Hints and tips for weaning (merged)

starlite_2

emma_b wrote:

the advise now is to wean babies from 6mths and to use finger food and soft food that babies can pick up and put in ther mouths themselves to sto the gagging and also to avoid the purree rubbish in jars. just start on real food is the idea.
i have been working with a health visitor and dietician on the childrens ward and had a lengthy chat with her abou it as when i was a nanny we were told 4 mths

We fed our son from 4.5 months on puree but all homemade from organic fruit/ veg and he is fine, it all depends on the baby. This kind of thread should be treated as more of a debate than actual advice as it does depend on the inividual baby, and also how educated the parents are on what to feed them. In the end the G.P or health visitor is the only one that can really give correct advice.

Some parents are surprisingly ignorant. On the bus recently I saw a baby around 8 months old eating wotsits out of the bag..I was truly shocked.

missk_ensington

What I don't understand is why the baby food companies don't change their labels to say 6 months, if that is what they're advising. They still say 'stage 1- 4 months' 'stage 2 -6 months'..... No wonder parents are confused!

Addicted2Chocolate

i saw a baby about 8 months eating a mc donalds happy meal the othrr day.... quite sad.

starlite wrote:

We fed our son from 4.5 months on puree but all homemade from organic fruit/ veg and he is fine, it all depends on the baby. This kind of thread should be treated as more of a debate than actual advice as it does depend on the inividual baby, and also how educated the parents are on what to feed them. In the end the G.P or health visitor is the only one that can really give correct advice.

Some parents are surprisingly ignorant. On the bus recently I saw a baby around 8 months old eating wotsits out of the bag..I was truly shocked.

starlite_2

they have changed them, I noticed that but 'hipp' advised me that is old stock, i.e not out of date but printed when the fomer guidelines were in place. The newer ones do have the different age guide on them.

Must admit it may be confusing for new mums who are unsure, and don't get good guidance.

missk_ensington

I'm sure the little Heinz tins still say 4 months on them, and the Cow and Gate jars. Not looked at any others as yet.

It's unfair to condemn someone for giving their child McDonalds, I see nothing wrong in my son having a McDonalds as an occassional treat (He has nuggests, fruit bag and Fruit shoot) I let Oli have one a couple of time a month, usually because I'm having one if we;ve been out shopping on a Saturday afternoon and I can hardly leave him sat in the back seat crying cos he wants some!

As long as the child has a balanced nutritious diet 99% of the time, the odd treat isn't going to have a detrimental effect. When you see a child eating crisps/sweets/take away food, you don't know if thats the first one he's had all year or the third this week! It goes without saying, eating this crap regularly is poor parenting and possibly laziness/ignorance, but a few chips now and again when you're out feeding the ducks, or an ice cream when its hot is perfectly acceptable in my view

starlite_2

Thats very fair..my Ds has had icecream and chips, but to hand an 8 month old a bag of wotsits and ignore her whilst chatting to your friend is unacceptable...and to give an 8 month old a happy meal..why!?
I wouldn't eat that myself, it's very easy to pick up a (similarly calorific) but far more healthy sandwich from a local deli/ m&s and when we do this we buy our baby a banana and stick of cheese, which does him fine.

starlite_2

Oh and fruit shoots are really not as healthy as you'd think..giving him a coca cola might even be better for him.

missk_ensington

I haven't actually read the ingredients (and even if I did I don't think I'd understand what they were anyway) but they're sugar free, which has to be a start?

You could go on forever if you analysed everything your family ate, bread - does it contain gluten? Is it bleached? Salt? Preservatives?..... Yogurt - Sugar, stabilisers.... Cereal - more sugar, no fibre, no nutritional goodness..... Meat- too fatty....salty....no fibre, too much protein, can't digest it.... Yadda yadda.

I'm not fully understanding your point about the Wotsits, is it because the baby was 8 months old and in your view too young, or because they had Wotsits full stop? Would it have made a difference is the baby was 2-3-4 years old?

Perhaps you're a perfect parent and never get stressed, but I think for most of us busy Mums (many single working parents) for our own sanity we have to be a bit naughty from time to time and shove sweets in their hand to stop you strangling them....particularly at Asda when each checkout has 20 people in it, child is climbing out of seat you've got migraine, its 100 degrees you've not slept all night, the underwire is digging in your tit and you can feel cystitis coming on!

I'm sure everyone has had a day like this when they really get past caring if theire child is eating 0.1gram of salt!!

jo_b_2

starlite wrote:

Thats very fair..my Ds has had icecream and chips, but to hand an 8 month old a bag of wotsits and ignore her whilst chatting to your friend is unacceptable...and to give an 8 month old a happy meal..why!?
I wouldn't eat that myself, it's very easy to pick up a (similarly calorific) but far more healthy sandwich from a local deli/ m&s and when we do this we buy our baby a banana and stick of cheese, which does him fine.

It's easy to be judgemental about other people's parenting and everybody has different standards and values. Sometimes you do need to take the quicker option if you've got a hungry child and need to do things at the same time.

Perhaps this debate is in danger of sidetracking the op's original question.

(My son had his first McDonalds either shortly before or shortly after his first birthday. I can't see a great deal wrong with them as an occasional treat either but that's just my own personal point of view)

starlite_2

Okay

- Certainly a baby of that age is to young to just be shoved a crap laden snack in order to 'shut up' . The mother wasn't even watching her to make sure she didn't choke.

- Fruit shoots appear to be healthy 'juice' but they actual have less than 10% of concentrated fruit juice and contain all sorts of other nasties which you can easily read up on if you see fit. I also object to any food marketed 'for children' , it is not only more expensive, but usually is full of ll the crap you wouldn't want your child to eat.

- No I am in no way 'a perfect mother' there is no such thing, but I find it just as easy to make e.g pasta and brocolli for my babies dinner as it would be to pay over the odds for a jar of processed rubbish and heat it up.

I have a good diet, but if course have lapses, i.e whilst eating in restaurants, but want to pass these good eating habits onto my children, and can see nothing wrong in that, and to be frank to tell a child 'mcdonalds' is a 'treat' is really wrong.