Baby Led Weaning – My Experience With Weaning My Son

When I was pregnant I did a lot of research on nappies, parenting and also weaning. I wanted to have as much information as possible to prepare myself for every stage of his life, of course there are always hiccups along the way.

With weaning, I decided that I wanted to let my son wean himself. I didn’t really understand the point of forcing him to eat or worrying if he wasn’t eating a lot but I did have my moments. My son is currently 2 and a half and still breastfed. He also has a huge appetite!

I first started to introduce solids around 6 months. I had read that anything before this would not be a good idea. He enjoyed melon, bananas, avocado and sweet potatoes. This wasn’t a regular thing though. Most of the time he was uninterested in food but when he did want it he ate quite a bit. As he got a bit older, he tried new things and enjoyed biting into plums, bananas and soft fruits on his own. I think this was around a year when he started to eat these things. Again this wasn’t a regular occurrence. He was not having consistent meals by 1, in fact he was still 99% breastfed.

At this stage I did have a little concern because I thought he would have been eating more than this. So I did some research, checked out other people’s experiences via forums. I found out that many babies are like this. If left to their own device they won’t eat huge amounts or regularly until well into their second year. So I relaxed and around 14 months my son’s appetite really grew and he started to eat more and more. Some days he would even have 3 meals but his nursing did not really decrease much.

He is now 2 and a half and has 3 meals everyday nearly. Some days he is a little needy and prefers to have more breast, while others he will graze all day. He is very happy, full of energy and a healthy little boy who hasn’t been ill at all. I have also found that his nursing has decreased to the point where now he will have a huge morning feed and then generally be ok during the day unless he gets upset. He also has a habit of trying to go for breastmilk when he is thirsty but I have encouraged him to drink water instead and he is often happy with that. If he isn’t happy with that then he will have breast.

If I could give some tips to other mothers on baby led weaning, I would say that my first tip would be not to worry too much. Your baby really does know what they are doing. Some days they may eat lots and lots, others they may not eat that much. Try not to be too hung up on how much they have eaten, although I must say that is more difficult to do than to say! If you are breastfeeding its much easier to relax about their eating habits because you know that they are getting lots of lovely nutrients from you still. I am not sure how this would work though with bottle fed babies so can’t really give any guidance on that.

The best thing about bay led weaning is that its easy. I did have moments where I let people get to me and then started thinking he should be eating more at this age etc, but that soon went away. I wasn’t going to stick my son on a strict feeding schedule or force him to eat – that’s too much hard work and isn’t fun. Generally though we have naturally fallen into a little routine. I make it a point of sitting at the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My son usually wants to come and sit down with me and eat. Sometimes he will eat lots and lots really quickly so he can get back to playing. If he doesn’t want to sit then I don’t make him but encourage him to eat at other times. Kids really do get into playing and my son is no exception. He has too much energy to be sitting and eating!

Anyway that is my experience with weaning my son. He isn’t fully weaned yet but I am pretty casual about it, it seems to be going well at the moment. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I will give more details about my experience.