What is Traditional Weaning (pros + cons)
Traditional weaning (also sometimes called “spoon-feeding”) involves introducing food to your baby via puree form first and then gradually progressing the texture and types of foods over time. Since food is pureed with traditional weaning, the parent typically needs to spoon-feed their baby. Initial foods offered with this approach typically include thin, smooth purees, such as fruits, vegetables, oatmeal or rice cereal. Textures gradually progress to thicker purees, then mashed or chopped foods, and eventually soft finger foods, such as cooked vegetable pieces, toast, pasta, and meats.
Benefits of Traditional Weaning/Spoon Feeding
- Baby learns how to swallow safely first, then works on chewing skills later. Purees can be very helpful for teaching swallowing, as they help intrinsic tongue muscles develop, preparing your baby to chew and swallow more efficiently. It’s also less common to gag or choke on purees, which may help some babies feel more comfortable when starting the feeding process.
- You know how much your baby has eaten. Whether using store-bought or homemade purees, you’ll be able to get a good estimate on how much your baby consumed.
- Baby can get a lot of flavor from the start. Who says purees have to be boring and bland? Especially if you make homemade purees, there are some pretty tasty flavor combinations that you can offer your baby as some of their first foods.
- Less Mess (well, maybe). Although letting your baby touch and explore foods is an important part of the process, if you’re feeling hesitant on just how messy things are going to get initially, starting with spoon-feeding purees might help you ease into the process.
Challenges of Traditional Weaning/Spoon Feeding
- Preparing lots of different purees can be time-consuming. In addition to making other meals for yourself and the rest of the family, it might feel challenging to make separate meals just for your baby. Although with homemade purees, you will often make a big enough batch so that you’ll have several weeks’ worth of food.
- Spoon-feeding baby can make it tough to feed yourself during a family-style meal. Sitting and eating when your baby eats is possible, but you will likely have many interruptions as you pause to spoon-feed your baby throughout the meal.
- Baby won’t get as much opportunity to engage in sensory exploration. Unless you progress to giving your baby their own bowl or spreading purees on the tray and encouraging your baby to taste the food off their fingers, they won’t get as much opportunity to feel the puree on their hands, fingers, and face.
- Feeding baby past signs of fullness. Reading baby’s cues is important no matter what approach you’re using, but there can be a tendency to continue to feed baby past signs of fullness when spoon-feeding and sneak in “just one more bite” from that almost empty container.
- Getting “stuck” in a comfortable zone. Once your baby seems to have mastered taking purees from a spoon, it can get tempting to stick with what you know. But baby can get too comfortable with the smooth texture of purees if not encouraged to progress to other textures. This may lead to difficulties managing these textures later on in life.
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