Consider these seven essential items for baby-led weaning (BLW) to help your baby smoothly transition to solid foods.
1. Baby-Led Weaning Food Cutters
- Purpose: Serrated edges help babies easily grasp and eat soft foods.
- Product Recommendation: Baby-Led Weaning Food Cutters
- Why Parents Love It: The set includes two different food cutters: one for creating strips (6 m+) and one for creating cubes (9 m+).
- Why Experts Love It: The cutters help to develop the palmar and pincer grasps.
2. Mouthing Tools
- Purpose: Practice munching and chewing skills before they start eating.
- Product Recommendation: Oral Development Tools
- Why Parents Love It: These tools feature short, round handles that are easy for babies to grip, enhancing their ability to bring to their mouth successfully.
- Why Experts Love It: These tools do double duty! Babies can chew on them, and they can also be used as a dipper for pre-loading foods.
3. Popsicle Molds
- Purpose: Teach hand-to-mouth skills by offering breast milk, formula, or puree popsicles.
- Product Recommendation: Tiny Pops
- Why Parents Love It: These molds include sensory bumps on the tip for oral awareness and are designed with short, round handles that are easier for small hands to hold.
- Why Experts Love It: The molds are the perfect size for infants developing oral cavity, which decreases gagging and choking.
4. Open Cups
- Purpose: Encourage proper swallowing and oral development.
- Product Recommendation: Tiny Cup
- Why Parents Love It: Perfectly sized for little hands and mouths, this cup features a weighted base that helps prevent spills.
- Why Experts Love It: This open cup has an interior angle to reduce aspiration risk (liquids going into the lungs).
5. Suction Tableware
- Purpose: Aid finger feeding and reduce mealtime messes.
- Product Recommendation: Tiny Bowl + Mini Mat
- Why Parents Love It: Both items come with a strong suction grip to keep them in place, preventing overturned plates and bowls.
- Why Experts Love It: Suction tableware keeps baby’s head positioned at midline, which decreases choking risk.
6. Baby-led™ Spoons
- Purpose: Facilitate safe utensil use and introduce spoon feeding.
- Product Recommendation: Tiny Spoons
- Why Parents Love It: These spoons are made from soft silicone to protect your baby’s gums and developing teeth. The sensory bumps on each spoon help reduce the risk of gagging and choking.
- Why Experts Love It: Most baby spoons on the market are too big, causing food refusal and picky eating. The tiny spoon is properly sized for a baby’s tiny mouth.
7. Straw Cups
- Purpose: Develop straw drinking skills, an essential step in feeding independence.
- Product Recommendation: Mini Cup + Straw Training System
- Why Parents Love It: The straw is short, which is easier (and safer) for children to drink from.
- Why Experts Love It: The straw has a training side (curved with sensory bumps) as well as an advanced side (straight, without sensory bumps) to teach safe straw drinking.
