Baby-led weaning
Louisa Sherlock
Associate EditorReady to wean your baby but want to avoid purees? Baby-led weaning could be the answer. You can even combine BLW with spoon feeding
There are 2 ways to introduce your baby to solid foods, which you can try once they are around 6 months old. One is spoon feeding, where you feed your baby pureed food. The other, baby-led weaning, means letting your baby feed themselves with solid finger foods.
Neither method is superior over the other, although baby-led weaning can help your baby develop their hand-eye coordination quicker and fast-track their ability to feed themselves. There is no extra risk of choking with finger foods.
We've dug into the research, with insights from the NHS and baby-led weaning experts Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett, to find out what BLW is, when to start and how to do it.
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What is baby-led weaning?
Baby-led weaning (BLW) means forgetting purees and letting your baby feed themselves finger foods, right from the start of their weaning journey. Simply offer your baby a range of foods and let them explore and select their food and feed themselves as soon as they are ready.
In theory, baby-led weaning allows your baby to learn appetite control, so they eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full.
Gill, the former health visitor who first coined the phrase baby-led weaning, says:
'With BLW, a baby learns about how individual foods look and smell and taste, what the texture and shape is like to pick up and manipulate, and how to chew them.
'These things are important for helping him to learn about food and to eat safely – and he can’t learn them from spoon feeding and purees.'
When should I start baby-led weaning?
According to current NHS guidelines, you should start weaning (also called complementary feeding) when your baby is around 6 months old.
The British Dietic Association lists these key signs that your baby is ready for solid foods:
- They can reach out to grab things and bring them near their mouth
- They start to chew their toys
- They can sit up by themselves and control their head
This will usually start to happen when your baby is around 6 months old. Some babies may be ready to feed themselves earlier or later, so you can follow your baby's lead to decide when to start weaning them.
Surprisingly, your baby chewing their fists, wanting more milk feeds, or waking more frequently at night are not signs that your baby is ready for weaning.
It's also important to note that you must never start weaning your baby onto solid foods earlier than 17 weeks.
If you feel your baby is ready for solids earlier than 6 months, talk to your health visitor first.
How do I start baby-led weaning?
If you would like to try BLW, follow Gill and Tracey’s top tips for successful weaning …
1 Make sure your baby is sitting upright, in a highchair or on your lap.
2 Cut food into large finger shapes or strips to start with, so your baby can pick them up easily. Pieces need to be large enough for a bit to poke out of their fist, so they can hold on to their food easily while they gnaw.
3 It’s important that only your baby puts food into their mouth, so that they are in control and know what to expect. This allows them to concentrate and gives them time to work out how to manage different foods in their mouth, and chew safely.
4 There’s no need to stick to bland food or start with only vegetables – offering your baby a range of foods from the start will mean they can experience a range of tastes and textures and choose from a wide variety of nutrients.
5 Mealtimes will work best when your baby isn’t overly hungry or tired, because that allows them to enjoy the experience and learn. If they are tired or hungry, offer them a nap or a milk feed instead. (You may want to adjust your mealtimes to coincide with the times of day when they are most alert and receptive.)
Gill adds: ‘Always allow your baby to be in control of what they eat, how fast and how much, letting them experiment and play with the food as much as they want.’
What equipment do I need for baby-led weaning?
Just like traditional spoon feeding, BLW can get messy! There’s no essential equipment but there are some things that you may find useful:
- High chair (ideally an easy-clean one)
- Bibs
- Wipes or flannels
- More bibs
- A plastic sheet or washable tablecloth for the floor
- Some more bibs!
- A shot-glass-sized open cup
There’s no need for plates, bowls or cutlery at first – your baby will manage better if the food is put directly onto their high chair tray (or the table top).
Need advice?
Our health visitors and nursery nurses are online Monday to Friday evenings to answer your queries on feeding, sleep and child health.
What are the benefits of baby-led weaning?
It's down to personal preference whether you use traditional spoon feeding or baby-led weaning. According to Gill and Tracey, there are lots of benefits to allowing your baby to feed himself.
These include ...
It’s more enjoyable for babies than being spoon fed ... this makes introducing solids easier and less stressful for both babies and their parents.
There are no mealtime battles ... babies are allowed to eat as much as they like, at their own pace.
BLW encourages the development of chewing ... and also helps your baby hone their motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
There's no need for baby food ... instead, your baby can eat a wide range of foods, which is especially helpful when you're out and about.
Some research shows that baby-led weaning can give babies a greater awareness of when they are full, which leads to better appetite control. This would mean that they are less likely to overeat.
What are the downsides of baby-led weaning?
Just like traditional spoon-feeding, baby-led weaning can get VERY messy. And there can be a lot of waste.
Also if your baby is a bit later developing their pincer grip, they might struggle to pick up their finger food at first.
