© Gill Rapley, May 2024
Co-author, Baby-led Weaning: Helping Your Baby to Love Good Food
Starting your baby on complementary (‘solid’) foods is an exciting step but it can be daunting: How will I know when to start? How much food should I give? Should I offer a milk feed before or after the solid meal? How will I know when – and how quickly – to increase the amount? And what about introducing lumps?
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to avoid having to make those decisions? Where someone could show you day by day what your baby was ready for, and when. Well, maybe there is …
In 1974, when I began my health visitor (HV) training, the usual age for introducing solid foods in the UK was three months. Parents were routinely told that increased dribbling and sucking of fists, or a weight over 12lb (about 5.5kg), were all signs that their baby was ready to be offered baby rice and ‘Stage 1’ purees. That same year, the officially recommended minimum age was raised to four months. Accordingly, I and my HV mentors started to tell new parents that readiness for complementary foods was indicated by their baby being more wakeful at night, or by their weight gain slowing down. Some parents of second babies challenged us to explain why what they’d previously been told was no longer relevant and all we could say was that we knew better now. Then, in 2003, everything changed again with the publication of the World Health Organization and UNICEF’s Global Strategy on Infant and Young Child Feeding. Six months became the recommended age, and – lo and behold – parents were given a new set of ‘signs’ to watch for.
Looking back it’s clear that, in each of these phases, the supposed ‘signs of readiness’ were simply things that typically developing babies do! They were signs that the baby was three (or four) months old – nothing more. What had happened was that the desired age was determined first (based on the evidence available at the time) and the ‘signs’ were identified to match it. Now, we have a robust scientific basis to support six months as the minimum age at which babies are likely to be ready for other foods – and all those old signs of readiness have, quite rightly, gone out of the window. So, what signs should we be looking for? And how meaningful are they?
The NHS Start4Life website lists three signs of readiness for complementary foods. They are the ability to:
- Sit upright, holding the head steady
- Look at food, pick it up and take it to the mouth
- Swallow food (rather than pushing it back out with the tongue).
Guess what! These are all things that typically developing babies do at around six months old! They are clues to the baby’s overall level of development but they are not directly connected to the maturity of their gut or their need for additional nourishment. So, while it’s true to say that a baby who cannot yet do any of these things is almost certainly not ready for solid foods, it’s not true that those who can, necessarily are. And it’s certainly not true that we should worry if they don’t seem interested just yet, since most will have enough body stores of key nutrients for several more weeks.
It’s also not the case that these three signs are of equal value or significance. While the first two may provide some useful pointers as to the safety and likely success of introducing solid foods, the third one – as we’ll see – isn’t quite so straightforward.
In order to make sense of the value – or not – of any proposed ‘signs of readiness’ we need to understand four things:
- Babies’ drive to begin exploring solid foods is about curiosity, not hunger.
- Babies start to develop motor skills well before they need to rely on them.
- At the point where they truly need solid foods, the vast majority of babies are capable of feeding themselves.
- Any ‘sign’ that requires us to test for it is not a true indication of developmental readiness.
Let’s look at these issues in more detail.
The issue of hunger
When I first saw a newborn baby find its mother’s breast, latch on and start to feed I was gobsmacked! It seemed amazing that, at the most vulnerable point in their life, they knew instinctively what to do – and had all the skills they needed. Fast forward to when the concept of baby-led weaning was crystallising at the back of my mind and I found myself wondering why the business of eating suddenly got taken out of babies’ hands (literally!) at the point where they began to need other foods. Were they suddenly incapable of feeding themselves? Or could it be that they had all the necessary skills, just not at the age we’d decided they needed those foods?
What it took me a while to realise was that a baby’s emerging feeding skills have nothing to do with hunger – either at birth or at the start of complementary feeding. Babies are not born hungry, and they don’t know that breastmilk is what they need – or where to find it. Rather, they are programmed to seek the breast instinctively and are then rewarded with milk. It’s only once the first feed has happened that the link between suckling and satisfying hunger is established. The same is true for solid food: a baby’s motivation for grasping and mouthing food is the same for anything new that comes within their reach. They want to explore it and learn about it but they have no idea – yet – that food is any different from, say, their toy duck or their parents’ keys.
