HARTFORD, Conn. — Baby-led weaning is considered a non-traditional approach to introducing babies to solid foods. Through social media, the practice has gained popularity among parents.
Baby-led weaning goes against traditional spoon feeding, although experts say it’s a return to basics.
Katie Ferraro is a registered dietitian who specializes in infant feeding and has created a strategic roadmap for parents who want to discourage picky eating, encourage feeding autonomy, and even decrease the risk of food allergies.
“Baby-led weaning is an alternative to conventional or adult-led spoon feeding,” Ferraro explained. “We wait until babies are around six months of age and showing the other reliable signs of readiness to eat, mainly that they can sit relatively on their own. Then parents and caregivers start offering them age-appropriate finger foods that baby can pick up and feed to themselves.”
Baby-led weaning isn’t anything new. Pureed and marketed baby food became the norm around the beginning of the 20th century.
“Babies have always eaten modified versions of the same foods that the rest of the family does. This is just a return to that idea of ‘Let's teach our kids to eat real if we want them to grow up and eat real food,’” Ferraro said.
Ferraro's “100 First Foods Before One” program has attracted thousands of parents. She said getting her firstborn to eat when spoon-feeding was frustrating, so she knew something had to change when she welcomed quadruplets! She used baby-led weaning and knew she had to share her expertise and her background as a dietitian to help other families.
“It saves you so much time, saves you so much money and it also saves you a lot of sanity,” Ferraro said. “You don’t have to short-order cook for one kid who only eats this food or the other kid who’s picky and only eats that food. You don’t have to make separate foods for your baby. You’re essentially modifying foods that the rest of the family eats.”
Since the foods are not all pureed and babies control their eating, parents may have concerns like whether there is an increased choking risk.
“We actually know from research, there’s no higher risk of choking when you start solid foods with a baby-led approach compared to conventional adult-led spoon feeding,” Ferraro said. “But that only holds true if the parents are educated about reducing choking risk.”
Ferraro said there’s a three-pronged approach to reducing that risk.
One, wait until the baby is ready. That means six months of age and they can sit up on their own. That means they have head, neck, and trunk control so they can support a safe swallow.
Second, the baby needs to be in a highchair with proper support a flat back and feet resting flat on a solid foot plate.
Third, the preparation of the food is key. Food shouldn’t be hard or in small pieces because those can obstruct the airway. Ferraro said pieces of food cut to the size of an adult pinky finger are the best.
Another concern is whether baby-led weaning is more expensive. Ferraro said baby-led weaning eliminates the need for families to buy baby food out of a jar or a pouch altogether and babies can instead eat food the rest of the family is eating.
“Not to mention, they’re not nutritionally complete,” she said. “Oftentimes what you find in a pouch is a derivative of a food that you might think is healthy. When your baby is forced to suck out of a pouch they don’t see the food, they don’t smell the food, touch the food or interact with the food.”
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Ferraro advocates for parents of infants to put the time and effort in during the baby’s first year so when they grow older and inevitably become pickier eaters as a toddlers, they’ll be more comfortable with a wide variety of foods.
“Every single time you sit down with your baby and every new food you try, they’re making progress to becoming an independent eater," she said.
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