Think we know more than babies?
Think again.
A reader shared with me an interesting experiment she and her friends did when they weaned their babies.
I admit I don’t know about this when J and K were young (I wish I did as it must be interesting). And it’s called baby-led weaning.
Here’s what the reader (she wants to remain anonymous) has to say about it:
“Baby led weaning I believe is not a new term. I believe many moms have done it since forever. Like breastfeeding, baby leads the way. Skip the mash and puree part at around 6 months and straight away start on suitable family food. For example, we started on bananas, patatoes, carrots etc. instead of pureeing the food, we just cut into holdable size for the baby, steamed it softer thus baby can hold and feed (or smush it) herself. Alot of trial and error, not to mention the mess.”
Surprisingly, according to her, baby knows what foods to choose and chances are they know what is good for himself. They always end up having healthy foods. Sad but true, most parents only know feeding them with milk formula.
Another interesting part I like about this is – as quoted by the reader:
“For the nutrition part, I believe from my reading and talks I have heard, in the first year of life breastmilk will still be the source of nutrition and babies will learn in due time. If they were able to regulate their milk intake when they were breastfeeding, technically they should be able to regulate their appetite as well. Like us adults, there are times that we feel more hungry than other times and thus we eat according to our needs. Apparently, by letting baby lead the way it also reduces the risk of obesity in adulthood. The reason stated was that we do not dampen their natural instinct of children to regulate their inborn feeling of hunger and satiety and only eat what they need. Anyway I believed as long as I offered a variety of different foods, she will get some nutrition from the different types of food.”
What a natural way to counter child obesity!
I do agree babies have the natural instinct of knowing what is best for them – which unfortunately have been buried in adults when we grew up.
If you plan to do this, there are a few things you need to be aware of. Among them is choking. Read up more about baby-led weaning before you embark on this.
P.S. More parenting tips at:
