What is the Baby led Weaning (Blw)?

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It is a method of introducing solid foods into your diet, allowing the baby to eat itself, the baby sits with the rest of the family at mealtime, using his hands first to eat and then when he is prepared the cutlery.

According to the WHO, the ideal age to start complementary feeding at 6 months, since at that age has completed its digestive maturity, for food also to breast milk or formula and parents of mastication, already results prepared to crush food.

When to start?

It is recommended to start when the baby has been (approximately) 6 months old, is sitting upright in the lap or on the chair and has lost the extrusion reflex (when putting something in the mouth the baby expels it with the tongue disappears after 6 months)

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Benefits of the Baby Led Weaning

It's natural, and fun. They learn to eat safely. It helps you develop your psychomotor skills. Encourages independence and self-confidence It allows to discover textures, flavors and colors. It improves the feeding in the adult stage. Eating out is easier. Chewing, contributes to speech

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Disadvantages of the Baby Led Weaning

Dirt, at the beginning is what makes many moms not like the method, it is more the food that ends up on the floor than the one that eats. But everything is a matter of habit. Patience.
Fear and insecurity on the part of the mother to drown, but I tell you that if the milk can choke, with the crushed also, that is to say you must have confidence. The baby has an arcade reflex (rather we all have it) that when he feels drowned he will try to return the food out of the mouth.

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How do I apply the BLW?

• Foods should be cut into strips or shaped like sticks. About 5-8cm approximately.

• They should be thick and long, to avoid choking.
• They must not be hot or cold.
• If you leave them too soft, why not grab them and crush them. Although later they can lick and eat them.
• And if you leave them too hard, their gums that do not have teeth will not be able to crush them.
• Do not use condiments such as cubes, salt, only natural ones such as onion, parsley, garlic etc.

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Will he drown with this method?

Not really, that's why the pieces have a size or measure, there is also the reflection of the arcade which will help the baby to expel the food. The baby should not be lost while feeding. They will swallow once they have the food already processed.

To conclude it is not to give the baby porridge or puree, but to offer the food cut into pieces that they can manage and eat independently, the main difference between self-regulated food and porridge is in the order in which babies they start eating With porridges they first learn to swallow and, later, to chew, instead with the blw, the babies learn to chew first and then to swallow. Another difference is that he drinks that he eats only can decide how much food he will eat and what kind of food he will take to his mouth depending on his needs, he learns a lot of eye-hand-mouth coordination skills, I could learn for myself The concepts of gravity texture color taste itself since he can manage his food, and best of all: recent studies suggest that the BLW prevents obesity.

Informative source:
http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/complementary_feeding/es/
http://blwrecetas.com/blw/
s://www.bebesymas.com/momentoschicco/blw-o-alimentacion-complementaria-guiada-consejos-para-la-practica