Weaning an EBF baby onto food

[HeavenlyWineandRoses]

My baby is 25 weeks so we're preparing for weaning. She is EBF but I can't express milk. Would you mix her food with cows milk or formula?

You need to use formula until dc are 6 months. After that cow's is fine

Yes, you can use full fat cows milk from 6 months in cooking. However most food does not need milk added to it. A baby of 6 months can eat ordinary family foods so long as salt has not been added.

Have you thought about baby led weaning? You don't have to bother with puree, you can just offer appropriate solids if you want to. There's more info about it here.

I use cows milk.

Why can't you use cow's milk in food befote six months ? Am I being thick?

Babies' immune and digestive systems are not though to be sufficiently mature for anything other than breast milk or formula before six months so giving cows milk or other foods before then will increase the risk of infections and the development of allergic conditions like asthma and eczema.

Thanks EauRouge and KitKat, I have the BLW book and cookbook but don't think I'll be a purist and would like to do a bit of both and doubtless my baby will decide herself which method she prefers.

But formula is made from cow's milk

Formula is made from cow's milk that's been modified to make it easier for babies to digest, though.

Easier to digest how?? It has reduced levels of sodium and protein which is obviously important If you're using it as a main drink but.... well, if it were me I wouldn't bother huying formula for the sake of a couple of weeks....

Cow's milk in food after six months is fine but it should NOT be the MAIN source of milk for a baby before one year's old. There isn't enough nutrience in it. The main source of milk before one should be BM or formula.

But the OP is not suggesting giving it to her baby as a main drink. I find it really hard to see the point of buying formula on account of the fact that the baby is 1 or 2 weeks shy of 6 calendar months old!

Sorry, but am I misreading your posts Narmada because it sounds to me like you are suggesting that babies go onto cow's milk as their main drink after six months.

No- of course not. Cow's milk is not suitable as a main drink until after a year of age. The OP is asking about what to use if milk is needed in the preparation of baby food. The baby is very very nearly six months old and so what I am suggesting is that there is probably no need to go to the faff and expense of buying formula solely for use in preparation of weaning food, given her baby's age. Unless of course she is planning to give her baby gallons of cheese sauce every day.

I'm not actually weaning baby until she hits 26 weeks so I think I have my answer: BM as her main drink and cows milk in preparation of food if she opts for purées.

Thanks all .

Hi Heavenly. My DS is 25 weeks old and just had his first solids last week. He had carrots and butternut squash both pureed 'neat'. I don't think he needed milk to be added as they both have a reasonably watery texture (steamed and baked) once pureed. He also had baby porridge prepared with cooled boiled water. Of course he was only just trying out taste and texture and had regular breastmilk as always. Get your camera out to capture the face pulling

Thanks Zoobaby. I am really looking forward to introducing her to food. She is beginning to seem very left-out at mealtimes, madly grabbing at my plate and ogling my food so it will be fun to really include her.

And maybe, just maybe, I won't be up feeding at 4am (and all the other night feeds) in a few weeks' time.

No need to add milk to pureed food.
You can prepare any fruit or veg in a blender (plain, nothing added), freeze it in ice cube trays, remove to freezer bags, thaw and then serve.

I have served steamed and pureed prunes, butternut squash, carrots, peas, green beans, sweet potato, aubergine, apricots, courgettes, lentils, as well as steamed apples, to babies, with nothing added.

Have also fed them mangoes and peaches from frozen (thawed and then blenderised), spinach (done in microwave), avocados (these can be frozen raw in slices and then mashed when thawed; they have lots of good fats for babies), cherries and blueberries (thawed then blenderised). Bananas can also be mashed and frozen in ice cube trays.

Moved up to loin of pork and chicken breast, also pureed, and egg yolk (frozen as they came out of the whites, like yellow marbles). In order to make pureeing easier/produce less dense puree, I added some of the steaming water to the blender.

The taste of home prepared food was much nicer than food from jars I found.

You could add a little milk to the baby porridge, but it's not necessary.

And cantaloupe melon. This needed sieving to make it less liquid after blending.

Thank you math; some really great suggestions there.

Thanks from me too math. Thanks for mentioning what works with freezer (avocado as I was wondering).

Heavenly, I made up some regular sized ice cube trays (not the larger pot-type ones you can buy) as mentioned by math and I found it all very easy. I've been using 2 cubes for DS. Some actually goes in too! A word of caution... Be prepared to notice a big difference in the nappies almost instantaneously. Eurgh!

Hopefully your DD will enjoy straight away. My DS looks so pleased with himself when sitting in the chair (awww) and you could almost see him thinking "finally" when the spoon of food was heading towards his lips. He was great at opening his mouth, he just needs to figure out that I need him facing towards the spoon if any is to go in. Haha.

Finally, I found that DS is still as hungry for milk as the amount of solids isn't replacing the milk yet. I'm sure it won't be long though before they're taking reasonable quantities.

Having said that though... I've been up at 3-4am BFing when previously he's been sleeping til 6ish . Maybe he needs a little settling in period.

Oh, you were lucky to have had him sleeping until 6. I find it hard to imagine what that might be like!

I'm so excited about starting. Can't wait to see her little face while she's tucking in. Thanks for all the great tips and advice .

Whoops! Hardboil the eggs before freezing the yolks .

Also, when you freeze sliced avocados it's best to arrange them on a tray or small cutting board lined with greaseproof paper in order to keep them separate as they have a tendency to stick together if you bung them all into a freezer bag. Once they're frozen you can remove them from the greaseproof paper after taking them from the freezer and leaving them on a counter for a few minutes - they will still be virtually frozen but you won't have to hack them off the paper if you leave them a few mins. Then put them in a freezer bag and back in the freezer and they won't clump.

If you freeze avocado in slices it stays greener than mashing first and then freezing. There's no harm in serving avocado that has gone a bit brown so you don't need to add lemon juice to keep it from discolouring. Don't panic if you notice it's gone a bit brown in the baby's bowl, just mash and feed.