What You Need to Know About Baby-Led Weaning

If you haven't heard of baby-led weaning, you're not alone. It's only starting to take hold as a way to start solids with your baby, and it essentially means skipping purees and spoon feeding, and heading straight to whole foods in manageable, soft chunks.

The theory is that it teaches kids to like a variety of textures and flavors, saves you buying or making purees, and allows you to feed your baby what the rest of your family is eating. 

There is a learning curve, however, so you'll want to start with these basics. We've done baby led weaning with both our kids, although we sometimes use spoons to help them eat yogurt and oatmeal, but I'm a huge fan and firmly believe it's helped both our kids become adventurous eaters and master fine motor skills more quickly.

If you're interested in trying it with your baby, here's a run down of the basics.