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Baby led weaning order of foods


Ultimate Guide to Baby Led Weaning (and Best First Foods)

Learn the basics of how to do the feeding approach known as “baby led weaning” and the best first foods for baby to make starting solids easy and fun. Plus: Learn why it’s perfectly okay to use a combined approach of blw and purees.

Baby Led Weaning

The feeding approach known as “baby led weaning” or “BLW” for short, is a style of feeding infants that allows them to feed themselves right from the start. The food is offered in thick finger-size pieces and is soft and easily squishable between your fingers. This way, the food is both easy to hold but has a low risk of choking.

TIP: This method became popular about a decade ago after the publication of the Baby Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Food by UK author Gill Rapley.

BLW Baby

One of the many reasons that people are starting to opt for this style of feeding more and more is simply that it’s easy. In many cases, you can modify foods you’re already making to share with your baby and there’s not always a lot of separate cooking involved. It also allows a baby to have control over what goes into their mouths, which sets a good precedent for letting them eat intuitively from the start.

What age should I start baby led weaning?

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, a baby is ready to start solids with baby led weaning when:

  • They’ve doubled their birth weight (at least).
  • They can hold their head up well and are starting to sit up unsupported.
  • They show signs of being interested in food (watching you eat, reaching for food when you’re eating, etc).
  • When you feed them, they are able to move the food around in their mouths—rather than spit it right out.

TIP: Look for a highchair that allows a baby to sit up relatively straight so they can have good posture and better control over their arms and hands.

How to Start Baby Led Weaning

The first time you offer solids is such a fun milestone, so you’ll be ready once you follow these simple steps.

  • Make sure baby has hit the milestones listed above to let you know that he’s ready to start.
  • Get the highchair ready and adjust the straps and foot rest as needed.
  • Plan to introduce water when you start solids. I recommend a trainer cup.
  • Choose one food to start with and plan to offer only one food at a time.
  • Stop when baby starts to fuss, turns his head away, or shows any other signs of not wanting to continue. It’s usually fairly obvious when they are done!

TIP: If you start offering solids and baby just doesn’t seem interested at all, it’s okay. Take a break for a few days or a few weeks and start again. Each kiddo has their own unique timeline.

Best Tips for Starting BLW

Here are a few more tips to consider and review before you get started.

  • Understand the gag reflex. Gagging is different than choking though and is most often a sign that baby is learning to move food around in their mouths—and to get it out of their mouths, which is a skill you want them to have!
  • Brush up on the basics of how to know when baby is ready to start solids. (Go back to the top of this post for the signs to look for.)
  • Set them up for success with a highchair that allows them to sit up straight and has foot support.
  • Sit with them as you offer food.
  • Check your own expectations of what will happen and simply allow your baby to take the lead.
  • Start with one new food a day or every few days.
  • Vary the textures of foods you offer to start exposing baby to many right from the start.
  • Offer water in a sippy cup or small open cup.

TIP: Remember that breastmilk or formula will continue to satisfy baby’s hunger for the first few months of eating solids. Do not expect solids to replace milk feedings at this age.

First Foods for Baby

Starting solids with baby led weaning or purees are both perfectly acceptable ways to introduce a baby to solid foods—but the topic can get so heated! There’s a lot of pressure to do it the “right” way and I’m here to say that there isn’t one. You 100% can do one or the other, or combine the two to make it work for your family. It’s all good!

Remember, the goal with first foods for baby is that they’re introduced to flavors, nutrients, and foods they can easily eat or suck on. It should be an enjoyable milestone for all involved. 

TIP: It’s a good idea to get into the habit of offering an iron-rich food since iron stores in babies start to run out around 6 months and they’ll need to start ingesting it in their food.

Best First Foods for Baby Led Weaning

Here are some of our favorite first foods to offer baby led weaning style. You want foods to be finger sized so they are large enough that baby can’t force the whole piece into their mouth, and a shape that’s easy for a 6 month old to hold with their chubby little hands. These are some of our favorites.

