Table of Contents
Praise for Baby-Led Weaning
[Rapley and Murkett] encourage parents to forgo the usual baby pure and move straight to whole foods while continuing to breastfeed primarily after a baby is six months old. Their arguments are scientifically sound, especially when it comes to muscle development in the mouth, and they address the anticipated counterarguments.... If mine were little again, I would definitely try this. As long as mom is nursing, who says baby cant eat lamb chops?
Library Journal , starred review
It sounds like common sense: After all, would you want to be strapped into a high chair and force-fed spoon after spoon of bland vegetables? Its surely much more exciting to be able to exercise a bit of control over your diet.
The Guardian
The benefits are great.
Independent
[Baby-led weaning] makes life so much easier.
The Times (London)
Sharing food with Mirah has turned out to be one of the great joys of parenting. Watching her respond to the pleasures of ripe tomatoes, curried rice noodles, and all kinds of meats and vegetables has made mealtime a much more enjoyable experience for all three of us. We can tell she is learning through all of her senses about how various substances respond to being crumbled or dropped or mushed. She seems to really like that she is eating the same foods as we are, and since we are generally sharing the same meal, I am more likely to make us all something healthy.
AIMEE POHL, babble.com
BECAUSE EVERY BOOK IS A TEST OF NEW IDEAS
I see many happy children, who choose their own food independently and eat at their own pace.
STEPHAN KLEINTJES, pediatric dietitian
Its been wonderful, and very funny, watching her discover food, her great concentration in navigating new textures and exploring new tastes.... One of our favorite things about baby-led weaning is its emphasis on families eating together.
NICOLA KENT, The Guardian
The thing I really love about baby-led weaning is that my son can actively participate in family meals.... I love that I dont have to cook two different meals, I simply have to adjust our family meal to ensure its suitable for him.... Were having a blast watching our little man truly learn to enjoy and appreciate food in all of its glory. And its so much easier than pures!
naturalparentingtips.com
As a child psychiatrist, I have worked on a team for children with feeding difficulties.... One of the main things I would recommend to these families is giving the child control, and allowing them to have small successes to build on rather than pushing food on them and ending up in a battle.... I believe strongly in baby-led play (again, something I would teach at work) and baby-led routines rather than routines being forced on babies to suit parents lifestyles (as suggested by at least one popular parenting book). So this intuitively makes sense to me.
psychiatristparent.wordpress.com
You just hand them the food in a suitably sized piece and if they like it they eat it and if they dont they wont.... Thats the essence of baby-led weaning. No purees, no ice cube trays, no food processor, no potato masher... just you and your child, eating food that you enjoy with you and your family.... I cant even begin to tell you how pleasant it is to eat in a restaurant with your baby-led weaning child chomping on a piece of bread and butter or a chunk of cucumber from your salad beside you.
Aitch, babyledweaning.blogware.com
Preface
BABY-LED WEANING WAS around long before the first edition of this book became available; we certainly didnt invent the idea that babies will naturally feed themselves when they are ready! And yet for many years, most parents, understandably so, have assumed that babies need to be spoon-fed, with few of us realizing we could let our baby feed himself right from the start. After working for many years as a public health nurse, and having her own children, Gill became curious about self-feeding among babies, which led to her research on the topic. She called the idea baby-led weaning, and conference talks and press articles soon followed. Tracey, a freelance writer, heard about baby-led weaning and was inspired to try the approach with her own daughter. She contacted Gill to find out more about baby-led weaning, with the aim of writing a magazine article about itinstead we decided to write this book.
Since the publication of Baby-Led Weaning , weve both enjoyed seeing more and more parents adopt the approach and have been amazed how quickly the idea has traveled across the globe, first through word of mouth and then through the Internet, which continues to carry stories, photos, and videos of babies self-feeding. Parents have seen how well babies and toddlers eat when they are allowed to feed themselves, and many have realized with a sigh of relief that they dont need to struggle with spoon-feeding their child after all. By letting their baby take the lead, they can avoid the mealtime problems that we all thought were an inevitable part of raising kids.
Youll now find baby-led weaning (or baby-led solids as its sometimes known) featured on almost every parenting Web site, with lively discussions in forums and chat rooms. Since this book first appeared, it has been translated into several languages, and health professionals the world over are beginning to recommend the baby-led concept to parents as a way to reduce the stress of introducing solids and help their children enjoy good food.
As parents ourselves, we are delighted to think that our book might help you and your little one enjoy the wonderful journey that self-feeding can be. If you have a babyor are planning to have oneread on!
Gill Rapley & Tracey Murkett
Summer 2010
Introduction
THE FIRST TIME a baby eats solid food is a milestone for any parentits a new chapter in a babys life, and its exciting. And as he takes his first mouthful of food parents cross their fingers and hope that their child will be a good eater. They want him to enjoy food, to eat healthily, and they want to have easy, stress-free family mealtimes.
But many parents find the first few years of solid food are not much fun for either them or their child. They struggle with common problems, whether its getting their baby to accept lumpy food, or coping with picky eating or mealtime battles with a toddler. Often families settle for separate mealtimes and different food for adults and children.
Most babies start their journey to grown-up eating by being spoon-fed their first mouthfuls of pured food on a date decided by their parents. But what happens if you dont do it like this? What happens if you let your baby decide when and how to start solids? What happens if you let him handle real food himself instead of spoon-feeding him? In other words, what happens if you let your baby lead the way?
Well, like many families, you and your baby will almost certainly find the whole adventure more fun. Hell show you when hes ready to start, and hell share your meals from the very beginning. Hell learn about healthy family food by tasting and testing it and by feeding himselfno mush or pures but real food. And hell be able to do all this from about six months onward.
Baby-led weaning (BLW) will develop your babys chewing skills, manual dexterity, and hand-eye coordination. With your help, hell discover a wide range of healthy foods and learn important social skills. And hell eat only as much as he needs, which may make him less likely to be overweight when he is older. Most of all, hell enjoy itand hell almost certainly be happy and confident at mealtimes as a result.
