My son is currently 10 months old so we’ve been doing baby led weaning, or BLW) for over 4 months now.
There’s a lot of guides out there of things you supposedly need but below I share the actual items we use.
For context, I hate clutter (who does?) but also don’t like buying things that only get a few uses or could be easily done manually. I noticed when researching for products while pregnant that there’s an abundance of products targeted to parents but a lot I would consider to be a waste of money.
What is baby led weaning?
Baby led weaning is the process of giving your baby solid food that has been prepared to in a way that can hold, and feed themselves. Essentially skipping the puree phase, although you can provide purees in tandem, baby led weaning allows your baby to learn a bunch of new skills while providing them to autonomy to self regulate their food consumption.
While not all babies can be fed through BLW, such as those with neurological delays, “baby-led weaning supports the development of hand-eye coordination, chewing skills, dexterity, and healthy eating habits. It also offers babies an opportunity to explore the taste, texture, aroma, and colour of a variety of foods."
What has our Baby Led Weaning been like?
We’ve been doing a mixture of purees on solid foods since our son was 6 months old. Previously, he was exclusively consuming breastmilk either through my breastfeeding of through pumped milk using my Pigeon Go Mini.
He has liked pretty much all foods he’s tried especially the more savoury meals which I think is linked to having tasted them through my breastmilk. Did you know studies have shown that strong flavours like garlic, and chilli can be detected in breastmilk?
What products do we use for BLW?
When researching high chairs I knew I wanted the Stokke Tripp Trapp because it matches our dining furniture, and also is easy to clean. It’s very easy to put him into the chair, it’s matches the height of our dining furniture so he sits at eye level to us, and it is indeed easy to clean.
My son loves throwing his food especially when our pet Pomeranian Sookie is under him. The Catchy is a high chair accessory that fits on top of the footplate, and catches any food dropped by your child. It’s reusable, easy to clean, and compatible with many high chairs like the Stokke Tripp Trapp (although not sold by Stokkee).
I didn’t buy this specific brand but it looks exactly the same. We load food onto one spoon while he east with the other. It allows him to learn hand eye coordination, practise using cutlery, and he can mirror how we eat with our cutlery.
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