The way I see it, is why spend ages pureeing and spoon feeding or using packets and jars of who knows what, when you can just plonk down some banana or toast on the high chair and they feed themselves.
Here's a little breakdown
When babies are 6 months, able to sit up with little or no support and have an interest in food, then you can start weaning them on to food.
There are two options:
- Parent led weaning
- Baby led weaning
Parent lead weaning normally involves purées and spoon feeding
Baby led weaning involves finger foods and babies feeding themselves when they have the motor skills to pick up food and put it in their mouths.
Some people - normally the ones without children think I'm a bit bonkers following this, and hubby is not a fan of the mess.
When my now 2 year old was about 6 or 7 months old we went out to a coffee shop for lunch with the mums and babies from my antenatal group. While they were all sitting round the table spoon feeding mush to their babies, I was sitting back enjoying my hot chocolate and Ava was eating a sandwich and some cucumber batons that we brought from home.
A health visitor, called Gill Rapley, wrote a book a while ago, called baby led weaning. In it she explains that many moons ago the government use to recommended weaning at 4 months, but then they did some research and found that babies digestive systems couldn't cope with food prior to 6 months. What Gill found was that by 6 months babies had the motor skills to sit up and feed themselves, so they had missed the pureeing and spoon feeding stage (this method is good for premature babies who should be fed at 4 months, but consult your Dr first)
I did actually start pureeing and spoon feeding Ava at 5.5 months, as I thought that's what you do, it wasn't until a couple of weeks later when she was taking toast out of my hand and feeding herself, that I realised there was no point, and baby led weaning just sort of happened in my house.
So with my now 8 month old, I always knew I was going to follow blw, although husband likes to spoon feed her the occasional thing like natural yoghurt and home made soup, it's working really well and she loves food.
The good thing about blw is that the children can eat regular family food and we can all sit together as a family.
I read book a while ago, French children don't throw food. It's fantastic, better than Gina Ford any day! Basically it is about the experiences of a American journalist and her English husband raising their 3 children in Paris. She talks about going out for lunch with her husband and their oldest child when he was a toddler and having an awful lunch, while all these French families are sitting nicely eating. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying it's all down to baby led weaning, but I think a big part of it is children from a young age sitting with their family eating daily.
Also apparently there are no children's menus in restaurants so children eat just smaller portions of what adults eat. According to the book Parisian children don't snack in Paris, this I agree with! Where as over here the supermarkets have a massive aisle devoted to baby and childrens foods, normally rice cakes, biscuits and raisins, this doesn't exist in Paris. I never really understood the need to give babies snacks of rice cakes, crisps and raisins all day.
I'm certainly not saying I'm a perfect mother and what I feed my children will have them being the next Einstein, and I'm not saying that you won't see fish fingers in my house (who doesn't love a fish finger!), but I'm just sharing my love for the ease of baby led weaning. I can't think of anything nicer than seeing my 8 month old tucking into roasted veg or home made falafel
More info found on:
http://www.rapleyweaning.com/
http://www.babyledweaning.com
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