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Baby Solids: Baby Led Weaning vs Purées

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This is a follow up to my previous post where I share what we did for solids from 4-6 months.

 

At 6 months, I really noticed a change in Aurora and a much greater interest in food. Now it was much harder to eat in front of her as she was very interested in what was on my plate. At around 6 months, Aurora also started to crawl, and her being more mobile made it even harder to keep food away from her! I really welcomed her interest in food though, as I know that could only help her become a better eater.

There are two schools of thought: Baby Led Weaning and Purées only. I saw the merits in each and decided to do a modified form that included both styles.

Baby Led Weaning

Baby Led Weaning (BLW) is giving your child whole pieces of food, cut into manageable yet larger pieces/chunks so that they can grasp and feed themselves.

Pros

  • Baby practices dexterity, pincer grasp and handling food
  • Baby chooses what they want to eat
  • Baby practices “chewing” by gnawing on the foods
  • This approach is more exploratory
  • Parent doesn’t have to give every spoonful (though watching and helping is necessary)
  • Parent saves time if making purées
    • However, I still spent time preparing the BLW foods

Cons

  • Choking!
  • Baby might not get a lot of food successfully from fingers to mouth
  • Baby might get frustrated that they can’t get food into mouth

Purées

Pros

  • More success in actually getting nutrition into your baby’s mouth
  • Parent can direct more of the exposure to tastes
  • Pouches are useful on the go

Cons

  • Time consuming to prepare (if making own)
  • Can be expensive if buying jars/pouches
  • Can be taxing to figure out good combinations & vary meals
  • Baby can get bored or not use hands as much

Our Conclusion

  • I found that a combination of BLW and Purées was the best approach for Aurora.
  • I wanted to make sure that she had good exposure to tastes and I wanted to get nutrition and calories into her little body, so purées were a staple of every meal.
  • I enjoy making food for her, so when I had time, I liked to prepare purees with my Béaba, and experiment with new combinations.
  • Aurora was very into BLW as she loves to feed herself. She got very good at the pincer grasp and at handling food quickly–she realized that there was a reward to learning how to do it well!
  • I found that combination for each meal worked well as while she was picking something up, I’d get a spoon loaded and waiting. After she swallowed the bite that she fed herself, I’d offer the spoon.
  • I felt good knowing that I guaranteed that she good nutrition with purees but she had the fun, exploratory aspect of feeding herself with the BLW foods.
  • I also watched many Youtube videos on Infant CPR and walked through it with my babygroup leader. I do suggest doing an Infant CPR course. I used to be a lifeguard so feel pretty confident but have signed up for one just in case as I feel it is valuable to know.

Starting Baby Solids: A Feeding Guide for 4-6 Months

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After working so hard to master breastfeeding, introducing solids was a little intimidating. There are so many options, methods and conflicting advice out there that I was overwhelmed. My babygroup leader and my pediatrician never seemed to say the same thing! I however polled a lot of other moms and did some of my own research to come up with what I felt was a suitable time to start for Aurora.

I also heard that Feeding Littles, an online tutorial, is very useful in helpings parents to navigate the best solid food choices for their little ones. I haven’t tried it yet but so many friends rave about it!

We first tried solids at exactly 4 months. She was holding her head up well but could not sit up unassisted. We sat her in a baby Bumbo seat and started with only purées. The first attempt was pretty good! She seemed interested and surprised and would open up her mouth for more.

So far the only food she very much hasn’t liked is plain greek yogurt! But if I mix in a fruit, she loves  it!

 

Allergens

We started with one ingredient foods and continued the food one to two times per day for 3 days to make sure that she didn’t have an allergy. The 3 day rule is because sometimes they don’t show an allergy right away.

Eating Eggies!

We were told to introduce allergens (Dairy, Egg and Nuts) early, so we made sure to expose Aurora to each of these at least once per week and have continued that to now. There is conflicting advice on this but we decided this was the best route for us, after researching and talking it over with our pediatrician.

There is also an option to add these allergens to the baby’s bottles in a powder form, called Ready, Set, Food. I didn’t go this route as she doesn’t have bottles consistently but I have heard very good things.

 

Baby Solids at 4 Months

We decided to start with only purées. I was not making homemade food at this point since she only was just starting to eat and eating very little. I decided to wait till she was eating more in quantity before I went the homemade route as that’s a lot of time and energy to be wasting most of it. The brands that I used were HappyBaby, Earthganics, Peter Rabbit and Plum Baby.

However now, I wish I had known about YUMI and Once Upon a Farm, both are fresh and require refrigeration and in my opinion, better than the shelf brands (which need preservatives to stay fresh).

 

  • HappyBaby Oatmeal mixed with Breastmilk
    • Very thin consistency
  • Avocado
    • Smashed and mixed with breastmilk
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Winter Squash
  • Peas
  • Carrots

Baby Solids at 5 Months:

  • Egg Yolk
    • Scrambled and mixed with breastmilk
  • Broccoli
    • Smashed with a fork
  • Peanut butter
    • mixed with breastmilk
  • Prunes
  • Pears
  • Banana
    • Jarred & smashed
  • Full Fat Greek Yogurt

Breakfast at the Woodstock Inn in Vermont

Baby Solids at 6 Months:

  • Strawberry
  • Raspberry
  • Blueberry
  • Blackberry
  • Whole Eggs
    • Scrambled with whites
  • Steak
    • Filet mignon pieces
  • Salmon
    • Flaked pieces
  • Cheese
    • Mozzarella, Cheddar and other mild cheeses
  • Kiwi
  • Mango
  • Melon
  • Pineapple

 

Solids While Traveling

Aurora was 6 months old when we traveled for 3 weeks for Christmas and it was during this time that we started using more puree pouches as it was much easier on the go than trying to spoon feed. Aurora loves to suck right out of the pouches!

We found the fewest ingredient pouches and stuck with those (ie. Sweet Potatoes, Prunes, Applesauce) but we did graduate to some combinations as she approached 7 months.

I tried to be mindful of each pouch’s ingredients to make sure she was only being exposed to ONE new ingredient each time. For instance, if the pouch was apple, squash and blueberry, I made sure that she had already tried apple and squash so I would know if she had an allergy to blueberry.

 

Foods to Avoid

  • Honey
  • Milk
  • Added Salt
  • Added Sugars
  • Juice
  • Too Much Water
    • 2 oz per day is recommended as a maximum
    • The worry is that they will fill up on water over breastmilk

 

Conclusions

Since we do a mix of baby led weaning and purées, I can tell that Aurora prefers to feed herself. She loves chunks of food and holding the spoon, though it can get messy in both cases!

However you decide to do it, is great! Just be sure to remember that breastmilk or formula should still be pretty much the only source of nutrition as this stage.