Baby Led Weaning – what is it and what are some tips? 

Nutrition is key in all stages of life, most importantly in the early stages as infants develop at a quick rate. During this time, good nutrition is essential as it builds the child’s immune system, ensures proper growth and development, enhances cognitive function and reduces risk of disease later in life. Weaning introduces the child to solid foods around the age of 6 to 12 months, baby led weaning allows the infant to choose and explore the food options provided to them which in turn helps with cognitive function and food diversity.

Tips for Baby Led Weaning:

• Use an array of soft or cooked fruits and vegetables to enhance diet diversity and provide the infant with multiple essential vitamins, for example you could introduce bananas, avocados or, boiled or purred foods such as apples, carrot, broccoli, sweet potatoes and pumpkin.
• Protein sources can be used such as cooked shredded soft tofu, chicken, salmon, turkey or ground beef. This will also provide your baby with iron, vitamin B12, zinc and vitamin B6.
• Yogurts are a great option to provide the infant with probiotics, try whole milk yogurts with a low sugar content.
• Eggs are a fantastic way to explore textures as they can be prepared in multiple ways, this will also provide your child with vitamin A vitamin D and protein.
• Oats are nutrient rich and a great source of fiber, they can be blended with apple sauce, yogurt or breast milk.
• Introduce your baby to natural smooth nut butters in foods however monitor for potential food allergies. Early exposure to these foods can aid in the reduction of gaining potential allergic reactions.
• Avoid cows milk, salty foods or anything overly seasoned, crunchy foods such as popcorn or nuts, raw or undercooked foods like meats or hard vegetables and anything hard to chew such as hard crusted breads or lollies.

Baby led weaning introduces various vitamins and minerals into the child’s diet while they’re still being breastfed. If you require further information on this topic or would like to come in to discuss children nutrition with one of our dieticians, please contact us on 08 9494 3790 or book an appointment online at http://hardynutrition.com.au/online-booking.html