Baby weaning any apps or books you would recommend?

[RevelryMum]

I'd like to get prepared for weaning DD is 18 weeks and becoming very interested in what we are eating . I've no idea what I'm doing as a FTM so would like to start looking g at some books or apps to try prepare . I'm thinking a mixture of purées and BLW ?

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I would get the actual baby led weaning book (from the library, you don’t need to buy it). BLW by definition doesn’t involve purées because they aren’t baby led (they are you feeding your baby). So you can do finger foods and purée, but it’s so much easier just to feed them normal food you eat yourself. If you want ideas for recipes, I’d look on Pinterest.

The weaning section on the NHS Start for Life website is good and factual for things like nutritional needs, how to introduce allergens, foods to introduce and avoid, choking hazards etc.

You can either do "traditional" weaning, which is pureeing food to spoon-feed them and adding additional finger foods at whatever point and speed feels right to you (you can do this either right from the beginning or later on) or "baby led weaning" which just means skipping purees and spoon-feeding and doing finger foods only. If doing BLW the Gill Rapley book is good for ideas on how to serve things so that babies can easily hold them (and available very cheaply second hand).

I and most of the other mums I know used ‘How to Wean Your Baby’ by Charlotte Stirling-Reed which uses a mixture of finger food and purees and has a full plan for the first 30 days, and it has some recipes too for the following months. Really useful book and explains all the basics before you get started too.

You can just feed baby what you are having if you reduce the salt that you cook with and just add it to the adults plate when done. Get some books from the library rather than buying if you want to try specific recipes.

Avoid pouches or any containers you can't see into. Whilst they maybe convenient there have been several batches where the contents haven't been pasteurised properly and have been mouldy - parents didn't realize as they were feeding directly to baby.

I used to take a small plastic tupperware box, fork, spoon and a banana to mash for eating out and about.

Have you done baby first aid, weaning is a good time to have a refresh. When they are learning to eat they often gag particularly if doing BLW, this is a natural process and they are normally fine but it's good the know what to do if they aren't.

I loved the What Mummy Makes book, still using some of the recipes now and DS is 2. The Solid Starts app is really useful too, not for recipes but for working out how to serve different foods at different ages (like 'how do I cut an apple for a 6 month old').

Just ordered this , thank you x

I haven't done first aid and that's a really good point going to look into this thank you