Better to Feed a Baby or Let It Eat with Your Own Hands?

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Baby led weaning is a weaning method that is considered better to teach your child to eat alone. However, there are still many mothers who are afraid to apply this method and prefer the general way of giving children by feeding them. Then, which method is the best weaning?

The benefits of doing baby led weading

Baby led weaning is a method where your child is left to eat on his own and parents only prepare food in front of him. Usually, the food provided is also solid, not pure.

The benefits if you apply this method to your baby are:

Helps children learn and recognize the taste and texture of food. In this method, food is served in a solid and larger form so that the little one can hold his own food.
Children will have lower body fat levels. One study that has been done, states that babies who apply baby led weaning tend to have less body fat levels than children who eat in the normal way.
Children can eat more varied foods. In this way, you can introduce various foods to your little one.
No hassle. If you eat outside the home, then you do not need to take a long time to crush the food that should be consumed by your child.

The risk of doing baby led weaning

In addition to the benefits, baby led weaning also has the potential to bring up the following risks:

Choking. The biggest risk of weaning by eating alone is that your little one can choke from the dense food. This event is very dangerous if it occurs to your child, because food will close the baby's airway. If this happens, then immediately take your child to the nearest health service to get help.
Risk of malnutrition. Another study published in the Maternal and Child Nutrition journal stated that this method of weaning also risks making babies not eat according to their needs. Malnutrition can be caused because the baby cannot chew food or food too hard, so that the baby does not consume it at all.
Mess. For those of you who don't like dirty and messy conditions, then maybe you won't like this method. Because, your child will play and have fun with the food that is in front of him, so it will very likely that the food falls, falls apart, and pollutes your dining table.

The benefits of weaning by feeding the baby

Giving babies by feeding them soft foods is something that has been passed down for generations. Some of the advantages of doing this traditional method are:

Risk of small choking. Because the food provided is soft food, you do not need to worry about your child choking due to not being able to swallow food.
No need to need a long meal. In this way, you can shorten your baby's meal time.
Know how much he eats. Weaning by feeding, makes you know how much food he has eaten. If done correctly, this method also does not make your child risk natural malnutrition.

Lack of feeding methods

Besides the benefits above, feeding babies has several disadvantages, namely:

Need to prepare extra time. You have to prepare the food then crush it into puré. This is quite time consuming.
It's hard to eat together with your little one. You cannot eat together with your little one, when there is an event then the family, you must put your child first to eat his food and cannot eat food together.

Then, which method should I apply to the baby?

Actually, this goes back to each parent, because both methods have advantages and disadvantages. But, you can really combine the two methods, do baby led weaning and weaning simultaneously.

If you let your child eat his own food, then you have to make sure that the food you provide is soft and soft, so that your little one can eat it. To prevent nutrient deficiencies, you can feed them with soft food at the next meal. In this way, you can teach your child to know the texture and taste of food, but also make sure they get the proper intake of nutrients.

Better to Feed a Baby or Let It Eat with Your Own Hands?

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