My son was 4 months old when I started eating Paleo. I knew that I wanted to introduce solid foods to him at around 6-7 months or when he started showing signs of readiness. When he started grabbing at my plate and sticking my food in his mouth, I knew he was ready! I wanted to do baby led weaning with him…and I knew I wanted to do it the Paleo way (if there was one!).
What is Baby Led Weaning?
Simply put, baby led weaning means letting your baby feed themselves. You just put out the food for them to grab and they feed themselves. Baby led weaning, also, does away with puree foods. In essence, you give large chunks of food for the baby to gnaw on. No spoon is involved. No ice cube trays. No time spent making homemade pureed baby food. No money spent on expensive homemade baby food equipment. You give your baby what you are eating in pieces that they are able to pick up and eat. At around 6 months, most babies are ready for the small step into solid foods. By allowing them to control what they eat and HOW MUCH, you give them a jump start into appreciating and loving real food.
One of the negatives about spoon-feeding babies is that they do not control how much food is put into their bellies. Often they have issues with constipation, gas, and the feeling of being overfull. With baby-led weaning, the baby is allowed to suck and lick their food in large chunks. They control what they swallow. They are able to learn from the beginning how to properly chew their food. And just a forewarning, gagging is completely normal and you don’t need to freak out. I can’t even tell you how many times my son gagged on his food when he was learning how to chew and swallow. With spoon-feeding pureed baby food, the baby doesn’t learn how to chew their food from the start. You have to teach it to them much later in their toddlerhood, which can be very frustrating.
Why I Chose Baby-Led Weaning:
- I was very attracted to this concept because we were eating Paleo. We were eating whole foods, no canned or frozen dinners. I knew I didn’t want to give cereal as a first food because of all the information I had read on how terrible cereal was as a first food for a baby. Not only does it replace more healthy foods, but babies, also, can’t digest grains well. Plus, I wasn’t eating grains because of their negative affect on my body, so why would I give my child grains as a first food?
- It is a lazy (easy) way to feed your child! Seriously, baby-led weaning was so easy. The concept is to give your child what you are eating. And the best thing about this is that it forces you to eat healthy because your baby is going to be eating the same food!
- Going out to a restaurant became so simple. And with a 2 year old and a infant in tow, I needed easy. I didn’t have to pack a small cooler with pureed foods for my son. I fed him off my plate!
- Baby-led weaning saved me time. Instead of spending hours pureeing his food, freezing it, and then thawing it to serve, I spent that time making a healthy meal for the whole family. There were times that I would mash the food up for him, but he never let me spoon feed him.
- The top 2 allergies of infants/toddlers is…drum roll…dairy and gluten. Egg whites is, also, pretty high. So, I wanted to avoid these altogether.
When I started eating Paleo, it wasn’t very popular. There weren’t many cookbooks or blogs about it. And there, definitely, wasn’t any information on doing baby-led weaning AND Paleo. However, I found that my son was naturally drawn to the taste of real food. And even though you may choose to do baby-led weaning, you still want to choose their first foods very wisely.
My Recommendations for First Foods in Order:
I recommend you, slowly, introduce solid foods to your baby. Reason being, you need to watch for any allergies. So, give it a good 4 days after you give your baby a new food before introducing another food. In those 4 days, if your baby shows any sign of allergies or extreme fussiness, hold off on giving that food again.
- Pastured Egg Yolk and Bone Stock – this should be the first food you let your baby try. Most babies, if allergic to egg, are allergic to the egg white. Softly cook this for them, add a little sea salt, and let them play with it and lick it off their fingers. Give them a small bowl of bone stock and let them suck it off their fingers. It’s filled with vitamins and minerals for them!
- Avocado – I loved avocado for my kids because it required no cooking. I slice them long so little hands can grab and gnaw on them.
- Sweet Potato – easy on the tummy and very tasty! We added a little butter (watching carefully for any allergies) and cinnamon. I served it in large chunks so he could hold them in his tiny hands and chew on the pieces.
- Squash of all kinds – I made squash the same way as sweet potato. Roasting them bring out a delicious flavor. Season the squash well and let your baby play!
- Carrots – peel and roast in stalks. Give whole stalks to your baby and allow them to gnaw on them.
- Broccoli/Cauliflower – be careful of gas! Leave in large pieces for your baby to hold. Add salt and olive oil/or butter to make it tasty!
- All other vegetables – give your baby all other vegetables from your plate! Now it’s starting to get fun, right?
- Meats of all kinds and organ meats – we started with roasted chicken legs…giving them to our son whole so he could gnaw on the end. He LOVED and still loves chicken legs! We then moved onto beef, then pork, then fish.
- Banana/Papaya/Pears – easier on the tummy than other fruits and softer.
- All other fruits – I preferred to introduce fruits last because I wanted my kids to not prefer the taste of sweet fruits. I wanted them to eat all other foods before they tried fruits.
