Baby Led Weaning First Foods Choking

Once your baby has learnt to use a pincer grip where they will hold the food between their fingers and thumb you can introduce berries and raisins or peas.

Baby led weaning first foods choking. As an adult our gag reflex is located far back into our throats. Baby led weaning is very popular right now. Not only does baby led weaning not cause a baby to choke but it actually helps prevent a baby from choking. The feeding approach known as baby led weaning or blw for short is a style of feeding infants that allows them to feed themselves right from the start.

This way the food is both easy to hold but has a low risk of choking. The food is offered in thick finger size pieces and is soft and easily squishable between your fingers. But perhaps you haven t thought about it from a developmental standpoint. Remember never to leave your baby alone when they are feeding.

Feeding is ultimately a set of skills of oral motor developmental milestones that require practice for mastery. Summary baby led weaning blw is an alternative way to introduce your baby to their first foods. The most recent pediatrics research a baby led approach to eating solids and risk of choking 2016 suggests that there is no greater risk of choking with baby led weaning in comparison to traditional parent led feeding with purees. Avoid giving your baby any foods that could be choking hazards such as grapes or nuts.

Whether you choose baby led or traditional weaning or a mix of both you should begin giving your baby soft fruits veggies and cereals at around 4 6 months. How baby led weaning prevents choking. Once your baby is older you can use a cheese grater to grate hard foods like apples. However the study also found that babies fed by either method were offered food which posed a choking risk in fact 35 of babies in the study had at least one choking event shocking.

It relies on offering baby sized pieces of regular foods rather than purées starting around 6. The risk of choking is similar for puree feeding and baby led weaning. It happens especially in the first few weeks of baby led weaning as baby tries to maneuver unfamiliar lumps in her mouth. But bear in mind that gagging is actually a safety response to food traveling too far back into the mouth and it s not the same thing as choking which is silent.

So gagging on food isn t a regular occurrence in our daily lives. The 1 most common food that baby led weaners choke on is full apples. Babies effectively chew lateralize their tongues to move food over bite surfaces and safely transport foods from the front to the back of their mouths when.