Weaning - Help!

[citygirl385]

Dear Lovely Mumsnetters,

I am hoping you can help me.

I’m not a Mum, but I am a quasi-stepmother every other weekend to my boyfriend’s son who is now approx. 6 months old. We have been a couple for about a year (friends prior to that) with a fling from before me popping up heavily pregnant when we’d been together a while. Consequently, my boyfriend’s son has been staying with us every other weekend (and quite a lot of weekends in between) since he was about 6 weeks old – while not my child, I treat him as I do my godchildren and obviously want to do my best for him when he’s with us, because the little man doesn’t deserve to suffer just because he’s got a complicated parental situation.

Now … weaning. It seems to be a very complicated with different methods and viewpoints. The little mans Mum feeds him processed stuff from jars most of the time, which I understand as she is a busy single Mum. My boyfriend and I eat quite well as I like to cook with lots of fresh proper food and slow-cooked stews, curries etc. made in bulk and frozen in portions, and I obviously do the food shopping too. I am reluctant to feed the little one only jars when he’s with us for obvious reasons as we only occasionally eat processed food - his Mum doesn’t mind what we choose to feed him as she trusts our judgement.

My first question is: are there any good resources for recipes I can cook in bulk and freeze in portions as he is with us irregularly? I was wondering about a slow cooked vegetable stew so it’s soft – just fresh root vegetables and a little salt-free stock – then whizzed up as a starting point for his system? Perhaps progressing on to a chicken stew with time? Obviously I’d whiz this up in a blender once it was done so he can actually eat it – does anyone have comments/ideas/suggestions/recipes please?

My second question is: some friends who’ve weaned several of their children with different methods have found those they weaned on jars are fussier eaters with sweeter tastes as there’s so many sweeter flavours in the jars to make them palatable for little ones (e.g. mango etc. added to “savoury” jars), however I would like to have some ready-made fruit purees on hand which I am less concerned about making from scratch – are there any particularly good brands? Anything to be concerned about or look out for? I usually shop in Aldi because I like their ethos as a company, but £ is not an issue so anything stocked in any of the major supermarkets is fine. Likewise any savoury jars which are better than others for their content as I’m sure there will be times when the convenience of a jar outweighs our ideals and intentions!

As I say, I’m not a Mum and this parenting malarkey is a massive learning curve for me and a huge departure from how I spend my days (I actually work in the City in the financial sector hence at 30 don’t have my own children yet) so I’d really appreciate any help, pointers and guidance you can give from your experiences, as you are definitely the experts on this one.

Thank you so much in advance.

Citygirl :)

[OddSocksHighHeels]

I'll start by saying that I never used jars yet had the fussiest eater going as a toddler so don't expect anything either way in that regard.

You can feed him anything that you eat (no honey, no whole nuts, don't leave bones in meat/fish and don't add salt) and either blend it or leave it as it is. My DD refused to be fed right away so I ditched the puréed stuff and gave her things that she can hold and eat herself - pasta, toast, omelette, vegetables, fruit, whatever I was eating. Bananas seem to be loved by most kids and are easy to hold and eat as well.

Remember that they don't tend to eat much at this age so have fun trying a few things and figuring out what he likes.

The only other thing to be wary of is if there are any allergies on either side.