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Motherhood with Maddi

Categories: Motherhood

Preparing for Baby Led Weaning

We chose to start Baby Led Weaning with Callie once she turned six months old. It’s an approach to starting babies on solids and serving them the food we eat as adults instead of the traditional purée route. (Disclaimer: we still give Callie purées and did more of a combo between the two.) And now that we have been at it for a few months, I’d love to share some products that might help prepare you for Baby Led Weaning. If you aren’t familiar with BLW, I have another post that I’ll link here sharing our experience, and some resources to help get you started!

Just like so many baby products, not all of them are necessary, and we’re not still using all of them currently. I will share everything we used and let you know if we thought it was beneficial or a waste of money. I’m also going to share some items we didn’t get that I wish I would have gotten. Some of these items are probably already in your kitchen, but I’m going to explain how we use them and why we like them!

Things I Bought For Baby Led Weaning

Graco Table2Table Convertible High Chair

One thing I was really careful to look for with baby products was their longevity. I can’t say that everything I bought fell into this category, but with the bigger, more expensive items, I tried really hard to make sure they were going to last a long time. This high chair converts 7 different ways. It can be used as a traditional high chair, a booster chair, and even transforms into a small chair and table for toddlers. This is what really got my attention and why we bought it!

Callie actually started sitting in this chair at around 3 months. She wasn’t eating, but we would put her in it while we were eating, and she would watch us. It reclines so she didn’t need to have complete head control which was nice. I also like that the tray has two pieces so clean up is much easier because the big, bulky piece doesn’t have to go in the sink to be cleaned. We haven’t transitioned to any of the other conversions, yet but I would definitely recommend this chair based on how much we’ve liked it so far!


WeeSprouts Suction Plates

Once we started giving Callie more than one food at mealtime, I would serve it to her on these plates. And for the first few weeks, I loved them. She couldn’t move them, and they were super easy to clean. However, once she started really exploring (moving) her food, the plates became somewhat obsolete, in my opinion. I say that because it was just something else to clean at the end of mealtime. At first, Callie would just pick up a piece of food and either put it in her mouth or drop it in her bib. Her high chair tray would stay clean for the most part so we just cleaned up the plate. Once she started getting food all over the high chair tray, we had to clean her, the bib, the plate, and the tray. It was just a lot of cleaning. So around 8 months we ditched the plates and just served the food on her tray.

Hippypotamus Silicone Bibs

These bibs are hands down, THE BEST. I can’t say enough good things about them! If I can give you any advice, don’t even try cloth bibs. I can’t imagine trying to clean/wash cloth bibs, get stains out, etc. These silicone bibs are so easy to clean. We used these when Callie was starting on purées around 4.5 months and are still using them every day, three times per day. They rinse of so easily and are even dishwasher safe. I. LOVE. THEM.

WeeSprout Spoons

When I was searching for our plates, I came across these (matching) spoons by the same brand. Because I like things to match, I bought them. And they work just fine. We used them primarily when we introduced Callie to purées and for a few months after that when feeding her applesauce, yogurt, etc. But once she learned how to suck out of food pouches, the spoon feeding technique became way more time consuming so we stopped using them. Callie did learn how to self feed with these spoons, and she picked it up fairly quickly. However, the handle is very long, and I think a lot of babies would have an easier time learning to self feed with a shorter handle.

EZ PZ Mini Cup

Another milestone that babies can start practicing around the six month mark is drinking water. Straw cups are definitely the push right now, and when I was doing my research, this cup had great reviews. Callie did learn how to drink water out of this cup, but I never used it as an open cup even though it can be. It just seemed like a mess I didn’t want to deal with. While I did like this cup, it’s not spill proof so we only used it at meal times an it wasn’t super frequent. I honestly can’t say whether I would buy this again or not! In my opinion, it’s kind of expensive for the purpose of the item, but it did it’s job.

