17 | Introducing Solids: Baby Led Weaning vs Purees?

Ready or thinking about the next step of how to introduce solids to your little one?

In this episode of Partners Beyond Parenting, I share my personal journey of navigating baby-led weaning and why it became the main method we chose.

If you're approaching your baby's six-month milestone and debating between purees, baby-led weaning, or a mix of both, you're not alone!

I talk you through how we made our decision, the pros and cons of each method, and the challenges we faced along the way. From messy mealtimes to concerns about choking, and even how we balanced our busy lifestyle, I’ll offer insights into the realities of both approaches.

Baby-led weaning has helped foster our child’s independence, but it wasn’t without its hiccups. If you're a new parent looking for guidance or just curious about which method might fit your family, this episode will give you the clarity you need to make the best choice for your little one.

I hope it helps you in your own parenting journey!

Connect with me:
https://www.instagram.com/sababosuener/

Join the Partners Beyond Parenthood Facebook group to connect with me and other parents. Share your stories, get tips, and support each other on this parenting adventure!

Head to the Partners Beyond Parenthood YouTube channel for more!

I'd love to hear what you thought and if you're curious about any topics that you'd like me to explore, you can email me at hello@partnesbeyondparenthood.com.

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Podcast tile and logo design by Jeff Ras: jeffsras@gmail.com | www.jeffrasdesign.com 

