The New Rules Of Baby-Led Weaning

Speed straight to the top of the learning curve with the latest fi ndings on self-feeding.

- Katie Masters

WHEN it came to weaning, for years most parents opted to spoon-feed purées to their babies. But in 2008, British midwife Gill Rapley popularised the idea of baby-led weaning. She suggested simply putting appropriate food on to your baby’s tray and letting him feed himself. Eight years and thousands of baby-led weaned babies later, we’ve learnt a lot about what works well—and what doesn’t—when it comes to this method of weaning. M&B caught up with baby self-feeding experts Nancy Ripton and Melanie Potock co-authors of Baby Self-Feeding: Solid Food Solutions to Create Lifelong, Healthy Eating Habits to bring you the benefit of all that experience— here’s what you need to know…

RELAX! “You really want your baby’s early feeding experiences to be fun,” says Melanie. “If it’s fun, he’ll enjoy it, and start to build a positive, healthy relationship with food that can last for the rest of his life.” But in order to relax, you need to be confident that your baby is ready to start eating solids. He is if:

He’s six months old. If your baby is younger than this, and you think he is ready to wean, it’s better to feed him purées.

He can sit up on his own, holding his head and chest straight and steady.

He can co-ordinate his mouth, hands and eyes, so he is able to pick food up and then get it into his mouth.

DO IT TOGETHER