Baby Led Weaning

As I sit watching Vienna eating her lunch, her faced smeared with marmite as she munches on freshly grown alfafa sprouts and a chunk of half eaten cucumber in her hand it amazes me that we still get questioned (with doubts) about baby led weaning. Baby Led Weaning is about allowing babies to learn to eat at their own pace the food that the rest of the family is eating, instead of specially prepared pureed baby foods. It is done all over the world and has been for many generations but now has a flash name and a website and book explaining it for you. We decided to follow this way of introducing Vienna to solids as it seemed simple, easy and just made sense to us. And yet ... we have had many people question us and doubt this way of life. Some of these questions have been presented directly to us and some not so. I think that it is because Vienna is a 'small' child that we have encounted so many negative responses, however Ashley and I were both 'small' as children and I think her size has a lot more to do with genetics. She is happy, healthy, energetic girl who is full of energy and is no way underfed. She does have a small appetite but she eats a wide range of healthy foods and doesn't over eat - even when it is a yummy 'treat' food. For me, who obviously has food issues, having a healthy attitute towards food and being able to understand and be in control of when she is full was a huge factor in this this choice. Now that Vienna is 17 months and I look back on her introduction to food I feel confident that we have done the right thing for us. Vienna controls what she eats, of course we give her a little help (especially with hard to manage things like yogurt), but she is in no way underfed or malnourished and no ... the reason is a 'small' child is not because she has been starved.