To think that ‘just feed them what you eat’ when weaning is much harder than it sounds unless you already make everything from scratch?

[AliceinSlumberland]

I’ve got a 6 month old and we’re doing a bit of a mixed BLW/mushed up approach which is working for us, but I’m struggling with the ‘just feed them what you eat’ advice. I hate cooking, I should start by saying, so I have become a bit more reliant on easy to make meals, especially after a long day at work, but these just aren’t comparable with BLW. For example, I make a hotpot every so often but I use one of the packet mixes and I just feel overwhelmed about how to make it without that? Same with sausage casserole - but the baby can’t have these things as the packets have too much salt for him.

Sometimes I’ll make a pasta bake with a jar, and I do know how to make the sauce myself but it takes a lot longer. I feel like I’m having to rejig our entire menu and find new meals to have, so it’s not anywhere near as simple as ‘just feed them what you eat’ unless you’re already making everything from scratch?

Any simple hotpot recipes with less salt appreciated!

Op you can buy low salt stock cubes - stock up on a range of them (veg, chicken, beef etc) so if you do a gusto box you can swap out for the low salt ones.

(In case it isn't clear, I'm mentioning I usually cook from scratch not to be smug, but because it doesn't solve the problem anyway.)

Sorry that was in reply to @PrimrosesandPears

@WillowCraft you’ve made me feel better, thank you. I can cook most of those things from scratch, can do a roast, spag bol, cottage pie, a simple korma, make my own soup. So that’s a decent start isn’t it.

@ChevyCamaro it’s easy if you know how, I was never taught and the prospect of learning now with a baby and working to contend with is a bit overwhelming.

Lots of mum guilt surrounding this and I can totally relate.

Yes, and far too many mums who seem to be responsible for cooking.

I made meals specifically for my baby at that age, using Annabelle Karmel weaning book. From one I started giving more of what we had (obviously not if not home cooked)

What mummy makes books by Rebecca Wilson are fab all her books are suitable from 6 months and nice food for everyone and simple . Mine are a few years past weaning now but still regularly use her recipes.

I remain unconvinced that 4-5 "pouches" of anything a day are eating food how it is intended. Or indeed a variety of anything.

What are you eating that is unsuitable for children? Mine always loved spicy, fish, etc, especially as babies.

“Cooking everything from scratch” for a 6 month old?? Come on OP at that each they eat a few spoons fulls at best. It’s not hard to make a few veggie purees and freeze them! Or to mash up a banana or an avocado.

like PPs said now is a good time to adapt and make some healthier recipies for everyone. steaming veg and a piece of fish doesn’t take much effort.

Thanks for your kindness @SarahAndQuack , that makes a lot of sense to me. I’ve been steaming him veg and he likes that so I can definitely do that.

Thanks for the link @PinkRoses1245 , I’ll give one of those a go, would I just use a low salt stock cube and then it would be okay?

I had a premature baby who had to start eating other stuff at 6 months even though he was like a 3 month sized baby. So, baby led weaning was out of the question due to hand/eye coordination.
We went with home made mush. Veggies, some protein, safe flavours. And spooned it into him. He loved it.

There was the occasional Ella pouch for convenience. Or similar.
That naturally progressed into smaller and less saltier versions of our meals - or meals that were cooked for him.

Almost 12 years on and he's absolutely fine. He eats a wide variety of food but most importantly, he's alive and healthy.

I wouldn't stress too much but if you make mush and feed it too him you won't be sending him towards a life of doom and gloom

I should add, my husband cooks a lot and is an excellent cook, he can just add things to the recipe and it comes out delicious, where as I have to try really hard and follow a recipe exactly to get a mediocre meal 😂

Oh, do it! Then you can say in dismay when he's four 'but once you loved steamed veg!' (This is a rite of passage IMO).

And it's not about being kind; just there's so much mum guilt and it is rough.

Actually this supports what I was thinking - that babies needn't be so "protected" against salt:
https://lilynicholsrdn.com/salt-baby-food-infant-sodium-requirements/

Piccolo and kallo both do low salt stock cubes.

Also if you're going to do a curry, chilli etc just do two pots simultaneously one small one to batch for DC without hot chilli or salt in. But just batch cook anything you can, not as an additional task but if you're making Bolognese for example make enough for at least two meals, and get silicone ice cube trays for baby portions, decent the cubes into ziplock freezer bags. Then on busy days you've got "ready meals" you/they can ask eat without fretting. Minestrone is another good one to freeze. Anything a bit wet basically! I also do wonky veg pasta sauce. If I've got anything cooking in the oven I just chop any slightly bendy veg in the fridge, roast with garlic oregano and a little bit of olive oil, add Passata near the end, a little water or low salt stock if it's too thick, blitz, freeze in ice cubes. All children seem to love pasta and it's nice and healthy. Also a good option for when you're eating something you don't want them to have or they don't like.

