Completely at sea with the idea of weaning...help

[TearingMyHairOut]

I promise I will go out and buy a good book when the time comes, but can anyone give me an idea of what to expect.

1. How do you know when a child is ready to be weaned? (some people say waking up earlier in the morning, but what if he wakes up really early and times are often erratic)
   
2. how do you know how much to give and how often? I know you start with baby rice and then basic veg but that's about it.
   And any other things I should really know! I sound stupid ...just want to be prepared and know what to expect.
   One last thing...
   
3. Is it really hard work?

[nailpolish]

i LOVED weaning

my 2 dd's were about 7 months, i kept looking out for signs, didnt get any, got to 7 months decided i would just go for it

started with 2-3 ice cubes worth of rice or pears

seeing babies face when they have that new taste in their mouth, their little tongues poke around, tasting the food, their eyes get big, concentrating "oh whats this!"



its really fun and great to watch

start now if you like, make little batches of pureed pears and apples, carrotts, courgette, freeze in ice cube trays (i found everything a bit watery, i used to add a little babyrice to thicken up with)

banana and potato dont freeze to well, but you dont have to puree banana, just mash with a fork

[nailpolish]

i mean start cooking now, not feeding

[nailpolish]

oh and a good tip i was given which i thought was great was, do you have one of these simple bouncy chairs? sit baby in the chair and sit on the couch/chair (or on the floor) and feed baby with spoon like that, its a good angle for feeding them and you are face to face with them, they like to be able to see you and you can encourage them

[nailpolish]

oh and i did one mealtime a day - start with lunch, for about 5-7 days, then move on to breakfast and lunch, then bfast lunch and teatime

2-3 cubes for each meal, then it just builds up. soon you will be giving baby little tastes of your own meal!

(sorry, i go all mushy over weaning, i just loved it )

[TearingMyHairOut]

Thank you...nice first reply to see it was a positive experience. What kind of first signs would you have been looking for?

[nailpolish]

i really dont know TMHO

i heard others talk of early waking, still hungry after a breast feed, crying, waking in the night after having been an all-night sleeper, but none of these happened in my case

i got to 7 months and i just started slowly

how old is your baby?

[TearingMyHairOut]

oh, only just under four months, not ready yet I'm sure, I just wanted to know what to look out for over the next couple of months

[nailpolish]

this is a great book for when they are a bit past the weaning stage and i also used Annabel Karmel at first, for some good hints and simple recipes, although i had a better book that i had bought in Marks and Spencer

dont make it hard on yourself, try (after the initial stages) to give baby what you are having, although there are exceptions, like salty or sugary foods

have fun!

[sweetkitty]

I started at 6 months with both my DDs, didn't give baby rice it's horrible like wallpaper paste but have used it to thicken up purees. I started with pureed carrot and mashed banana (not together) nailpolish has given loads of good advice. Get a bouncy chair, a load of bibs, some plastic bowls and some ice cube trays oh and some plastic weaning spoons. At the same time (after 6 months) you can give them pieces of food to chew on themselves (loads of people chose not to spoonfeed their children completely and let the baby chose what to eat it's called baby led weaning there tonnes of threads on here about it) cook some chip sized pieces of veg like carrot (over cook till they are really soft) and just let them get on with it.

Other good finger foods are things like toast, broccoli, banana, peach, rice cakes.

It's not hard work the plan should be to get your baby eating pretty much what you do as soon as you can, my DD2 is 8mo, she gets all her veg and finger foods whilst I am eating then either gets some sloppier food on a spoon or has a yoghurt. It's mostly the same food as the rest of us (minus the salt).