to be intimidated by weaning because...

[marenmj]

I'll actually have to make DD healthy meals all day plus snacks?

I'll fully admit that I BF'd exclusively because I'm too lazy to bother with bottles and that we are now BLW at dinnertimes because I'm too lazy to puree , but I always swore BFing would end when DD aquired teeth.

I'm SO pround of DD, who is 6 months old, when she knocks back 5 pieces of a cucumber sushi roll at dinner, but my diet is utter rubbish. I barely manage more than tea before one pm! How am I going to manage multiple, healthy meals in one day? So much easier to just pop out a boob.

Crap, I'm going to end up one of those news stories about ladies BFing a five-year-old, aren't I?

Ok here's what you do - find some weaning recipes you like, make a big load, put them in ramekins and freeze. My faves were cauli cheese, shepherds pie and lentil casserole. That way you have a freezer full of healthy meals, easy peasy. Other quickies (which I still use) are scrambled egg on toast, beans on toast and cheese on toast and couscous with raisins and pesto.
You'll get used to it, don't worry.

Snacks are easy: cubes of cheese, chopped fruit of whatever variety you've got. Once she gets a bit older blueberries are your friend. Crackers with cream cheese, breadsticks with cream cheese/houmous/peanut butter (when older), toast with same, carrot batons (bought ready cut if desperate), dried apricots.

It will be fine. They eat such small quantities that one batch cooking session can keep you going for months.

Buy those ponce Ella's Kitchen / Plum Baby ones. Good if you are busy/lazy. Bloody pricey, but worth it - frankly, I cannot fit mass-pureeing into my working week. Give them bits of your plate (BLW I s'pose) the rest of the time. Sorted!

Snacks : fruit, breadsticks, toast, those organix biscuits. Oh yes and don't forget ready made main meal pots - good to have some in. Ds particularly liked the bean and pork casserole. Most are low salt & sugar these days.

But sorry to be a pain/... no wheat before 12 months is recommended (DS has a wheat allergy that could have been prevented by this apparently, never read the advice..wish I had )

Noonkie, where did you get that advice? Everything I've read says wheat ok from 6 months.

Oats then, think they are low allergen. Porridge 4 breakfast, oat biscuits 4 snacks

Thanks, all!

We're still no wheat/milk/peanuts ATM so she's eating mostly fruit, veg, and plain meats and considers eating more of a hobby than eating iykwim.

She's just darling and healthy and smart and I have to find something to worry about. That, and the aforementioned rubbish eating habits and not wanting to pass them on.

Will definitely rope DH into batch cooking foods. Would you say a ramekin is about a serving for a tot?

Easy peasy honest. DS has breakfast - plain live yoghurt with either a weetabix or some crushed bran flakes and a spoonful of hipp organic fruit puree - £1.50 for 4 and they last about 2 weeks for 4. Lunch - sandwich with cream cheese or houmous or peanut butter and half a banana. Dinner is a bit more tricky but you can batch cook things like tomato sauce with veggies and lentils and cook some rice/couscous/pasta/potato when you need it. Quick unplanned dinners are scrambled egg with baked beans or pasta and pesto. Snacks - rice cakes, fruit, toast with marmite. I know here are things that aren't recommended for younger babies but I'm not too worried about that.

No wheat before a year old? I've never heard that before.

I have one word for you : bananas .

Truly a weaning wonderfood

< worries that bananas have been banned on helth and safety grounds since weaning last DC 6 years ago >

HEALTH !

You were lucky screaming, bananas bung my DD right up. Totally not worth it as I then have to start on a prune offensive.

MrsMattie I'm glad someone else mentioned shop- bought baby food (poncy ones weren't invented in my day, either ....)

I buy Ella's Kitchen pouches for DD because I find it easier, but now she is getting the hand of eating for herself she is eating bananas, cucumber and her favourites are Organix Banana and Date bars which are great.

Oh and cheese - babybels are a hit

Yes ramekin's a good portion, esp from say 8/9 months when they've got more into eating.
Ooh I've just remembered another of our quickie weaning triumphs (like you I'm never organised enough to spend ages cooking) microwave a sweet potato and then scoop out the middle and mix with grated cheese. Do do it a little bit in advance as it gets hotter than the sun!

lol @ prune offensive

DS1 hated the food I prepared, so had quite a lot of jars
< gasp >

DS2 rejected being spoon-fed really early on, so had a lot of finger-foods

I've heard both ways. DH is a bit, hrm, sensitive to wheat.

So we tend to have more oaty things around anyway and now that we've reached six months it's more on the not-wholemeal end than zero wheat.

I thought bananas were a well known constipator as well as being pretty much universally loved by babies

I second bananas as weaning wonderfood, well worth the indelible weird brown black stains they leave on any light coloured fabric it comes into contact with

Pasta is a great quick meal.

Chunks of sweet potato cook really quickly.

Marenmj - DS bf pretty much exclusively until about 8 months, he wasn't that interested in food until he could pick it up and get it to his mouth reliably, then his eating just took off and his bf slowly reduced over the next couple of months. At 13 months he still has bf at bedtime and sometimes during night.

screaming, I have a lot of jars too. I thought I would get off easy with the store-bought purees but DD has got a taste for feeding herself and won't have it. She will accept puree if I either spread it on toast/bread/pita or mix it with something thicker and load the spoon before giving it to her. Very cute, but ultimately an inefficient food-delivery system

Montifer, good to know. DD is pretty good at stuffing her face, though how much ends up in her tummy is debatable .

Please tell me the dehydration gets better as they reduce

I also said I'd give up bf when he got teeth, he had 8 teeth by 8 months and has still never bitten me yet, not whilst bf anyway, has drawn blood on my shoulder whilst teething however

I've found BLW such a joy and it seems to be so much less stress and hassle than the puree-ing, spoon feeding a lot of my friends have done. Especially if your DD has got a taste for feeding herself already, cut out the hard work and give the grub straight to her!

I hate weaning, nasty, messy business. And very time-consuming.

Quick no-cook foods
Avocado + banana
Rice cakes/toast crusts/bread sticks/pitta
Cheese cubes
Cooked chicken
Any fruit/cucumber
Boiled eggs, quartered

Batch cook
lentils & vegetables
Bologhnese & pasta
Cooked blended veg eg, parsnip & carrot
Dried fruit compote

I do a combination of BLW and purees - the latter gets the food into them, the former distracts them while you do the latter. I don't think they really eat much til they're a year plus but it doesn't matter if you're keeping up the milk feeds. Jars are brilliant if you're out but I save them for being out as they are so expensive (compared with a crust of toast )