  • Roasted sweet potato wedges
  • Roasted apple wedges, skin on to help them hold together
  • Roasted or steamed broccoli florets (big enough for baby to hold)
  • Melon slices
  • Thick mango slice
  • Banana with some of the peel still on
  • Toast sticks with mashed avocado
  • Avocado spears (make sure the avocado is ripe and soft)
  • Lamb or beef, on the bone or a large piece for baby to suck on
  • Dark meat chicken, on the bone or a large piece for baby to suck on.

TIP: The foods should generally be soft enough to squish between your fingers with the exception of the large pieces of meat. If baby gnaws a piece down into a smaller piece, replace it with a larger one to avoid her putting a chunk of food into her mouth.

Baby Led Weaning Banana

To serve a banana to a baby, wash it well, then slice it in half. Cut off an inch or two of the peel, but leave the rest of the peel on so it’s not slippery for baby to hold. They’ll suck on the top part like a little popsicle! You can also help them hold the banana if needed.

Foods to Avoid Serving While Doing BLW

You want any foods you offer to a baby while doing baby led weaning to be soft enough to squish between your fingers and safe for them to eat and digest. Plan to avoid:

  • Anything hard, sticky, or crunchy (like raw apple or carrot, whole nuts, crackers, or a big spoonful or nut butter)
  • Added salt
  • Cow’s milk (which is difficult for kids under 1 to digest; plain yogurt is fine though)
  • Added sugar (they simply don’t need it)
  • Honey (to avoid a risk of botulism)
  • Super slippery foods that would be hard for baby to hold (which can be frustrating)

TIP: Always sit with your baby and watch them try to eat. They are your best guide for making adjustments to the foods you serve.

Baby Led Weaning and Choking

There are many parents who dislike this method of feeding because it often sounds like a baby is choking. And while there are surely some incidences of choking, what’s more likely is that a baby will occasionally gag on a piece of food that gets into their mouth that they weren’t expecting.

But remember: Gagging is a sign that baby is doing what she needs to in order to move the food around in their mouth as they learn to eat. It usually sounds more dangerous than it actually is.

TIP: If the sound of gagging really freaks you out, you’re not alone. Consider offering more preloaded spoons with purees to start your journey more slowly.

How to Cut Foods for BLW

You generally want the food to be big enough that it would be difficult for baby to put the entire thing into their mouths. Here are some specifics:

  • Foods that are roughly the size of a finger, so about a 4-inch stick.
  • Foods that are easy for the baby to pick up—they can’t pick up small pieces until closer to 9 months when they develop the ability to use their fingers in what’s known as a “pincer grasp”.
  • Foods that aren’t too slippery—so you can wash and leave some of the peel on fresh foods like bananas, avocado, kiwi, and mango.

TIP: You can also go even bigger if you’re worried about size. Think half of a slice of bread or a big chunk of watermelon.

Will my baby actually eat much food with BLW?

Probably not at first. There will likely be more tasting of the food than eating of it and that is totally fine. They will still rely on breast milk or formula at this age for their main nutrition, so don’t expect them to suddenly start eating full meals. (They’ll get there in a few months, but it takes time!)

Do babies need teeth for baby led weaning?

No! Gums are super strong and front teeth aren’t used for chewing—that happens when the back molars come in. Teeth really have nothing to do with whether or not a baby can eat solids.

TIP: Learn more about what to expect from teething here.

Can you mix baby led weaning and purees?

Absolutely! I think it’s a great idea to mix the two methods simply because it gives you many more options for foods and allows the baby to experience more textures. I recommend allowing babies to feed themselves preloaded spoons—so you put the puree on a spoon, then hand it to them to actually put the spoon into their mouth—so they still have control over what goes into their mouths.

TIP: Feeding some purees is also helpful if you’ll be sending food with a baby to daycare since the care provider may not have experience with blw.