What if my baby gags or chokes?
This is a big concern for parents when thinking about any form of weaning. Yet according to a study in 2017, there is no evidence that baby-led weaning means your baby is more likely to choke.
To keep your baby safe, never leave them on their own while they are eating.
According to the British Dietic Association, there are some steps you can take to prepare food safely for your baby:
- When you chop food into pieces your baby can pick up, make sure each piece is not so small that you baby could choke – pieces the size of your finger is a good rough guide
- Cook hard vegetables and fruit to soften them (but make sure to let food cool down before giving it to your baby)
- Remove pips, stones and hard skin
Gill says: 'It’s important that your baby is allowed to learn to move food around his mouth safely and in his own time. Don't place pieces of food in your baby's mouth for him. This way, your baby will only pick up and attempt to eat foods he is capable of managing.
'Foods that are an obvious choking risk should be adapted or avoided. So steer clear of nuts, whole or in pieces, and cut small fruits such as olives, grapes and cherries in half and remove any stones.'
How to tell if your baby is gagging
Gagging (or coughing) on food is a fairly common occurrence in both baby-led weaning and traditional spoon feeding. This unnerves some parents, but this is simply a baby's natural reflex to stop them choking on food that they can't swallow.
According to the NHS, some signs that your baby could be gagging include:
- eyes watering
- coughing, retching or vomiting
- push their tongue forward or out of their mouth.
How to tell if your baby is choking
According to the British Red Cross, if your baby is choking they will:
- be silent, not making any noise or making odd noises
- be unable to cry
- be unable to breathe.
Watch this video for advice on what to do if your baby is choking.
Can I combine BLW and spoon feeding?
Lots of parents like the idea of a weaning ‘middle ground’: combining spoon feeding with offering your baby finger foods.
However Gill and Tracey suggest letting your baby spoon feed themselves rather than doing it for them.
Gill says: ‘Offering finger foods while also doing some spoon feeding isn’t BLW. It’s what happens in conventional weaning anyway, as your baby starts to feed themselves.
‘However, this doesn’t mean spoons are banned with BLW! Offering your baby a spoon to feed himself (with runny food such as yoghurt, for example), or allowing him to guide your hand while you hold the spoon means he is in control, not you.’
How can I tell if my baby is eating enough?
After some mealtimes, it might look like most – ok, let's be honest, ALL – of your baby’s finger foods are on the floor. So how can you tell if your baby is eating enough solid foods?
At the start of your baby’s weaning journey they will still be getting all the nutrients they need from milk, so don’t worry about how much they are eating. The important thing at this early stage is to get your baby used to feeding itself, and to different tastes and textures.
Babies are good at letting their parents know when they have had enough to eat, according to the Infant and Toddler Forum. Some signs they might give you that they are full include:
- Keeping their mouth shut, or blocking their mouth with their hands
- Holding food in their mouth
- Signalling 'no' when offered more food
- Throwing food
- Vomiting
If you are concerned that your baby is not eating enough, you can keep an eye on how much they grow in their early months. The NHS says that steady weight gain is one sign that your baby is eating well.
After six months, you can take your baby to be weighed by the health visitor every two months. You can ask for your baby to be weighed more regularly if you are worried about their weight gain.
Finger foods – suitable from six months
- Cooked sticks/slices/chunks of carrot, broccoli, sweet potato, potato, courgette, butternut squash, apple – cooked until they're 'smooshy'
- Raw slices/chunks of banana, avocado, peaches, pears, melon, cucumber
- Cooked rice
- Citrus fruits and strawberries
- Cooked pasta, with or without sauce
- Cubes or fingers of bread/toast (watch out for this sticking to the roof of the mouth, if they cram a lot in)
- Breadsticks (check for salt content)
- Cheese – cut into sticks or grated
- Pieces of cooked fish or meat
- Yoghurt/fromage frais (check for sugar content)
- Low-sugar/salt breakfast cereal
- Chopped, hard boiled egg
- Cooked pulses
- Quorn/tofu in moderation (as these are low-calorie and high-fibre foods, they can fill your baby up before they have consumed enough calories).
Baby-led weaning recipes
Wondering what to give your baby for breakfast, lunch or dinner? Try some of these great BLW-friendly recipes!
- Baby couscous
- Salmon fish fingers
- Baby's first pancakes
- Sweet potato gnocchi
- Baby bolognese
- Turkish lamb and chickpea stew
- Spinach fritters for babies and toddlers
- Sweet potato cookies
- Veggie balls
- Blueberry and lemon yogurt scones (no added sugar weaning recipe)
We've got loads more finger food recipes to help you introduce your baby to different healthy foods, tastes and textures. Browse all our baby-led weaning recipes.
Need more advice for moving your baby onto solid foods? Read through our articles below, or get tips from other parents in the forum:
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