To not see how I can follow the advice 'feed baby what ever you are having'?

[ethelfleda]

Maybe I am being over cautious- 8mo is my PFB after all and am terrified of getting the weaning thing wrong!

But yesterday was the first time I've had him weighed since we started weaning him. All fine - perfect weight gain etc but the HV is telling me that as long as I'm not giving him honey or full nuts, anything goes!

So... what about the piri piri smoked fish I had earlier in the week? And should I not make him separate portions of chilli with less spice in? Tonight's dinner is veggie omelette - should I just get over myself and give him some of that? Or carry on giving separate food to us?

I feel pretty stupid for finding this so difficult!

If you eat a diet of butter chicken and spaghetti I'm sure that this will work a treat but if you eat real food you are going to struggle to keep your baby fully fed-have you ever heard of an 8bmobth old that was willing to eat an endive gorgon zola salad? Me neither.

Because it's quite obviously a binary choice between those two things.

Babies could eat all salad vegetables and you could try them with blue cheese should you want to. My toddler used to quite happily tuck into a "caesar salad" with chicken, loads of lettuce, avocado and grated cheese. I left the caesar dressing off as it was a bit salty. DD in particular was very partial to a prawn salad, the bigger and juicier the prawns the better.

Babies and toddlers do not need "baby food". You really can give them what you're having.

the only thing I can remember making from scratch for babies that I didn't do before is stock - the cubes ones are not good for kids.
It just involved pilling the slow cooker with a range of veg and some water, and leave to cook overnight, then drain and freeze.

I used to save a bit of each night's dinner for the baby to have the following evening... That way it's ready when the hungry screaming starts before the dinner is ready.

have you ever heard of an 8bmobth old that was willing to eat an endive gorgon zola salad?

have you met a baby? They’ll shove anything in their mouths. It’s when they get to 2-3 they start getting picky - may as well introduce them to what you can before then!

We used to give mine chunks of lemon to snack on at that age. Weird but she was happy.

It’s fine to let your baby have what you are eating- get used to cooking without salt and add back to your portion. Be aware of stock cubes as they have salt. Spice unless furociously hot is fine too.

My DD used to eat curry with a bit of yoghurt mixed in. Didn't used to give it a second thought. She eats anything now

Op, purées aren't needed.
You'll be amazed at how quickly a baby could gum something to mush.
There's probably more goodness in just giving them a broccoli floret to eat as it is, than a jar of mush.
I remember dd eating whole chicken legs and plums whole as a baby, the stone would just be popped out with her tongue. Stupid probably, but they're alive and well!

Yes all the food you've listed I'd give to a baby, no problem!

Look up gag reflex, and learn the difference between gagging and choking - it's normal to gag a fair bit, that's just baby learning to manipulate food in their mouth and NOT choke.

Sounds like you could do we a helping hand /bit of reassurance ?

I used the Annabell Karmel cook books for children - sensible food that I was happy to heat as well ( still eating some of the recipes) and good advice on nutrition.

Oh god yes, anything from your list is fine. The whole point is that you don't have to eat 'baby food' or 'nursery food'. Feed them the whole weird and wonderful range of what you're eating.

It is much easier giving baby what you eat BUT I think if you are eating a lot of processed food then perhaps cooking separate for baby is better. I mean the odd jar of pasta sauce won’t hurt them but if it is every day then that isn’t great.

At that sort of age my children loved meatballs(easy to pick up), homemade curries, chilli, homemade pizza with veggie sticks etc Veggie omelette is a perfect weaning food.

IVe got a thread on here about how much I regret cooking separately for DS1 and giving him ‘children’s food’ when he was younger. I think it’s contributed to his fussiness tbh. Partly it was because I wanted DH and i to carry on with our fancy foodie ways, rather than eat big standard family meals. If you have a healthy diet with plenty fruit and veg, and are willing to forgo the spicy / salty stuff for a few years, do it.

I found that advice more useful when DS has some teeth tbh. He just couldn’t eat things like wraps, stuffed pasta, tabbouleh.

But he loved sucking the refríes beans out of burritos, loved omelettes (grabbed it off my plate), really loved daal... I started putting a bit less spice in it, but Mexican/Indian/wherever babies grow up eating spicy food, no reason British ones can’t.