Munchkin Straw Any Angle Cup

I wish I could tell you to just start with this cup and skip the trainer cup. Because now that Callie can hold things herself and wants more drinks throughout the day, we LOVE this cup. It’s spill proof, and babies can drink from any angle. The straw has a weighted bottom that moves depending on how the cup is being held so it can always be drunk out of. However, I do think that Callie has to suck waaaay harder to get the water out of this one and I’m not sure she would have been able to do that a few months ago. Overall, I would say this is my current favorite cup and would definitely recommend it. (One of my friends did tell me that if you put milk in it, if it sits out for a little while, the milk can come out of the straw. I plan on just using this for water because of that.)

OXO Grape Cutter

I waited quite a while before giving Callie grapes just because of my anxiety around it being a very common choking hazard. Once I finally introduced them to her, I think it took one time of quartering them by hand with a knife for me to hop on Amazon and order this grape cutter. It takes SO much less time and quarters them perfectly. Definitely worth the money!

Kitchen Shears

Similarly, once Callie developed her pincer grasp we could start serving her food in bite sized pieces instead of large chunks. If you’ve cut up food into small bites with a knife before, you know how time consuming it can be. One of my friends had mentioned using kitchen scissors to cut up food, and as silly it sounds, it is genius. And it literally takes a fraction of the time. So, if you don’t have yourself a good pair of kitchen shears, invest in some and save yourself some time!

Portable High Chair

This isn’t something that we use constantly, but when we have used it, it’s been very convenient! However, this is definitely a chair that can only be used when your baby can completely sit up without help. We’ve taken this to our parents’ houses and recently on vacation with us and it was so nice to have a place for Callie to eat so we didn’t have to hold her. I wouldn’t say this is a must, but it’s nice to have and very compact so we just keep it in the car!

Things I Wish I Would Have Bought

Clip On High Chair

This is so tough because I do really love our current high chair. With this type of seat, your baby has to be able to sit up on their own. With the one we currently have, Callie could sit in it at 3 months because of the recline feature. A reason I really wish I would have gotten this is because of space. The main room in our house (living, dining, and kitchen) doesn’t have tons of space for extra things. We’ve made it work with a full high chair, but having one of these would have saved so much space. I would also suggest one of these if you have a kitchen island that you eat at a lot, this would be really nice to have so that you can continue eating there while also including baby in mealtime!

NumNum PreSpoon

Like I said above, the spoons that I purchased worked just fine for us, and Callie was even able to figure them out on her own. I just think if I were to do it again, I would try these because of the short handle and the grab that they have to pick up food.


Overall, I enjoy and still use most of the things I bought for us to begin Baby Led Weaning, and I am SO happy we chose to go this route. If you chose to do BLW what were some things you loved having/doing? And if you aren’t quite there yet, but are interested in trying BLW, what are some things you’d like to know?

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About Madison Niemeyer

My name is Madison, but almost everyone calls me Maddi. I was born and raised in a small town Nebraska. I attended school in the same building from Kindergarten through senior year and graduated with 21 other classmates. I decided on a small college and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary and Early Childhood Education. I went on to be a Kindergarten teacher for three years while obtaining my Master’s in Education. Kids have been my passion for so many years, and I absolutely loved sharing my days with five and six year olds. Now, my current job title is “mom.” I decided to stop teaching to stay home and take care of my baby, and I am so thankful to be able to do that everyday. 



I met my husband when I was sixteen years old, and we just celebrated our second wedding anniversary together. We started dating a few months after meeting and have been together ever since. Colin is a pharmacist, and when he’s not working, you can find him outside or in the garage… he’s a busy body and always likes to be moving.



Recently, my greatest source of pride is my daughter. Our sweet Callie was born on August 13, 2022, and she is the most wonderful addition to our small, growing family. Motherhood with Maddi is beginning as a way for me to celebrate milestones and keep a record of the ups and downs of being a parent. I am so grateful to have this platform to share my journey and I thank you for joining me on this magical ride.

Welcome!

Welcome!

I’m Maddi - a wife and first time mom to a beautiful little girl. I’m a homebody who loves comfy clothes, good food, and an Amazon package on my front porch. Being a mom is something I dreamed about for many years, and it’s what I always wanted to be when I grew up. I’m here to share my journey as well as learn from other mamas as I go. 
Thanks for stopping by!

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