Baby led weaning (BLW) Day 1

Im sure many of you reading this blog have not heard of baby led weaning and im sure once some of you do read about it (especially Ellas grandmas) many will gasp and say "Oh my won't she choke". We have decided that we would like to explore this route of solids with Ella. Today was day one and she enjoyed sticks of squash and zucchini as these are veggies she has had in the past. I have to say she did awesome! This method is directed by the baby with no help from the parent. I read that some babies take weeks to get the idea of grabbing the food and putting the food to the mouth and "gumming" the food but she dug right in! Below is a description of BLW along with pics and video!
What is baby-led weaning?
Baby-led weaning is a way of introducing solid foods that allows babies to feed
themselves - there’s no spoon feeding and no purées. The baby sits with the
family at mealtimes and joins in when she is ready, feeding herself first with her
fingers and later with cutlery.
Baby-led weaning:
* allows babies to explore taste, texture, colour and smell
* encourages independence and confidence
* helps to develop their hand-eye coordination and chewing skills
* makes picky eating and mealtime battles less likely
All healthy babies can begin to feed themselves from about six months.
They just need to be given the opportunity.
Why baby-led weaning makes sense
Baby-led weaning is based on the way babies develop in their first year.
Babies’ immune and digestive systems aren’t ready for other foods until they
are about six months old - breastmilk (or formula) is all healthy babies need
until then. At six months, a baby is able to sit upright, pick up pieces of food,
take them to her mouth and chew them - in other words, she can feed herself.
In the past, when babies were started on solid foods at three or four months,
they had to be given purées because they were too young to feed themselves.
If you’ve waited until your baby is six months to introduce solid foods you’ve
skipped the purée stage, so there’s no need to start that way.
Won’t she choke?
For a long time parents have been encouraged to introduce finger foods at
around six months to help their baby develop chewing skills - the difference
with baby-led weaning is that you don’t spoon feed as well. So, provided
simple safety rules are observed, choking is no more likely than with any
other method of introducing solids. In fact, allowing babies to control
what goes into their mouths may actually help them learn to eat safely