Customer Reviews

Baby-led Weaning: Helping Your Baby To Love Good Food

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There's nothing new about Gill Rapley's ideas, besides the name, but for parents who think feeding a baby means jars and purees, it's a good read. Before commercial baby foods (and even after for most parents in most parts of the world), babies were simply offered bites off their parent's plate when they were ready to start solids. But when most of us were babies, the recommendation became to start solids at very young ages and purees were introduced (how else will you get "solid" food into a 2 week old?). Now that the recommendations have returned to more realistic expectations of when babies will be ready to eat, more and more parents are realizing that their babies don't need mush - they can eat "real" food right off the bat. If you'd like to introduce this idea to a new parent, aren't certain when or how to start feeding your baby solids, or need support for when Grandma is horrified, this is the book to buy. If you're looking for recipes for "baby" food, tables of what food to introduce at what age, or detailed lists of foods to avoid, you won't find them here. This is just a reassuring introduction to the idea of simply feeding your baby from your own healthy meals.

By the way, for American audiences, "weaning" technically begins as soon as food other than breastmilk (or formula) is introduced. If you're looking for a guide on weaning baby from the breast, you're looking at the wrong book!

Great book. First off this is not a weaning off the breast book, it is an introduction to solids book.

I exclusively breastfed my daughter for 8mos and when I was ready to introduce solids, she wasn't. She was more interested in feeding herself and wouldn't let me spoon feed her. Turns out that was great for me. I spoon fed my boys at 4 and 5 mos old and it was very time consuming and I wasn't sure if they were full or fussy when they'd refuse to eat.

This book eliminates the struggle. Babies have a sensitive gag reflex and by using this book I was able to let my baby take the lead on feeding herself while not overreacting at any sound she made while eating. Also it gives a great guideline of how much and when to feed them solids that correlates with breastfeeding and formula feeding.

If your little one has issues with spoon feeding or heck even if they don't, this is a great book for beginner feeders. I wish I had this with my boys.

This is a great philosophy and practice with well written book to back it up My twins are 5 months old, and I am waiting until they are 6 months old to begin feeding them (or letting them feed themselves.) This book does get a bit repetitive, as the gist can be summed up in one chapter. I sort of wish it talked more about sample menus, ways to cook or cut food appropriately, or simply had larger charts or tables. I suppose the point is that this is a more laid back introduction to weaning, but I still like easily digested charts. Also, I'm sure I'm not the only parent who wants to combine this practice with avoiding common foods that are connected to intolerances and allergies. More information about that would be nice.

After reading a few books on pureeing-based baby feeding, I felt even more overwhelmed on how to introduce solid foods to my child. This book made the whole process so much more simple: no tables on when to introduce what, no list of "no" foods until a certain age. There are a few basic rules, like avoiding raw honey and choking hazards, but otherwise it's whatever the child can feed him/herself from what is offered.
I like that the leading author had credentials, and had performed her own research on child feeding. One book that I had read, Super Baby Food, gave dietary information and inconsistent data as well as poor referencing, from a woman whose only background is being a mother herself.
Probably thanks to the co-author, the book was easy to read. There are many separated sections, so that when your child interrupts your reading, it is easy to pick up again where you left off.
The reason that it didn't make it to five stars is that it gets very repetitive. The first half of the book is great, but as you continue through the remainder you feel like that you've already read about this information. Perhaps that was the only way to make a book out of a simple subject.

I am the mother to a child who was born at 24 weeks gestation. Getting her to eat was a challenge from the get go as she was fed by a feeding tube util she was 44 weeks old and had a host of issues with feeding due to severe acid reflux. Once we started solids it was torture. My daughter hated solids and didnt like to be spoon fed after two weeks of trying. I got this book amongst several other popular books because I was desperate, this one made the most sense. I started the concepts, and we had a slow start. But I am happy to report my daughter no longer gags, loves to eat her solids and she is only 12 months old adjusted as we speak. She pretty much skipped purees, and went right to real people food using the concepts in this book. Within a few months she was eating chicken off a bone. I highly recommned this book as a way to introduce solids wether you have a term child or a preemie. If it wasnt for this book my daughter would have been very delayed in all her eating. Now she eats like a champ! I am eternally grateful to the authors.

We started BLW about a month ago and I'm so glad I tried it. Purees and "babyfood" is such a part of what I considered conventional wisdom about parenting that I was hesitant, even after reading this book. However, what the book was saying made a lot of sense, so I took a leap of faith and decided to give it a try before attempting spoon feeding...a few weeks later we decided that spoon feeding would not be necessary. My son is loving exploring foods and is developing a healthy appetite - so far he loves broccoli, tomatoes, avocado and squash. It's also nice that I can adapt any meal we're having so that he eats what we're eating - it makes planning his meals much easier. I recommend this book - read it and then give it a try! You will be shocked by how much your baby innately knows about food. But be patient, for the first week or two your baby may not actually swallow anyfood - but he will eventually.

This book does not contain recipes but that's the whole point!
Baby-led weaning is all about giving your baby straight up whole food. All you need to do is get a vegetable or piece of fruit, chop it into fingers, steam/bake/roast it and hand it over to your very eager baby. Simple!

What this book does offer is advice on what foods are best to start with, when to start, what foods to avoid and how to encourage your baby to explore.

I have found this book incredibly helpful in getting me [and my parents!] to relax, stand back and just let my 6 month old get on with it. She's now tucking into steamed zucchini sticks, roasted sweet potato wedges, peach slices, steamed string beans, roasted firm tofu, steamed brocolli florets....and it's all just so amazing to watch!

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to give their child a positive introduction to food. Eating should be fun, not a chore.

I had never heard of feeding finger foods to a 6 month old before I discovered Baby-led weaning. This stuff is AWESOME! The book is pretty thorough, though, like a PP said, doesn't have recipes and also doesn't talk about spacing introductions... I'd say talk to your doctor about allergies, but choose the form of foods yourself!

Using Baby-led weaning, my daughter was eating a huge piece of steak at 8 months with no issues! People are always amazed at what she eats!

I had been hesitant to start my baby on purees after seeing babies fight being spoon fed jars of baby food at her daycare. I stumbled across Gail Rapley's technique on the Internet and was delighted to find a thoughtful book on just skipping purees.

My one criticism is that the book is light on scholarship, but then so is the puree-approach advocates.

If you are considering a non-mainstream approaching to feeding your baby, you must read this book.

If your baby is about 6 months old and just beginning to eat this is a must read book! My husband and I had problems feeding my daugther until she was 8 months. Turns out she just did not like being spoon fed or puree fed. It wasn't until my Doctor recommend "Baby-led Weaning" that I fully understood that the reason that she wasn't eating was because she needed to be in control. After reading this book my daughter is now eating solids better than any other 9 month old in daycare! She has amazing fine motor skills thanks to Baby-led Weaning. I will never ever try to feed any of my children solids after reading this book. This is truly the way to feed!