After you have introduced all these foods and there are no present allergies, your baby can have whatever you are cooking! Yes, it really is that easy. You should wait till your baby is a year old before introducing egg whites or honey since those are also known to cause allergies.
As you can see, baby-led weaning the Paleo way is…
- simple
- less time consuming
- extremely nutritious
- and allows your baby to have control
As parents there are a few things in life that we just can’t control much, and one of them is what your children choose to eat. You can force feed, which I don’t recommend, but the more fun mealtimes will be if you just let your baby/child guide you in what they will eat. By starting them early on healthy foods, you give them a love for the real, whole foods.
I did baby led weaning with all my kids. We were not paleo back then, but it was still the easiest way of feeding them.
Great post! We also did baby led weaning with only paleo foods when my nearly-1-year-old daughter started eating at 6 months of age. She absolutely loves food and will try anything that we put in front of her – no issues at all trying to get her to eat meat or veggies! It’s been lots of fun.
Babies’ health formulas rely on breastfeeding when he was a new born, but after 5 or 6 months most babies are ready to begin having solid food. If the baby is gaining weight properly and your pediatrician has give you go ahead for solids you can familiarize your baby with the taste of his first solid food. The best method to introduce your baby with first solid food is get him onto weaning instead of spoon feeding. The major benefit with weaning is Baby uses own hunger cues to tell you if they are full or not. Also this method can help him in generating control over babies eating methods.
thanks for the great instructions! i am currently trying this but just have a few questions that i really would like to hear your suggestions: 1. how do you feed really soft foods like papaya and tofu? there is no way they can pick it up and then they just give up? 2. how do they actually chew that steak chunks if they don’t even have molars to chew? 3. how do you know if it’s a cue that they are full or they are just distracted? 4. i feel really bad wasting a lot of food because a lot of it just ended up on the floor or the back of her hair etc what should i do? 5. how do you teach them to feed themselves soup one day with a spoon if all they are learning to do is to lick the little soup off their fingers? and how do you prevent them from knocking the whole bowl over!?
thanks a lot!
Hi Joyce,
I am a childhood/family nutritionist and hear concerns like yours everyday from other loving parents.. That being said I will offer my professional opinion.
I didn’t agree with everything in this article including the objection to a spoon early on. I believe thier are important skills to learn with both spoon and self feeding. So if the food calls for a spoon go ahead and use it. It’s ok and beneficial. Infant feeding is messy anyway you offer it… Enjoy the exploration of it. If your baby is mostly dropping food or turning away then he or she is showing signs of satiety thus go ahead and stop offering foods. Active eaters will continue to reach for food and open thier mouths. Infants gums are actually tough enough to chew up many table foods, most children with practice chewing meat by chewing it, sucking out the juice and spitting it out up until even 2 or 3 years old sometimes.. It’s ok. Small soft pieces of meat can help. Also, most infants tummies are strong enough to digest grains..like cereal which can be a very valuable source of iron and not dangerous. Thr most recent research finds that it is best to offer allergy risky foods like eggs and dairy earlier on rather then waiting like the old recommendations used to be.. Unless theirs a strong family history of food allergies. One new food at a time of course. Hope this helps. Enjoy exploring new foods with your baby!
I don’t believe you should add salt to your baby’s food to make it “tasty”. Too much salt can poison a person so how much salt is safe for a tiny infant????. I really don’t think your baby will appreciate their first tastes being marred by addictive seasoning. My baby has all sorts of foods without seasonings or spices and he has never refused a single meal. I think it’s also important to mention babies need more fat in their diet than us so why not add a little real butter to add flavour if you think your food is bland.
hi i am being forced to take my daughter off of her formula since she made one. we didnt pay for it, her medical did because she had prescription formula. i dont think we can afford to order the goats milk recipe and we tried making our own almond milk but shecouldnt suck it thru her bottle without choking on the chunks that passed thru the nut milk bag several times filtered.is it ok to just completely remove milk from her diet and rely fully on food and fruit juices with water to give her the vitamins she needs to thrive?
I would definitely ask her pediatrician about his opinion on that. What about finding local raw milk?
There are a couple of things I don’t agree with in this article. Firstly, you recommend not introducing eggs until 12+ months however unless there is a family history of an allergy, all foods can be introduced from 6 months (except honey due to risk of botulism and hard nuts due to choking hazard). Eggs are such a versatile food, I can’t imagine getting through that 6-12 month period without them!
Secondly, salt is bad for babies immature kidneys, they shouldn’t be given any added salt. There is sodium in breast milk and formula, and naturally occurring sodium in many foods so as long as your baby is eating a varied, nutritious diet, there is no need for added salt. I planted a herb garden and flavour my daughters food with fresh herbs, garlic, pepper, lemon, real butter (unsalted), or a drizzle of olive oil. She’s 13 months old and is such a little foodie.
Do you seem to have a lot of issues with choking as babies tend to inhale food at an early age?
