Why Baby Led Weaning worked for us

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This post is written by Jess who is a mom of two and the nursery Business Co-ordinator for Little Green House Childcare.

When it came to weaning both my children, I knew that I wanted to do baby led weaning. Mainly because I am not the best at being organised when it comes to meals. I am that person who’s routing through the cupboards of a night looking for things to cook. Baby Led weaning means I didn’t have to pre prep anything. I could go with the flow and my kids could have the same meals as we were having. Also, it meant if we went out anywhere, I didn’t have to remember to take food with me. Nor did I have to worry about having to warm their food up when we were out.

I know a lot of parent’s fear baby led weaning. As they don’t want them to choke. I can honestly say that my children never chocked whilst doing baby led weaning. You just need to make sure that you cut the food
into manageable pieces so that they don’t put too much in their mouth at once. Both my children took to it so well and both had such a love of food from a young age. Being someone who is really picky and has a limited diet I wanted them to have a more varied diet. I found that baby led weaning enabled me to do
this. As I was always looking for different things for them to try.


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I know another thing that puts parents off doing baby led weaning is the mess. Yes, it is messy I’m not going to lie but it makes mealtimes so much easier. Just think if your having to spoon feed your little one all their meals when are you going to make time to eat yourself. Baby Led weaning enables you and your little ones to eat at the same time. Which is fantastic, having mealtimes around a table as a family is so important. It’s a time where there is no technology around, the tv isn’t on and you can talk. Talk about what everyone has done during the day. It show’s children that they can talk to their parents no matter how busy they are. Mealtimes is a time that they will all get together.

When it comes to combating the mess. I would really recommend getting a Bibado they catch all the food and stops it going onto their clothes. Which is what you need especially if they are eating tomato pasta as we all know how badly this stains. Along with beans! Who knew baked beans would stain so much. I would also say just relax don’t worry about the mess it can be cleaned up easily. I personally would much rather clean up the mess than have to spend ages in the kitchen preparing and blitzing down food. Or spending lots of money on prepared jars.

So now I have told you about the reasons why we did baby led weaning I thought it might be helpful if I shared with you some of the different foods, I would give my children when they started Baby Led Weaning.

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Breakfast

  • Pancakes

  • Scrambled eggs

  • Toast

  • Waffles

  • Cereals

Lunch

  • Sandwiches

  • Pizza Pinwheels

  • Beans/spaghetti on toast

  • Avocado on toast

  • Rice cakes with fruit

Tea

  • Cous cous and vegetables

  • Mashed potato and beans

  • Pasta and tomato sauce

  • Cheese and potato pie

  • Fish pie

I know that each family is different and what worked for us may not work for everyone else . Maybe your a supreme cook that makes meals from scratch everyday so blending food down would work for you .
Then go for it . Like with everything else weaning has to work for you and your family.


I hope you find this post helpful. If you are thinking of doing Baby Led Weaning and your worried about your child chocking. It may be a good Idea to go on a parent first aid course to calm your nerves. We will be
hosting these sessions at the Family Hub throughout the year so keep an eye out for the next course.