Weaning

[lilymolly]

Hi I have a 7 month old girl who I have been wenaing for a month and after days of steaming pureeing and freezing veg, I am at my wits end. She refuses to eat anything unless it is sweet. I have tried mixing fruit and veg, jars, dried savory to no avail, but give her fruit and she wolfs it down- any tips before I Go mad

[CorrieDale]

Why not try her with finger foods? The new experience might prompt her to eat savoury. Failing that, I'd go with it! Honestly, there is nothing more soul-destroying than having a row with your baby over food. Time enough for that when they're toddlers exerting their only form of control!

[JandNMum]

My daughter is 7mths old and a little girl who will eat anything sweet and fruity in 2 minutes but take forever to eat anything else. Have had some success with a lentil, apple and baby rice mix that I created this week. If you are interested, here's what I did:
Chop up a large apple and weigh it. Put in a saucepan. Add the same amount of red lentils. Cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer until the lentils are cooked and the apple is soft. Strain the liquid off and then puree. I added quite alot of the liquid back in so the puree was very thin. For each 80g of liquid I served it with 2 tsps of baby rice. My little cherub ate about 50% no problem. I was then able to alternate spoonfuls of the mix with two different vegs that she tolerates. I kept these separate so she had 3 different tastes. Has worked for the past 3 days. Am trying a chicken and apricot variation tomorrow....

[lilymolly]

Thank for this, have tried finger food, and she will eat anything savory but you mush it up and put it on a spoon and she shuts her mouth! So she eats tiny little bits of savour food via this method, but is not getting enough nutrition through this method, cos she has not perfected the art of chewing and swallowing lumps yet, so sticking with this and keeping on with the fruits and yogurt to fill her up in the mean time until she learns skills to have complete finger food!
However did eat chicken/apricot jar today so at going to mix sweet and savory and give that a try! will try your recipe jand n mum, thanks!

[CorrieDale]

Practice makes perfect, they say! At 7 months, they should be on milk mostly anyway, so I wouldn't worry too much about the nutrition aspects. We did BLW, and DS was 10 months before he started eating much of anything (although he always ate a good variety of food). Have you considered BLW, by the way? Sounds like it would suit your little girl down to the ground!

[JandNMum]

Sorry - what BLW? Thanks!

[lilymolly]

BLW? is it baby led weaning? if so what does this entail??
I think half the problem with Dd is that she is so small!! she is only 15lb 10oz at 7 months old, she is very petite and has little appetite she only has 4 x 6oz bottles a day and has slept through night since 17 weeks from 7pm till 8am (sorry not bragging!) so she is clearly getting enough food so maybe your right, wait until she is older and has appetite, although she has started crawling and seems to be getting hungrier each week, presumably cso she is using more energy.

[hotmama]

Lillymolly - yep - Baby Led Weaning. There is a thread under weaning - do a search on blw. There are some good blogs by Aitch71 and a Yahoo user group - the links are on the BLW thread - sorry I am crap at doing links.

My dd2 is 6 months and I am intending to go down the blw route with her - I did the 'puree' route with dd1. [smile

[hooleymama]

Hello...have you tried sweet veg like roasted squash, sweet potato or parsnip, I've been mixing them in with the tasteless shop bought baby pap..even I'd eat it...also just tried putting a bit of tomato puree in which seems to work.Check its not got any added salt though..Also wondering if I can make fruit curds with pasteurised egg powder...trying to bring the boy up as a veggie so got to be creative about protein.

[JandNMum]

Oh yes! Tried all those - no joy. However, now that we are 90% BLWing (yoghurt is the only thing on a spoon that is tolerated!) things have got much better and Stinkerbell will happily munch on a carrot fresh from Grandad's garden. Am planinng to try her with "chips" of roasted turnip and parsnip soon so fingers crossed!! Would love to hear your creative ideas for protein as Stinkerbell is not that keen on meat so far. Thanks.

[aitch71]

have you seen the breaded chicken recipe on the blog? it's really nice for everyone to eat.
lookinRecipesFolder

[JandNMum]

Have it freezing as we speak! Thank you! Found some dreaded chicken puree in the freezer while I was in there so am going to offer her some as a spread on toast tomorrow with chopped tomato. If it works, I'll keep the puree; if it fails, it'll go where the other purees went - the bin.

[aitch71]

oooh, tell me how it goes. (but only if you like it). and i'm sure that's an excellent way to use up purees. i've also heard of people serving purees as pasta sauce.

[hooleymama]

hee hee..warned DP from using the veggie purees in the freezer as pasta sauces cos' they were 50% breast milk...as for veggie protein I'm relying on lentils, cheese, egg (hence the fruit curd thought) at the moment..all suggestions gratefully received.

[PinkyRed]

My dd is 10m and loves hummus(sp?) - as it's chickpeas that'll be protein won't it? She eats it off carrots, bread, cucumber - just about everything. It's v messy though - not one for when you're going round to someone else's house.

For sweetness, have you tried chicken and mango? DD loves that. Also, I roast loads of vegetables, and she eats everything. The nicest was tomato, courgette, aubergine, onions and mushrooms - with the onions it was quite sweet. I pureed the leftovers and froze it then gave it to her spread on pitta bread.

Remember as well that she'll still be getting most of her nutrition from her milk, so if she's not eating all of the finger food, it doesn't matter. Bits will be getting through, and she's still learning important lessons about taste and handling food even if she doesn't swallow it.

[JandNMum]

Chicken puree on toast went well - went even better when I mashed some fresh tomato through it! Am going to have a go at lentil and apple spread as she quite likes it off a spoon with a little baby rice. Well, I say "quite likes" what I really mean is she will tolerate approx two spoonfuls before lips shut tighter than a shark's a* at forty fathoms.... Keep on with the suggestions and support. Which reminds me.. I have to say that having this website, the BLW website and the Yahoo group has been a godsend. I'm a bit isolated where I am and am newish to the area so miss out on the mummy support I had when DS was young. Thank you and XXX to you all.

[aitch71]

get thee to your nearest NCT coffee morning, woman.

[aitch71]

and take a look at the blog, Miss Stinkerbell has made an appearance on the main page.

[Chippyt]

I used a great baby food provider called Baby-Pure. They do homemade organic babyfood which is made to suit all ages and comes in different textures - is made to order as well so you can pick and chose what goes in to each meal. I think they deliver nationwide but email them to see or go to website which is www.baby-pure.co.uk. Hopes this helps - and a great way to feed without all the hard work and worry !! I used them for 12 months and it was a godsend.

[aitch71]

chippyt, do you work for this company? you seem very fond of it, having posted only two messages, both with the same content.

[JennT]

Lillymolly, my dd is 7.5 months and only 15lb 15oz, and thriving on blw.