Best First Foods for Baby: Purees

Here are some of our favorite purees to start offering baby when they’re ready to start solids. Remember: There’s no evidence that says that you need to start with vegetables versus fruits, so go with something that tastes good to you. Start with single foods pureed smooth and offer just a little at a time on a spoon.

  • Mashed roasted sweet potato puree
  • Mashed avocado puree
  • Mashed banana puree
  • Butternut squash puree
  • Applesauce, unsweetened
  • Mashed pea puree
  • Oatmeal baby cereal (with added iron)

TIP: One of my favorite baby food companies is Amara Organic Baby Food, a company using a nutrient protection technology that makes organic purees just as good as homemade. I love how easy they are to use when I need a shortcut and that they have fun baby-led weaning recipes on the side of every box! (paid affiliate link)

How do I know when baby has had enough?

If your baby is eating and then starts to turn her head away or just refuses to open her mouth, she’s done! Babies may also start to fuss if they’ve had enough. Learning this new skill takes time and babies can become tired fairly quickly into the process, so don’t expect them to always eat very much or to last very long at the table. This stage is about exploration!

Baby with preloaded spoon of yogurt

How to Let Baby Self Feed Purees

I love offering purees on a preloaded spoon. To do this, the parent, puts some of the food on the spoon and hands it to baby. Then baby can bring the food to their mouth all by themselves. This gives you some of the same advantages of baby led weaning, but can be more comfortable for many parents.

Remember, you can mix what you offer, going back and forth between purees and blw finger foods, so you can offer the same food two different ways to let baby explore. The main goal is to avoid forcing baby to take more bites than they want to, which can sometimes happen with purees.

Baby eating peanut butter toast stick

When to Introduce Potentially Allergenic Foods

In recent years, guidelines have been updated on when to introduce potential allergens including peanuts, eggs, and shellfish, so unless you have a family history of a food allergy, you can go ahead and introduce them soon after baby starts eating solids. In fact, research is showing that introducing these foods early can actually protect baby from developing an allergy. Talk to your pediatrician if you have concerns.

TIP: Thin unsweetened peanut butter with water to form a very thin Peanut Butter Puree until it’s about the consistency of regular yogurt and offer a very small amount on a spoon or spread on a toast stick.

What does a baby led weaning meal look like for months 7 and 8?

Until a baby is closer to 9 months and is able to pick up smaller pieces of foods, but after they have gotten the hang of one food at a time, I try to offer 1-2 foods they can feed themselves and one puree. This offers them a chance to ingest more via the puree but still feed themselves a range of textures. You can do more or less food following the lead of the child.

TIP: My Baby Food Chart has loads of with ideas for blw foods and purees by month.

Recipes for Every Stage of Starting Solids

If you’re ready to start solids with baby, or you’re just curious what it looks like to do a mix of baby led weaning and purees, check out my Yummy Baby Food cookbook. It goes stage by stage with specific foods to start in each, with simple recipes and easy feeding tips.

Listen to a recent podcast episode to hear about some of the basics of BLW with our guest Megan McNamee, MPH, RDN, CLT, and a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist specializing in pediatric nutrition who runs Feeding Littles. 

I’d love to hear any questions you have with BLW or if your baby had a first food that I didn’t list here. Please comment below to share your experience!

Prep Time 5 minutes

Total Time 5 minutes

Author Amy Palanjian

Cuisine American

Course Dinner

Calories 28kcal

Servings 1

Banana
  • ▢ 1 small ripe banana with peel on
Roasted Sweet Potato
  • ▢ 1 small sweet potato + 1 teaspoon olive oil
Roasted Apple
  • ▢ 1 small apple + 1 teaspoon butter or neutral oil
Roasted Broccoli
  • ▢ 1 cup broccoli florets + 1 teaspoon olive oil
Sauteed Green Beans
  • ▢ 4 green beans 1 teaspoon olive oil
Melon
  • ▢ 1 small piece watermelon or cantaloupe
Avocado Toast
  • ▢ 1 slice whole grain bread
  • ▢ 1 tbsp ripe avocado
Avocado Spear
  • ▢ ⅛ ripe avocado
Lamb or Beef
  • ▢ 1 lamb chop, roast, or steak
Pan-Seared Chicken Thighs
  • ▢ 1 chicken thigh
  • ▢ 1 tsp olive oil
  • ▢ 1 garlic clove, optional
Banana with some of the peel still on

