Money Saving and Weaning Baby?

moozikgal

You can start off with trying some baby rice mixed with breast milk. i found that introducing pureed veg/fruit resulted in projectile vomit! nice!! Baby rice, a box costs about a pound from boots/asda and then after a week, use some baby rice and mix it with some pureed fruit or veg.
sweet root veg are a fave of all babies, carrots, parsnip, sweed. but i agree with everyone else, ice cube trays and freezer bags. i use a hand blender to mix up the food.
I also found that boots do some good spoons which change colour if the food is too hot, come in very handy
hope that helps and enjoy it! one really good bit of advice tho that my health visitor gave me is remove all emotion when you begin to feed a baby as if they spit it out at you, dont get upset as babies can feed off emotions and they too will get upset!
vicky

shirlgirl2004

I never used baby rice or any packets/jar for my daughter. I bought the soft rubber ice cube trays from Ikea. They are easier than the hard plastic ones to get the purees out. The ice cube segments are quite large though so initially you will just need to half fill them. Eventually you get to a point when you can just choose a cube of carrot, cauliflower and sweet potatoes and make the meals up like that. It's amazing some of the odd combinations that my daughter ate. She didn't seem to mind and is an avid veggie fan now.

It's a good idea to start with sweeter veg like carrots and sweet potatoe because babies naturally have a sweet tooth. Don't be tempted to give too much fruit though because otherwise they start to shun the more savoury tastes.

I always added breastmilk to the veg if it needed to be made runnier afterall it's a familiar tast to your baby.

Raksha

Blenders are essential for the early stages, when you need a totally smooth product, but as baby gets older and starts to need to learn to chew, I found a Moulinex hand grinder invaluable, it's like a mincer and leaves small particles. I cooked 'human food' without salt added in any form, and to this day, we still only add salt at the table.

ahunts

I'd have a look at the NCT website and find out if there is a nearly new sale near you going on, as you'll find tonnes of baby weaning recipe books for some guidance for no more than £1/2 so definately worth a little look.

You'll also find tonnes of other baby bargains and toys there.

andycarmi

ahunts wrote:

I'd have a look at the NCT website and find out if there is a nearly new sale near you going on, as you'll find tonnes of baby weaning recipe books for some guidance for no more than £1/2 so definately worth a little look.

You'll also find tonnes of other baby bargains and toys there.

Thank-you for the website. There is one on this Saturday only 13km away from me so going to go and have a look. This site in now in my favorities ;-) Thanks.

andycarmi

astonsmummy wrote:

I just used a hand blender which cots about £5, does the trick!
.

Saw one in Tesco today for just under £5 - didn't know they were that cheap!

Babylonian_2

A mouli (like a grinder with a handle) is great to use as it gives a more "real" feel to food. I picked one up really cheaply in a pound type shop.

I started doing the ice cube stuff but very quickly started to mouli the family food (making sure there was no salt added).

Mashed potato was a real lifesaver too - just mash and add stuff to it - cheese, fish, or use sweet potato for a change, add carrots or other veg. A mashed banana is quick and easy too as no cooking needed.

My daughter quite quickly wouldn't eat stuff from jars (we would try and bring them for ease while eating out). I read somewhere that using home cooked food instead of jars was better preparation for "real" eating as no two batches would ever taste the same

shirlgirl2004

On the other hand baby led weaning doesn't require blenders or spoons so must be the most moneysaving way to go.

Take a look here.

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/startingsolids/babyledweaning/

inkie

I found that once i had started both by breastfeeders off on 'solids' that the ice cube tray portions were not really big enough, and so I invested in small pastic tubs at around 19p each from Mr T's - alternatively you can buy tomee tippee ones for about £2 each lol...

lil_me

Steamer, blender, ice cube trays, and freezer bags, but with you starting weaning later you may need the larger pots as suggested, or do what I did and make cubes of different fruits and veg. Instead of having to buy loads of trays and pots freeze them in them and then tip into the bags once frozen, then do some more. Baby led weaning looks like a good idea, but some children don't take to it, my son was on mashed foods until 2 years old as he had issues chewing. A favourite in our house was soup with pasta in it (chopped very small)