Weaning - homemade or jars/pouches????

[Jaclyneyre84]

i have been weaning my little boy for about 3 weeks now(he is a week shy of 6 months), he loves his baby porridge and we have never had a problem feeding him with it. however at lunch time he really dosent want homemade food. he will keep his mouth closed at refuse it. I have tried giving him his own spoon and encouraging him, making it happy and playful but not much works. if I manage to feed him half I consider that a success!! we have better luck with carrots and banana (separately), even when I have tried mixing veggies together he dosent want it. I was away over the weekend on hols so got the pre made jars and pouches and he loved them and feeding was so much easier and happier and calmer for all. but I didn't really want to go the premade route, but if that if is all that works should I??
does anyone else have any tips or suggestions or even recipes that worked for them??
thanks all x

Are you? You should try it.

The problem with the pouches and jars is that they haven't moved on with the newer weaning guidelines.
In the days when you were advised to wean at 16 weeks babies had to have really runny puréed food, it was the only way you could feed it to them. By 5.5- 6 months they would be eating much chunkier, mashed food and plenty of finger food.
There is no need for a baby of that age have such runny food all the time. They need to be practicing chewing to develop the muscles used for talking.
Like I said before I am not entirely convinced on 'pure' BLW and never putting food or a spoon in your babies mouth, however feeding family meals some chopped into fist sized chunks and some mashed up has worked well for my family.
Although a majority of them have still ended up having a fussy phase around 18 month to 3ish, but you cross that bridge when you come to it.

Auntirosemary it doesn't make a lot of nutritional sense to add oil to babies food, Not something I would want to try.

If a pouch claims that it is pure, organic broccoli with nothing else added, then I can't see how this is so massively different from me buying, steaming and pureeing the same. Except for convenience, of course. If it works, don't stress and go for it.

Atthestrokeoftwelve - yes it does, kids need 40% fat in their diet so a bit of olive oil in a purée makes as much nutritional sense as the vegetables.

I just wanted to share a 'don't worry too much' message. My DS (now 21 months) was weaned early - scandal! - as he was a big baby and I tried to feed him myself but he was always hungry and upset. He took to food straight away and loved it. I spent hours pureeing fruit and veg and quite often he wasn't interested and did seem to like the taste of pouches better initially (blander/sweeter?). I just persevered with the homemade and just used pouches when out so i knew he would eat something and not kick off when out!
We did then have problems getting him to eat lumpier food. I tried introducing baby pasta into veg purees and he sucked the puree off and spat out the pasta. He did though at this time start to love stronger flavours so totally went off the pouches but favoured curry and casserole (as long as it was pureed to within an inch of its life). I just gradually changed the texture of his food, offering finger foods alongside purees and tried not to make a big fuss.
Now he eats whole carrots, pieces of chicken, crackers, toast, sausage - essentially whatever. He still won't eat hard food like raw veg and salad but to be quite honest I'm not bothered - I'm sure he will eventually.
So the message in all this is try not to worry! Keep offering stuff but with no pressure but don't offer an alternative once they have refused that meal. They normally change their minds in the end and as long as he is still having all his milk and eating bits here and there it will all be fine. Sounds like you are doing an ace job.

We did a bit of both - if it was something that was easy to mush up like mashed potato or spaghetti bolognese, then we would do that. If we were having steak and chips then we would do a jar/pouch.

We did finger food to encourage the pincer grip and for him to get used to different textures. The mixed approach seems to have worked well, although he doesn't eat vegetables unless they're hidden in a pasta sauce or something. It also seemed to work well to distract him with finger food if we wanted to eat before he was in bed.

Auntierosemasry could you provide me with a link to show evidence that children need "40% fat in their diet"?

atthestroke BLW is often held up as 'easy' and it obviously worked for you. My daughter was offered bits of everything - pouches, homemmade purees, chicken legs/ chunks of veg - and basically would only eat smooth stuff. Now - 2.7 - she seems to dislike anything that is homogenous and likes discernable lumps, none touching each other, nothing with sauce, etc. But BLW surely isn't faff free if it means months of LO not eating ANY solids. I know my DD wouldn't have eaten a solid graspable thing till probably about 11 months. She's a right fuss pot now. And it's NOTHING to do with how we eat or what we offer her. Sigh.

Oops, I never saw there was a page 2. My post is a total non-sequitur. Sorry!

Atthestrokeoftwelve - yup:

www.patient.co.uk/health/toddlers-diarrhoea

Scroll down to the bit about fat.

This is from a website that our Gp uses and referred us to, and is backed up by the advice of our NHS dietitian.

Feral - we have had similar experience! First daughter started on purees then finger food, then family food. She would eat anything until about the age of 18 months - from smoked fish pate or lentil soup to lamb patties, fish cakes and all kinds of veg. The. Suddenly became very fussy and seems to be just coming out of that now.
Second daughter, now 14 months, was given solid family food from the start (probably officially "baby led weaning"?) and totally refused any kind of mush BUT has always been fussy and there are probably only about 15 foods she will eat.
So from my experience - all kids are different, no one approach will suit anyone and your kids will go through lots of different stages no matter what you do! But, as other posters have said, I think the best thing to do its try to be relaxed about it and not make food an issue, though that is easier said than done when you have spent an hour making a chicken casserole and your baby tips it on to the floor in disgust ...

I wouldn't worry too much about it really. Get in the groove of offering something & if lo doesn't want it, don't stress. Ths approach will hold you in good stead later on.

I started weaning at 5.5 months (6 months corrected as he was soooo overcooked!). It felt right to me at the time but next time I'd leave it longer cos of the amount of stress & hassle it caused

Go with a mixture of home, pouch, jar, whatever suits you, him & the family. They never say that weaning is a long journey when you're at the beginning. There will be lots of challenges ahead, so learning to go with wanting to be the best mum in the world & getting loads of good vitamins in there, but also give yourself a break once in a while & give them what they want.

You will go through periods of them only wanting baked beans, egg, toast, yoghurt & fruit, but if it works it works ... And a week later they'll be eating nothing but sweetcorn. My ds is now 2 1/2 & I tend to give him exciting things to try at lunchtime. He's usually had a good breakfast & if he doesn't like it, there's time to catch up later in the day. But given that "food is fun till they're one" it takes the pressure off.

I've been advised to add a tiny bit of olive or colza oil to purées when I start weaning. The paediatrician advised it.

I think a mixture homemade jars and finger foods, even as snacks. Mine liked rice cakes, raisins. If you put some foods on the tray they can look, touch try to pick up.
Oh and next time i would avoid the baby rice...constipation

thank you all for the great advise. I have brought some jars and pouches and plan to mix that with homemade food. I have also got a fine mesh sieve to make it smoother. he seems to be really liking banana at the moment so mixing this with everything, which seems to be helping, not sure that banana and pineapple works but he liked it! lol! x