  • Cut a banana in half. Use a knife to gently cut around the peel about 2 inches down, leaving some of the peel on so that the banana is easy for baby to hold and less slippery.

Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Wash and dry the sweet potato. (You don't need to peel it.) Cut in half, then cut lengthwise into strips. Cut each strip in half again until each is about 1/2-inch thick. Slice in half horizontally if the sweet potato is very long. (Each strip should be about the size of your finger.) Place into a bowl and toss with the olive oil. Spread onto prepared baking sheet and roast for 22-25 minutes or until soft. Let cool slightly and serve.

Roasted Apple Wedges
Roasted Broccoli Florets

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place the broccoli onto a rimmed baking sheet and toss with the olive oil, coating and mixing well until all of the florets are a little shiny and coated with oil.  Roast for 15-18 minutes or until tender. Let cool slightly and serve.

Sauteed Green Beans

  • Warm the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the green beans and stir. Cover and cook for about 8 minutes. Remove cover and taste one to see if it’s soft enough. Cook for an additional minute or two as needed.

Melon slices
Avocado Toast
Avocado Spears

  • (Make sure the avocado is ripe and soft): Cut a thick strip of avocado and offer to baby. You can leave the peel on if that makes it easier for baby to hold (just wash it first).

Lamb or Beef

  • Prepare a roast, steak, or chop without salt and with butter or olive oil until cooked medium well. Offer a thick slice at least the size of your finger or a drumstick.

Pan-Seared Chicken Thighs

  • Warm 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken thigh and top with a few slices of fresh garlic, if desired.  Cover and cook for 4-5 minutes. Remove cover. Flip over and cook for an additional 4-5 minutes uncovered or until a meat thermometer registers 165 degrees F.

  • Add spices like garlic powder, cinnamon, cumin, oregano, or any other non-spicy flavor you like to make these more interesting.
  • Offer just one piece at a time when starting out.
  • If baby gnaws a piece down into a smaller piece, replace it with a larger one to avoid her putting a chunk of food into her mouth.
  • Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-5 days. Reheat briefly if needed.
  • Remember that it's normal for babies to take time to actually ingest the food. Part of the process is exploring all of the senses related to the experience of eating.

Calories: 28kcal, Carbohydrates: 2g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 2g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2g, Sodium: 6mg, Potassium: 75mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 23IU, Vitamin C: 2mg, Calcium: 2mg, Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Rate in the comments and tag @yummytoddlerfood on IG!

Printable Baby Food Chart: BLW, Purees, Finger Foods

Make feeding your baby easier with this free, downloadable baby food chart. It has straight forward ideas for what to feed baby from when they start solids on up to one year—including purees, baby-led weaning style foods, finger foods, and more.

Baby Food Chart

Starting solids with a baby can be so fun and often a little challenging—but this baby food chart will help. I’ve compiled my best ideas for which foods to serve based on age and development of the baby to make it easy for you to make decisions in the kitchen.

This infant feeding chart is meant to help remind you of options you have at each age. It is not meant to add any pressure or function as a checklist of foods you have to serve (unless you want to do that!).

TIP: Download your free printable baby food chart here.

What baby foods should you start with?

Whether you start with purees or baby led weaning, starting with flavorful and nutrient-dense foods is a simple way to think about introducing foods to a baby. I love simple foods like roasted sweet potato, avocado, banana, and apple puree as first foods for a baby.

