It seems too good to be true: a new craze to hit the baby feeding scene that doesn’t require any troublesome steaming or pureeing. Instead, you just grab a handful of fruit or veggie sticks and away you go. So is baby-led weaning the answer to all our prayers, or is it just a fad?

First introduction to durian (a very unusual tasting South East Asian fruit!)

Fans of baby-led weaning cite reduced fussiness with food choices, improved eating, and reduced risk of childhood obesity as potential gains from this method of feeding. Critics raise concerns about potential choking hazards and reduced nutrition, as well as limited choices (not everything can be given as finger foods). So what should you do?

Infant Development:

Although an infant as young as 4 months of age can grasp a toy or other object in his hand for a brief period, it is not until around 6 months that he can purposely reach for and hold onto an object. At around this time, he will also be able to put it in his mouth. However, he is unlikely to repeat this action frequently enough to achieve much in the way of nutrition at this age. He is just as likely to drop the fruit or veggie stick on the floor, or mush it into his eyebrows as get it into his mouth.

Infant Nutrition:

Breast or formula milk contains all the nutrients necessary for a baby up to 6 months. Beyond 6 months, a baby requires solid food to supplement the nutrition in the milk, although the milk remains the primary source of nutrition for an infant up to 12 months. Supplementary food helps to ameliorate the dip in iron stores that occurs at 9 months of age; it also provides additional calories for the increased metabolic demand of an increasingly mobile child.

Baby-Led Weaning:

Pros:

• Easy to prepare: compared to traditional purees, carrot sticks and chopped up fruits can seem a lot easier for a busy working Mom to prepare . However, care has to be taken to ensure a wide range of different foods are provided, including protein and foods rich in iron.
• As this method of feeding involves a longer time frame (and a lot of patience!) the baby is less likely to overfeed, and more likely to respond to his body’s cues when he is full. This can lead to a reduction in childhood obesity.

Cons:

• If baby-led weaning is followed strictly, the baby only eats what he puts in his own mouth. In the early days of self- feeding this can lead to prolonged mealtimes and poor intake of nutrients.
• Once a child has moved past the initial fruit and vegetable stages, it may become increasingly challenging to give sufficient meat and other protein sources as finger foods. It often involves a great deal of thought and preparation to provide a child with a nutritionally balanced food that he can self feed successfully.
• Recent studies have shown that babies fed solely by the baby-led method are at more risk of iron, zinc and vitamin B12 deficiency. They are also more likely to choose predominantly carbohydrate-based foods. Turns out there is no super- easy way of getting good nutrition into your child after all!

Baby enjoying feeding herself from a fork

Controversial:

• Choking: critics of baby-led weaning often voice concerns over increased risk of choking. However, a recent study showed equal rates of choking episodes in babies who were baby-led and those who were weaned onto solids following more traditional methods. The choking episodes occured with similar foods in both groups (slices of apple and other hard fruits,etc.). The episodes were more associated with when and how various “high risk” foods were introduced rather than in the context of which feeding strategy was used. It seems the take home message is that you have to be careful whichever method you use.
• Reduced fussiness: although there is a huge amount of anecdotal evidence from parents who have baby-led fed their infants, no studies to date have convincingly proven this. Generally,  babies are often very open to trying new foods, whether puréed or via finger feeding: it is usually only as children approach the latter half of the second year of life that food preferences and food faddiness starts to appear for the majority of children. Often this has more to do with their family’s general approach to food and mealtime behaviour, rather that a specific methodology of introduction of solids.
• Supporters of the baby-led feeding movement claim that this is closer to how our ancestors fed their babies, before steamers and blenders were invented. However, there are countless accounts of ancient civilisations pre-masticating their food for their infants (yeah, I know- delightful- but I guess they did what they had to do!). Turns out blenders aren’t all that necessary for making purees after all!

Purees:

Pros:

• Mom is in charge of the spoon. This means that she can control the amount of nutrition that the baby takes (more or less).
• This method of feeding is much easier for the neat-freaks out there! No huge mess all over the floor to have to clear up after dinner (or friends huge tips to waitresses at restaurants!). (Tip- for baby-led weaning parents: buy a plastic sheet from an arts and crafts shop and lay it under your baby’s highchair before mealtime- you will find cleaning up much easier).
• It is easier to ensure your child gets all the protein and iron he needs when it is blended into a purée rather than trying to get a baby to gnaw his way through a steak or lamb chop. Babies tend to suck on large chunks of meat, taking the oils and fats, but leaving behind the protein and iron.

Cons:

• I won’t lie to you- it takes effort. Entire Saturday afternoons spent over a hot hob preparing countless chicken casseroles, spaghetti bologneses and salmon and brocolli purees. There is a little hint of satisfaction when you see all those little pots filled up though…
• You can get stuck in a rut. Even purée babies need to start on finger foods and more textured solids. You must move your baby on from smooth purees onto lumpier, more textured foods by around 7- 8 months to avoid him developing aversion to textures.
• Choking occurs just as commonly in purée fed babies as baby-led weaning babies. You still need to e a careful about what finger foods you give- and when. And never leave a baby unattended with finger foods.

Controversial:

• Concerns have been raised that since feeding purees is more passive, babies may be inadvertently over fed using this method. This may predispose to a baby being less aware of satiety, or “fullness” cues, which could lead to an increased risk of obesity. There is limited data currently on this.

So What Should You Do?

Do your research. If you are going to do baby-led feeding, then please don’t regard it as the easier option. You will still need to cook: meatballs; goujons; all sorts of foods that contain the same sort of nutrients found in purees but stuffed into infant hand sized balls or bars.

Similarly, if going the purée route, you should introduce textures and finger foods from around 7-8 months. Put a few sticks of fruit or vegetables, or other finger foods for your child to explore whilst you feed him the purée. Watch for cues that he is full, and don’t try to push beyond what he wants to eat. Increase the texture of the purée at around 7-8 months, either fork-mashing or finely chopping the food, and add pasta or risotto rice for interest.

Don’t be too much of a purist! The idea that spoons and forks shouldn’t be used at all is rather silly. By all means load some food onto your child’s spoon or fork to introduce new foods that couldn’t otherwise be introduced in a “true” baby-led regime. (I dare you to finger feed yoghurt!)

Enjoy the journey! Do what works for you- and be responsive to what your child seems to enjoy most.