Babies use all their senses to learn about food. Dropping, squishing, banging, sniffing and licking are all part of this journey. They will often take pieces to their mouth and then pull them away again to have another look. This isn’t a reflection of how hungry they are, or whether or not they like what’s on offer, it’s about making connections between the food’s appearance, smell, texture and taste. Experimenting in this way enables the baby to build a database of foods so that, when they encounter a known food again, they can predict both the taste and how it will behave in their mouth. And it makes absolute sense for this learning to start before they need this food for survival.
Skills develop at the right time …
No parent anywhere has ever asked when they should start their baby crawling, or what signs to look for to help them recognise when their baby is ‘ready’ to walk. This is because they know they will crawl and/or walk at some point – and that there is nothing they need to do to their baby for that to happen. Provided babies are given the opportunity to practise the necessary movements, they will show their readiness just by doing it. So why don’t we take the same approach with food? I think it’s because we have become focused on the amount of food eaten, rather than what the experience means for the baby.
A key reason for this is that much of the research into infant feeding has been led by researchers whose area of interest is nutrition – and a lot of it is driven and funded by the baby food industry. Add to this the fact that, decades ago, we genuinely believed that babies needed other foods way before they were capable of feeding themselves with them and it’s not surprising we assumed it was our responsibility to get the food into them. Baby can’t lift food to their mouth? Then we need to give it by spoon! Can’t bite or chew? Then the food must be pureed! What is easily overlooked is that these limitations are not an issue for babies of six months, who can get food to their mouth and chew it.
If we simply put food in front of a baby who is sitting stably enough to reach out for it, they will show us whether or not they are ‘ready’ by doing what their instincts tell them. They will begin by exploring it and – over the course of a few weeks – gradually move on to eating small amounts, and then to larger quantities and more complex foods. All in their own time. They don’t need encouragement to do this, just the opportunity.
… in the order they are needed
It is no accident that, given the choice, babies who are allowed to feed themselves rarely swallow food the minute they meet it. Not only do they need to learn about it, they also need to practise chewing, to enable better digestion and safer eating.
It’s often stated that babies ‘learn’ to chew before they ‘learn’ to swallow. This isn’t quite true – after all, newborn babies swallow milk! Swallowing a liquid is a skill that is present from birth onwards. What a very young baby can’t do is to gather solid food into a ‘bolus’ and actively move it to the back of their mouth. And they don’t develop that ability until after they have begun to chew.
Chewing skills develop spontaneously at around six months, and babies naturally start to practise them with no expectation that they will swallow what they’ve chewed. This is why, when they begin to bite off pieces of food, partially chewed mouthfuls often fall out of their mouth. Purees and spoon-feeding bypass this important stage of learning and encourage swallowing without chewing. This explains why babies who seem to take easily to pureed foods often begin to struggle when lumps are introduced.
The ability to move food around inside the mouth, and to chew effectively, not only makes eating easier for babies – it also makes it safer. Using the tongue to keep food in contact with the gums reduces the risk that a piece of food will get to the throat before the baby is ready to swallow it. Giving babies the opportunity to pick up and chew pieces of soft food – with no pressure to swallow – is key to promoting safe eating, long term.
Swallowing as a sign of readiness
The Start4Life website states, “To be ready for solid food, your baby should be able to swallow food, rather than spit it out.” Sounds sensible? Not really. First, a focus on swallowing misses the whole point about babies’ inbuilt need to spend time exploring food before they are ready to eat it. Second, it requires us to test for it. Testing for the ability to swallow is problematic in two ways: it’s unreliable (and possibly even dangerous) and it makes no sense.
- It’s unreliable because even very young babies can swallow thin purees. Indeed, back in the 1950s, pureed foods were often introduced as early as a few days old, with no apparent problems (in terms of swallowing, at least!). So, checking for readiness by offering the baby a puree is not going to give a meaningful result. The alternative – putting a spoonful of a thicker, mashed food (or, worse, a piece of food) into the baby’s mouth to see if they can get it to the back of their throat and swallow it – is clearly a choking risk, especially if the baby is not yet able to chew.
