Weaning - first baby

[raspberryhead]

Ok, so I've read "the books" and have spent some delightful evening pureeing foods to put in the freezer. We've done baby rice (kind of - more over the face than in the mouth). Now it's time for pear purée. This may be a stupid question, but should it be warm when I give it to her? I know I should defrost the cube overnight in the fridge, but it doesn't say whether to give it warm or cold. Maybe it's a matter of preference? I would be grateful for words of wisdom from those who have gone before!!

It's up to you and your DD really... DD always preferred her food a little warm - if I tried giving her cold food she would get grumpy and turn away so I gave her warm food. In fact (bad mother admission coming up) - I tended to take a couple of cubes from the freezer, heat them fully in the microwave, then wait for them to cool to a tepid temperature. I never defrosted in the fridge. I think I felt that having been frozen, they should be heated through fully before feeding, but I'm not sure if that's the case...

Yep same as Galena, heated fully in microwave then cooled to feeding temperature.
It doesn't matter too much for fruit and veg but frozen meat purees must be thoroughly heated all the way through after defrosting to kill any hibernating bugs.

Thank you! Warm pear tomorrow for breakfast.....

pear is nice mixed with baby rice if your lo doesnt like it 'straight' - mixing with baby rice gives a milder flavour.

Sorry to hijack but in the same vein - how long can you leave defrosted purees before serving?? If microwaved should it be served straight away (after it's cooled obviously) or could it go in the fridge once defrosted?

Good luck raspberryhead I've only experimented with banana so far for 23 week old DD but trying the pears this week!

I tended to serve it immediately. It was such small quantities, it barely seemed worth refrigerating...

I don't think you need to stress about fruit purees, though the more you process them the more their nutrient value decreases. I used to defrost all the next day's puree cubes in the fridge overnight then mix them up with babyrice and a little boiling water from the kettle to take the edge of cold off. We don't have a microwave as I'm afraid I'm a Luddite who doesn't believe in irradiated food!

Mimmee, the HV told me to go easy on the banana until well after 6 months as it can make them constipated. Something to bear in mind incase they get bunged up.......
Pear got retched at yesterday!

Oh the memories... first tastes, first banana nappy (why does nobody warn you?!) Little puree cubes. Seems so long ago now.

Erm, banana nappy??
(waits in dread)

Oh boy, yeah! Let's just say - don't panic that your DD has black worms.

Oh yes - Have had the pleasure of banana nappies must admit i did freak out a bit until I connected the dots! Pear on the menu today so we'll see how that goes down...

Anyone any experience of Baby Led Weaning? I Quite like the idea but my mum and MIL have done a great job of putting me off..."What a ridiculous idea, DD will choke, what's wrong with baby food jars..etc....

We did baby lead weaning from the start. Seems much easier to me (although I haven't tried anything else to compare to). DS had what we did, and plenty of milk. At first he threw things, then sucked them and got the hang of it himself. He's now two and will eat pretty much anything (apart from lettuce).

Advantages are that you can eat your own meal whilst baby plays with eats their own and you don't have to prepare things specially. It did make us think about our own diet more, less salt, ice cream after bedtime etc. I wouldn't say there's anything wrong with jars, but there shouldn't be anything wrong with your food either.

We had to accept fairly early on that he decided what he ate (or didn't), perhaps we've been lucky but he's pretty good about eating a balanced diet. As for "DD will choke", part of weaning is learning about how to eat, moving food round the mouth etc. being able to recognise when its serious (they go quiet) vs when they are just gagging (lots of noise) is important. Whether you stick with purees or go for baby-lead (or a mixture) you should learn what to do if she is choking, unless you are planning to keep her on just milk forever. Let me know if you have any questions.

EvaPeron good to hear it worked so well for you - was there any food you found good to start off with? I'm just not quite sure how to begin but I think i'd like to do a bit of both puree and BLW.

