Baby Led Weaning For Beginners - 5 Cues Your Baby Is Hungry - Low Stress Motherhood

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Baby Led Weaning For Beginners - 5 Cues Your Baby Is Hungry

5 cues your baby is hungry

When babies start solids they aren’t talking yet, so it can be difficult for us to know exactly what they need at any given time – is it food? Is it comfort? Are you sleepy? Teething?

Yet, if we slow down, pay attention to their behaviors and habits, we most likely will notice a pattern and be able to decipher better what they need and when. And thus, we are able to build ‘routines’ around the timing of their needs and our busy adult lives.

Once we recognize behavior patterns, we can create a solids ‘feeding schedule’ that we’ll work off of, that will best suit our baby.

When planning a flow for your baby’s ‘feeding schedule’, I encourage families to approach it with a low stress mindset by 1) following your baby’s cues 2) having wholesome and safe food ready as needed and 3) remaining flexible about changes due to teething, preferences, illness and overall transitions.

Many parents will work off of when they already feed their baby milk and either offer food before or after milk, slowly working to replace milk feedings with solid foods by 12 months. This is easiest and effective!

Read this next:

EVERYTHING You Need To Know Before Starting Solids With Baby Led Weaning

Master List! 30+ Starter Baby Led Weaning Foods For 6 Month Olds

The Top 6 Baby Led Weaning Essentials Every Moms Need To Keep It Low Stress

Dietitians like Katie Ferraro of Fortified Family, say milk after food is fine! You can even use milk to ‘top baby off’ as needed after a meal, if they will accept milk instead of more food. It is up to you or, of course, do as directed by your pediatrician.

When it comes to knowing if your baby is hungry, pay attention to your their cues, jot some notes on timing of when they’re hungry to identify a pattern, and you will be able to create a great feeding schedule for your baby!

Keep in mind that many things can disrupt how well your baby will eat at each meal time.

Knowing this will allow you to remain flexible and not overly stress about any one meal. Instead, keep a ‘helicopter view’ of their meals over the course of a week (vs one day or one meal) and focus on enjoying meals yourself (which is a great example for your child) and spending time together experiencing the joy of food.

Check out these starting baby led weaning books:

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Everything you need to know to start serving solids with baby led weaning with confidence, today.

Remember from 6-12 months, solid foods are ‘complimentary foods’, meaning they simply add on to the nutrition your baby is receiving from their milk.

Still, aim for a wholesome variety, paying attention to serving iron-rich foods.

A few things to note when serving solids to your baby:

Studies have found that many young children are iron-deficient and without the necessary iron, long term effects, including developmental problems can occur. So be sure to serve iron-rich foods often.

Experts recommend regularly serving variety of foods from all food groups, early on, to help curb picky eating. The more children see, feel, taste and know about foods, the less likely they will fear them and be picky toward them. With baby led weaning, start off by introducing foods 1 at a time, then as you feel more confident in your baby’s eating abilities, pair 2-3 foods then branch out to a wider variety from there.

Ok so let’s get to the meat of it…

5 cues your baby is hungry

1. They get excited around food and reach for it.

All babies know is how to listen to their bodies and alert for help (cry, fuss, make noises). Babies are essentially, intuitive eaters, so pay attention to their behaviors around food and you will be able to see if they’re signaling you for some food! Likewise, when they are not hungry, they’ll turn their heads or close their lips, so don’t worry about over feeding. Again, trust that they are in tune with their bodies and will signal what they need!

2. They open their mouth when you offer food or a spoonful/forkful of food.

Not sure if your little one is truly hungry? Try offering a little piece of food, maybe even a spoonful of something. Do they reach for it? Open their mouth? Go ahead and feed them if so! Once they’re satiated, they will turn their heads, close their mount, swat away the spoon, or begin playing.

3. They make noises and act excited when they see foods.

Maybe your baby starts to get noisy or breath heavy and flap their arms around when the see you noshing on an apple? They may in fact be hungry too! Offer them some safely prepared food and if they reach for it or open their mouths, they are hungry. Their internal fullness cues will kick in once they are no longer feeling hungry, so let them eat at their own pace.

4. They fuss or cry and are relieved or happy when you offer foods, by reaching and accepting the foods.

Sometimes, even when we work off of a certain schedule, we are surprised to find that our baby is showing signs of hunger. Remain flexible, allow yourself to be surprised because our babies are growing and changing very rapidly for the first year so we are never really settling into a constant. This is where watching for cues, aka responsive eating, will best serve everyone!

5. They crawl over to the kitchen/the table/their chair and make noises/bounce up and down/slap.

Ready to eat! Your baby is at the place you make food or serve food and is ready to go! Offer some food and if they are eager to take it or open their mouths, they are hungry.

Check out my Low stress baby led weaning ebook – a simplified guide for first time moms

Complete with: first foods list, feeding example schedule, how to introduce allergens & more!

Recap

Work off of baby’s cues and take note of any hunger pattern and behaviors they display when hungry.

Offering a piece of food is often the quickest way to gauge if your baby is hungry.

Be flexible with feeding timing, as your babies needs might surprise you. And trust that if they are showing hunger signs, they are hungry and it is ok to feed them!

Work off of your current milk feeding schedule and include complimentary foods before or after milk, starting at 1-2 meals per day from 6 months and building up to 3 meals and 2 snacks at 12 months+.

Remember a meal for a 6 month old might be 3 slivers of banana or a 3 tbsp of ground beef and a stalk of broccoli. Again, paying attention to hunger and fullness cues, your baby will tell you what portions they need.

By the time a baby is 12 months old, they are typically eating breakfast around 730am, a morning snack at 930am, lunch at 12pm, an afternoon snack at 330pm and then dinner between 530-630pm. This is the schedule we follow here at my daycare and preschool that goes by the USDA’s Food Program for healthy starts. A minimum of 2 hours in between snacks and meals helps ensure they are hungry for each.

If you’re just starting out with baby led weaning, you can read this blog post: EVERYTHING You Need To Know Before Starting Solids With Baby Led Weaning.

Check out these helpful blw starting solids tools: