit, but never much the veggies. Once she got the pincer-grasp going, though, around 8-9 mos, she LOVED eating peas, cheerios, chopped bananas, chopped tofu... We followed her lead, but we also had her sit at the table with us from the time she was 3-4 months old--first in her swing, then a bumbo seat, and finally her high chair. At 6 mos she loved her sippy cup, 'cuz she could feed herself. She weaned herself at 10 1/2 mos--she just would rather eat "real" food than nurse. At the end, I was actually holding her down to make her nurse, and that just seemed silly. I was obviously still nursing for my sake, not hers, so I let it go (with some crying from me, and some very sweet support from hubby). I would support following DD's lead, but also offer her healthy options, and include her in family mealtime from the beginning--even if it's just sitting her with you, including her in the conversation, and letting her see you eat. LOTS of studies show the advantages of family mealtime for kids. My DD's now a GREAT eater--LOVES the veggies and fruit, gobbles up the cheese and yogurt, isn't quite sure why we'd want to eat apple pie (lol!). Do what feels best for you and your DD--there's no one right answer, as every kid is different!

I did spoon feed my kido's for a while, there was a spot around 7mos when my 14month old really wanted to eat but couldn't quite manage to get the bites in her mouth, or they would fall out when she tried to "chew" so I would feed her things like sweet potatoes. We only used rice cereal to thicken pureed fruit and make it thick so it would stay on a spoon so she could feed her self. OH and when we did spoon feed you still can tell when they are wanting more and when they are done. I say if they are happy only feeding themself, great, but if they are hungrier then they are coordinated well then you might have to help a little.
We started with avacado then on to sweet potatoes then I think rice and then green beans and cold peas... I waited a touch longer on pears and apples, due to the peal, but bananas were pretty soon. OH and she was funny she didn't like to get her hands messy, so she liked us to hold the banana, or she wanted us to leave it in the peal so she could hold it. so cute
Good luck. OH and as for the actual breastfeeding side, I have gone till 2 with both of my older ones and plan on sometime around there this time. I don't know how long we will actually go depends on her.

I wonder if babies seeing other family members eat table foods can help speed the weaning process. My daughter was always at the table with us during meal times and at about three months we let her try soft table foods and introduced cereals because she expressed an interest (staring, pointing, grunting (lol). At four months, she no longer wanted to be breast fed and at seven months stopped using a bottle. And she eats very well now at 15 months, including lots of vegetables and fruits, healthy snacks, cottage cheese, cheese sticks, chicken, boiled eggs, beans and rice. Even after all that, she's on the lighter side of the weight scale for kids her age and the doctor says she's very healthy. I don't know if that helps. Good luck!

Go for it!

We've been having a wonderful experience.

We started with steamed broccoli stems and mashed potatoes mounded up in front of Sierra on her Bumbo tray. (We skipped cereals - it's hard for the young digestive systems of babies to process cereals without discomfort. Also, I learned that purees are mainly for 4 to 6 month olds with pediatrician OK and that a 6 mo old can handle all types of finger foods with their incredible gag reflex - even without teeth!)

Sierra is the BEST eater. She's not picky at all and she even has multiple food allergies! She loves to try new things, especially if we say "oooh yummy (fill in food here)!"

Bottom line is that she is in control of what she eats and how much. On 2 occasions we tried to spoon feed her and she clamped her mouth shut each time. But when we placed finger foods in front of her for her to pick up she was much more happy and she actually ate her food!

We also use sign language with Sierra. She really likes frozen peas and frozen blueberries and loves to "comment" on the temperature of her foods. (She signs cold and says the word hot.) www.weehands.com/weehands_w_sheri.htm

I will be posting more food pics at our blog. (I'm behind on our blog. Sierra just turned 17 mo and I'm posting 10 month entries!)

Baby Sierra updates can be found at our Pregnancy and Birth Blog:
http://360.yahoo.com/ut96grad
Latest entry 9/21/08

I'm sure you've done your research, but just in case you need more resources:

It is documented in numerous places that 6 months+, even without teeth, can handle finger foods.

Check out http://babyledweaning.blogware.com
It's a very informative and funny blog from a Scottish mom about her adventures with solid food.

There's a Y! group too. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/B-LW
"Baby-led weaning is an approach to the introduction of solid foods which involves babies from around six months of age feeding themselves with their fingers, thus avoiding the need for spoon-feeding and purees. Babies who are allowed to take control of their eating in this way seem to enjoy the process enormously and to become less fussy eaters later. It's also less work for Mum! Join the group to share the experiences of those who are using (or have used) this method."