Transcript

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You prepare the solid foods according to their current age. So for example, at six months, the way you introduce foods to your baby may look different or should look different than when they're nine, 12, 18 months, et cetera. And welcome to Partners Beyond Parented, the podcast that helps new parents thrive without losing themselves. My name is Saba Bazunar and my mission is to help new parents gain clarity on what their priorities and needs are. Today's episode is going to be talking about my journey of baby lead weaning, how it started, why we chose this method and where we're at today in our journey of baby lead weaning. Now you might be close to the six month milestone when you are thinking about what method you're going to use, whether it be purees or baby lead weaning or even a mixture. Um, some people start at four months and When you start will depend on many factors, always listen to your pediatrician, but in general, for baby led weaning, they say to start at six months because they need to be able to sit up unaided to be able to start with this method of weaning, which usually happens around this time. Both methods have their pros and cons. As many things in life. And your choice of one or the other will largely depend on your lifestyle and what makes most sense for you. It has been very common to use the paret approach first. That's a very classic method which your parents and many people, you know, probably used and many still use today. Whereas, From what I know, baby led weaning has been around for about 15, nearly 20 years or so. A big pro of purees is that you can see how much your baby is eating. It also allows you to offer different flavors where you don't have to worry about your baby choking, and it also introduces them to different textures. Purees can be either the ones that you buy ready made at a store, um, you know, there's a variety of brands worldwide, or you can prepare them yourself. by boiling, cooking, etc. and then, um, blending it all together. So you can also decide the variety that your baby will be exposed to if you do that. And just like anything, the approach with only purees does also have its cons. It can be expensive or time consuming depending on whether you buy the food or prepare it yourself. It is also said that it can delay the development or motor skills and encourage passive eating. Time is also limited since your baby will eventually have to start solids one day. It is also said that you may actually overfeed. your child and it may lead to more picky eating. That's a lot of maize though. Now on the flip side, you have baby led weaning. This is when you introduce solid foods to your baby from the very beginning, so around the six month mark when they can sit up properly, unaided, which is one of the first indicators that they are, in fact, ready for solid foods. You prepare the solid foods according to their current age. So, for example, at six months, the way you introduce foods to your baby may look different, or should look different, than when they're nine, twelve, eighteen months, etc. One of the big benefits of baby led weaning is that it gives your baby freedom. It gives them freedom to play with the food and use their senses to really understand what they have in their hand and in their mouth. So, the textures and flavors. even smells. And it also helps develop their motor skills from an early age onwards as they start learning the coordination between picking up foods with their hands, then their fingers, and finally bringing it toward their mouth. It also fosters early development of skills such as chewing and coordination. which they generally need to learn early on. It also puts them in control of actually consuming what is on their plate. So in theory, this doesn't lead to overeating or being overfed because you think they actually need to eat more than they perhaps actually do. This is often a fine line though, because you can easily get worried they are not eating enough, which was definitely the case for me. Another great pro is that you can essentially prepare foods that for yourself, your family, and give them some on the side. They can be part of the family meal, which is also very nice if time allows. Then being able to see you eat enables them to learn fairly quickly how to do it themselves, as you are essentially demonstrating during the meals you do have together. A big con of baby lead weaning is that it gets messy. Very, very messy. So if this is something that you have issues with, then you may not want to go down this journey of baby lead weaning. It is likely going to end up all over the floor, carpet, high chair. potentially their hair, body, everything. And it can also take quite a bit of time for them to complete a meal as their initial desire is to explore the food more with their hands than actually putting it in their mouth and chewing and eating. This of course depends on your baby and their appetite though. Ultimately, if you don't have the time or someone to sit down for a full meal with your Then this may not be for you, which leads me to the next point. Is one better than the other? I think this is a very difficult question and possibly not the right one to ask, as it really is just up to what works for you and your family. There's definitely no right or wrong answer. You have to decide what works best for you, your lifestyle. But in general, moving towards finger foods around nine months is generally recommended, as this is when they develop their pincer grasp. So it will have to happen sooner or later. I'll get into why we decided to go for baby led weaning. So we had researched quite a bit on how to introduce foods, and what we had found from our research was, as mentioned before, baby led weaning was a great way to introduce a variety of foods to your child with different textures, flavors, colors. Um, et cetera, while giving them their independence and freedom or control of how much they desire to actually eat. Independence being an important value of ours that we wanted to instill from an early age. We'd also read that it can apparently reduce the likelihood of your baby being a picky eater in the future. Now, I was definitely a picky eater and didn't like a variety of foods. Um, and I think my husband was as well. So, I think we both agreed that for it to hopefully be easier in the future, we'd be happy to sacrifice some time. Sacrifice being quite a strong word here but it definitely took our little one quite a while to finish her meal. Um, maybe like an hour or perhaps more sometimes. The reason we were able to do this or continue this is because we opted for a full time nanny. She came to our house and had that time to do it with her. Now she may have likely learned to eat faster in general if she had gone to daycare earlier on since you know babies copy a lot of what they see. But she wasn't a great eater from the get go, and this happens. That's fine. I know that now. So we decided to do a mix between baby led weaning and purees because purees are also often a lot easier when you're out and about. In general, leaving the house is a whole event with a kid or kids if you have multiple, so sometimes simplicity is just favorable. That said, it did take a while for us to actually find a puree that she liked. We personally did not prepare the purees at home. We bought some in the store, and at the beginning, We don't know if it was the brand or if it was just an entirely new texture other than breast milk, but she despised it. It actually took her about 11 to 12 months for her to actually start eating properly. And by this, I mean, eating slightly larger quantities. Which leads to the next concern, or a common concern, which is them getting anemia, and I definitely was concerned. You know, it's funny, because the pediatricians ask how their weaning is going, and I'd say, well, she had a quarter of a cherry tomato, and they'd say, great, because, you know, breast milk is the primary source of nutrition until they're 12 months, but You're also told that there's a depletion of vitamin D from around six months. So you're kind of getting mixed messages and it's just all a little confusing when you really just don't know. So when we went to the pediatrician, they actually had to give her extra iron because they suspected she may have anemia. What I didn't know before is that. Anemia actually suppresses their appetite and therefore makes them not such great eaters or have such an appetite Which perhaps also led her to taking longer to actually eat. So to be on the safe side We gave her iron supplements and soon after that surprise surprise. She started eating better. Anyways back to eating solids There are some really great apps tools and general resources that provide guidelines to help you throughout the baby led weaning journey If that's what you choose I stumbled across the account, um, Solid Starts on Instagram, saw that a bunch of my fellow mom friends were following this page as well, so I decided to take a look into it further and then actually proceeded to go ahead and buy some of their guides, which give you a variety of choices, of recipes, and also how you can introduce food safely to your little one. I'm honestly so grateful for this app, Solid Starts, and the guides and recipes that they have. I used quite a lot from the first hundred days, which also gave me an idea of how to prepare wholesome meals for my little one. Balancing proteins, vegetables, vitamins, nutrients in general, and other things that you'd have to think about. It made me also buy foods that I generally don't actually like myself. As I mentioned before, I am a bit of a picky eater. I've gotten better, but there are still some things I don't like. Like beetroot. My daughter absolutely loves it, but you couldn't pay me to eat it. I feel like I'm eating the earth. outro music plays wet earth, which sounds even worse. Anyway, one of my biggest concerns with baby led weaning was the risk of choking. My husband and I did actually do an infant CPR course when she was born, which was helpful. And the Solid Starts app, or their program, gives access to steps you can take in case it should happen. And you can always watch a ton of YouTube videos to get an idea of how to handle it as well. Contrary to popular belief, or what I've seen my in laws do, is to just grab food from the baby's mouth if they think they're choking, which is actually more dangerous because it can push the food further down their throat, leading to a higher risk of them choking. Now that was one of my biggest fears with baby led weaning, and obviously you are supposed to remain calm, and gagging is a very, very big thing when they first start putting bigger chunks of food in their mouth. It's a natural reflex to avoid choking. So it's sometimes hard to tell the difference and keep calm because that is what you should do. That was one thing I really had to try and train myself to do is remain calm and do. You know, if that's something that really does concern you, then you may want to reconsider and start with purees, or just train yourself to stay calm. Thankfully, she has never choked, and I do know that I am prepared to handle it, as is my husband. We've also shared resources with all our caretakers. nanny or family to know what to do in those instances. So we felt very comfortable using the baby led weaning approach with our daughter, even when we weren't present. I can also now happily say that she is a great eater. She loves her veggies and a great variety of foods and has also sped up in how long it takes her to eat. So overall, yes, I'm very grateful that we went with primarily the baby led weaning approach, but also mixed with purees. But the method you choose, be it baby led weaning, like I mentioned, purees or a combo, you just have to make sure that it works for you, your family, your lifestyle, and know that there is no right or wrong. It's just what feels best for you. But you will, of course, have to change to solids eventually. Thank you so much for tuning in and sticking around to the end. If you've just watched and enjoyed this video, I'd be so grateful for a like. And if you'd hit the subscribe button with your support, I'll be able to invite bigger guests and provide more value. If you're listening to the audio only, make sure to follow this podcast to get tips on parenting and partnership and hear inspiring stories from other parents as well. See you next week.