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Is Baby-led weaning for me and my baby? · Talking FACS

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  Welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized, award-winning podcast is hosted by the University
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  of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Hello, and welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  I am your host, Mindy McCulley, Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Specialist
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  for Instructional Support at the University of Kentucky.
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  Today, my guest is Dr. Courtney Luecking, Assistant Extension Professor for Maternal and Child Health.
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  So welcome, Courtney. Thank you, Mindy.
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  We are going to talk about baby-led weaning, and this might be something that
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  people haven't thought about, especially if they're like me and it's been
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  a long time since they've had children.
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  They might not have thought about it in many, many years, but for those who
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  currently are pregnant or have just had a baby, this is something that they
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  might want to think about how they decide,
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  you know, when to stop breastfeeding and weaning that baby off of the bottle
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  or whatever it is that's giving them the major source of nutrition while they're infant.
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  Yes, I'm so glad you kind of talked about what does the term weaning mean?
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  And it's exactly that. It's beginning to transition from that primary nutrition
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  source of breast milk or formula into table foods.
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  So our topic today is, is baby led weaning for me and my baby?
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  But let's talk about this approach to allowing the baby to kind of,
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  lead how you move from that primary source of nutrition to take?
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  Yes. So a lot of us might be familiar with what was once considered a traditional
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  approach where we graduated through stages of pureed foods,
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  whether we made those ourselves or maybe pre-made baby foods.
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  And they're spoon-fed by the caregiver.
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  With baby-led weaning, we flipped that approach on its head.
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  And as you alluded to, we allow the infant to take control and to feed themselves
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  essentially modified foods of what the rest of the family is eating.
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  Okay. Your planning is easy because you're going to feed them modifications
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  of what everybody else is eating.
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  And you don't have that added expense then of buying lots of different baby
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  food or or whatever if you aren't curing it yourself, right?
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  Yes, you are hitting on some of the benefits to the family of baby-led weaning, this approach.
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  So tell me some of the benefits for the baby. Let's start with the baby.
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  Okay. Yeah. So when we give the baby an active role during feeding,
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  they are allowed to develop both fine motor and oral motor skills.
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  So it's a skill to be able to put a piece of food in our mouth and to chew it and swallow it.
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  I think we oftentimes forget that unless we're at a stage or phase of life where
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  those skills are not where we're accustomed to them being or we're still learning them.
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  And so that baby-led weaning approach gives them a lot of opportunities to grab
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  onto food and bring it to their mouth and chew and swallow.
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  Having watched my granddaughter go through this process, I find her to be a
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  really adventurous eater.
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  And I think that it might be because she didn't eat as much of those pureed
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  foods that I gave my boys that they did not like.
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  But years ago, that was the way we did things. Of course,
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  of course. And that's still very much of use to people today.
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  But you hit on another potential benefit for the child is that they are going
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  to have an exposure to more more flavors and textures.
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  And so instead of serving a puree that mixes several things together,
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  they're getting those distinct foods and can start to learn what each of those foods taste like.
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  And also that variety of textures, which can be related to kind of sensory exposure,
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  which can have a lot of positive benefits.
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  And to your point, can allow children to be a bit adventurous and learn how
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  to enjoy a greater variety of foods early in life.
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  Okay. So those are great benefits. I think that we'll get more variety in a
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  child's diet if we're not just feeding the puree, right?
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  It's very possible. And then there's one more benefit for the baby that I want
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  to point out, and it's this ability to learn to self-regulate as it comes to eating.
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  And the term self-regulation was a bit foreign to me. Even when I had my first
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  child, I was like, well, I don't understand what you're talking about.
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  But essentially what this This means when we're giving the child the lead,
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  we're giving them control, they get to decide what and how much they eat.
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  So rather than an adult spoon feeding, and can we remember a time when we've seen or observed?
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  Yes. A whole jar. The spoon is going to the mouth and the kid's turning their
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  head and it's getting all over their face.
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  Those are signs that the child's had enough.
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  But when we're allowing them to use a spoon or just their hands even,
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  it's a bit easier year for them to embrace and honor their body's hunger and fullness cues.
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  And that's what self-regulation is, like learning to listen to our bodies and respond to it.
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  And then as children grow older, they have a better understanding of when to start and stop eating.
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  I've seen this in practice, so I get it.
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  You mentioned that there are also family benefits. So we talked a little bit
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  about some of those, but what other family benefits are we seeing?
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  Yeah. So the time and money factor that you put on is definitely a potential benefit.
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  You don't have to buy special foods or necessarily prepare things in a super
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  special way or just buy a lot of different kind of foods, which can all save money and time.
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  And then the other big benefit is the valuable social experience and social
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  interactions that can occur around mealtime.
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  So adults and even older children can serve as role models during those eating experiences.
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  And so children can learn what it looks like to how do I feed myself?
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  How do I use my utensils? What kind of foods are other people eating?
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  So this role modeling can happen in a very positive way.
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  We can also role model less than stellar eating habits as well.