My two ate the same as us. I don't use salt in my cooking anyway so it wasn't a problem. One of my teenagers has always eaten everything I put in front of him. The other one ate everything till he was about 9 and then became extremely fussy, but now at 19 he's pretty much back to eating "most things"

I'd be wary of frozen veg at the moment. Lots of it being recalled due to contamination.

I'd just offer a bite of what you're eating and see how you get on. My nephew was found licking an extra strong mint once! He also likes to steal the lemon or lime from your drink!

I was never given baby food. Just a mashed up or cut up version of whatever my parents had, and I grew up happy to eat whatever was in front of me, as did my peers.

1st born weaning was an exciting and frightening time. Constantly worrying about what he should/n't eat.
4th is currently undergoing a combination of toddler and baby led weaning in which his 2yr old sister feeds him whatever she can find and he steals his older brothers food while they eat his baby snacks.

It's like the "sleep when the baby sleeps" advice - useful if practical, but if it doesn't work for you don't worry. We were plenty sleep deprived with our twins and tended to favour pasta and takeaways with a bit of salad to try and make it a bit healthier. Not really ideal for a weaning baby - we fed ours baked fish and chicken, roasted root veggies, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, cucumber sticks, rice cakes, all sorts of fruit, yoghurt, I did try porridge but they looked at me horrified and refused to swallow it...

oddsocks

We just give the kids what we have, with tougher bits (eg beef) chopped up small. DD1 was weaned on all sorts. Dd2 thinks that if it’s not a strawberry it’s not food...

I agree with the OP, it's not possible for most people to 'just give the baby what you eat' unless you change what you are eating (which some people are happy to do).

My baby refused spicy food. So that would be chilli's/curries/burritos/fajitas/hot tomato pasta sauces all off the menu. She also won't eat strong tastes like blue cheese etc.

I wouldn't be happy giving her food sloshing in alcohol (I know people claim it comes off when you cook it - but I read a study where they actually measured how much alcohol comes off in cooking, and unless you are boiling it to death for ages with the lid off, a lot remains). So no beef and ale pie, no coq au vin, stroganoff, casseroles, etc.

I don't add any salt to food - but much of what we eat is too salty for a baby (anything full of cheese, bacon, ham etc). So saying 'dont add salt til the table' doesn't solve that issue at all.

Its much easier now she's over one than when we first started as she can eat more now. But we do a mix of cooking a seperate low salt/no alcohol version for her, giving her bits of what we are having when possible, and sometimes completely different foods (for example on takeaway night!). I also keep the freezer stocked with small emergency portions of 'safe' food that I know she always likes, so if she rejects what we give her I can pull out the rice, prawns and peas.

We did exactly that to be fair. Curry I’d add yoghurt in so it had no spice. Spaghetti Bolognase was a popular, messy choice (and still is) stir fry’s, cottage pie, grilled salmon/chicken etc

Would love to hear some examples of these ‘real foods’ that adults wouldn’t feed to children!

Do it, OP, it’s so much easier and it gives them such easy access to a much wider range of foods. It’s all about exploring textures and first tastes so don’t worry if he’s not actually eating much. We eat spicy food so mine like spice but if it was really nippy I’d put some Creme fraiche or yoghurt in. Loads of vegetables are handy finger foods, like carrot sticks or broccoli. Cut cheese into fingers (mine liked Stilton with apricots or wensylade with cranberries, I think because they’re quite sweet). Anything with rice they can have a go at with a spoon, make it fun. I loved weaning mine, once you’ve got over the initial choking fear (really a very small risk, agree with a pp who said to read up on gag reflex in babies if you want a bit of reassurance) you’re away.

Mine get exactly what we’re eating. It’s been fine!

There’s nothing on your list that a baby couldn’t eat OP.
There’s also absolutely nothing wrong with babies eating spicy food. Our 7mth old loves Fajita Chicken!
90% of the time our 7mth old eats exactly what we’re having just chopped up!
I started on purees/pouches for a few weeks before quickly realising they’re expensive and not needed - DS would far rather have proper food.

Bangers and mash would be the perfect example of NOT to give a baby
Gamon
Pineapple
Anything with honey
Seafood
Mackerel
Strawberries shouldn't be introduced too young either

I am sure I could remember a full list like that