Weaning-ice cube tray in the freezer

[DannyWallace]

Am I a complete idiot here??
So, after a chat with my HV we have decided to start weaning at 5.5months. We'd planned baby led, but HV said to stick to purées until she gets to 6 months. All fine.
Loads of people have recommended making my own and popping them in an ice cube tray. This seemed so easy.

I bought a silicone ice cube tray. Did my steaming/boiling/blending then popped the food in the tray.

NOW I CANT GET IT OUT!!!

It's all completely frozen solid, I feel like I'd have to cut into the tray to get it out! I've tried popping it out, hitting the tray against something, scooping it out with a spoon. Nothing. I feel like it'll only come out if I let it defrost a bit, but then I've just wasted the rest!

Should I have just stuck to the plastic trays? (I didn't even see them for sale!) or am I doing something stupid?

Just leave it a couple more weeks and do BLW!

@MoreSlidingDoors thank you, but we've already started and, like I said, it was after a discussion with the health visitor.
I was just looking for advice on the freezing of purées.

We used 4oz takeaway containers bought off eBay (search for satco 4oz). Dishwasher safe, decent lids, much much cheaper than shop bought weaning trays and you can loads at once and batch cook and freeze a few weeks of food at a time. We're still using them in lunch boxes for nursery and picnics and crafts.

Depending on how did was eating I would take 1, 2 or 3 pots out of the freezer, remove lid and stick in microwave. After a min it was possible to upturn the pots into bowl/plate and then continue with heating. As well as veg I would pot up leftover potatoes and pasta and bits and pieces from our meals and add them in for dd's meals.

The only flaw I've found with the pots are that they get flipped over in the dishwasher as they are so light, and collect dirty water and bits of food. The solution to this was to line them up on the top shelf and rest a wooden spoon across then to weigh them down.

Leave it for a few mins, they should slide out.

I prefer the hard plastic trays from Sainsbury'. Quite big cubes. Have served me well. Still useful 9 years on for freezing spag bol and curries so i can defrost just what i want.

Where did you get your tray from? If you got it online from ebay/wish/amazon it might simply be a poorly designed product from Asia (which possibly also means no matter what it claims it might not be BPA free or food safe in general) OTOH if it's a branded one like NUK it's probably OK.

Silicone can be a bit tricky because it's almost too flexible. I found that letting the tray rest on the counter for a few minutes lets the food thaw a little bit at the edges which loosens it, and then pull and stretch the container a bit to sort of pull it loose from the edges of each mould. Then you can push from behind, like a pill packet to pop out the frozen cubes.

You can start BLW at 5.5 months also - it doesn't need to be purees only. I found it helpful to do a mix this time around as DS2 preferred puree at the start.

In the early stages where they hardly eat anything it’s worth trying some Ella’s kitchen frozen cubes- come in lots of different veg combinations. I just took one cube out of the bag to start with, then would have a combination and eventually mix it with something I’ve made once they’re eating bigger quantities.
Ice cube tray wise- let it thaw a bit, or put a cm of hot water in sink and sit it in for a little bit just to thaw enough to be able to push out.
I got a good tray from Sainsbury’s which is mostly plastic but with silicone bottoms to help push out which worked well.

I would get a few little individual pots with lids. I like the little glass ones. That way its easy to transport or warm straight away as you can take straight from freezer and pop in bag or in bowl of warm water to heat.

Advantage is once they are on non puree you can continue using for transporting snacks or freezing tomato sauces or similar

Got a normal plastic ice cube tray. One you can snap and the cubes pop out.

Sometimes running the underside of the tray under some water helps loosen it

Thanks all.
It's just the only tray I could find in Tesco, so not bought online or anything.

Thanks for the advice

Tesco should be alright. Try the stretching and the warm water methods.

Try sort of twisting it?