Weaning inspiration!

missychrissy

I brought up 4 sons, feeding them from 5 months onwards on anything we were having. Although they were still having breast milk I used to let them sample and taste everything we were having even if it was a little bit spicy. I used to just mash a little bit of carrot, broccoli, other veg, mashed potato etc on the side of my plate ,when I was eating, and give the baby a taste. I then moved on to using a hand blender to make whole meals including meat. Apart from my first (because I didn't know any better), I didn't buy any 'baby food'.

I look after one of my grandsons 2 days a week. He is now 5 months old and he thoroughly enjoyed the mashed banana I tried him with last week.

Most babies are pretty resilient and survive weaning. My inclination would be to just relax and let your baby drive the change to solid food.

Charliex

I used to melt a little butter (about a tablespoon) in a saucepan, then add some flour (about a tablespoon) and cook for a min or two. Then slowly drizzle in some full fat milk and stir until it gets to the consistency of a sauce, then throw in a handful of grated mild cheddar cheese and stir until melted. I did not add salt or pepper.
Sorry its not exact quantities! I used to freeze tiny little portions in those weaning cubes you can get and just take out one from the freezer the night before or pop in the microwave. If you look on the Annabel Karmel website there should be some recipes! :j

threemuttleys

My lovely little man is 7 months and growing far too fast for my liking!

I am weaning him atm, and boy does he like his food. Im trying to feed him as healtily as possible, and not give him junk. I do give jars occasionally, but am trying to just use them for when out and about.

I am looking for sime advice, or recipes for feeding him OS ( he has three meals a day, plus I am still feeding him myself)

what do other OS mummies feed their little ones (recipes and meal plans would be fantastic!)

Thnakies

quintwins

when i had my twins we used loads of jars and then they got stuck on puree's and wouldn't take any lumps for ages

with DS3 i had alot more time so i made all my own he only had jars once at a wedding, i would go to the Sm once a week late on and get reduced fruit and veg, he would have carrots and parsnip, sweet potatoe, stew, mince and taties, stewed apple (eating apples cooking was too bitter) we weaned him at 7months and by 9 months he was on what we were on but i never blended anything i only mashed it, he then started on pasta's and rices no problem, also remeber theres nothing wrong with normal porridge or ready brek and theres no need to buy the expensive baby ones

kateandpete

No help really with recipes - I normally make it up as i go along dependant upon what I have in, but i have found batch cooking and freezing baby meals a real time saver. I freeze individual meal portions in small plastic bowls/tupperware then when frozen pop them out of the bowls into a freezer bag. when i need them they go right back in and microwave.

Pink.

Hi threemuttleys

When my children were small (quite a few years ago) I made my own baby food as I felt that it was much better for them and I was happier knowing exactly what the ingredients were. Processed baby foods can taste very bland and then you have another job trying to wean them onto proper foods.

I basically gave my children more or less what we were eating (minus the salt and other nasty/spicy ingredients). I used a stick blender for making food the right consistency. Sometimes I prepared the food in batches and used ice cube trays to freeze it so that I could have easy access to the right amount as and when I needed it.

This thread has more up to date advice that may help:

Weaning inspiration!

I'll add your thread to that one once you've had more replies to keep the recipes together.

Pink

Aarons_mummy

When my LO was small I used a mixture but I basically just pureed down veg/fruit to start off with, look at the jar flavours, carrot and apple, apple and pear etc.

For main meals I pureed down some mince and added some smooth mash, veggie mash, a chicken roast and just blended it down. When he got old enough maybe around 8/9 months?! I started giving him it half blended with some lumps and he managed fine and after a couple of months I started giving him his meals whole.

For finger foods veggie fingers are good to chew on, breadsticks, cheese, toast fingers and things like that.

ragz_2

Ditto what pink winged said (especially the ice cube trays tip) but also I did feed my lot spicy food and they loved it, still do, especially chilli con carne and curry. Babies don't always want bland stuff.

Rice is good as easy for them to eat so rice with chili or curry always goes down well with my lot, whatever age.
Cottage/shepherds pie
Omelette, scrambled egg, anything with with egg (apparently you should not give small children or pregnant mums runny yolk, I ignored that!)
Anything with pasta, you can cut it up or buy tiny pasta shapes.

Try to pick up an Annabel Karmel book at a charity shop, I alwayssee them there and she does have nice ideas you can pinch even if you don't follow the recipes. Or get a baby/toddler recipe book from your library.

ALIBOBSY

My youngest little one is nearly 1 and you know to be honest I don't recall ever making a consious plan or effort to cook for her. out of my 4 only the eldest had any jars and that wasn't many.
in the initial stages I did use baby rice and pureed some carrot/sweded/veggies/apples/pears and froze in ice cubes, but this stage is quickly past and I swiftly moved on to bananas-initially a bit mashed up, porridge-whizz the normal porridge oats in the food processor to make them a bit finer and use fruit puree to sweeten, yoghurts are still favs with them all.
But by about 8 months simply chopped up. other than that is was very quickly onto the same food as the rest of us. I cook virtually everything from scratch anyway and have to watch the saturated fat/salt levels because of OH anyway. Mine were also breastfed until 13 months, 2 1/2, 3 1/2 (and still asks for it when baby feeds)-baby still feeding as well. This meant I knew they were getting an all round good vitamin and mineral rich source of sustinance without having to stress too much how mush they eat at each meal.

I chose to be led by them and use finger foods from an early age-even if they eat very little and after the finger (throw it on the floor) time I would ensure i fed them something via a spoon. My kids all learnt to eat with cutlery very quickly and are good unfussy eaters.

HOWEVER this is a big but i had the time to be at home with them to take this relaxed approach. i didn'#t go bakc to work full time after any of them. Went back part time when DS was 8 months, then was at home with DD1 till she was 2 1/2 ish, then after DD3 gave up work completely. I can see if you work full time and they have to go to baby minders/nurseries etc you probably have to be much more organised and it becomes more challenging.

The important thing is to avoid processed foods as lets face it we all eat too many of them and they will be exposed to sweets/ready meals etc soon enough. Watch salt levels when they are small in particular and remember that little ones should not have a low fat diet and on the whole they prefer to graze through the day rather than have 3 larger meals.

Go with your instincts and what your baby tells you, and enjoy them growing up.

ali x

Squeezie

Don't buy anything labelled as "baby" is my top tip! Get big unsalted rice cakes - cheaper than the specially packed smaller ones (though I did buy DS the raspberry and bluebrry ones as he loved them).
Ready brek or Weetabix or regular porridge is fine for breakfast, you really don't need special baby cereal.
Don't buy baby yoghurts. As well as being expensive, they are full of sugar. Get a big pot of full fat plain yoghurt and add purreed or chopped fruit to sweeten. DS was happy to eat it plain too, as it was all he knew!
Buy lots of little tupperware pots and freeze leftovers in baby portions. I still do this for DS and he's 3 and a half! It's handy for when he's eating by himself.