Baby-led weaning

At around 6 months of age, the iron stores that your baby was born with will drastically reduce. This is why it is important to start your baby on solids around this time – if not beforehand. If you are introducing your baby to solid food through baby-led weaning, try not to limit their choices to “appropriate finger foods”. There are many other ways that you can offer foods, where your baby will be able to learn how to self-feed. For example, you can offer porridge with some compote and make it thicker, offer bolognese over pasta shells so they can pick up and explore the shells covered in the nutritious sauce.  

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Remember that enjoying food is a sensory (and messy) experience.

Depending on your little one’s age or stage in their solid food journey, it can be a good idea to offer the same foods that they are experiencing for themselves (via baby-led weaning) in a mashed texture… they can use food as a dipper (e.g cracker dipped in mash or with a spoon) – if you are concerned that they might not be getting their required nutritional intake.

It is also important that you are offering your baby the right amount of food to milk feed ratio. You can check your little one’s developmental needs based on their age in our Daily Rhythms.

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