“How can he chew with no teeth?” is the question I get the most when I suggest BLW to other mothers. Or when we’re talking about table food, I get “Well, I’m waiting for her to have teeth before we start.”
Here’s the thing though. Babies get their FRONT teeth first and don’t get molars until much closer to a year, if not later. When was the last time you chewed something up with your front teeth?
Now think about the last time your toothless baby clamped down on you. Even with no teeth, it probably hurt! Why? Because their little gums are insanely hard, much harder than you’d expect, and perfectly capable of chewing food.
I have to be honest, this is a pretty boring video, but I wanted to share it anyway. It’s a video of my son, who only has his two bottom teeth, eating veggie straws. If you haven’t had them, they’re like a cheeto-type consistency, definitely needing to be chewed and definitely what I would call “crunchy.” (In texture, not in hippy-dom, real hippies wouldn’t feed their kids processed foods! 
) He’s perfectly capable of chewing them up and taking manageable bites.
You can see in the video that while he does bite off pieces with his teeth (mostly because they are there, he was also doing this pre-teeth), he moves the food to the side of his mouth to chew it up. You know, the side of his mouth where he has no teeth!
Jess
Jess lives in Florida. Her son Benjamin was born on July 12, 2010 and after a rough start to breastfeeding, was exclusively breastfed from 3 days to 5 months. Then, his baby-led weaning journey began with bananas. Jess's husband cooks all the food because no one wants the food she cooks.
Follow Me:
Hard gums!! Have you felt how hard those gums are??? BiP is 12m old and has just her front 6 teeth … she never ceases to amaze me at how she can rip off a strip of chicken and chew it and swallow … teeth aren’t everything it seems!
Yep, before he had teeth, Ben was a huge fan of biting my chin and it was PAINFUL!
Capri just got her first tooth at 10 months and it is just 1 little thing on the bottom of her gums. The other day she ate an entire slice of raw apple (skin and all) with that one tooth and her gums.
Kaitlynn now has about a fourth of a tooth and a sliver of another. (on the bottom) She hasnt had any problems eating meat, fruits, veggies, raw, cooked, steamed…basically no problems what-so-ever. It is so cool to watch them work their food with their little toothless mouths!
This is the number one comment I get too! The other is moms who tell me they “make sure to give them really small pieces.” I have to hold back from telling them that’s a great idea if they want their babies to choke!
If anything, teeth have complicated BLW – Foods like pickles are now tricky because he can bite off a chunk but can’t mush it with his gums. Before he had any teeth we could actually offer harder foods and he would just suck on them.
I have never seen a puree-fed baby eat solids for the first time but I imagine they would struggle a lot if they never experienced normal food until they had a mouthful of teeth!
I get a lot of small piece comments too. Especially from my neighbor, whose 14 month old recently started demanding food like the food her older brother gets. The mom is really nervous about giving her baby BIG pieces. I just said that I trust Ben to take manageable bites and am more afraid of small pieces myself. And I am! With smaller things, he often swallows them whole like a pill. It really makes me worry that he’ll choke on small pieces.
I’m with you – also more concerned about small pieces. Especially if they’re “chokeable” things like small pieces of meat. I give Anneliese long strips of meat or hunks of it…
But about your post, AWESOME very clear explanation.
And great video illustration of the concept.
My sister had a baby the week before our Lilia was born and has tried baby led weaning…but she lives with my parents. Between my mother and grandmother she gets so much grief about the pieces being too big and the baby choking. I give Lila large items that she can grasp and she scrapes at them with her 1 1/2 teeth. She never chokes.
I’m so interested in starting my daughter on BLW! However, there’s so many questions that I have and really need to learn more before I dedicate to this. If anyone is using the BLW or has used the method and interested in helping me, please email me. kayler07@yahoo.com
Thanks in advance!
Kay
hey Kay! Why don’t you ask your questions here?That way multiple people can answer them, and if someone else is wondering the same thing, they can benefit from seeing your questions and the answers.