Hints and tips for weaning (merged)

donna-j_2

The guidelines are 6 months now, but that's really for developing countries where gastroenteritis still kills.

It's more what they are eating and at what age I think.

donna-j_2

Thomas just had sweet potato for his lunch and it was hardly dificult to make up.

across

i started with simple foods like i suggested and then worked the baby up gradually to a full meal at a sensible pace because the sooner you can all eat the same at a family meal and the easier it is as a mother to prepare a meal.the hv said 12 mths for cows milk to me but i told her i was starting it sooner and she didnt disagree or say it was harmful to the child i couldnt wait to get on cows milk in a cup and off formula milk in a bottle life gets so much easier and my two girls have come to no harm, i think you would soon know if foods arent suitable to your baby a lady up the road couldnt give hers gluten due to allergy but that only made her life harder during food prep. everyone will feed their own way what suits one will be unheard of to another ive always opted for the easiest option for me and i still have two lovely girls from it they are not ill very often so perhaps im doing something right even if it is not exactly to new guidelines!

Madmel

At the end of the day, it's personal choice. My girls (now 6 & 4) both hated baby rice, so we didn't bother with it, other than for thickening fruit purees.

I also bought a hand blender and some cheap ice cube trays then made a batch of different pureed veg and froze it. But it's also important to get them used to lumpier food, and there are occasionally times when you can't get to your puree that you need to get them used to eating mash from your plate.

If the chiod is showing an interest in what you are eating, as long as it won't harm them, I'd let them try it. The main concerns with weaning are to minimise allergies and salt. As long as you bear that in mind, you'll be fine!

across

the pressure cooker is a great way of doing veg it is so tasty and no salt necessary at all then you can blend it for baby and make a few things at once!

Karnam

So my little one turns 12 wks on thursday. big milestone as we all know. well i know that you start supplementing milk feeds with things like baby rice etc. at 4 months, so im planning now

so i wanna know what books/equipment you used/found invaluable. I have avent VIA cups, which are for frozen breast milk and say that i can freeze baby foods in them so i guess i dont need ice cube trays... do i need a mini blender (we dont have a blender at all...)? i have a few spoons and plates and things from christmas gifts, i also have one sippy cup do i need more?

and more importantly, what book should i use? i know i dont need one but generally i find a ref book incredibly useful for things like this so what should i use? i had a quick look in annabel karmel's superfoods but it doesnt say anything about what age the foods are good for, wheras gina ford's food book says things like 'from 6 months' etc. what experiences do you have? i wanna give my little one LOADS of diff foods to get her started. is baby pasta a waste of time?

i breast fed and i also wanna know how you managed to get them off the boob. at the moment the little one has one bottle a day of breast milk given to her by her dad. i had planned on upping the number of expressed breast milk feeds until she's entirely on bottled breadt milk.... does this sound feasible? i know its a lot of questions but im so obviously a new mum!

thanks guys

alwaysskint96

Firstly there really is no need to wean so early- nowdays 6 months is the recommended age

But if you do its best to start with baby rice and either fruit or vegetables- I certainly wouldnt worry about making lots of meals etc at first- they will ponly get wasted

You might be better off looking in a Mums and baby forum for this sort of help. You could try the forums at Handbag.com ( these are good although down at the mo) and www,babyworld.co.uk.

Both sites are very informative and full of Mums who are going through the same thing or have been there


As for getting them off the boob- mine lost interest by themselves so cant help there

Lemoncurd

Hi, I've got a 4 month old but we're trying to hold off weaning for a while. The current advice is to not start solids until they are at least 6 months old.
We were panicked into starting to wean our first soon after 4 months as her weight gain had decreased a lot but I'm determined not to do the same again.

I found a lidded ice cube tray invaluable - the VIA containers might be a bit large for first portions and would have a shorter life. I just cooked batches of food, froze them in the ice cube tray and then emptied them into food bags so we could then take out a couple of cubes as and when needed.
If you start to introduce foods before 6 months it is advised to take things slowly and to leave a few days between each new food. There are also a few things you should avoid before 6 months, wheat is one of them so pasta might not be a good idea.
I found the Annabel Karmel books useful for ideas to start with. You could also try looking at any info from you Health Visitor, they always seem to have lots of handy leaflets!

This time however we are planning on taking a completely different approach and possibly avoiding purees altogether. I've since read up on "Baby led weaning" where your baby controls what it eats, mainly through finger foods, it sounds like a much more natural way of doing things... will see how it actually works when the time comes!
Some more info here if you are interested:
http://www.babyfriendly.org.uk/weaning.asp
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/B-LW

Lemoncurd

alwaysskint96 wrote:

You might be better off looking in a Mums and baby forum for this sort of help. You could try the forums at Handbag.com ( these are good although down at the mo) and www,babyworld.co.uk.

Now I'll just be trying to guess who you are on Handbag

Karnam

Lemoncurd wrote:

I found a lidded ice cube tray invaluable - the VIA containers might be a bit large for first portions and would have a shorter life.

i thought the via cpu looked huge, but i do have quite a lot of them.... maybe ill leave them for freezing bigger foods at around 8 or 9 months. i did look at these lidded pots from jojo maman bebe but i wasnt sure how useful these would be - how many would i need? i need a basic book to get started like what foods to avoid my health visitor is very dimissive i dont expect to be able to reduce milk feeds until around 5 or 6 months, but im a plan ahead kinda person so will look into all this now and spend the next 2 months looking out for things for cheap in the shops - long term MS :T