How to Cut Food Using Baby-Led Weaning for a 9 Month-old

As a parent, you want to keep your baby safe at all times. I will tell you how to cut food using baby-led weaning for a 9 month-old and beyond!

To skip to how to cut food for a 9-month-old, click here.

What is Baby-Led Weaning? 

Baby-led weaning became popular about a decade ago. This is a feeding method where parents introduce solid foods to their babies. These foods are in addition to or in replace of purees or rice cereal. Parents can start to offer food when babies show signs of readiness. It is also essential to start when the parent feels confident in this method by knowing what to do, and how to cut food using baby-led weaning for a 9 month-old versus a 6 month-old!

Signs of readiness in your baby

There are a few signs your baby will demonstrate when they are ready for food. Follow your baby’s lead. This often starts around 6 months but could be a bit after. These signs are important to ensure safe eating. The first sign is being interested in food. Your baby will be watching you eat or your older babies eat and want to join! The next sign is sitting up. They need to be able to sit up in a high chair. The baby’s fine motor skills must be developed so they can grasp their food. They need to be able to do a palmar grasp (closing their hand in a fist around an object) when they are starting baby-led weaning. Around 9 months is when they use their pincer grasp to pick up smaller pieces of food using their finger and thumb. 

How to Serve Table Foods 

When parents first serve their baby food, roughly 6 months, they will serve larger pieces of food. The pieces will be about the size of a finger in length. This is safer for your baby than smaller pieces. The bigger pieces allow the baby to easily pick up the food item and try it out. If given a small piece, they do not yet know how to control it in their mouth, which increases the risk of choking. Soft foods are best to introduce to them so they can smoosh them, decreasing the choking risk. 

Benefits of Baby-led Weaning 

Early exposure

There are many benefits to baby-led weaning. The first is that the child will be introduced to different textures and a wide variety of flavors. While purres are not harmful or bad, they only provide the baby with one texture. This means babies could have a harder time transitioning to foods with new textures. Early exposure is beneficial when introducing foods to babies, in hopes to avoid picky eating. 

Eating with family!

Another benefit to baby-led weaning is that the parents are able to serve them a wide variety of foods. They have many great options to pick from so the baby can receive many nutrients and vitamins from their foods. I love that baby-led weaning includes the whole family. Your baby is eating the same meal as the rest of the family. If you have other little kids or young children, they can be involved by simply eating with your baby so your baby can observe them eating! It saves you work in the kitchen as well! 

Self-regulation skills

In addition to all of that, baby-led weaning is different because babies self-feed. This means the baby will eat as much as they want, increasing their self-regulation skills. They use a spoon themselves instead of an adult doing it so they have control over how much they are eating. It will help them to not overeat or undereat. 

What About Choking?

Research shows that baby-led weaning does not increase the risk of infant choking. Parents do still have that as their top concern though. I totally understand! I also was so nervous when starting out. Education is everything. Taking a class that is informing you on what to do if your baby is choking is so beneficial. Be confident that you will know what to do. Research. Research the types of foods to give them and how to serve the food item. Lastly, follow your baby’s cues. You will be able to tell if they are understanding what to do or if they need to wait a bit to start. All babies are different and you know your baby best. Do what you are comfortable with because then your baby will have to follow your lead and be comfortable too!

What is the difference between choking and gagging? 

It is essential to know the difference between choking and gagging before trying baby-led weaning with your little one. Gagging is when they push their tongue out and try to bring their food out of their mouth. You do not want to intervene if they are gagging because it could push the food farther back and lead to choking. If they are choking, they will not be making any noise and their eyes will be wide and scared. This is when you need to act. However, choking is very uncommon. I still encourage you to research in order to have confidence while feeding your little one! 

Gagging in babies is different than gagging in an adult. This is important to know. Babies’ gag reflux is farther up on their tongue to prevent choking. This means they are more likely to gag than adults. Also, some babies gag more than others.

Key Parts to Baby-led Weaning

Know when to react and how to react

One very important thing to know about baby-led weaning is that you should never stick your finger in your baby’s mouth. One of the awesome benefits of baby-led weaning is that they are learning how to use their mouth, tongue and work through tougher foods. If you stick your hand in their mouth, they will get nervous and pull back. That then drives the food back. Instead, you will show them how to work through it. Sit in front of them and pretend to chew. Babies learn by watching you and they are incredibly smart. By mimicking you, they will work through it themselves.

