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The Best Baby Led Weaning Products
Have you been thinking about trying Baby Led Weaning? The best way to get started is making sure you’re prepared with these important baby led weaning must haves!
Now, the beauty of baby-led weaning is that your “must haves” list is relatively small. You really only need your baby and the healthy food you’re going to feed them. Easy, right?
However, there are still a few products that will make your baby led weaning experience so much easier.
So here’s my list of baby led weaning must haves (aka “really nice things to have”) and why these products quickly became our favorites!
Related:
Best Baby Led Weaning High Chair
30 Easy Baby Led Weaning Dinner Ideas
Best Foods to Start Baby Led Weaning
Our Pick
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Baby Led Weaning Quick Guide - 3 Month Guide to First Foods
$34.00
This baby led weaning quick guide is perfect for parents first starting out with baby led weaning. You'll get 3 months of planned meals for your baby + tips on how to prepare those first foods.
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Baby Led Weaning Must-Haves
The whole idea behind baby led weaning is to allow your baby to lead the way with his or her eating. You get to skip all the baby foods and give your baby real, good, whole foods.
That being said, you really don’t need a lot to be able to that successfully. The following items I’ll list off for you are the perfect baby led weaning starter kit for new parents.
These are great items for the minimalist parent, who really just wants to get started with baby led weaning!
Further down on this page, you’ll find some more baby led weaning products that can make your life much easier – but are absolutely not a necessity.
One of the first steps to Baby Led Weaning is knowing what you’re doing. The last thing you want to do is go into baby led weaning blindly.
This is your child’s health, safety, and nutrition we’re talking about. You never want your baby to be at risk for choking or give them a food that they aren’t ready for.
With all of that being said, I HIGHLY suggest getting a great baby led weaning book to use as a resource.
This book gives you ALL the answers you’ll need for your baby led weaning questions, is a short read, and a really reasonable price. My favorite part, to this day, is the troubleshooting section to see if my situation is normal and how to solve it.
Whether you’re deciding if BLW is right for you or if you’ve already started and have questions – you won’t regret having this book on hand!
You know all those padded, beautiful, expensive high chairs? When it comes to baby led weaning – you can skip all the extra fluff.
While those beautiful baby led weaning high chairs may look pretty in your dining room, once baby led weaning starts you’re going to want something easy to clean.
Trust me, your baby won’t miss that padding, and you’ll love how easy it is to clean a plastic high chair. This is hands down another top baby led weaning must-have.
My personal favorite high chair, and the one we own, is theFisher-Price Healthy Care Deluxe Booster Seat. This seat attaches to most chairs, is affordable, easy to clean, and easy to take with you – all big perks for new parents.
But if you’re looking for a seat that has the option for longer legs – check out theIngenuity Smartclean Trio 3-in-1 High Chair. I love that it’s another super easy to clean chair, but has a much more modern look.
An added benefit to both of these baby led weaning high chairs is the removable food tray.
You won’t believe how much you’ll love being able to prep your baby’s food on his tray (and take it away when he’s done), while he is still safe in his seat with the original tray latched.
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02/20/2024 10:19 pm GMT
Having several quality, easy to clean bibs is another baby led weaning must have.
These USED to be my favorite bibs for little ones. The “big mouth” catches all the food and helps with clean up (or getting a second chance at some lost favorites), while the snaps make washing the bibs a breeze. They’re more traditional and are still great to use.
BUT…
After 2 babies (and some updates to the bib market), we’ve converted and have a new favorite bib that you’ll love (I mean…how cute is this dino version?!).
This one is great for when foods are really juicy and messy, and you really don’t want to ruin those cute clothes you put your little one in. We sent this one to daycare for our little ones.
4. Drop Cloth – the mess saver
If the idea of a baby led weaning mess worries you, there’s a great, easy solution.
Grab a cheap, paint drop cloth that you can put under your baby’s high chair. Once your little one is finished, you just pick up the plastic, shake it out into the garbage, and hide it away until next time. Easy!
Don’t let the mess deter you – baby lead weaning is an amazing skill for your little one.
They’ll be learning and improving in no time at all! I’m hoping you’ll love these products and consider themin your top list of “baby led weaning must haves”.
Best Baby Led Weaning Products
Now that you know the baby led weaning “must haves”, let’s talk about the baby led weaning “nice to have” list.
These things will certainly make your life easier if you’ve chosen to try baby led weaning with your little one, but are definitely not necessities.
Say hello to the best baby led weaning products that fall under the "nice to have category".
Your baby will need to learn how to use a fork and spoon eventually, so why not give them the chance to practice now? This is the perfect set for little hands!
