Reddit reviews Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods-and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater

yes! Baby-led weaning was awesome. Basically as soon as my daughter was old enough to sit upright on her own (around 6 months) we started feeding her the exact same food we eat ourselves (supplementing w/ a bottle of course). The only exceptions are some dangerous things like large pieces of meat that require chewing, round things like blueberries and grapes, or things that baby's bodies can't quite deal with yet like raw meat and fish.

I wrote a long guide to getting my toddler to eat, which I think is worth a read. The real keys are to make sure they're involved in meal planning and preparation. nobody likes being told what to do, even toddlers and babies, so you need to make sure they feel empowered and like they have control over their own bodies and what goes into them.

My wife and I went with baby-led weaning, starting when she was 6 months. I was skeptical about the whole thing, and also nervous about choking hazard. My wife is an RN and I've recently taken a first aid class with infant choking covered, so like you we were well prepared - but it's a scary thought.

It went great. We started by giving her very "limp", well steamed strips of stuff like pear, carrots and squash. They were cut into triangular pieces smaller then the diameter of a pen, about 2 inches long, so they would be hard to choke fully on.

First couple of weeks she just played and sometimes gummed the food. Slowly but surely she learned to bite it and eat the strips. Within a couple of months there was a variety of new foods she could eat.

By one she was eating only the food that my wife and I are eating (unless we're eating "bad", like pizza. Then she gets healthier leftovers). Some foods we would cut up for her.

Now, at 16 months, she eats what we're eating with no extra prep work from us. She can use a spoon too, though that's messy.

10/10 I would baby led wean again. If you can overcome your fear of choking, I highly recommend the approach. Here's the book.

No big deal at all. In fact, you can save money and skip the baby food step entirely. If you do chose to go this route, drop off a bunch of books and ask your mom to read them so she knows where you're coming from.

Not OP, but I highly recommend baby led weaning. Basically instead of giving them mush as their first foods you start off by giving them real food from the beginning. Start with softer things and you just let them feed them selves. The first month or so they dont really get much, but they are really getting their calories from milk still anyway. Then all of a sudden they are eating real food by themselves instead of you having to sit there trying to feed them with a spoon which is infinitely frustrating. This book was a fantastic resource for learning more about it. If I recall correctly just reading the first few chapters should give you enough of an idea to get started.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/161519021X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1456843621&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=baby+led+weaning

anyone else had had this?

Yes, 90% of parents of two year olds. They get fussy (possibly a developmental stage?) at this age which freaks many parents out. Parents then get stressed every time the child eats, child doesn't want to eat because parents are stressed and it becomes self perpetuating.
Let them take some control of their food, help to buy, plan, prepare. Do you eat with her? Eat meals with her, ignore the actual food consumption, make it a social event. Picnics (in winter?!), eating with other children might help, especially if it's a bit of a free for all.
I read the Baby lead weaning book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-Led-Weaning-Essential-Introducing-Confident/dp/161519021X It's not a recipe book. It explains how and why children, not just babies eat. It explains how the WWII rationing mentality has badly affected children's eating today. And the incorrect negative affect adults views have on children's eating. I highly recommend reading the book if you want to understand better how and why your child is eating how they are. It was in the news about six months ago about a children's center using BLW style advise to successfully get toddlers to eat new and better food.
TDLR Chill.

I don’t! It was in this book beginning on page 11

https://www.amazon.com/Baby-Led-Weaning-Essential-Introducing-Foods/dp/161519021X

It basically explains how infant purees came to be and how they were heavily marketed, and why. But when you read it, it has a big “ah ha” as to why the older generations did what they did and feel so strongly about how things were done back then. The goals of parenting were a bit different and the trust in large corporations and marketing were a lot stronger.

I haven’t had a whole lot of these types of recommendations, but I also fall on the crunchier side of things, so I think the people that know anything about me think it’s not even worth the recommendation.

Primary nutrition until one is breast milk or formula and I read best practice is for babies to eat solids a half hour after breast milk. I've had success with Baby Led Weaning with my 7 month old.

I'm sorry to hear about your losses, and again, I wasn't trying to be pedantic. If you check out the actual Baby-Lead Weaning Book, it makes a convincing case as to why BLW is actually safer than the alternatives, primarily because it allows a safe environment for babies to figure out how to manipulate food in their mouths safely, which is a lesson kids obviously need to learn regardless of teeth.

I only meant to share what worked well for us. If BLW doesn't work for you, that's fine.

My go-to resources are:

Baby Led Weaning

Loose Parts and Loose Parts 2: Inspiring Play for Infants and Toddlers

For discipline I prefer the Parenting with Love and Logic.

