Family Recipes for Baby Led Weaning (2024)

FAQs

What are easy family meals that babies can eat? ›

Some ideas include casseroles, lasagna, soups, stews or a meal with chicken, rice, broccoli and veggies. Use a slow cooker. Chili, chicken noodle soup and lentil soup are all great options for a baby-friendly meal that can be made in the slow cooker.

BLW may begin around 6 months, when the baby shows signs of readiness such as sitting up independently, loss of tongue thrust reflex, mouthing toys, and showing interest in table foods. To start BLW, ensure readiness and begin with one solid meal a day during family mealtime.

By age 1, babies should be eating the same foods as the rest of the family. It is good to start feeding your toddler modified versions of family meals beginning around 6 months of age. For example, if you are having roasted carrots at dinner, shred them for your young toddler and puree them for your baby.

Introducing family foods (6 months+)

When your baby is around six months old you can start to introduce family foods. If you would like to attend a face-to-face or a virtual 'Introducing family foods workshop', please speak to your Health Visiting team or contact the Surrey-wide 0-19 Advice Line on 01883 340 922.

That's where the four-day rule for baby-led weaning comes into play, where new foods should be introduced one food at a time and at a space of four days apart. For example, you might want to introduce avocado to the baby on Monday and then wait until Friday to introduce another food.

Baby-led weaning (BLW) involves skipping the spoon-fed purées and letting babies feed themselves finger foods when starting solids.

Stage 3 (typically 10-12 months old, but may occur sooner): At this stage, you can slowly replace purees with soft, chewable chunks of food, and offer your baby more finger foods that they can pick up and feed themselves.

Homemade Baby Food Benefit #1: Making baby food is affordable. While it does take more time to prepare homemade baby food than to pop open a jar, it's often cheaper to make your own. For instance, a 4-ounce jar of banana baby food costs roughly $1.00, whereas a 4-ounce banana costs $0.19.

When can babies start eating family meals? ›

By the time your baby is 12 months, they're ready to eat a little of what the rest of the family is eating but remember to be careful about foods that can cause choking.

Beef, pork, chicken, turkey, and lamb all offer exceptional nutrition for babies including protein, fat, iron, zinc, and other essential nutrients. If your baby is on a diet of only breastmilk (or formula), fruits, grains, and veggies, she might miss out on brain-boosting nutrients.

First Finger Foods for Your Baby

Check out the following list of fingers foods for some inspiration: soft cooked vegetables, such as carrot, broccoli, cauliflower, parsnip, butternut squash. fruit (soft, or cooked without adding sugar), such as apple, pear, peach, melon, banana. grabbable bits of avocado.

From about 7 months, your baby will gradually move towards eating 3 meals a day (breakfast, lunch and tea), in addition to their usual milk feeds, which may be around 4 a day (for example, on waking, after lunch, after tea and before bed).

Finger foods keep your baby actively involved in the feeding process. Favorite finger foods are dry cereals (Cheerios, Rice Krispies, etc.). Others are small pieces of soft cheese or scrambled eggs. Canned fruit (peaches or pears) or bananas are also good if cut into small pieces.

Experts recommend starting solid foods when a baby is about 6 months old, depending on the baby's readiness and nutritional needs.