Baby-led weaning vs purees: Where to begin when 1st feeding solids to your son or daughter

When it comes to parenting, there are generally numerous hotly contested institutions of thought on any provided topic. Breastfed or fed is best? Dummy or no dummy? To sleep coach or certainly not? The list, as the a few months and years go by, is endless.

One that crops up around the 6-month tag is how to begin feeding your baby solids. There happen to be two primary methods: via purees (also referred to as traditional weaning) or the newer design of baby-led weaning. Or, of course, that you can do a blend of both.

But which approach is best for your babe?

The theory behind baby-led weaning, or BLW, is that parents start feeding children hand-held finger foods, bypassing the necessity for spoon-fed purees altogether. Mum and dad generally offer the meals they are ingesting themselves, and bring in all types of textures and flavours to little ones right from the start, advertising independence and sensory exploration.

There are evidence-backed advantages to this process, says Dr Prabhakar Patil, a specialist paediatrician from Medcare Women & Children Hospital, "such as for example obesity prevention, since it respects self-regulation, more significant consumption of fruits and vegetables, better development of motor skills, and results on parent behaviour".

"The child loves to take part in family meals, with no pressure regarding period and amount consumed, and connect to the meals, through different textures."

Overall, this method can create an improved relationship with foodstuff, he says.

Mirna Sabbagh, a dietitian and lactation consultant, agrees that baby-led weaning offers numerous rewards, including respecting little ones' satiety cues.

"It also involves children eating family group foods earlier and for that reason accepting a variety of flavours and appearing less picky later on."

So why bother with traditional weaning?

You may still find some benefits to spoon-feeding first, regardless if it really is more labour intensive for parents. Firstly, foodstuff is introduced little by little, one after the other, which means if a child is normally allergic to anything, you'll know promptly what the culprit is, explains Patil.

"Hypothetically, addititionally there is less threat of choking, as the food is at first given in puree form, however, many studies have found simply no difference in choking episodes between TW and BLW methods," he adds.

This risk is why, often, traditional weaning is much less scary for parents, says Sabbagh. "Parents sometimes panic if they hear about baby-led weaning and get worried about choking."

It isn't a misplaced concern, either, she adds. "There are many choking hazards parents ought to know about if they choose to choose BLW." This consists of offering foods such as nuts, complete grapes and cherries, for example.

"Also, with BLW, father and mother may forget to provide kids foods that will be naturally offered as purees, such as for example soups," Sabbagh adds. "Learning how exactly to consume soups and foods off a spoon is definitely important as a skill."

If you do opt to rely on the traditional weaning approach, then Sabbagh says it's imperative parents cherish a child's fullness cues, so never to overfeed them.

"Also, it is crucial that with TW parents offer finger food by nine a few months and thicker textures, otherwise the baby will lose the window of possibility to discover how to chew foods and may find it difficult to simply accept thicker textures down the road."