Remember that a first food is just that—a first food. It is not going to be the sole thing that determines how your child likes all foods. It can be sweet or savory, or from a variety of food groups. I would do your best to make sure that the food is easy to eat, has some flavor, and that the environment in which you offer it is free from pressure and, maybe even joyful!

What age should baby start eating foods?

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends waiting to start solids until a baby is 6 months, and to go with wide variety of foods, introduced one at a time. But many pediatricians still say it’s okay to start rice cereal at 4 months.

If your pediatrician recommends this at the 4 month check up, ask their thoughts on the recommendation from the AAP.

TIP: Learn more about starting solids here.

How much food should I feed my baby?

The best way to know the right amount of food to give to a baby is to follow their lead. It should be very clear when a baby is done eating—they will close their mouth, turn their head, and generally make it very hard to feed them. (They may also play with their food, which is a fine way for them to interact with the foods at this early stage.)

It’s okay if baby eats very little to start. It’s also okay if they surprise you by being very interested in food!

TIP: Download your free printable baby food chart here.

6 Month Baby Food Chart for Purees

If you’re ready to start solids with a baby, here are some foods you may want to start with. This list is perhaps more broad than you expect, but more recent research shows that it’s a good idea to introduce potential allergenic foods earlier and that lots of flavor is a great way to set baby up for eating a range of foods as they grow.

Don’t feel like you need to serve all of these foods (you 100% don’t!), but it should give you a range of ideas to consider based on season, availability, and your own preference.

  • Almond butter puree
  • Apple Puree
  • Avocado puree
  • Banana puree
  • Baby oatmeal
  • Bean puree
  • Butternut squash puree
  • Egg yolk, hard cooked mashed  with water
  • Green bean puree
  • Melon puree
  • Pea puree
  • Peach puree
  • Peanut Butter Puree
  • Pear puree 
  • Pumpkin puree
  • Sweet potato puree
  • Whole milk plain yogurt
  • Single ingredient baby food

TIP: Find more in depth details on how to know if your baby is ready to start solids here.

6 Month Baby Food Chart for Baby Led Weaning

If you decide to use the baby led weaning method of feeding, you’ll want to cut these foods into the shape of a finger or larger. The foods should also be soft and easily squishable between two fingers—like the texture of a roasted sweet potato wedge or ripe avocado.

You don’t need to feel like you have to serve all of these foods by any means, but it should give you a range of ideas.

  • Apple, roasted wedge
  • Avocado spears
  • Banana
  • Beef, ground (large piece)
  • Beef hamburger patty (sliced)
  • Beet, steamed or roasted
  • Broccoli florets, roasted/steamed
  • Cauliflower florets, roasted/steamed
  • Chicken, dark meat shredded
  • Cucumber
  • Green bean
  • Egg, hard cooked
  • Egg in omelet, sliced
  • Figs, halved
  • Lamb
  • Mango slice
  • Meatball
  • Melon slices
  • Peach, very ripe slice
  • Pear, very ripe slice
  • Potato, roasted wedges
  • Steak slice
  • Sweet potato, roasted wedges
  • Toast with mashed avocado
  • Toast with mashed sweet potato
  • Toast with light smear of peanut butter
  • Toast with mashed hard cooked egg
  • Watermelon slice
  • WiId salmon

TIP: Find my Ultimate Guide to Baby Led Weaning here.

7 Month Baby Food Chart

With a 7 month old baby, you can add in a few more foods including those with more acid like citrus. Continue serving the foods on the 6th month list, or introduce ones that you didn’t get to in that first month.

  • Baby rice crackers
  • Bean puree
  • Beet puree
  • Brussels Sprouts, pureed (or large piece for BLW)
  • Guacamole
  • Kiwi puree (or large piece for BLW)
  • Hummus
  • Mango Puree
  • Mixed ingredient baby foods
  • Orange segment for BLW
  • Pineapple puree (or large piece for BLW)
  • Prune puree
  • Strawberry puree (or large strawberry for BLW)
  • Spinach puree
  • Smoothies (simple)
  • Tomato sauce
  • Tomato sauce with ground meat

TIP: Try my 10 easy No Cook Baby Foods.

