7 ESSENTIAL PRODUCTS FOR BLW
As learned in our post about baby-led weaning, this method is the process of introducing solid meals to your baby that encourages them to self-feed and take control of their mealtimes. This approach uses finger meals instead of purées or spoon feeding.
You won’t need too much kit for baby-led weaning (BLW), since the basis of this approach is to let your baby use their body to explore food. However, there are a few essentials you should buy to make your life easier since, as you may know, BLW can be a mess.
Here are the basics you’ll need to get started.
1. Highchair
This is the most significant item on your shopping list, and you should take into account a few factors.
- It must be simple to clean. Because BLW is dirty, you need a surface that is simple to clean. Stay away from anything with padding or crevices that might harbor bacteria. An excellent option is a highchair made of plastic or wood.
- Your infant needs a tray that is the proper height and reach so they may comfortably take their meals. Is there a lip on the tray? This will lessen the likelihood that your infant may accidentally knock food off the tray and into the floor.
- A highchair with a removable tray can be used at the dining table as your baby gets older. Baby-led weaning means your baby can join in with family mealtimes from the start, so a chair that can slot neatly under a table is a good option.
This is our choice. Not only is it very cute and will match whichever your kitchen design is, but is also the best seller on amazon. This is not for no reason.
This chair has an adaptable height, so you will be able to use it from the moment your baby starts BLW to the moment your toddler starts to sit in a normal chair (6 months to 10 years). It is wood made so it is easy to clean and has a soft touch. In addition it has a tray that can be taken out when needed, essentially for cleaning purposes.
In addition, it is lightweight and economic if we check on the market for similar highchairs.
2. Bibs
Never undervalue the mess that your infant may produce while feeding itself! A long-sleeved, easily washable bib that can be thrown in with your regular laundry is a smart option.
Make sure the fabric is comfy, paying specific attention to the wrists and neck areas of your child. Getting at least two or three will ensure that you always have a spare.
Furthermore, bibs with a scooped plastic front affixed to them can be purchased. When your baby learns to feed herself, they frequently drop the food just before it reaches their lips. Any food that is dropped will be caught by a scooped bib, allowing them to try again.
As your baby gets older and develops their fine motor skills, they will have great fun foraging for the food dropped in their bib.
In here, we want to recommend you two different options. You may choose what suits you the best. In our opinion, the second one is the best one to start with BLW and the first one, which is a more traditional approach, can be used when the baby is more used to BLW.
- On the one hand, we have the most traditional bibs with a twist. They are made out of silicon which makes them easier to clean and in addition they are very soft so your baby will love them for sure. In addition they have a rounded edge so any food that may end up on the floor, will end up inside the bib, or at least, a part of it.
This is a very good option if you do not always eat at the same place, or if your baby likes to move a lot. It can also be the best option for those that do not want to spend a lot and prefer that their baby can move more.
- On the other hand, we have a very genius product. This may be the first time you see this but it is actually a very practical type of bib. It is like a T-shirt that goes attached to the highchair. This way, it creates kind of a “safe zone” where all the food that falls out of your baby’s mouth will not end up on the floor but in this bib. At the beginning it can be hard for your baby to adjust to it but once they see that any food goes away, they will start to love it.
This is a very good option for babies that are starting with BLW and do not yet have very good skills to catch food. Moreover, it is also the best option for those babies that are used to throwing food away. Besides, sometimes it is not what best suits the baby but what best suits the family, sometimes if there is a product that will help in not having to clean as much as you are used to, it is a pleasure to buy it no matter what.
3. Beaker
As soon as your baby starts eating solid meals, start giving them a beaker of water. To teach your infant to drink instead of suck, use a beaker with a free-flowing spout. Also, your baby’s developing teeth will fare better in free-flowing beakers.
- An open-topped cup is an additional option. But, it could take some time to get acclimated to these cups, and at first, your baby is probably going to spill more than they really drink.
It might be best to get both varieties and use the open-topped cups at home and a closed beaker elsewhere.
At the beginning, the best product may be a beaker with a free-flowing spout as the one following. This will allow your baby to start to determine how much water they want and, which is the weight of a cup of water.
They are very useful since the mess is reduced since the amount of water that they can drink at a time is less than with an opened cup.