Staying calm

Try to stay calm. Again, your baby is learning from you and they are reading your body language. If you are nervous, they will be nervous. To avoid this, research and be confident in your decision. If you are not confident in the baby-led weaning approach, then you can do purees! Nothing is wrong with that either. Just remember not to react. Stay calm so they will stay calm and can focus on their food. 

What are Some Great First Foods?

You’ll want to skip the raw vegetables and hard fruits for now and stick with cooked, mushy foods. There are many great foods you can start with. Some great examples of this are sweet potatoes, cooked carrots, mashed potatoes, oatmeal, pumpkin, or ripe bananas. You can even do foods that are already smooshed or smooth such as whole milk greek yogurt or cottage cheese. You may steam veggies such as green beans or broccoli. Raw veggies, like carrot sticks, can be served for around 14 months. Be prepared for it to take a while for your baby to catch on. While some might love food, others will be uninterested. Also, just because they did not eat a food item once, does not mean they do not like it. Introduce it again! The more exposure, the higher chance of them liking it! 

Foods to avoid

There are some foods which are best to avoid. Starting with honey. You may not give your infant under a year, honey. There is a small chance that honey could cause boutinism, which is a type of food poising. Also, it is best to avoid whole nuts until the age of 4. 

How to Serve the Foods Based on Age

How to cut food using baby-led weaning for 6-9 month-olds

You will want to start with big pieces of soft foods that the baby can grab with their hands. This means it needs to be cut in long strips, the length of an adult finger and the width of two fingers. All skins need to be removed from certain foods like potatoes.

Examples of foods:

For example, eggs can be cut into long strips. You will cook it like an omelet and then cut long pieces. If the babies break the pieces, that is okay, just take away whatever you are uncomfortable with. Again, you know your baby the best and if they seem to be doing okay, then let them learn. You will be giving them small portions to start with. Another example is sweet potato. You can cut a raw sweet potato into strips, making sure there is no skin on it. Then drizzle some olive oil on it and put it in the oven. Take it out when it is soft and cooked. If you need some healthy and easy breakfast ideas for 6-9 month olds, click here!

How to cut food using baby-led weaning for a 9 month-old to 1 year

You can cut the food into bite-sized pieces when your baby develops the pincer grip. This is normally present in a 9-month-old baby. This is because they can grasp the food with their thumb and index finger and place it in their mouth. At this point, they now understand how to chew and eat so you’ll want to give them small pieces of food to place in their mouth. If you give them too large of pieces, it may not fit in their mouth, increasing the risk of choking. You may give them thin slices of appropriate food items, like bread which they can bite a bit off easily. This is a great time to think of some baby finger foods to throw in the diaper bag to keep them occupied when you are out and about! 

Examples of foods:

Avocados have iron and many key nutrients. Your baby will love them! Serve them cut up so they can use their pincer grip to place the food in their mouth. Likewise, cut bread and watermelon into bite-sized pieces as well!

Allergies

Introducing allergens early is now encouraged. There is a list of common food allergens, such as cow’s milk, peanut butter, egg, soy, tree nuts, shellfish, wheat, and sesame. It is researched that starting to introduce these foods early, instead of waiting can actually help to avoid a food allergy. The best time to introduce one of these specific foods is in the morning and by itself. That way you can watch for reactions and know what it is correlated to. Hives and itchiness are common signs that the infant is allergic. Please talk with your child’s doctor before introducing anything so they can give you tips and signs to watch for. 

Breastmilk/Formula

It is also important to remember that breast milk or infant formula is your child’s primary source of nutrition until a year of age. While it is an exciting time for babies to try new foods, they still need the nutrients from your breast milk or formula to fill any gaps in their nutrition until 12 months of age. The first year of your baby’s life is very important for them too.

Supplies Needed to Start Baby-led Weaning

Here are a few of my favorite supplies I use when feeding my 9-month old.

Cups– they need water to wash down their food!

Spoons– these spoons are perfect because they are soft and the baby can easily navigate it to their mouth

Bibs– these bibs help to catch food that your little one drops- and let’s be honest, more food ends up in the bib than in their mouth!

Bowls and Plates– these are perfect so the baby will not tip over their food!

Final Encouragement to Baby-led Weaning

I loved doing baby-led weaning for my little one and I plan to do it with the rest of my kids! It was the best thing I could have done for him because he is loving all the different varieties of foods and new tastes. I love that we can have family meal time and he gets to eat with us! It was so key to me to know how to cut food using baby-led weaning for a 9-month old versus a 6-month old because he was devouring his food! I hope this article helps you feel more prepared and ready to start baby-led weaning!

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