What Is Baby-Led Weaning?

Baby-led weaning is a way of introducing solid food that nurtures independence at mealtime: instead of controlling a baby's hands or spoon, you allow baby to dig in. Our pediatric pros explain how (and why) this approach helps babies learn to feed themselves.

How to Do Baby-Led Weaning

Baby-led weaning is a type of responsive feeding, which many families practice when nursing and bottlefeeding newborn babies. When baby shows signs of hunger or fullness, you respond by offering food or ending mealtime based on what baby wants. This communication continues as you introduce solid food, and at first, you offer food when baby is showing signs that they are interested in exploring and practicing new skills, as baby doesn’t know that food fills the belly yet! Pick a time when baby is alert, rested, and ready to learn, ideally 30 minutes after breast or bottle feeding so they are not too hungry. Once you and baby are ready, it works like this:

Baby may grab food. Baby may decide to just look at or touch it. Baby may also decide that they simply want to watch you. If baby decides to put the food in their mouth, they do not yet know how to chew or eat it, so they will likely lick it, mash it, spit it out, or even gag. These responses are a normal part of what to expect with baby-led weaning and how babies learn how to feed themselves. 

Baby-led weaning capitalizes on baby’s skills and interest, allowing them to pick up the food themselves and put it in their own mouth. With baby-led weaning, you can skip the artificially created “stages” of baby food, allowing baby instead to explore a variety of food textures at their own pace, including larger pieces of food that baby can pick up and self-feed. This can begin as soon as baby shows all of the signs that they are developmentally ready, which is typically around 6 months of age. 

As you share meals with baby and offer new tastes and textures, observe the child’s cues and respond with support and encouragement, but don’t force it. Sometimes babies need a little assistance getting started, especially when it comes to picking up food. To help, you can hold the food in the air within your baby’s reach, and let them reach for it and grab it. This also works with spoons; learn more in our article, How to Teach Baby to Use Spoons. 

Keep in mind that at first, baby is exploring the food as they would a toy because they do not yet know that what you placed in front of them is food. And a baby’s ability to feed themselves and eat enough solid food to fill the belly does not yet line up with their hunger needs, so they will continue to rely on breast and bottle feeds as they build their eating skills. This is normal and expected since baby’s primary source of nutrition should come from breast milk and formula during the first year of life. During this transition, you can gradually space out the time between solid food and nursing or bottlefeeding to help build motivation to practice self-feeding at mealtime. For more information, see Baby Feeding Schedules. 

Is baby-led weaning safe? 

Yes. Multiple studies have shown that there is no increase in the risk of choking when babies who are ready to eat solid food are offered developmentally-appropriate foods. Research also shows it is safer for an individual to feed themselves than to have food placed in their mouth by a caregiver. There is also an emerging body of research demonstrating there are many benefits of baby-led weaning, and these apply whether you choose to start with purees or finger food. Despite the evidence, many well-known books and parenting resources are woefully outdated, and established health institutions and governmental bodies are late to the conversation. There is also a persistent myth that babies need special baby food, when that is simply not true. 

The research shows: 

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, when a “baby can sit up and bring their hands or other objects to their mouth, [the caregiver] can give them finger foods to help them learn to feed themselves.” And research shows that this is around 6 months old for most infants.

A baby’s brain is ready to spit out or safely swallow food while their body is actively engaged in chewing. When the brain is not expecting food to enter the mouth, the risk of choking increases when someone else puts food in the mouth. This is one reason why “tricking” babies to eat—distracting them, then quickly putting food in their mouth—can be dangerous. 

A baby’s breathing tube is about ¼ inch (⅔ cm) in diameter. When the breathing tube is blocked, choking occurs. A mango pit isn’t going to get stuck in there, but a blueberry might. Also, bigger foods send more touch and pressure messages to baby’s brain, making it easier for them to acknowledge that it’s there and how it’s moving. In the same way a child learns to catch a large beachball before a small baseball, they learn to move big foods more easily with less skill.  

Good news: babies do not need teeth to chew (it’s amazing how strong those gums are!) and they have reflexes that protect against choking as they practice eating chewable food. Between 6 and 9 months of age, these reflexes are stronger than they will ever be, and they begin to fade after 9 months of age. In other words, waiting until a baby grows older to offer food that needs to be chewed does not decrease the risk of choking—it may actually increase it.

Multiple randomized controlled trials found no difference in choking incidents between babies fed purees and babies fed foods that need to be chewed. While it is totally okay to let baby explore purees with their hands, and there is no harm in spoonfeeding when you are just getting started with solids, remember: purees do not teach baby to chew. Instead, purees encourage baby to use the same suck-to-swallow skill that they have spent months using to drink breast milk and formula. To learn to chew, babies need to practice with foods that need to be chewed.

