What is baby-led weaning?

Weaning is gradually introducing your baby to solid foods when breastmilk (or its substitutes) alone can no longer provide enough nutrients and energy for growth and development. 

When a baby is six months old, mothers are encouraged to continue breastfeeding up to age two or beyond, but also to introduce small amounts of soft, nutrient-dense and safe foods as complementary feeding. 

“The other goal of complementary feeding is to set your baby up to try new foods so as they grow they transition to eating nutrient-dense family foods, which make life much easier for parents and caregivers,” says Professor Lize Havemann-Nel, registered dietitian and researcher in the Centre of Excellence for Nutrition at North-West University.

The traditional approach is to start spoon-feeding baby puréed fruits and soft, cooked vegetables, and cereals mixed with breastmilk or formula, gradually shifting to thicker, more textured foods and eventually family foods. 

Baby-led weaning (BLW) is an alternative method pioneered by Gill Rapley, a British nurse, midwife and breastfeeding counsellor. In 2008 she co-wrote Baby-Led Weaning: Helping Your Baby to Love Good Food (updated in 2019), and the practice has grown internationally.

What is baby-led weaning

BLW advocates skipping cereals and purées and moving straight to finger foods from six months, when your baby can sit up and hold their head up – though some babies may not develop strong chewing skills until nine months. In the meantime, they will continue to get their nutrition primarily from breastfeeding. 

At family mealtimes, baby is offered a variety of pieces of whole, soft foods, such as fruit and cooked vegetables (steamed carrots, courgettes, sticks of sweet potato and beetroot), whole-grain or vegetable pasta, and strips of poached chicken or well-cooked steak (to gnaw on and suck). 

You are encouraged to let them have messy fun, feeding themselves from a high-chair tray or table. Baby chooses what, how much, and how quickly they eat, and when to stop.

The pros

BLW advocates suggest it helps babies learn early to recognise when they are full and stop eating, possibly helping prevent later problems with overeating, and so contributing to lower rates of childhood and adult obesity. 

“BLW also allows the child to quickly learn how to manage foods in the oral stage of digestion, chewing and sucking,” says Benoni registered dietitian Lerato Radebe. “This developmental lesson is important in avoiding food tactile sensitivity, associated with children who reject the transition to more solid foods when started on highly puréed diets.”

“It is, however, important to remember that all infants don’t develop at the same pace,” says Havemann-Nel. “Neural and physiological development may differ vastly between six-month-olds.”

Foods that are naturally soft or puréed in nature, like yoghurt and cereals, can still be offered. However the child should not be fed, but allowed to navigate the foods themselves. 

The cons

According to a systematic review on BLW in the Italian Journal of Pediatrics, BLW  “causes concerns in primary-care paediatricians and in parents themselves, regarding main topics such as iron adequacy, energy and nutrient intake, and choking risk” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29724233/).

“The current evidence for BLW as the preferred approach to improve nutrition status, compared to the current WHO and UNICEF complementary feeding recommendations, is also scarce,” says Havemann-Nel.

However, Radebe says there are a lot of high iron foods that are BLW friendly, such as spinach, tofu, lentils (“great for a child’s pincers grip development!”), broccoli, eggs, chickpeas and chicken liver, “that are far more nutrient dense than fortified cereals and present low choking risks”. 

“Many of the concerns relating to BLW can be safely circumvented with creative solutions,” she adds. “A visit to your dietitian can assist you to develop the right plan for your specific child and family needs. 

“BLW can appear to be high in food wastage, especially in the beginning stages when a child still explores the food. This can be circumvented by offering the child a few pieces of food from a parent’s plate and only dishing up for the child when their intake has increased. BLW takes a lot of creativity from parents to make family diets healthy and palatable to various needs, especially when families are set in unhealthy eating habits.”

Havemann-Nel is of the opinion that “although there is a place for BLW, especially compared to the ‘traditional approach’, BLW should currently be promoted with care.”

Speak to your paediatrician, dietitian or Clicks clinic sister about BLW before trying it, to discuss if it could be a good or bad idea for your baby and your family’s lifestyle.

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