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  But by and large, it's a positive experience. And when you do have the opportunity
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  to sit down together, You can talk with children,
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  which improves their language skills and teaches them about what they're eating
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  or where their food came from, or just talk about anything in general,
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  and that builds strong relationships. Families eating together.
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  So are there safety concerns to the baby-led weaning approach? Yes.
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  One concern about this baby-led weaning approach, if you're not starting with
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  solely kind of very thin pureed foods, is that it could increase the chance of a child choking.
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  However, research shows this is not the case.
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  Children fed in a baby-led weaning approach don't have an increased risk of
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  choking if they are developmentally ready, supervised by an adult.
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  Seated upright and well-supported, and if foods are prepared correctly.
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  All things that you would want to do regardless of the feeding approach that you're using.
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  And regardless of the feeding approach type, you know, it's a good idea to take
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  a child-infant CPR course as they'll teach you about how to respond if a child is in fact choking.
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  I know my daughter recently as an older child was just eating cereal and started choking.
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  And so fortunately, we had the training and we were able to do that and take care of her.
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  It was a bit of a moment of panic, but knowing that we had that training was really helpful.
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  And so would strongly recommend that to anyone who has a little one in their
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  home or that they care for.
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  And if you don't know where to find that training, talk to your pediatrician or your...
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  Yes, you can access courses in person in the community.
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  And there's also connections online. You can do some elements online now and
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  then just kind of do the final certification points in And lots of times health
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  departments will offer that training.
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  So that might be, if you're familiar with your local health department,
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  that might be a place to go get that.
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  So how do we know when an infant is ready to start this baby led weaning approach?
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  And what are some of the first foods that we might give them?
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  Regardless of that weaning approach, again, whether it is kind of the more pureed
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  or if you want to start with this more baby led that has a variety of textures,
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  is to see if a child can sit upright with minimal support.
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  So can they sit and hold their head up stably? You wouldn't want an infant that has a wobbly head going.
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  You also want to see if they reach for objects and bring them to their mouth.
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  Oftentimes, this will be like toys and things of that nature.
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  And then we want to make sure that they have a decreased tongue thrust reflex.
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  So what this is, is when the tongue is used to spit something out of their mouth.
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  So sometimes we see that maybe if we have tried to introduce a puree or something,
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  and then they just kind of push whatever you put in there back out,
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  probably a sign that they're not quite ready to start that weaning process. And that's okay.
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  But being able to do all those things indicates that they can safely hold food
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  in their mouth and swallow.
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  So what are some of those foods that we might try first?
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  Any food that can be squashed between two fingers and cut into maybe like a
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  finger size width and long strips that allows for easy pickup.
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  So examples include a soft ripe banana.
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  So slicing that banana into strips that they could grab or avocado or kiwi or
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  mango or like a ripe pear. roasted or baked or steamed vegetables are another great option.
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  Squash or carrots or sweet potatoes.
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  Just want to limit the seasoning that we're adding to those types of things.
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  We truly just want to give kiddos foods.
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  We don't want to overly flavor or season things at this point.
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  And then meat is also possible, like a ground meat or some sort of like soft
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  shredded type of meat can be some nice first foods, but we don't have to avoid
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  those softer like pureed textures either.
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  So yogurt is a great one. A whole fat plain yogurt or applesauce or even cooked
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  cereals are okay to include.
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  Again, the idea is that we're exposing them to a variety of textures and tastes
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  in those early months that they start to try new foods.
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  And I remember my granddaughter's favorite cereal
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  i mean she loved oatmeal as a as an infant and still
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  still as a two and a half year old she still loves oatmeal she
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  wants her blueberries in it now we didn't let me put blueberries
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  in it when she was tiny because of her choking hazard there
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  yeah and yogurt's always a fun one too that's great i have seen that baby lead
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  weaning is a good way to transition babies from the bottle or breast milk to
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  table foods i would say that it's probably a good opportunity for parents maybe
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  to think about how they eat as well.
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  Absolutely. Kind of it embraces the whole family, eating a healthy diet,
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  way of life because we wouldn't, we wouldn't serve with baby led weaning.
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  We wouldn't serve like pizza, not that there's anything wrong with pizza or,
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  you know, but we won't be serving a lot of those processed foods.
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  So it is an opportunity for the family to support one another in healthier choices.
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  Now, is it the only way to transition to table food?
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  No, it's, it's gotten a lot of popularity and buzz. And I know people can have
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  very strong opinions about one approach over another.
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  But at the end of the day, people have to find what is going to work best for
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  the caregiver and the child.
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  And there are many ways to expose children to food that provide the nutrients
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  and the energy needed for that healthy growth and development.
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  And baby led weaning is just one of those. As long as they're getting it,
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  it doesn't really matter how they get it.
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  Exactly. Exactly. So there's no one size fits all and really just trying to
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  support people in finding the approach that works for them.
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  Courtney, thanks for sharing with us today. I know this topic is something that
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  will interest all of our young families.
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  Great. Thanks for having me. If you are just tuning in, you are listening to
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  Music.