Letting your baby experiment with a spoon is great for baby’s development - but sometimes your baby isn't totally ready for it and can get frustrated with food falling off the spoon. This spoon makes using a spoon much easier for young eaters.
A silicone mat that sticks to your baby’s tray can help you avoid some messes. While babies are still notorious for dropping things on the floor, these mats help to keep everything in separate spaces where less ends up on the floor.
If you have a large high chair for at home, investing in a small portable high chair (again, make sure it’s easy to clean) is a great idea. Whether you’re going to a restaurant, for a picnic, or to a relatives house without a high chair - an extra high chair can be so helpful for baby led weaning parents!
If you’re going out to eat, you probably know how messy your baby can get. Bringing a high chair cover can help eliminate some of the mess and make things easier on you!
Have we mentioned yet just how messy baby led weaning is? Always be sure to have a set of baby wipes with you to clean up your little one, no matter where you are. You can grab an inexpensive cute wipes bag to throw in your diaper bag to keep the diaper wipes separate from the face wipes.
Did you know that babies are able to learn to drink from an open cup? These 360 cups are a great way to teach them how to do that! They’re no spill and great for little hands to start practicing with (even if they don’t get anything out right away!).
Another favorite cup of ours for baby led weaning babies is this straw cup. It’s super easy to use, has a weight in the bottom of the straw to help babies get to the liquid, and has a cover for easy closure.
If you want a nicer splat mat for all your baby's messes, this is it.
Baby Led Weaning Success
These baby led weaning must haves are just the start of your baby led weaning journey. Trust me, it’s a fun and amazing one!
Looking for meal ideas for your baby?
Check out:
breakfast ideas for babies and toddlers
lunch ideas for baby led weaning at daycare
If you’re planning to send your little one to daycare, you don’t want to miss this post on how to do baby led weaning at daycare.
Bonus item:Make your life SO MUCH EASIER by grabbing theBaby Led Weaning Quick Guide today! This affordable guide will help you through the first few months with new foods to try and instructions on how to prepare meals. It’s a great supplement to the other BLW resources!
Introduce new foods, one food at a time and at a space of 4 days apart. For example, introduce baby to avocado on Monday and then wait until Friday to introduce another food. When you introduce a new food over the course of several days, you are better able to determine exactly how your baby is reacting to that food.
Most babies will be ready to try baby-led weaning as soon as they're able to start solid foods. For most babies, that's around 6 months old or older. (Not earlier. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends only human milk and/or formula until the 6-month mark.)
Another concern is that self-feeding babies may not eat enough, or get enough of the nutrients they need. One observational study found that BLW infants were more likely to be underweight.
Parents should always consult with their doctor before starting any solid foods. Research finds that providing parents specific instructions on baby-led weaning—a method called Baby-Led Introduction to SolidS (BLISS) minimizes choking risks and ensures that babies get adequate nutrient intake.
Unfortunately, even adding a tiny amount of rice cereal to a bottle can cause short- and long-term problems. It's also why the experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), recommend against the practice of adding rice cereal to a bottle.
With baby-led weaning you'll want to offer food shapes and sizes that are easy for your infant to hold, so opt for cutting most things into sticks or strips about the length of your finger. For example, offer a floret of steamed broccoli, a steamed carrot stick, or a small strip of soft-cooked chicken.
Baby-led weaning (BLW) involves skipping the rice cereals and spoon-fed purées and letting babies feed themselves finger foods when starting solids at around 6 months old. Read on to learn about the benefits of this baby-led weaning, with tips for trying out this feeding method with your child.
Babies need a LOT of iron, so we really want to focus on ways to boost the iron content of foods as much as possible! Rolling slippery foods in a coating like wheat germ, powdered baby cereal fortified with iron, flaxseed meal, or wheat bran is an easy way to give a bit of an iron boost at every meal.
We recommend introducing loaded utensils around 6 months in our Infant Feeding course – yes, utensils are important in Baby-led Weaning, even if you're not using baby food!
Offer finger foods that are soft, easy to swallow, and broken or cut into pieces that your baby cannot choke on. A good rule of thumb is that soft and mushy finger foods are safe for your baby. Small, round, coin-shaped, hard, chewy, crunchy, slippery, or sticky foods may lead to choking.
(Reuters Health - Having infants feed themselves all their food from the start of solid feeding, so-called baby-led weaning, does not prevent them from becoming overweight, according to new research from New Zealand.
Baby-led weaning often exposes babies to a wider variety of foods, textures, and flavors [1], which may help to reduce picky eating behaviors later on: a huge win! Greater exposure usually leads to greater acceptance of foods in toddlerhood and beyond.
Introduction: My name is Carlyn Walter, I am a lively, glamorous, healthy, clean, powerful, calm, combative person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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