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Hints and tips for weaning (merged)

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  • At the momemt my intention is to give my little lad food that we prepare ourselves, rather than pre-made stuff. I want to get him interested in food and, when he's older, help me in the supermarket, learn about different tastes and veggies etc, and when he's much older, learn how to cook himself.

    Home cooked sounds better to me, because at least that way I know exactly what's going into his meals. I think everyone has an opinion on this one, and everyone can be 'right' in their eyes, it's just hard to know where to start at the beggining if this is your first baby.

    Everyone's been dead helpful though, and there's some books I'm going to look at that have been recommended on here too :)
  • Rachie_B
    Rachie_B Posts: 8,785 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    MrFlibble wrote:
    At the momemt my intention is to give my little lad food that we prepare ourselves, rather than pre-made stuff. I want to get him interested in food and, when he's older, help me in the supermarket, learn about different tastes and veggies etc, and when he's much older, learn how to cook himself.

    Home cooked sounds better to me, because at least that way I know exactly what's going into his meals. I think everyone has an opinion on this one, and everyone can be 'right' in their eyes, it's just hard to know where to start at the beggining if this is your first baby.

    Everyone's been dead helpful though, and there's some books I'm going to look at that have been recommended on here too :)

    home cooked is definitely easier ( in the long run ,as baby is used to the texture and taste of lots of foods early on) / cheaper / "better" for baby IMO ;)

    it doesnt take too much doing either,just cook and mash / puree / blend a load of veg combinations then freeze in ice cube trays :)

    then as he gets older you can add cheese / meat / rice / pasta etc and also make it lumpier :)
  • Madmel
    Madmel Posts: 798 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Mortgage-free Glee!
    DD1, now 7 started on baby rice and was not that keen. With DD2, now 5, I mashed up some banana and put it on my finger for her to suck off as she liked chewing my fingers. She loved it from the first mouthful and was better at trying new foods as a baby than DD1.

    I agree with home-made if at all possible, not only because it's cheaper, but because you know what they are getting. DD1 only ever had one mouthful of a jar and promptly threw it up. We were away and I naively assumed it would be easier. As she was 7 months old, I asked step-MiL if she had any bread, then made DD toast soldiers which she devoured.

    The best advice I can give anyone is to let babies experience as many foods as possible, obviously introducing them slowly. Mine have always been pretty easy to take out for meals, even when small, and have mostly eaten from our plates, I think as a result of trying lots of different foods.
  • Janepig
    Janepig Posts: 16,780 Forumite
    My two were weaned somewhere around the 20 weeks mark I think. I knew DD was ready for weaning when I went to give her Calpol after one of her vaccinations and she nearly took my arm off when she went for the spoon!!!

    I bought Annabel Karmel's book and tbh I felt like I needed to be a gourmet chef to make some of the recipes in that, but then I am a useless cook. My favourite book was Lorraine Kelly's as I found the recipes in that much easier. I just used to make up a huge batch of various veggie purees and froze them. I laid off the fruit/sweet stuff for quite a while though just to make sure they didn't start preferring that to veggies.

    Jxx
    And it looks like we made it once again
    Yes it looks like we made it to the end
  • Justie wrote:
    my Israeli friend swears by avocado for weening - not something that often appears on the lists here but it seems to be a staple there.

    My grandaughter 5 and half months loves mashed banana and avocado.
  • Rachie_B wrote:
    Do you not think its also important to spoon feed? :confused:

    home cooked vegetable puree eg if you didnt want to go down the "packets and jars " route

    am interested in this and your theories :)

    I'm a firm believer in the easy ways of parenting :D so I breastfeed for as long as they want (much easier than bottles), co sleep a bit when they're little (part of most night rather than all of every night), carry babies rather than use awkward pram and we followed the finger foods route rather than mush route of weaning :)

    I was breastfeeding her so she was getting the vast majority of food from me, so no real nutritional need to give solids. As far as I'm aware, the introducing solids thing is to encourage variety of texture and flavours as a primary goal rather than giving calories (breastmilk is much better at doing that than mushed up baby food).