- It makes no sense to test a baby’s readiness by doing the very thing that you aren’t sure they’re ready for. (“Let’s see if Oliver is ready to have food in his mouth by putting food in his mouth!”) Left to themselves, babies don’t do things until they are ready for them – it’s only when adults take over that the need to check first becomes important. If we let babies follow their instincts, things generally happen when they should.
There is no reason to suppose that babies don’t know what they need to eat, as well as when, how much and how quickly. Research shows that, provided they are offered suitably prepared healthy foods and supervised while eating, babies who feed themselves from the outset are not at increased risk of choking or of nutrient or energy deficiency (de Paiva et al, 2023; Moreira et al, 2024). There is also evidence that BLW encourages dexterity and food acceptance (Campeau et al, 2021). Our job is therefore to offer nutritious food in a format that matches the individual baby’s skill level, and then leave the decisions to them.
Most of the problems we encounter with feeding babies come from our attempts to control what’s happening and, in the process, we prevent them from learning what food is and discovering how to eat it. If, instead, we let them get to know food in their own time and at their own pace, things tend to go more smoothly, making family mealtimes enjoyable for all.
www.rapleyweaning.com / gill@rapleyweaning.com / X/Twitter handle @gillrap
Tips for introducing solid foods using baby-led weaning (BLW)
The following tips will help you and your baby get the most out of the first weeks of solid foods.
- You can start including your baby in family mealtimes as soon as they are born. They will enjoy experiencing the sights, sounds and smells associated with food and eating, and being part of mealtime conversations. You can also help to pave the way for shared meals by experimenting with preparing food that will be good for both you and your baby – for example, without added salt and sugar. Cook from scratch as much as you can and try to avoid ultra-processed foods.
- Once your baby can hold their head and body steady in a sitting position and are showing an interest in what’s going on, you can start putting some of what you’re eating in front of them, to see what they do. They may or may not take it to their mouth – and will almost certainly not eat any – but they will be learning about appearance, smell and texture.
- You can invite your baby to join in whenever another family member is eating – the aim is for them to gain experience, not to fill their tummy, so there’s no need to restrict this opportunity to once or twice a day. Watching you eating your own food will accelerate their learning.
- Try to avoid offering your baby food when they are hungry or tired. They won’t be interested in a new activity if they’re in need of food or sleep. Offer a milk feed or a nap instead. In general, milk feeds should carry on as before, spaced around your shared mealtimes, until your baby begins to ask for milk less often.
- A high chair is useful (preferably one with an adjustable footrest) but there’s no need to use one, provided you can hold your baby stably on your lap. Make sure they are sitting upright, and never leave them alone with food.
- Your baby’s first foods should be offered in pieces of food the shape and size of one of your fingers, so that they can grasp them with their fist and still have some sticking out to munch on.
- The food should be squashable but not so soft that it disintegrates. Fruits, vegetables, pasta, toast, omelette, strips of meat and flaked fish are all possible. Slippery foods may be easier to grip in they’re dipped in ground seeds, or offered with some skin left on.
- There’s no need to restrict your baby to one food at a time – a selection of two or three different foods will enable them to start to make comparisons and choices. Aim for variety of colour and texture, and try to offer something from each of the major food groups each day.
- Your baby should do most of their eating with their fingers but you can offer runny foods (like yoghurt) handed to them on a pre-loaded spoon, if you want to.
- Some mess is inevitable, and is all part of learning. A bib may help, as long as it doesn’t make it difficult for your baby to see and handle the food. Try to avoid sleeves – they will get in the way and end up covered in food!
- You may want to protect the floor under and around where your baby is sitting with a plastic sheet or tablecloth. This will allow you to hand back pieces that get dropped, as well as making clearing up easier at the end of the meal.
- Avoid the temptation to hurry your baby or put food into their mouth. They need to be in control of their eating, for both enjoyment and safety. There’s no need to praise them either – just let them explore. If possible, wait until they lose interest in the food before wiping their mouth and hands.