THREE BABY LED WEANING essentials
Congratulations! You survived the first six months of your littles life. You have shared everything with that tiny human up until now. Your home, your body, your feelings, your heart and most importantly your love. Now it’s the time to share your food. Maybe your little one’s daring eyes have already begun to pierce your food each time you take a bite. Maybe you have gotten a punch or two as you brought your food to your mouth, instead of theirs. It’s time for baby-led weaning! What is baby led weaning? Oh good, another child related term that I need to know about. Baby led weaning is simply adding solid food to a baby’s diet of breastmilk or formula. If you have a little one, who has hit six months and has been approved by their care team to begin weaning, you might wonder what essential things you need as you embark on this journey. Here are three baby led weaning tips that will be helpful for you and your baby on your baby led weaning journey.
Tip One: Get a Supportive Highchair
A baby’s body position in their highchair plays a vital role in helping establish a safe, comfortable, and effective feeding experience. Pediatric therapists recommend that babies be in a highchair that allows them to be in a neutral position. In other words, the highchair should provide their bodies with stability.
Tip Two: Get a Complete Feeding Kit
Baby Feeding products don’t need to be complicated, they just need to serve its purpose of encouraging safe self feeding. It is important to have a feeding set that provides babies with all the tools they need. Find a set that helps the baby succeed with eating and drinking independence, easy to clean, and can grow with the baby.
Tip Three: Create or Purchase a Meal Plan
As adults, we sometimes forget to eat. Preparing a plan for baby’s meals ahead of time makes a lot of difference. Take at least 30 minutes before the start of each week to plan what baby will have for breakfast, lunch and dinner that week. See how you can make family meals baby friendly. There are weeks when life is just so busy, find a meal plan guide to use when you find life being so busy.
Don’t let baby-led weaning overwhelm you. There is a community available to guide you through this journey. Visit www.thepurposedparent.com and utilize the site for additional support and resources.
