M
elanie Miers has just decided to give baby-
led weaning a try. Her third child is now five
months old, and Melanie hopes BLW, as it is
known, might offer an avenue for an easier,
smoother transition to solid foods. “When I fell pregnant
with my third, it wasn’t the newborn stage I dreaded at all,
it was the feeding,” she says.
Baby-led weaning describes a style of weaning in which
a baby feeds himself on whole pieces of food at the table from
about six months. A British health visitor, Gill Rapley, who
has written two books on the subject, introduced the method,
and fans of the approach say self-feeding is an easier, natural
and more inclusive way for babies to begin solids.
Melanie weaned her first two children the traditional
way, putting in long hours cooking and blending food into
purées before spoon-feeding at each meal. Stressful events at
home coincided with weaning her second child and brought
a negative spin to the dining room table. Melanie has felt
the effects ever since. “My four-year-old is only just eating
green beans that are not mashed into his food. My two-year-
old won’t even touch them,” she says about green veggies in
general, which, nonetheless, she offers them every day.
When Melanie recently watched her friend’s baby-
led-weaned daughter munch her way through a meal at
seven months, she saw a different path. “It was amazing to
watch,” she says. Melanie borrowed a book on the subject,
got opinions from mums on a forum, and then decided it
might be the method for her. She’s looking forward to her
family sharing their foods and mealtimes together, and
hopes baby-led weaning will be less stressful and more
convenient all round. “I hope it makes life a little bit easier
for everyone,” she says.
Textures and tastes
Over the last six or seven years the notion of baby-led
weaning has gained traction in the UK. Older government
guidelines had advised that solids should begin between
four to six months, but were revised to six months,
alongside prolonged breastfeeding. Gill Rapley’s guidelines
for baby-led weaning promote the method as a natural
progression from breastfeeding, which is demand-led, and
insists babies must be able to sit up unaided and be able
to move items from hand to mouth without help for the
method to work. Normally this occurs in babies around six
months. At this stage, she argues, purées are redundant.
The movement is also gaining momentum in Hong
Kong. Annerley, a maternity services clinic in Central,
has recently added a workshop introducing the basics of
baby-led weaning. The clinic’s founder, Hulda Thorey, drew
from her own feeding experiences with her fourth child,
which were more baby-led – a style she found not only more
convenient, but that she also felt seemed like common sense.
BLW purists rant on Internet forums against the use
of spoons, even with oatmeal or soup, and can’t abide
purées, saying this kind of feeding exerts parental control.
With literature at a minimum – really just Gill Rapley’s
two books – it’s easy to become confused and put off, says
Hulda. But the heart of baby-led weaning is to introduce
For parents doing baby-led weaning, half the fun of
Christmas will be watching their babies tuck into
turkey and sprouts unassisted. Would you let your baby
feed himself? asks
Elle Kwan
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thrills
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