Baby-Led Weaning Essential Guide & Cookbook Review & Giveaway

About the Publisher: The Experiment Publishing is an independent publisher that launched in 2009, focusing on a wide range of non-fiction, mostly practical.  Their books include, food, health & fitness, psychology, personal development, parenting, relationships, sexuality, personal finance, and more.  The name comes from the belief that every book is a test of new ideas (an experiment) and thus they are motivated by the curiosity and wonder of the unknown. Their books enlighten, empower, and entertain readers. 

About the Authors: Gill Rapley studied infant feeding and child development for many years, as well as being a public health nurse for over 20 years, in addition to a midwife and breastfeeding counselor.  She developed the theory of baby-led weaning while studying babies’ developmental readiness for solids while pursing a Master’s degree.  She currently lives in England. 
Tracey Murkett is a freelance writer and journalist who wanted to let other parents know how easy and stress-free mealtimes could be after doing baby-led weaning with her daughter.  She also lives in England.

Photos from Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook showing how babies can actually eat real food

Excerpt from the book: Baby-led weaning is safe, natural, and easy—and, like most good ideas in parenting, it’s not new. Parents the world over have discovered it for themselves, simply by watching their babies. Baby-led weaning works whether your baby is breastfed, formula-fed, or having a mixture of the two. And, according to parents who have tried both BLW and spoon-feeding, letting your baby lead the way is much easier and more enjoyable all around. 

Of course, there’s nothing revolutionary about giving babies finger foods starting at six months. What’s different about BLW is that the baby has only finger foods, making purées and spoon-feeding a thing of the past. 

This book will show you why BLW is the logical way to introduce solids and why trusting your baby’s skills and instincts makes sense. It will provide you with practical tips for getting started and the low-down on what to expect. It will let you in on one of the best-kept secrets of stress-free parenting. With BLW there’s no program to follow and no stages to complete. Your baby won’t have to work his way through a series of smooth purées, mashed food, and lumpy meals before he’s allowed to eat “real” food—and you won’t have to follow a complicated daily timetable of meals. Instead you’ll be able to relax and enjoy your baby’s adventures with food.

It’s laid out in 8 super simple and easy to read chapters that go into detail about what baby-led weaning is all about, how it works, getting starts, what some first foods could be, moving past the first few weeks, healthy diets, and so much more.  I learned so much, not just about what to feed the baby, but even how to make Andrew & I’s diets so much healthier as well.  It’s such an amazing book.

The cookbook is just as amazing as the book. It’s broken down into two parts.  The first part goes over all the basics of baby-led weaning, a condensed version of the actual book if you will.  Then the second part goes over 130 recipe ideas!  That’s a ton of recipes!  Each recipe section is broken down making it amazingly easily to flip to the section you need an idea for, such as breakfast, soups, desserts, baking, eggs, fish, meat, etc.  There are so many ideas that are great for a family trying to eat healthier so their child can join them.

For me, baby-led weaning makes so much sense. It’s about being able to expand my cooking knowledge, since I didn’t have the most versatile choices growing up, and providing the baby with a wide variety of choices to help her make healthier decisions later in life.

Her first food was a banana that she grabbed from Andrew’s hand, but below is the first picture of us actually sitting her in her high chair eating an avocado!  We absolutely love BLWing and are so happy that we had the opportunity to review the book/cookbook to help with understanding!  We highly recommend it to everyone.

 BUY IT:  You can purchase the book or the textbook via Amazon by clicking on the pictures below.

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