Hints and tips for weaning (merged)

black-saturn

Both of my daughters hated baby rice. You can't blame them really, it's awful. Try mixing it with banana, apple puree or adding some of the formula milk to it.

purplepurple

we didn't use baby rice at all and just started off with pureed carrot... both of mine loved it... my son really loved pureed asparagus (!) and couldn't get enough of it. It does, however, make wet nappies smell like nothing on earth... absolutely vile! :rotfl: But now at three years old, he'll take salad, fruit and veg over anything else so maybe it paid off in the end!

£Ronnie

Another good book is Gina Ford's weaning one. Even if you don't follow her daily routines she has some great advice on when to give what food. She had great recipies too, as does Annabel Karmel.

One thing to note though: Both banana and avocado are great weaning foods, nuitritous and convienient, however they do take longer to digest than other foods. So for example if you give baby one of these foods at lunchtime, he/she may not feed well in the afternoon or at teatime, which may result in baby waking at night due to hunger, however if given at teatime baby is likely to sleep very well that night. Invaluable if you know baby hasn't fed well during the day and are worried about waking that night!

across

cooked apples and pears blended until puree texture is a nice little first food after plain baby rice it is easy to swallow and then you can thicken it a little by adding baby rice to it! you can make lots up in ice cube tray or little plastic dishes with lids and freeze then defrost and warm in microwave or in egg poacher on cooker! the other ideas above are great i think everyones covered veg etc i started with plain carrot (puree) then add swede etc and gradually get thicker then lumpier later on you'll know when to just go with the baby!and brocalli/cauliflower cheese is nice and easy! made with formula milk at first!eventually youll be blending what youre eating and its great fun trying new tastes!

beautifulgorgeous_2

I used a spoon of powder baby food to thicken what we were having if it was too sloppy when i mashed it.

Counting_Pennies_2

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=80794

This was a thread about starting to feed baby it was from a while back.

Hope it helps

Edit:

Also I forgot this one:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=104045&page=1&pp=10

and this:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=92712

and this rather argumentative one!
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107430

donna-j_2

I'm actually quite shocked at the number of people who say they fed their babies the same food as them. Do they mean from the start? There are clear guidelines on what babies should not have at such a young age, such as wheat and protein.

jellycat40

Hi there,
My children are strapping teens and twenties and I have one healthy 8 year old. No alergies and I weaned them from my plate! Yes you have to be sensible and I didn't wean early between 5 and 6 months but I can't see the difference between veg you puree separately and veg you mash up on your plate. I started with mashed carrot and then mashed potato and went from there. Salt is the only real no no as the kidneys cannot cope with too much.

I think too much is made of weaning, Mums get stressed by preparing little bits of this and that and then junior refuses it. It is costly and soul destroying so I just didn't get dragged down into it. Why do you need a cook book for babies just adapt what you have and don't get stressed.

Good Luck to all you new Mums

Louise

donna-j_2

Mashing veg on your plate is one thing but pureeing full dinners for babies under 6 months is a bit much IMO.

Yes, we were perhaps all weaned like that when we were wee, and are all fine, but research is there for a reason - to improve how we do things - and the guidelines have changed.

Spendless

Doesn't it depend on what sort of stuff you were eating . Mine had meat and veg pureed up, bits of potato. They had bread at a later stage as a finger food. Also advise changes very quickly. My youngest isn't 3 and I was told to wean her at 4 months,and it wasn't many years prior to that that it was 3 months. A friend of mine got told 3 months with her eldest, 4 months with the youngest with a 2 year gap. Now I understand you are asked to leave it till 6 months.