I will caveat this by saying I really love cooking and when I was on mat leave some of my me time was going into the kitchen when DH came home and took over with ds, putting radio 4 on and taking my time to cook a meal, but I do realise that's not for everyone!

@Allinadayswork80 I relate to that! By the time I’ve worked, got the dogs out with the baby in the carrier, tidied up a bit and actually interacted with my child, it’s really hard to find the motivation and energy to learn a new skill but I will try. One meal at a time!

I made my own mini meals for DD using the Annabel Karmel books, batch cooked and froze small portions, by the time DS came along I didn't have as much time so he had more pouches. Eating what we had just wasn't practical/ suitable for many reasons and even now the DC eat earlier than us so just doesn't work...

Yup - I didn't really know how to cook until
I had kids for this exact reason.

But honestly, once you've tried a few different recipes, you've then got a stock cupboard of spices / low salt stock and you'll realise that a lot of stuff is much easier than you think.

I also make big jars of 'packet mixes' at a time so it's then as quick eg fajita spice, Moroccan mix, casserole mix etc

We cook from scratch - so don’t use packets or jar mixes.
when they were little I would just not use salt/spice ik things and then take out the kids portion and then add chilli/extra salt etc to tast for adults.
so I would make a Thai green curry, take out the kids portion and mix that with rice and more coconut cream to water it down and then add chillies to for us.
I would use some stock in a bolagnaise bit add more salt and pepper when eating my own portion.
if we were having something they really
Couldn’t have I’d do them a jacket potatoe mashed with some veg.
I just took a reduced salt view rather than a never should any salt pass thier lips. All teens now and pretty healthy.

I also did batches of homemade nuggets, lamb kebab things, tuna croquettes for the freezer to pull out if we were not eating well that night!

Huge tray of finger shaped roasted veg was ace to freeze too - carrots, potatoes, parsnips, sweet potatoes etc

Yes, it was sort of an impetus for us to actually start eating well and cooking properly. It doesn't even have to be that time consuming. I don't find a home-made bolognaise particularly more time-consuming than from a jar, for example. Frozen diced veg is a winner.

The Taming Twins website has loads of stuff that's easy and quick to make and all four of us have enjoyed pretty much everything we've made from there.

Why can't you just boil pasta and add some cheese and small veg through it.

Doesn't need to be smothered in sauce

Do you like/eat eggs? Those can be the basis for a lot of baby friendly meals with no salt/UPFs. I found it really helpful to have a few egg-based lunches in particular as it’s so quick to scramble an egg or do an omelette, and baby can have pretty much exactly what you’re having.

Scrambled eggs on toast for you, maybe with some cheese or veg mixed in, and the same for baby with separate toast fingers.

Omelette and salad for you, maybe with some bread on the side, a one egg omelette sliced into fingers (or just a strip of yours at first) and some cucumber sticks/other appropriate veg for baby.

Frittata is also nice - with whatever veg you have in the fridge, maybe add some cheese (or ham or bacon for the adults), serve with salad.

I also found prepping longer meals (by which I mean more than about ten minutes) quite difficult with DC1 due to the layout of the house as our kitchen wasn’t open plan and he would whine in the bouncer after a while. I had to batch cook stuff to reheat, eg sauces with pasta, when I had someone around to entertain him. Good luck - it doesn’t last very long and hopefully you’ll find a balance that suits you all after the first few months.

You can make your own vegetable stock easily - boil water and add carrot, celery, onion and leave to simmer. Then cool and pour into pots to/bags to freeze until you need it for recipes for baby.

I just batch cooked a variety of lunches/dinners, froze them, and would add veg to them for the finger foods.

Made my life so much simpler!! I've just ran out of homemade pasta sauce so will need to batch cook some more.

I can cook, but am often sooooo tired, i will eat ready meals or chocolate!

Another great easy reciepe is homemade fishcakes. A tin of sardines, grated carrot, breadcrumbs, squish into round balls. Takes 10 minutes to make and just bung in oven with homemade sweet potato fries and some peas or green beans.

The problem with the pouches, aside from not offering much variety in texture, is that they are often quite sweet, either with fruit or with things like sweet potato or carrot, which can be difficult when trying to develop a baby's palate when you move on to normal food that isn't sweetened. I've used them with both DDs sometimes and usually have fruit ones in stock as they can be handy, but I think using them all the time isn't really ideal because they are very samey.

Yes @WhoHidTheCoffee love eggs, I can make nice scrambled eggs 😂 and my husband does omelettes pretty regularly so they’re okay for him.

@Clefable yes to be fair I don’t use jars for spag Bol, I do that from scratch, so if I can do that then I can do
it for other meals can’t I.

I just feel like ‘weaning is easy, just feed them want you eat’ comes from a place where you’re already a confident healthy cooker, and it’s not as easy as people make out.