Baby-led weaning: The term used to describe a process of weaning an infant from breast milk as and when the infant chooses.

Advise mothers to introduce iron-fortified foods in the form of meat, fish or iron-fortified cereals as first foods, to avoid iron deficiency.
Encourage continued breastfeeding for two years and beyond while providing appropriate nutritional guidance.
Another concern that parents have is that their baby will choke on food.
However, as long as the food is prepared properly, it is perfectly safe to utilize this approach!

If she will not pump but continues to breastfeed, the infant’s weight gain will need to be monitored more closely.
Many older babies who have not previously been introduced to the cup or bottle refuse to drink anything while their mother is away.
Refusal can cause a great deal of anxiety but is normally temporary.
These babies usually take solids in their mother’s absence and raise the frequency and length of breastfeeding when she actually is home.
To encourage the intake of fluids, advise offering the ‘sippy-cup’ or bottle when the child is sleepy, as for a nursing strike.

• You can introduce food as finger foods and invite your child to explore solids at their own pace.
• Although assistance from parents isn’t encouraged in BLW, some flexibility may be necessary for infants with poorer self-feeding skills.
• If you
• Shorten the length of nursings or see if he accepts a postponed nursing.

Wright and colleagues showed that children with failure to thrive were later to start out finger foods (7.2 months) in comparison to controls (6.1 months).
However the case-control nature of the study does not allow us to determine causality.
Failure to thrive could have resulted from the late transition to finger foods, or preceding under-nutrition may have resulted in developmental delay and lack of energy to self-feed finger foods.

What Is Weaning?

Avoid offering foods that have round or coin-like shapes, are overly sticky, or can easily break off into pieces or crumbs.
Make sure that your baby sits up straight when eating, ideally at 90 degrees while facing you.
Babies should ideally also have the ability to sit up unsupported and demonstrate an interest in the foods you eat .
In addition, the kid is trusted to self-select what and how much to eat, that may take some pressure off the parents.
Being less attentive to foods and having the ability to recognize feelings of fullness have both been associated with a lower probability of childhood obesity .

• “Baby-led weaning supports the development of hand-eye coordination, chewing skills, dexterity, and healthy eating habits,” she says.
• Here are several considerations to bear in mind before giving it a go together with your child.
• There are numerous websites, blogs, and online
• In the event that you wean “cold turkey,” your breasts will probably become painfully engorged, and you also might create a breast infection.

Choking is really a concern for several infants, no matter infant feeding style.
Choking is a larger risk with hard or coin-shaped foods, or when a child is distracted while eating.

Best Baby-led Weaning Foods For 6- And 7-month-olds

Some approaches for weaning are dropping a breastfeeding session every two to five days, shortening the length of each breastfeeding session, or increasing the time between breastfeeding sessions.
Oftentimes, afternoon feedings are ideal to reduce first—children are often active during this time period and may not spot the dropped feeding.
So, unless you have a family group history of allergies to these food types, you can start adding them once your baby is tolerating food after 6 months of age.
It’s also the word usually used to spell it out how a child moves on from breastfeeding to the bottle, a cup, or solid food.

Also remember that there will be countless other ways to nurture your child in the times ahead.
“playing” at the breast, like constantly pulling on / off or biting.
Babies who bite during nursing ought to be taken off the breast right away and told, calmly but firmly, “No biting. Biting hurts.”
Caroli M, Mele RM, Tomaselli MA, Cammisa M, Longo F, Attolini E. Complementary feeding patterns in Europe with a particular concentrate on Italy.
• To pay focus on the infant’s hunger and satiety cues and respond promptly.
We also planned the pooling of results, with appropriate methods, if the same outcome was within a sufficient amount of not heterogeneous studies.

Once a child masters the opportunity to grab food and take it to their mouth, another requirement of successful BLW is having suitable oral motor function to eat bits of whole food.
It seems infants can eat “graspable” complementary whole foods which are soft in texture (e.g., a piece of cooked potato) without teeth .
The opportunity to chew many different foods with varying firmness and texture occurs alongside the eruption of teeth .
At six months of age the newborn uses “a munching type of oral-motor activity, using up-and-down movements of the jaw” to break up food .

Pediatricians should not entirely dismiss or “shut down” parents who express interest in BLW, as this might result in alienation of the caregiver, preventing an open dialogue and the ability to counsel against high-risk behaviors.
The introduction of food may be the beginning of weaning, but because it is time to add other styles of foods to your child’s diet, doesn’t mean that breastfeeding has to end.
Breastfeeding along with the addition of other food stuffs is recommended for a minumum of one year.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the initial half a year and the continuation of breastfeeding along with the introduction of food until your child’s first birthday and beyond.