Baby-led weaning is not new. For thousands of years, humans have been sharing their food with their babies and allowing babies to learn how to bite and chew through practice with real food. In the history of baby food, it was not until the 20th century that food companies popularized the myths that babies can only eat purees and that babies must be spoonfed. Decades later, Dr. Gill Rapley, a public health nurse in the United Kingdom, coined the term “baby-led weaning” when she observed babies were capable of self-feeding when offered a variety of foods as soon as they are developmentally ready to start solids.

Why Baby-Led Weaning Works

When you allow baby to explore solid food at their own pace, you are creating time and space for the child to learn how to feed themselves while laying the foundation for a positive relationship with food. At the same time, baby is figuring out what solid food is, and how it can make the belly feel nourished just like breast milk and formula. 

There will be times when baby does not want to participate, or when they simply want to play with their food, and that is okay… even if no food makes its way into the belly. Consumption tends to be low as baby learns to feed themselves, especially at first. Trust that breast milk and formula will continue to satisfy baby’s nutritional needs until they have the skills to eat a variety of foods. 

To learn how to feed themselves and develop the skills to bite and chew, babies need to be given the opportunity to practice with real food over and over again. Along the way, mistakes happen, mealtimes are messy, and the learning process may feel frustratingly slow on some days, but stick with it. The research shows there are benefits of baby-led weaning, and regular practice in a pressure-free environment eventually leads to eating (just as practice of any new skill leads to more success!) Keep offering a variety of foods, including iron-rich foods, and enjoy your meal alongside baby so they can learn how to eat by watching you. 

What are the benefits of baby-led weaning? 

The research is clear that allowing baby to self-feed is safe whether you decide to offer finger foods or spoons, and it helps nurture trust at the table and strengthens your bond with baby. Self-feeding also has other benefits:

When baby is allowed to grab food or spoons and practice bringing it to their mouth, they are activating oral motor reflexes that are key to building chewing skills. These reflexes naturally cause the tongue to stick out, then move side to side, and the jaw to move up and down. Learning to chew requires regularly and consistently using these reflexes to practice chewing real food. Check out our article, How Babies Learn to Chew for more details. 

When babies are spoonfed by a caregiver, they do not need to practice moving their arms, hands, and eyes in a coordinated way to pick up food and bring it to the mouth. These are fine-motor and gross-motor skills baby must practice over and over again in order to learn how to feed themselves. When you allow a baby to self-feed, at first they practice using their whole hands to grab food and spoons. As they grow, they develop the ability to use their fingertips to eat, and you can prepare foods in different ways to promote this skill. Learn more in our article, How to Safely Cut Food for Babies. 

Around 6 months of age, babies are starting to understand that they are their own person, separate from you, and they are curious about it. They start to recognize themselves in the mirror. They start to communicate by babbling directly at you and others. They are reaching for and grabbing things they want to explore. By offering developmentally-appropriate foods and allowing baby to practice feeding themselves, you are helping baby learn about themselves and that they are capable.

Babies get comfortable with tastes and textures that they are allowed to practice eating while starting solids, and good news: at this stage, babies are incredibly curious and open to exploring all kinds of new flavors. In fact, the more familiar they become with foods, the more likely they are to develop a lasting preference for them (or willingness to return to them after selective periods!). This is not the case with toddlers, who naturally develop big opinions and more skepticism of food, especially new foods. You can decrease aversion to foods in toddlerhood by offering a variety of foods and allowing baby to practice feeding themselves as soon as they are ready to start solids.

When babies are allowed to self-feed, they are learning to listen to their hunger and satiety cues, exploring more when their body tells them they want more, and stopping when their body tells them they are done. While there are tons of mistakes at first, this is baby’s first chance to learn about intuitive eating. The ability to listen and respond to these internal cues forms the foundation of a happy relationship with food throughout life. Baby is learning to trust their body to make choices that feel good and nourishing to them.

The more a child eats the same foods as their family, the more likely they will eat and enjoy those foods later on. Allowing baby to self-feed makes the transition to sharing meals a bit easier because baby is given the opportunity to practice chewing and get comfortable with the tastes and textures that you enjoy eating. Keep in mind that foods need not be bland for baby. Contrary to popular belief, babies can enjoy big flavors, too.

Ready to get started? Use the Solid Starts App to choose first foods and get guidance at every step of the way. 

Written By

K. Grenawitzke, OTD, OTR/L, SCFES, IBCLC. Pediatric Feeding/Swallowing Specialist

K. Rappaport, OTR/L, MS, SCFES, IBCLC. Pediatric Feeding/Swallowing Specialist

R. Ruiz, MD, FAAP, CLC. Pediatric Gastroenterologist

V. Kalami, MNSP, RD, CSP. Pediatric Dietitian/Nutritionist