There is a lot of talk about whether the first foods for your baby should be purees or if you should go the baby led weaning route. Lalo’s co-founder Michael Wieder talks to Kim Grenawitzke, feeding expert at Solid Starts, about how there is no competition between purees and baby-led weaning. Baby-led weaning is giving your baby freedom to feed themselves, whether with purees or finger foods.
Purees vs Baby-Led Weaning:
Michael: Parents are asking us, can you do both purees and baby-led weaning at the same time?
Kim: I love this question. There's such a debate on the internet and in all the mommy groups about whether you're doing one thing or doing the other. If I could change one thing about feeding and parenting, it's that I wish we could stop this debate, this dichotomy between one or the other. Baby-led weaning literally just means you're letting baby take the lead. It has nothing to do with the kind of food you offer.
I'm going to say this again because I feel like this is one of those things that's so important. Baby-led weaning has nothing to do with the kind of food. It has to do with letting baby take the lead.
Let Baby take Charge:
Kim: I don't care if you feel more comfortable starting with purees and mashes, or if you want to go straight to finger foods, letting baby take charge of the feeding experience is key. It helps decrease choking risk. It helps your baby be engaged. We see less refusal behaviors when the baby is in charge. So even if you want to coat that spoon with puree and hand it over and let them feed themselves, awesome. Some parents want to control the spoon, and that's completely okay, too. But I would try to let baby feed themselves.
The goal is to slowly decrease the amount of control you're giving, because your baby is going to show you pretty quickly that they want to be in control, and that's going to help make that feeding dynamic much easier. If you do want to control the spoon, just make sure that you're holding it and waiting for your baby to lean in and open their mouth and show that they are engaged.
Generally, babies are so resilient. Your baby could be doing straight out jar purees, spoon feeding at daycare and doing steak and potatoes at home, and they're going to learn both sets of skills. At around that 8 or 9 month age, it's time to jump into some finger foods because we need to let the baby learn and take advantage of reflexes that are slowly getting less strong in your baby. So if you start with all purees and mashes, getting to those finger foods sooner rather than later is important.
Just let baby be in charge, listen to the baby's communication and you're doing it right. Baby-led weaning is not a thing to get wound up about versus the people telling you you're doing it wrong.
Michael: Purees lose in the debate about food. I’m eating purees. Purees are naturally occurring foods in our everyday lives. Purees are not just baby food. Purees are food.
Kim: There's no need to buy things. You don't have to buy baby food if you still want to do purees and mashes. You can mash up some avocado, do mashed potatoes, sauces, soups, hummus, yogurt- the list goes on.
This is not medical advice, speak to your pediatrician with any questions or concerns regarding starting solids.
