Food is a powerful force in our society. As you may notice when you feel worried or anxious you start to eat. Also what we eat even comes down to social acceptance and peer pressure. When you are out at work and everyone is grabbing lunch I am sure there are things you wouldn't eat around them, even if they are healthier for you. And you may even be pressured out to go and eat when you brought in your lunch today. How about the late afternoon energy levels, a chocolate bar or coffee normally helps.

Which ever way you look at this, food controls many aspects of our life, when it certainly shouldn't. Building a healthy food relationship from the start will help your child build a better relationship and hence make better choices with food.

Most of this behavoir can be attributed to reward and punishment with food. You may see food as a treat or reward, and you like to give this to yourself when you can. Food should be enjoyed but only when you need to eat, not when you want to reward yourself. Avoiding using food as a punishment or reward for your child, use something else. Don't offer an icecream only if they are good, offer it anyway if you are out, but use a different method for discipline. Using food sets up a relationship in the future that is hard to break and causes many effects that you still experience today.

Baby Led Weaning is gaining more attention each day as parents discover this great way to wean their child. However as some people might question, where did this come from and where is the proof.

Medically / Scientifically there have been no studies to date to prove this method. I do believe there are some underway, but no results are yet available. With this in mind why should I trust that this approach works, instead of the purees we were brought up on?

Baby led weaning has mainly come about due to common sense and many families have great success with this approach. Physiologically we have evolved to cater for this event. When we are ready we lose our gag reflex, can sit up right and can pick up food with our hands. These are our physiological signs that indicate we are ready. This will normally happen around 6 months of age and the World Health Organization also recognizes this with their feeding recommendations.

So where did processed baby purees come from? Well it is widely attributed to coming out of the European industrial revolution. It took a while to win over everyone, but aggressive marketing campaigns eventually succeeded. Before that people used to prepare food at home and yes some of it was still mashed. This is because it is what we were eating at the time. Even though some of it was mashed it was still what the family was eating.

But what about before then. Babies would start eating what ever the family / community was eating. Be that rice, wheat, vegetables, fruit or meat. Breastfeeding was the norm, and there were no charts to go off, it just happened as the baby grew older. Since that is how it was, it is certainly logical to assume thats how we evolved and how we were meant to start. As you sit a 6 month baby in front of you eating food, what do they do? They swipe for it and put it straight in their mouths. No one teaches them that at an early age it is just instinct.

Physiologically there are also certain signs that confirm this approach. For example before the baby is ready to eat, their gag reflex and tongue reflex diminishes and they can start putting things in their mouth and squishing them with their gums.

With this all said and there is evidence that a baby ate regular food when it was available in front of them (remembering that food was not as available today as it was hundreds of years ago) it makes sense that this would be the natural way to feed your baby.

So what has made me a strong advocate of baby led weaning? The proof I see is in the results. I have tried purees when weaning with my first child and baby led weaning with my second child. I have heard of many stories and many friends have also tried it. And the results? All resulted in a less fussy eater with a great appetite and they have all learnt to eat when they are hungry, not when they are told. I also see the results in their excitement, yet great control at food.

While there have been no medical studies to date, I have seen the proof first hand. It only takes a bit of common sense and understanding of a babies natural physiology to see the correlation. I do hope studies will be completed soon to support what I see as overwhelming proof.

We're vegetarians, by extension our children are too. The typical low fat, high fibre vegetarian diet is unsuitable for toddlers, as they need fat in their diets to support the massive period of growth in their first year. They also need a balanced diet including proteins, iron, essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.

As my two year old is approaching weaning from breastmilk, I've been planning his meals around what his nutritional needs are going to be, when he doesn't have his backup feed (Breastmilk). While he's been breastfed, I haven't been concerned, knowing he receives virtually everything he needs from the milk, but now he's weaning, we've had to reassess.

For iron, and protein we've included:

• Organic Tofu and tempeh
• Lentils
• Lots of green leafy salads (he's not a fan, unless they're dressed)
• Nuts (cashews, walnuts and brazil nuts)

For Essential Fatty Acids we've:

• used Udos oil in salad dressings (It's a combination oil of Sunflower, Linseed, Coconut, Almond and a few others, high in Omega 3s)
• Included LSA (Linseed Almond Sunflower) mix on his morning porridge

I'm currently in discussions with our health care provider about a toddler multivitamin. Both my husband and I take a multivitamin, and omega 3 supplements - and given that he doesn't have meat in his diet, we're trying to ensure he receives all his dietary requirements.

My eldest son, who is now 2, began our baby led weaning journey. At 4 months of age, we were being pressured by our early childhood nurse to consider introducing rice cereal, to encourage our children to sleep through the night.

The research I'd done had told me that food generally plays a small part in encouraging a child to sleep through, and introducing rice cereal so early would simply mess with his intestinal tract. We started solid foods earlier than I wish I'd done now, at about 5 months. Master C's first foods were steamed pears, and apple sticks. He also used to love roast vegetables with salsa yoghurt to dip them in.