All of our children were exclusively breastfed for the first 7-9 months of life. After that, we did baby led weaning with our oldest three. However, our youngest was ready to start solids at 8 months (6 months adjusted, she was preemie) but could not get the hang of self feeding. No matter what we gave her, she tried to stick the whole piece of food in her mouth and would gag on it. So we did purees for her; sometimes she eats them from a pouch. At a year, she still struggles with self-feeding, but she’s getting better at it and can now do it with some foods. We waited until about a year to introduce eggs with no problem in finding variety to feed her in the meantime. We also have not yet introduced gluten or meat. Recently we made her some flourless sweet potato and banana pancakes that ended up being a hit with everyone in the house (even the kids who don’t normally like sweet potato). I do think in most cases, BLW is the way to go 🙂 I’m hoping to find more paleo recipes that my baby can feed herself. The great thing is, though, whatever foods parents may choose to “limit”: and for whatever reasons they choose, there are usually TONS of great options. We had no problem getting by without eggs, for example, while others feel it’s a staple food and couldn’t get by without it. I will say, like you, we tried not to give too many fruits (though our approach was somewhat different). We basically did 3 vegetable servings to each fruit serving. So veggie/veggie/veggie/fruit. We also sometimes mix the fruit with a veggie.
I am also a Paleo mama with a ten-month old Paleo baby. We do baby-led weaning. I agree with everything you said EXCEPT ADDING SALT TO THE BABY’S FOOD!! A baby’s kidneys cannot process added salt and should consume no more than 1g per day. When I cook a meal, I always take out a bit before I season the rest. I use a bit of tinfoil to separate roasted veg so I can have a bit unseasoned, etc. Your blog is great, but I would seriously consider editing this post.
We are also a Paleo/Primal family doing Baby Led Weaning with our six-month-old son. He loves participating in meal time and trying anything we offer. So far, he enjoys sweet potato, hamburger, and chicken the most. We skip the salt when cooking and just add it separately to our portions. We bought a toddler spoon and fork set for him, and let him play with them during meal time. Babies can learn to use utensils by copying what you do. The fork only went toward his nose the very first time he picked it up, and now it goes straight to his mouth. He doesn’t know how to get food onto the fork, but that will come in time. For now, he eats a fist-full of food and then chews on his fork for a bit. Then another fist-full of food. It is so fun to watch!
Thank you of this great post I am new to both BLW and paleo as my first had puree but not for long but still never felt i got to grips with BLW so this time round now my son has just turned 6mths we are off but as i’m trying to turn the whole families diet paleo ( as my 3yr old shows side effects to eating grain etc and much happier when he does eat proper food) but I’m still a little lost on what to cook/serve – guess having a fuss hubby isn’t much help 🙂
When do you think is a good idea to start with meat in his first week we have just done veg so far?
Tthank you for this! We are new to blw and I’ve been wanting to find good foods for my baby girls. She’s currently 6.5 months old and around 4.5 months we started with homemade purées. After trying that for 1.5 months and her not eating any of it, I looked for something different. We started last week. Not knowing, I gave her some of my plain omelet. She played with it, not eating any, but Gladly sucked the olive oil butter (used to cook it) off her fingers. I then tried fresh carrot sticks & fresh apple sticks. She played and gnawed, but no eating. On Christmas Day, I gave her a chicken thigh bone, cleaned bare by yours truly. I’ve never seen her so enthralled with anything before this. She doesn’t have teeth yet but she left dents. On Friday night, I put some carrot sticks in the freezer to help with teething pain and to my surprise when they thawed they were very tender. She ate them up today. Gnawing so much that they were smashed almost to mush. She did swallow pieces, but never chok d for real. She fakes it from time to time so we look at her during dinner convo. I’m so excited to try other foods. I want her to love food as much as we do and to share in our journey through new flavors.
Thank you again! This list has been a great help.
My 6.5mo just started “trying” solids. When we give her food in her high chair, she mostly plays with it then throws it on the ground. She’s interested in our food when we are eating, but doesn’t seem so eager to put the food in her own mouth. Should I keep trying and just give it time? Should I be trying a different approach? Do you think it’s best to offer solids before or after a breastmilk feeding?
The recommendations here are very similar to Super Nutrition for Babies. I’m seeing a lot of comments freaking about the salt thing, though. Perhaps it should be clarified that unprocessed Himalayan sea salt or Celtic sea salt are healthy mineral sources for babies. Processed, iodized table salt is bad for anyone, let alone little ones. Thanks for the tips here! Can’t wait to see what my sweetie thinks of a chicken leg.
Thank you Nicole for clarifying to everyone on the salt thing. As u was reading through the comments my thoughts were going in the same direction as you. Also want to defend the paleomama here!! From all the posts I’ve read of hers, she seems to be a mother who promotes doing the best you can! And not beating yourself up for not being perfect. Come on ladies! ? Being a mama is the hardest job in the world! Let’s be uplifting to each other. And not automatically think the worst and find fault in the way she is mothering.