    I did spoon feed things that in my view needed to be spoon fed (yogurt, porridge, soup etc). dd3 was quite happy to eat these with her fingers too :D I don't see the need to make things mushy just so that you can give it on a spoon :) why make things difficult for yourself? ;)

    I did the homemade purees for dd1 and dd2 so knew we had that option, but if you're already cooking for 4 others, why make things difficult? dd3 would have the veggies we had with our dinner, also small pieces of roast chicken, fish etc. If what we had was baby safe (no salt, not processed, no wine etc!) then she ate that :)

    She now eats virtually everything (not keen on onion bhajiis, but can't think of anything else she doesn't eat!) and is very independant when feeding (she'd much rather feed herself than let anyone else help). She's much less fussy than her older mush weaned sisters, but that could be their ages rather than the way we weaned them.
  • hi im in same position trying to wean my 5 mnth yr old daughter
    just on baby rice but she isnt really getting any of it
    sits ther e blowing bubbles and 1 spoon ful goes in and out bout ten times
    so jus tryin her every other day b4 her mid morning feed
    make a tiny amount up just few spoonfuls hoping she,ll get use to it eventually
    i know she intrested in food because follows me when eating and drinking
    JAN WINS- pepsi tshirt,
  • Rachie_B wrote:
    Do you not think its also important to spoon feed? :confused:

    I can't see any need to spoon feed exclusively if you leave weaning to 6 months or over. Obviously there are foods which a 6 month old baby (or an adult) can't eat efficiently without a spoon so you have to spoon feed certain things, eg natural yoghurt with mashed fruit!

    Our 2 eldest children were weaned at 4 months and our youngest 2 children were weaned at 6 months. This is only anectodotal evidence with a total of only 4 subjects, but the difference in length of weaning and effort involved on parents' part was quite marked between 4 and 6 months. The pureed stage lasted much longer with the boys weaned at 4 months and they took longer to get the hang of a spoon and finger foods. The girls went straight into finger food and some things mashed were spoon fed to them. Their ability to use cutlery is far superior and was mastered at a younger age. I spent far less time preparing pureed veg and fruit too. Of course the girls had the advantage of having more people in the house to copy.

    There really is little need to buy commercially prepared jars and cans of baby food, although they can be useful if out of the house for long periods, unless you don't eat freshly prepared food yourself. The only baby type food products I have found useful are the breakfast cereals (got through one packet this time) and baby rice (for thickening food). Some food products aimed at young children are positively bad for them if they are consumed frequently, eg certain rusks and petit filous yoghurts.

    We have never fed any of our children separately, with the exception of the first few weeks of weaning where it's a good idea to feed just single ingredients at a time and that doesn't always fit in well with what everyone else is eating, just adjusted everyone's food so that everyone can eat the same food, eg no salt added, no low fat products, low sugar products.

    We are still using Annabell Karmel's books now to feed the whole family. She has a variety of books published and even the books which concentrate on early years are still proving useful, eg even her early puree recipes can make great soups.

    I don't think it is so easy to go with your instincts when considering when to start weaning, or feeding early just because other mums have started their babies, or going with "signs" either. In previous times, mums went with their "instincts" and fed at birth, although I'm sure that outside pressure was mainly the cause. You can't judge the need for weaning from a baby seeming to wake more or seeming to need more food as babies have growth spurts and may need more milk, but not necessarily more solids. You can't judge from the fact your baby is able to grab a spoon either - that shows that your baby has found their hands and has realised they are useful for holding things.
  • Spendless
    Spendless Posts: 24,649 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Nicki wrote:
    but I recall when I was weaning my two about 6 years ago a story in the paper about a child who had died from sodium overdoes because his parents had fed him only on ready brek, thinking this was interchangeable with baby rice. Interestingly this was a fairly clued up family who had read the labels carefully but missed the sodium point, and were using ready brek because they had no money and it was much cheaper than baby rice.
    Yes they lived in my home town. I was pregnant with DS (nearly 7) at the time, and it was because they were a low income family and bought ready brek cos it was cheaper.

    The guidelines were 4 months when I had DD (nearly 4), but I know they got changed after this. I was told to look for signs to see if baby was ready for weaning baby waking in night when previously had sept through, trying to grap spoon from you. I was never expected by my HV to go from weaning to being on 3 meals a day in a short space of time, rather that milk remained their main food for some considerable time, and the solid meals were just brought in gradually. Mine never liked baby rice either and having tasted it myself I could see why :D . I mashed up a banana as one of their first foods and then other fruit and veg 1 at a time.
  • Rachie_B
    Rachie_B Posts: 8,785 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I can't see any need to spoon feed exclusively if you leave weaning to 6 months or over. Obviously there are foods which a 6 month old baby (or an adult) can't eat efficiently without a spoon so you have to spoon feed certain things, eg natural yoghurt with mashed fruit!

    .


    lol thats not what i was getting at
    of course finger feeding is very important, for hand - eye co ord etc etc and of course encourages independent feeding which is a very omportant step in the feeding process.

    I was only curious, as i thought the other poster was talking about ONLY feeding finger foods, and NEVER on a spoon

    she has now explained thats not so :)
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