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Baby Led Weaning

Baby Led Weaning
9 min read
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Table Of Contents

Baby Led Weaning

In this post you’ll learn about:

  • what baby-led weaning is and how I prepared my family for it
  • how I ‘weaned’ my baby from breastmilk
  • tips we used to help ease the journey
  • my recommendations for BLW equipment & snacks we love for baby E

So what is Baby-Led Weaning (BLW)?

If I had to give it a definition myself, baby-led weaning is allowing your baby the time and space to learn how to eat solids at their own pace. Babies are capable of so much and learn so quickly…they end up turning into adults eventually (well most of them anyway, lol ) so they can most definitely learn how to eat solids on their terms with the proper guidance and low pressure environment.

Think about it. We all know when we are full if we listen to our bodies, but many of us grew up being told to finish everything on our plate so we typically eat more than we need to during a meal. Simply put, baby-led weaning lets baby choose what to eat, how much they want, and how quickly they want to eat it.

During baby-led weaning you take a hands-off approach and give your baby the space to explore new foods, all prepared appropriately based on the child’s readiness levels and abilities. Is it scary to a new parent? Oh of course! You see one gag during a ‘mealtime’ and you want to take ten steps backward. Rest assured, things like gagging are mechanisms helping our baby understand that whatever they just tried to eat was too large for them and that they should have chewed more.

How did I prepare myself and my baby for BLW?

To prepare myself for our journey with baby-led weaning for baby E, I planned on introducing solids once he was 6 months (the recommended age due to their digestive tracts not being ready for things other than breastmilk/formula prior to that age). To make sure I understood what baby-led warning was and how to introduce healthy foods into our little one’s diet, I signed up for the Vegan Kids Nutrition Baby-Led Weaning course. Since we were exclusively breastfeeding and my family is 100% vegan, I wanted to make sure I knew which foods would be the best starter foods and which foods had the highest amount of nutrition per serving to ensure my little one was getting all the necessary vitamins once our breastfeeding journey was over.

I highly recommend this course because it took the stressful parts of baby-led weaning out of the equation. The course included answers to all of my main questions: how to prepare foods based on the child’s age and readiness levels, what ‘equipment’ was needed to ensure his meal time environment was setting him up for success, and essential vitamins and the levels needed during the growing stages.

How I ‘weaned’ my baby from breastmilk to solids:

I knew I wanted to hit the one-year mark with breastfeeding for all of the awesome benefits, so that was my first goal. Baby E was loving solids once we started BLW at 6 months so he kind of weaned himself. I feel like this may be more of the norm since the more solids they start eating as they get older and more advanced in their eating abilities, the less they rely on getting all of their nutrition from milk.

To make sure the weaning process didn’t affect my body or milk supply I tried dropping a feeding every 2 weeks. We started with approximately 6 daytime feedings once we stopped the nighttime feedings, so that was our starting point. Every two weeks I would drop one of the ‘less favored’ feedings. We gave baby E a bottle before bed and he breastfed upon waking, so I saved those two sessions for the end. As he started eating more solids (and not just throwing it all over the ground, which is totally normal and ok behavior), I dropped the midday or midday morning breastfeeding sessions that tended to be the shortest. My goal was to get baby E to 3 meals and 2 snack times a day once we were all solids so I based my dropped sessions around that goal. When I dropped a session I’d replace it with the meal or snack depending on what time of day it was. This worked really well for us, and gave my body time to adjust to the decreased feedings and I didn’t experience any changes hormonally.

We breastfed until 13 months and baby E has been LOVING solid foods ever since.

Tips that worked for us:

  • We really do let baby E try as many foods as possible, even if it may not be a fan favorite in our home. For example, my husband would never choose peas as part of his meal but I wanted to make sure baby E had a chance to try the food multiple times to ensure his palette is well-rounded.
  • If he doesn’t like a food once, I tell him somethˆng along the lines of “it’s good to try new food, and if you don’t like it or don’t want it that is ok.”
  • I tried to curb the dropping of unwanted food from his plate by just thanking him for trying the new food and asking him to just leave it on his plate or tray for mommy or daddy to clean up later.
  • I feel like giving him the space to ‘say’ he didn’t like something that he tried for the first time made him feel heard, and just asking him to put it to the side shows him the behavior we want to see whenever that happens.
  • We reintroduce food he didn’t care for a week or two later and I’ve noticed he will try it the second or third time and actually enjoy it.
  • Patience is key. They are not only learning new motor skills but they are also experiencing new textures and smells. That can be an overwhelming experience for anyone, not just a toddler.
  • Don’t put pressure on yourself to find the next best recipe to try and meal prep every day. If you find some ‘fan favorites’ you can have that be a staple. For example, I found these delicious and nutritious spiced breakfast pancakes from the Vegan Kids Cookbook and once I saw baby E loved them, I would make a batch and it would be his breakfast for the next 3-4 days. I try to remind myself people eat oatmeal for breakfast every single day for years, so it’s ok if my child has the same breakfast for 4 days. I’m no Betty Crocker and I don’t want to be at 7am every morning.
  • Snacks are real when babies start getting mobile. I feel like they are always hungry once they get past the sea-legs stage…so definitely always prep your diaper bag the night before with healthy snacks. Taylor if you’re reading this, thank you for always having cutie oranges in your bag for baby E when he gets cravings at the park.
  • We introduced small cups and straws pretty early on even though they started out more like toys during mealtimes. Stay strong and know that the messes are short term! We can’t believe our 16-month-old (when I’m actually writing this post) can drink from a cup without a lid or straw and can PUT IT BACK DOWN the right way without spilling. I can barely do that. It’s incredible. Babies are incredible.
  • Smoothies are AMAZING to pack a bunch of nutrients into one meal if you’re facing some picky eating. Teething can make them not want to have solids so smoothies may be a good trick to keep in your back pocket.

The following content may contain affiliate links for products I use and love. If you take action (i.e. subscribe, make a purchase) after clicking one of these links, I’ll earn some money to put towards baby E’s college fund (at no cost to you)

BLW Equipment & Snacks & I recommend: The following products are products I have loved using for baby E’s BLW journey and now they are still part of his solid food all day every day for the rest of his life journey. Thankfully I have some discount codes for some of them for you, so please share this post with any mamas or papas that are getting ready to hop on the BLW train!

Starter Cups:

Bamboo Plates w/ Suction:

  • Avanchy (one-time discount of 10% off when you use code: LOWTOXTOTS)

Bamboo Bowls w/ suction:

  • Avanchy (one-time discount of 10% off when you use code: LOWTOXTOTS)

Stainless Steel Water Bottle:

Stainless Steel Utensil Set:

Stainless Steel Plateware:

Stainless Steel Bento Lunch Box:

High Chair:

Travel High Chair:

Crinkle Cut Knife:

Food Storage:

Baby & Toddler Snacks:

Remember, this is the start of how they view food for the rest of their lives. As long as you are well-prepared and believe in them, they will shine when it comes to eating solids. I knew I would feel the least amount of stress during the experience if I went through a course that was designed for parents without BLW experience, and stress is the last thing you want around your baby when they are learning to feed themselves. If you have any questions about the BLW course I took, I’m always happy to answer them! I’m so excited for your little one’s journey to gaining self-confidence and relying on their natural instincts to feed themself. PS. you got this mama or dada!!!