What to Know About Purees and Baby Led Weaning

Inside: Weigh the pros and cons between purees or baby led weaning, and information about combining them.

Is your baby starting to take interest in your food? Well, once you get the go ahead from you pediatrician, it’s time to make a big decision, will you give your baby purees, or do baby led weaning?

You might be wondering what is baby led weaning? Or, maybe you want to combine them and do both!

Regardless, this post will answer some of your questions about purees and baby led weaning and hopefully guide you into the right decision for your family!

I will start by telling you a little bit about my personal experience with both purees and baby led weaning. Then, at the end of the post, some other seasoned baby led weaning mamas will share their experiences too!

Did you do baby led weaning? If so, let us know your experience in the comments below!

Our experience with purees and baby led weaning

We stated with purees

If you read my post What were some of the first foods you offered, you know we began giving Lennox homemade purees when he was 4.5 months old.

He was already sitting up and was grabbing at our food, so we decided to give it a try.

His first purée was apples mixed with breastmilk. He loved it.

Then, we switched to carrots because Lennox’s pediatrician recommended that we start with vegetables to avoid Lennox becoming accustomed to the sweetness in fruit. Side note, he hated pureed carrots. This is interesting because during BLW and now as a toddler, carrots are one of his favorite snacks.

Then we switched to baby led weaning.

It was one of our best parenting decisions

It was right about the time that Lennox suffered through pureed carrots that some online mom friends introduced me to the baby led weaning phenomenon.

I was sold. Immediately, I ditched the spoons and threw away my stash of frozen purees. It was a fabulous decision, and I don’t regret it one bit. See the adorable video below of Lennox thinking he is about to get a yummy treat, only to find out its carrots 😀

Related: How Old Was Your Baby When You Started Baby Led Weaning?

Here is a cute video of Lennox eating pureed carrots.

What to do if you already started purees with your baby, but want to switch to baby led weaning?

Give your baby a week break in between

After stopping purees, we gave Lennox a week off from solids to reset his mind and tongue-thrust and then, we embarked on our baby led weaning journey.

For the first few weeks, we did not use purees to avoid confusion. Once Lennox was getting used to exploring new food items, I slowly reintroduced purees again, mostly as a snack when we were out and about.

This purée experience was different than the first because this time around, Lennox was in control of his eating, whereas before I spoon fed him.

If you want to have a combination of purees and BLW, allow your baby to self-feed the purees

Once I reintroduced the purées, Lennox still didn’t have complete control over his hands so I would put some of the puree on a spoon, set it in front of Lennox, and let him bring it to his own mouth. Or, I would allow him to play around and have some sensory fun with his mush. He enjoyed making a mess.

Overall, the vast majority of the time, Lennox was uninterested in the pureed foods so, we eventually stopped using them.

Related: Mamas Share Their Negative Experiences or Scares With Baby Led Weaning

To wrap thing up, if you are deciding to do baby led weaning and are not sure whether or not to offer purees, Feeding Bytes offers a comprehensive post about the combination of both weaning methods here.

In my personal opinion, each baby is different, and you, mama, know your babe the best.

Do what feels best for you and your baby. All I can say is that you should give BLW a go because it is so nutritionally and educationally beneficial for your baby.

Check out the other mama’s responses below.

Kassandra at Adelaideandi

I did both purees and baby led weaning – we adults eat stuff like soup and mashed potato so I felt it appropriate that she should eat everything too! I never purées and solids at the same meal though, as I feel that’s what can confuse babies and lead to scares.

Taylor at Mindful.mom_ents 

No purées, if my son had something soft like mashed potatoes, he fed himself.

 Jessica at HeyMamaJess

We did not do purees. Not until after 1 we started giving yogurt.

 Emily at This Crazy Maze

We would use mashed up food sometimes and we have used those baby food pouches a few times (like, less than 5) when we have gone out to eat. It did not cause any confusion.

Sheridan M.

We did some purees for my 1st, it never caused confusion, she also didn’t have a problem with being spoon fed occasionally

Brooke at Simply Well Family

None of my children have been given purées. Though my oldest enjoyed softened apple chunks. At 9 years old he still prefers apple sauce over whole apples.

Thank you for reading. Go get your baby led weaning on! You might be surprised by the results!

Learn more about baby led weaning:

• Mamas Answer Why They Chose Baby Led Weaning
• Baby Led Weaning First Food Ideas
• The Pros & Cons of Baby Led Weaning