I'm a big believer in the Reggio Emilia philosophy of teaching and early childhood development. R.E., loose parts, and outdoor classroom theories all work really well together to create a natural, child-led, creative environment. The basic theory involved is that children are curious, competent, creative beings with a significant capacity for learning if we get out of their way. Instead of giving them plastic, light-up, noise-making toys that have one purpose or one way of playing, loose parts cultivates an environment of inviting materials that encourage creativity and discovery instead of "this is how you play with this toy" thinking. I was first introduced to Reggio Emilia and Loose Parts while working for a JCC and I was really impressed with the way it transformed the teaching environment. It's definitely harder the smaller your kids are, but it can be done and I have seen it jump start critical thinking and creativity in even the youngest kiddos.

Like I said, I haven't read it yet myself, but I believe the book "Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods - and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater" by Gill Rapley is considered to be the primary authority on the subject.

I’ve just been feeding him off my plate, so I don’t know about cereal puffs, sorry. Are they the size of grapes? Then personally I’d avoid them as a choke hazard for now.

I guess most people start with softened carrots, fingers of toast, that sort of thing. Anything that he can grab and stick part of it into his mouth. Then, he has to sort of bite off a piece if he actually wants to eat it, and it turns to mush in his mouth. I got Baby Led Weaning from my library and it helped me a lot.

Hi and welcome! I'd really suggest reading this book. It's more of an all-in approach but its a good starting point :) I feel confident after reading it and can give advice about most posts on this sub just based on basics laid out in the book. And based on personal experience it all makes sense. Good luck!

Born to Eat: Whole, Healthy Foods from Baby’s First Bite https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1510719997/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_qzR-zbD6MKQ7Z

Got this book ^ love it, great resource

Want some background and research behind blw? Try anything by Gill Rapley, she basically made BLW what it is today.

Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods―and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater https://www.amazon.ca/dp/161519021X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_3AR-zbARDF8JY

We got this book from the library: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/161519021X It's helpful for the early stages before you start sharing whatever's on your own plate, though we did a little of that too, and she's so open to new tastes and textures now. I think it's due at least in part to this approach. Of course check in with me at 18 months when pickiness peaks!

Well, I would stop giving her mush and start giving her solids. Maybe not toast right away, but a banana stick maybe. (Banana cut length ways twice.) because you have already started giving baby mush, just transition baby to solids, starting with softer ones.

It's really important you understand the difference between gagging and choking. Gagging is ok. It's your baby just working out how to move the food around in their mouth. Choking is when they are turning blue, no noise, food is lodged. Gagging will probably happen. Choking will probably not. But know the difference.

A really really great Blw book to help you on your journey is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/161519021X?pc_redir=1409137923&robot_redir=1

It gives lots of tips and a lot of really great information on baby led weaning. Good luck!

I got this from the library and it was fine

Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods—and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater https://www.amazon.ca/dp/161519021X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_.2q7CbB6PMEBJ

The most important takeaway is things big enough to be held in their fists and soft enough that you can pinch between your forefinger and thumb. Our first food was over boiled carrot sticks.

The Facebook groups can be pretty militant but can have good ideas.

The baby books aren't that great or useful. More important are the books about how to handle your wife.

As for kid eating, once the kid is past six months, you start introducing solids, ideally of the kind they can grab with their poor dexterity hands. Chop up broccoli into baby hand sized hunks and steam it. That shit is perfect baby food. They'll gum on the stalk side or the soft side and figure it out.

Meatloaf is another good kid-feed-themself food. No matter what, the kid is going to wear whatever you feed them. Skip the spoon feeding of gerber baby food phase, and let them use their hands. They want to anyway. If you really want to read a baby book, pick that which is mostly a cookbook of shit you can make that still tastes good for you, and which your baby can jam in their mouth: https://www.amazon.com/Baby-Led-Weaning-Essential-Introducing-Foods/dp/161519021X

One more thing. Some people freak the fuck out about babies gagging on food. (I think this is the origin of the baby puree industrial complex.) There is a difference between gagging and choking. If you don't know infant CPR, learn it, so you can stay calm in the unlikely event that there really is an emergency, and so you can learn to ignore other people who freak out unnecessarily.

Our son did that too! He eventually figured it out tho and so will your son. He has to learn and figure out his gag reflexes. Thankfully when they’re little like this their gag reflex are so far forward they’ll spit a lot out. This book helped a lot:

Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods-and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater https://www.amazon.com/dp/161519021X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_OC0IDb966D480