As he got older, and began to walk, we worked to a "muffin tin" meal plan, offering a variety of snacks for him to graze on  throughout the morning, usually fruit, vegetables and something like sultanas or raisins. He'd eat a meal with me at the table at lunch time, and have his muffin tin available for the afternoon. We'd then eat a meal as a family when his daddy got home. He'll try anything once, and lets us know very clearly if he doesn't like it (I have stains on my wall to prove it)

Master O is now 8 months old, and I've never seen a child devour food in the way he does. His first food was pear, and largely by accident on my part - I caught his older brother "sharing" it with him.

Allowing Master O to lead the way, has again been a lesson in trust for me, although it's much easier to distinguish between gagging and choking second time round. His favourite foods are corn fritters, strawberries, and onion pilaff. He'd also sell his soul for watermelon.

The most interesting thing I've found weaning Master O is the changes to my breastfeeding routine. My first son didn't change his routine much at all, preferring a largely milk diet, whereas Master O has dropped feeds, and considerably shortened them. Again, it's been a lesson in trust and surrender to allow him to lead the way.

Did you know that by allowing your baby to lead the way, you'll help avoid the chance of them becoming fussy eaters as they grow older?

Baby led weaning allows you to let your child play with, sample and test out the foods  you offer to them, discovering their unique colours, tastes and textures - by not hurrying your baby, i.e. by spoonfeeding them puree, you'll let them develop their own tastes.

We don't enjoy food simply for it's flavour: it is the texture, the smell, the colour, a whole pallete of senses comes into play when we experience food. By pureeing your baby's food, you remove the sensory experience, forcing her to discover it based on flavour alone. The textures are all the same - so if there's a flavour she doesn't like she'll come to associate the texture with the flavour, and so begins a cycle of pickiness.

The baby led weaned baby however, may pick over their plate of food, but discovers and appreciates each morsel as a whole. Watch their face as they learn a new food - it's something quite incredible. The initial surprise at the flavour, the enjoyment as they gum and suck at it, the discovery they can now swallow, as it's become soft - with each new food, a new adventure.

By not forcing food, or insisting upon food being eaten - you as the parent remove any chance that food is used as power. Food is never a negotiation point with the baby led weaning baby.

With two children under two, I like to make sure life is as EASY as possible. At first I thought purees would be the way to go, simply pop open a jar, and we're off. But the more I researched, the more wrong I discovered I was. Commercial baby food has a shelf life of 6 months to two years, in order for them to do that, it has to be super heated to sterilise it - which unfortunately destroys a great deal of the nutrients in it.  There are some great refrigerated commercial baby foods available now, which would be a better option, particularly if you allow your child to self feed.

Why would you choose baby led weaning when there is a plethora of baby food lining the supermarket shelves, proclaiming their benefits both nutritious and cognitive? 

1. Baby led weaning encourages your child to learn to eat - purees encourages them to drink thick mush.
2. Baby led weaning encourages you to wait untils your baby is ready to eat - purees  can bypass this developmental step, allowing you to introduce 'food' before your baby is ready
3. Baby led weaning allows your child to discover the real texture of food - purees don't.
4. Baby led weaning encourages your child to develop their fine motor skills  - puress don't.
5. Baby led weaning allows mum to create a beautiful wholesome real meal - purees doesn't.
6. Baby led weaning means you don't have to prepare extra food, as your baby is eating what you eat (more or less) Purees require preparation, or store bought jars.

So your baby isn't ready to wean, they're showing an interest in food but are still too young to begin solid foods. By showing an interest, I mean they're swiping food from your hand, they're eyeing off your plate, it's a battle to eat in front of them, because they're literally asking for it!! How can you appease your little tumtum without compromising their intestinal health?

The answer lies in breastmilk...

We stumbled upon this idea when our youngest child was 5 months old, and was determined to be an active player in family meal times. I had some breastmilk stored in the freezer, so I simply sliced some up into finger sized pieces: voila! Breastmilk popsicles.

It's beginning solids, without beginning solids. Needless to say, it made family mealtimes a lot happier, as Master O could "eat" with his big brother, his father and I. And we didn't have to worry about indigestion, or upsetting his intestinal flora, as all he was eating was breastmilk.

So all you need for this sneaky trick, is expressed breastmilk and a freezer.

Contrary to popular belief, babies should only start solid food when they reach 6 months of age as recommended by the World Health Organization and now most countries around the world.

When a baby is less than 6 months old their stomach is unable to cope with solid food. Babies are not designed to have food until they can grab it with their hands and put it in their mouths themselves. If you do feed babies before 6 months they will not digest this food and simply pass it out.

Gut flora is still developing at this early stage and any food can distrub this balance and cause health issues later in life.