9 Month Baby Food Chart

As a baby nears the 9 and 10 month mark, they will begin to be able to pick up small, pea-size pieces of foods with their fingers. This development of the “pincer grasp” means they are ready to start sampling table foods.

A good rule of thumb is to cut foods to about the size of a pea and to serve them very soft and easily squishable between your fingers.

Bread-like textures in foods like pancakes and muffins may be difficult for your child, so you may want to moisten them with water, applesauce, yogurt, breastmilk, or formula.

Remember that babies learn to eat a variety of paces, so follow the lead of your baby and avoid pressuring them to eat foods or amounts of foods that they aren’t ready for. If a baby turns their head away, closes their mouth, shakes their head, or cries, they are done with food and it’s okay to end the meal.

Continue serving foods from the previous months. And try adding:

  • Banana, diced and mashed slightly as needed
  • Barley, cooked until very soft
  • Beans, slightly mashed
  • Beef, ground
  • Blueberries, diced
  • Cheese, shredded
  • Chex cereal
  • Chia seed in smoothies, yogurt or oatmeal
  • Chicken, ground
  • Chicken, shredded and chopped into small pieces
  • Clementines, diced (you may want to remove the slightly tough membrane)
  • Cottage cheese
  • Corn
  • Flaxseed in smoothies, yogurt or oatmeal
  • Goat cheese, soft crumbles
  • Grapes, diced (never whole)
  • Kefir, plain
  • Meatball, diced
  • Muffins, diced (moistened if needed)
  • Millet
  • O cereal
  • Oatmeal
  • Overnight oats
  • Pasta
  • Peas
  • Potatoes, roasted or mashed
  • Puffs
  • Raspberries, diced
  • Pancake, diced (moistened as needed with applesauce)
  • Quinoa
  • Rice
  • Salmon, small pieces
  • Tofu, diced
  • Tomatoes, fresh
  • Tilapia, small pieces
  • Turkey, ground

TIP: Find my best Early Finger Foods, which will cover this stage and early toddlerhood.

Best First Finger Foods for Baby

I put together my go-to first finger foods for babies, which may help you narrow down which foods to start with. Each of these is a nutritious whole food that’s soft and easy for baby to eat. It’s helpful that many of these foods are ones that us grownups like too, so it should make meal planning and prep for the little ones easier on you!

Printable Baby Food Chart

Grab your free copy of my downloadable Baby Food Chart with access to my entire Resource Library of Printable charts by signing up for my newsletter.

You May Also Like

  • ABC Baby Muffins
  • Master List of Baby Snacks
  • Extra-Veggie Baby Soup
  • Sweet Potato Teething Biscuits
  • Master List of Baby Food Recipes

I’d love to hear your feedback on this chart, so please comment below! I always love to hear from you guys.

This post was first published Jan 2019.

Doctor "SM-Doctor" told how to properly wean a child from the breast

The baby is crying, the chest is full, but you are determined to curtail breastfeeding. There can be many reasons: it's time to go to work, it's time to send the child to the garden, the state of health, and even "I just decided so."

Weaning can be a real test of strength for the whole family: there are times when children completely refuse to give up their breasts and simply tyrannize their mother, almost tearing off her clothes. Is it possible to avoid problems along the way? How to make the process as comfortable as possible for mom and baby? Parents.ru learned from an expert what mistakes mothers make when weaning a baby.

Tatyana Kuznetsova
pediatrician, nephrologist, breastfeeding consultant at the SM-Doctor clinic in Maryina Roshcha.

