Should a baby be left to wean itself?

Byline: Miriam Stoppard

Icame across baby-led weaning almost by accident. I was at a family gathering some years ago where there were lots of children, several of whom were around six months.

It was a real scrum when it came to feeding time.

All but one of the mothers sat patiently in front of their babies in high chairs, spooning pureed food into their mouths.

y One of the mums had opted to let her baby feed herself. I watched fascinated as she prepared her baby's food by cutting fruit, veg, cheese, bread into finger-like portions and let her daughter get on with it.

Even more fascinating was watching how the six months old girl fed herself.

There was no particular order - sweet mixed with savoury.

She grasped, squashed and pressed food towards her mouth, managing to swallow about a quarter of it.

But most of all she was enjoying herself, learning to try, try, try again until she succeeded in getting a choice morsel to her mouth.

And her pride - well, you could see the sense of achievement beaming from her face as she explored textures and tastes at will.

By far the majority of mothers still give the first weaning food in mashed or pureed form. Infant-led weaning has been criticised mainly because a baby's first attempts can result in getting little food and mums find that worrying, preferring to see the pureed food go down.

But there are health advantages to baby-led weaning that are worth considering. There's much research to show that a six-month-old's digestion is ready to cope with solid food.

wmd dt And, as if by magic, at the same time babies develop the handling skills to feed themselves. They can also sit unsupported and manage to get their hands to their mouth.

adc Most importantly, their tongues have developed and the gag reflex is maturing to cope with swallowing solid food.

This is a beautiful convergence of baby skills at just the right time.

sW-sf A lovely study from Gateshead, Tyne and Wear showed - by following over 600 children - that more than half reach out for food before six months and four out of 10 have eaten finger foods before six months.

Reassuring for mums is that finger food contains more nourishment than purees so babies who appear to be eating little may actually be getting their full nutritional requirements.

Babies who can choose and feed themselves seem to have wider food tastes and fewer food fads. Baby-led weaning also lets babies regulate their food intake according to appetite and research from Nottingham shows fewer get fat. Worth a try?

You could see the sense of achievement in her face

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Title Annotation:	Features; Opinion, Column
Publication:	The Mirror (London, England)
Date:	Jun 17, 2013
Words:	447
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