When your baby is older and have already learned how to drink from the beaker with the spout, it may be time to start introducing normal cups of water. However, you have to be careful with the material you are using since it can be dangerous. The best ones are the ones below since they are silicone based and very light. The surface is made to not be slippery so it will facilitate things a lot. In addition, the bottom is a little bit bigger to help your baby when leaving it on the table again.
They can be put in the microwave so they are very useful to introduce milk or other hot drinks.
4. Babycook
Babycook may seem a stupid product since it does nothing that you cannot do by yourself using other utensils from your kitchen. However, it is a machine that does everything from boiling to smashing or even cutting. SOmetimes life is not as easy as it should be and we are in a hurry and it is cool to have a machine where we put all the ingredients and let it do all the work for us.
This one is very useful since it lowers the food, leaving all the nutrients and vitamins on the food. When boiling some of them are going to waste on the boiling water. In addition, it can chop, shred and cut which is very useful because depending on the food you may want a bigger or smaller cut to give your kid. But, there is more! It even has the capacity of defrosting and heating the food.
It is very easy to clean and, even though it fits a lot of food, it is quite small.
5. Floor protector
Especially if your floor is carpeted or made of wood, you’ll probably need to protect it. Your infant could want to toss food, and they might be able to propel it a fair distance. Splash mats for weaning are a good option to easily clean after feeding, however they can be expensive.
The best choice is to get a good and cheap one, at the end it is not going to be in contact with you baby and it’s main function is to recollect the leftovers of you baby’s meals. One important thing is that the one you chose can go on the washing machine making it way more easy for you to clean.
This is our choice and it is not only because it is cute and it is nice to not have your kitchen like a hospital with all of this horrible and plastic utensils, but also because it can go to the washing machine and is big enough to protect your floor.
6. Spoons
With BLW, spoons are not required. Instead, you may teach your infant to dip and scoop up sauces, purees, and yogurts using breadsticks, chunky veggies, and pasta shapes.
However, as your baby starts to improve with their hands and start to be more independent, it is good to introduce spoons to prepare them for the real world where they are going to use spoons. For baby-led weaning, short, chunky spoons with easy-to-grasp handles work well. To make it simpler to fill up with food, they ought to feature a deeper bowl than a typical spoon.
These ones are the most recommended by pediatricians and nutritionists specialized in BLW. These are the ones to use when starting with BLW. They are not like “normal spoons” since they do not have a cup form, they are rather flat, this is perfect since they do not require a wrist twist nor the balance that a normal spoon requires.
They are made of medical silicone and come in a pack of two: whether the first one is better for more liquid uses, the second is designed for more solid foods since it also works as a fork in some way.
When your baby is older and succeeds in using these spoons from above, you can start introducing more advanced spoons. Even though you might be tempted to use “adult spoons’ ‘, your baby is still not ready to twist their wrist and it’s going to be frustrating for them to not be able to catch the food. This is why these spoons were made, they are specifically for the baby’s hands and even though they have a cup form that allows them to catch more food that the ones used before, they are still easy to use for them.
These are the best on the market and, in addition, they come with a case to easily take them everywhere you go with your baby.
Finally, and later on in the feeding with BLW process, you can start introducing the typical baby spoons that are like normal spoons but silicon or plastic based.
This is one of the most commonly used since their soft silicone touch allows a stronger hold than those that are just plastic.
7. Plates
You may think, and you are not entirely wrong, that any plastic plate is going to be good for BLW. This is true, however, your baby is going to easily throw away the plates and break a lot of them on the way of learning. This is why the following plates were created. They are created.
These are plates with a very modern method based on suction to keep them on the highchair. The suction cup on the plate allows strong suction to the table or high chair. It adheres to any smooth surface and promotes independent feeding and learning of the baby.
There are two options:
THe first one, is the best one, it is not the plate by itself that attaches to the high chair but rather a silicon rug. Then the plate is going to be attached to this rug. This allows a better and stronger hold since the surface that is attached to the trail is bigger. In addition since it is all made of medical silicone, it allows an easy clean up after feeding.
However, they are quite expensive and this is why some families choose this other method which directly connects the plate to the trail. They should work as well as the other but if your baby is strong and is used to throwing plates away it might be insufficient.
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