Baby-led weaning

Nicole Wendler holds a PhD in biology in the field of oncology and immunology. As a medical editor, author and proofreader, she works for various publishers, for whom she presents complex and extensive medical issues in a simple, concise and logical manner.

More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.

With baby-led weaning, the child should be able to eat independently from the start. This is supposed to promote healthy eating behavior later in life. Instead of porridge, the child receives a selection of finger food as the first complementary food that can be eaten without teeth. Here you can read how you can avoid malnutrition and what else you need to look out for when using baby-led weaning.

The Briton Gill Rapley made the so-called baby-led weaning, in English “baby-led weaning”, or “baby-led complementary food introduction”, popular. You offer the child various foods from which they can intuitively choose: cooked broccoli florets or strips of carrots, steamed fish, strips of omelette or pieces of soft fruit. Many midwives support the concept. Possible benefits are:

With baby-led weaning, the child should instinctively reach for foods the nutrients they need, according to the idea.
With baby-led weaning, the child learns from the beginning when he or she is full and what is good for them by eating independently at an early age.

A study by the University of Nottingham supports these assumptions. As a result, baby-led weaning can actually encourage healthier eating habits in children. In addition, thanks to this form of complementary food, children would later be less likely to be overweight than children given baby food.

Baby-led weaning - that's how it works

With baby-led weaning, the child is always offered different foods to choose from. These must be prepared in such a way that they can be eaten without chewing. The child decides how much to eat. Even if he stops eating early, he is not pressured to continue eating.

Anyone who engages in baby-led weaning must, however, expect that a large part of the food does not end up in baby's tummy, but on the floor. How much the child actually eats is often difficult to determine. Eating also lasts significantly longer than when given with a spoon. So that the child is sure to be full, you should always offer him additional milk during the transition phase.

Review of baby-led weaning

But there are also critical voices. The professional association of paediatricians rejects baby-led weaning, for example:

On the one hand, there is a risk that the child will eat too little because it is so difficult to eat. Then there is a risk of malnutrition.
Babies can only eat meat that has not been pureed if there are molars. Avoiding meat can lead to an iron deficiency.
There is also the risk that the child will choke on larger chunks.

Indeed, a study by the University of Glasgow found that baby-led weaning, as a form of complementary food, can cause deficiency symptoms.

Tags: teeth eyes alcohol drugs