Too early

Breastfeeding is a very short period in a child's life. It would be ideal to supplement the child until the age when his need for attachments fades by itself. The age at which the child himself, without mother's help and serious efforts on her part, is ready to give up breastfeeding usually comes after three years. Mom's body is ready to complete lactation earlier - already in 1.5-2 years of the baby.

Completion of lactation at an earlier date is not physiological and, as a rule, is associated with errors and diseases:

  • rare feedings,
  • soldering with water,
  • early feeding,
  • cracked nipples,
  • lactostasis,
  • mastitis and, as a result, lack of milk and underweight of the child,
  • or maternal health problems.

Weaning before 1-1.5 years is possible, both planned and emergency, and, as a rule, there are good reasons for this: hospitalization of the mother, the need to take medications that are incompatible with feeding the child, situations in the family that require the mother to leave, and others unseen circumstances.

Too fast

First of all, it is very important to determine how ready a particular mother-baby couple is to complete breastfeeding. The readiness of the mother's body is easy to determine. The main indicator is how the breast is filled with milk during a long (up to 12-24 hours) break in the attachment of the baby. If a mother has not fed her child for several hours, and her breasts do not fill up to discomfort and do not need to be pumped, then the mother is ready.

As for the baby, it is considered that the child is ready if he has only 1-3 attachments per day and at the same time he does not suck on nipples (pacifiers, bottles), pens, toys, rags, clothes, bottom sponge and other. In all other cases, it is necessary to gradually reduce the number of applications to 1-3 per day, and only then take the last step.

If the baby is already 1.5 years old, you can try to prepare him for weaning gradually. For this, children older than one and a half years require at least two months. Smooth weaning consists of several stages, each of which can take about 1-2 weeks.

  • Reduce latching when your baby is awake, remove 'bored latching'. Do not provoke the baby: do not change clothes in front of him, do not walk in underwear, do not sit idle in the presence of the child.
  • Put your baby to bed without breastfeeding.
  • Next, remove the evening falling asleep under the breasts. First, take the breast from the baby if he fell asleep after pumping, but still holds it in his mouth.

Get up early in the morning before your child. Distract to extraneous things, offer to play, look out the window. One fine day, the baby will simply forget to breastfeed in the morning.

In the gradual process of weaning, the most important thing is not to rush things and act according to the rule "one step forward, two steps back." Then your weaning will be smooth and painless.

Too radical

Among mothers, extremely traumatic methods of weaning a child from the breast are still practiced - “pulling the breast”, taking drugs that suppress lactation, lubricating the nipples with brilliant green or mustard, leaving home for a day or two / weekends. As a result, this leads to hormonal imbalance, lactostasis and even mastitis in mothers and serious psychological trauma in children. For a child, weaning is a very difficult period in life, and the mother must be there, compensating for the lack of breasts with her attention, affection and care.

It is also important to take into account that the time of weaning should not coincide with a vacation, a move, a mother's going to work or a baby in a kindergarten, the appearance of a nanny in the house, teething in a child, a baby's illness. In this case, it is better to wean the child 2-3 months before the planned event, or 2-3 months after.
The cessation of breastfeeding should not take place simultaneously with the resettlement of the baby in a separate bed, especially a room. With this it is better to wait 3-4 months. And another factor that you should pay attention to is the psycho-emotional state of the baby. If he is now having a difficult period, he is rebellious or often naughty, it is also better to wait a bit with excommunication.


Too dangerous

Stopping breastfeeding at a stage when the mother’s body is not yet ready for this can lead to serious consequences for her health. In the best case, the mother will be forced to pump regularly for some time. There may also be pain, engorgement of the mammary glands, the development of lactostasis, which is quite difficult for a mother to cope with without the help of a baby. In addition, such an unplanned hormonal restructuring by the body can provoke the development of depressive conditions, as well as prolonged (up to several years!) The release of milk from the mammary glands after the cessation of breastfeeding.