I've been on British Red Cross website which is really good for info on what to do if baby chokes and loads of videos/factsheets which has made me feel a lot more confident. Link here if anyone wants to have a look:

childrenfirstaid.redcross.org.uk/

We did a mix of purees and fingerfoods right from the start with DC1, and this time went straight for babyled weaning with DC2. You DO have to be prepared for not much food going in (not really an issue because they're getting most of their calories from milk still anyway) and throwing a lot away. We had about six - eight weeks of him not really able to eat much but happily putting things in his mouth. We were having rotten nights so I did attempt some spoonfeeding in the vain hope of getting more sleep but he wasn't having any of it, and in fact now he's eating really well and it hasn't made any difference to the nights.

I wouldn't touch jars. If you want to spoon-wean then make purees for a month and normal food (mashed up) after that. Jars are full of preservatives, they're pasteurised which effectively gets rid of all the vitamins and frankly they taste revolting. They don't help get them on to normal food at all - in fact you can find yourself in a situation where they simply refuse to move on to normal food and you're still spooning in baby-jars at 15 months!

Definitely look at some first aid info, but remember there's a big difference between gagging and choking. Gagging is NOISY and COUGHY and is essential for them in learning to move food around their mouths with their tongue. Choking is SILENT because the airway is blocked and they can't breathe. It's pretty rare for them to choke as long as you're sensible with what you're giving them - DD did a couple of times on pieces of apple - but once you've dealt with it once (watch a video on youtube - also v helpful) it's easy and doesn't worry you again.

One book I read described the "banana test" - basically when a child can sit up and hold their head up, reach out and take a (peeled) banana from you, get it in their mouth, bite and swallow then they are ready for food.

We sat DS in his highchair at the table with us from about 17 weeks, but it was mostly for the company. He didn't eat anything at all for a few weeks and didn't eat much until he was 7 or 8 months. We started with fruit and veg (banana, roast carrot and parsnip batons etc).

Held off on dairy, gluten and meat etc till 6 months. When he'd started eating, we then started spoon feeding things like yoghurt and porridge so he got used to the idea for nursery (2 days/week) who spoonfed mashed food. He wouldn't take a bottle and would only drink water from a cup so we wanted him to get something.

He was a bit slower to get started than friends babies were on puree but he got the idea quickly, I have a picture of him at 7 months eating lamb off the bone! I would suggest that you try offering food at your own mealtimes as I think it's easier for them to have someone to copy. I think he only choked once (also a piece of apple - probably one to avoid).

Mimmee I think I'll be doing a bit of purée and baby led weaning once she's over 6 months. My bf did blw and really enjoyed it. Much less fussing with cubes of frozen fruit/veg. She just gave him food from her own plate when they were out. The book by Gill Rapley is meant to be the bible for blw, loads of ideas. And makes you think about what you eat too. Really hoping I lose some of the baby weight!

And thanks Galena! I'll look forward to worm poo!

I did BLW with second dd and purees with first dd. BLW is much easier at first, but I did find I ended up doing some spoon-food when she was closer to a year - and I also found myself spending time trying to come up with finger food ideas when it would have just been easier to give her some stew. Think I would do a combination if I had dc3.

Providing your baby is 6 months, good foods are:
Long slices of ripe pear
Green beans (quite soft)
Cooked carrot batons (quite soft)
Polenta cut into slices and grilled is v good
Rice cakes
Slices of melon (skin washed)

Once they get older, chicken drumsticks are great!

I did BLW with DS and was also worried sick about choking although he never did (although he did gag quite a bit at first).
It was messy as anything but a great deal of fun. It was great seeing him discover new flavours and he took a lot of pleasure in working out the squishiness of everything.

Any piece of finger shaped food would work - e.g. butternut/banana/avo, or something with a handle e.g. broccoli.

Thanks all - especially for suggestions on foods to try.

I love the polenta idea plinkplonk so will definately try that!