What if…

…doesn't work

By reducing the number of daytime attachments, nighttime attachments may become longer and more frequent for a while. If after a couple of weeks the situation does not change, this most likely means that the child is still difficult to come to terms with such restrictions. In such a situation with weaning, it may be better to wait.

When a baby begins to suck on his thumb, bottom lip, or anything else, these symptoms cannot be ignored. Your baby is not yet ready to stop breastfeeding. Moreover, this behavior of the baby suggests that it is very difficult for him to come to terms with the ongoing changes, he suffers very much internally. And if you do not treat such a quiet protest of a little man with understanding, this can seriously affect the baby's nervous system in the future.

... the baby himself refused milk until the age of

This cannot be regarded as a physiological event. Many mothers jump at this chance to complete breastfeeding without any problems. However, it may turn out that the baby is not quite ready for weaning yet, and there are important reasons that can provoke this behavior: teething, fever, upper respiratory tract infection, inflammation of the ears, painful jaw movement, nasal congestion, sore throat, wounds, bacterial, fungal infections in the mouth and more. The child should immediately show the pediatrician.

Published on parents.ru

Weaning Baby (BLW): Everything you need to know

Everything changes, transforms and develops to adapt to the new customs of society . Something that also affects the upbringing of children, education, or the way roles are assigned at home. Not so many years ago, everything was pre-installed in accordance with tradition. The mother brought up the children, filled them with love and pampering, which in many cases turned into spoiled children with little respect for women in general.

For parents, the upbringing of children was limited by power, by the person who imposed the rules, whom the children feared as a higher being, by those who brought money into the house, and nothing else. Even, There were unwritten rules about food. , handed over by tradition from mothers to daughters. Breastfeeding lasted for several months and was replaced with mashed potatoes and cereals, period. Fortunately, a lot has changed in recent years.

Index

  • 1 What is weaning?
    • 1.1 Keys to BLW

There is no doubt that much remains to be done, but today families are organized more fairly, at least to a greater extent than before. It also greatly changed the way children are fed. On the one hand Breastfeeding is valued even more than ever . Experts recommend it until at least the first year of life, and it is highly recommended to continue until at least two years of age.

In addition, complementary foods already have alternatives to and those purees where everything mixes, the food loses texture and melts into an indescribable flavor, have given way to more modern options. And here we come to weaning a baby, which for short stands for BLW. This term can be defined as weaning a baby from the breast.

Although this is not exactly a method of eliminating breastfeeding, but a way to introduce food more respectfully towards the child. BLW introduces whole foods, no grinding or transformation so that the child can detect it in a much more natural way. Thus, the child himself decides what and how much to eat. Something fundamental, because in crushed foods, babies get more food than they really need, or at least it's harder to tell if they've eaten enough or too much.

Keys to BLW

There are a few key points about weaning a baby, and they are that all children, and also all families, are not fully prepared for it. On the one hand, the baby must meet certain milestones, for example, must remain seated and upright completely and naturally. You must also be able to swallow normally because otherwise there is a risk of choking.

As for the method of offering food, it is also very important how to do it. Bearing in mind that the food will be served in its natural form, it must first be prepared and served in a way that is not very dangerous. For example, vegetables such as carrots, green beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, or squash are good choices to start with. Since when boiled they are sweet, easy to digest and crumble so there is very little risk of suffocation.

Let the baby analyze the food, his first impulse will be to touch it with his hands, crush it, bring it to his face to see how it smells. He may try a little, most likely unsuccessfully, but it will arouse his curiosity. The need to try again that thing is so different from milk. To make the baby have more desire to eat sit at the table with him, let him see what adults eat may even want to take food from your plate. If it's not dangerous, let him do it, it's an essential part of BLW because its definition allows for the baby to initiate adult feeding.

Gradually, the child will try more foods, take more and enjoy a variety of foods. In the meantime, enjoy the process and remember that milk is the main food in the first year of life . Thus, you should not be afraid of the amount of food your child takes, as long as the amount of milk he drinks is sufficient.

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