How do I introduce food to my baby?

[FTM521]

Hi mums,

I'm looking for some advice on how to introduce a little food into babies diet. She's almost six months and is showing signs that she is ready.

My HV is nowhere to be seen or heard from (she's been like that from the beginning) so I was hoping I'd find some advice here.

Can I ask you mums who have weaned what foods did you start with? Would you recommend starting with shop bought or making it myself?
Are there any foods or brands you'd recommend?

What times would you recommend giving the food and how much? (Or is it every feed?)

Do they still have the same amount of milk and feeds throughout the day?

I've heard a lot of people say they'd avoid the baby rice stage but I'm not sure what the reason is?

Ultimately I'm worried about doing it wrong; feeding her too much or not enough or the wrong times of day etc.

There's so much conflicting information online so any advice any mums have is so much appreciated, thank you x

Baby rice is not very nutritious.
Keep milk feeds the same but don’t expect a just fed baby to be very interested throughout the day.
Baby can eat when you eat, bits and pieces from your meal as long as you don’t use too much salt or anything else unsuitable.

We just kept everything as normal with the breastfeeds to begin with and started to offer a little food a couple of times a day - mix of purées (veg mixes, apple, other fruits etc then next week fruit rice pudding, fruit porridge) and baby led weaning so some apple segments, broccoli, roast parsnip etc. Would recommend getting the free Ella weaning pack www.ellaskitchen.co.uk/join-ellas-friends it’s got a ‘roadmap’ of weaning in it which you might find helpful

Make up some baby porridge with formula or normal milk, put a bit on a spoon and see if they go for it.
Put generously buttered soldier of toast on high chair table in front of him and watch him shove it in (you might want to cut into cubes first!)
Choo of some banana and put a piece on the end of a plastic fork, hand him the fork.

Small pieces at first, washed down with lots of milk or water. Prepare about 5 dishcloths with warm soapy water first!

Enjoy!

I handed her a peeled pear and let her do her worst! I would try not to worry about them eating anything at first, keep feeds as they are and just offer them foods that they can stick their hands in, easily pick up, to try.

DD likes bits of flat bread with yogurt, hummus etc on, fruit (not choke size bits or hard things) soups she could dip her hand, bread, a spoon in eg very thick home made veg or celariac soup. Small sweet potatoes baked are good, they go soft inside but the skin keeps them together. Baked apples used to go down well (core an apple, put a spoon of butter where core was, wrap in foil and then bake).

My first I puréed and fed off a spoon. Started with baby rice and moved up.

My second sat at the table and we passed her little bits of veg and fruit moving to pasta and mini sandwiches. She never once took off a spoon.

Second was by far the easiest and grew to be the least fussy eater.

I carried on giving the same number of bottles but also used the jars and pouches and spoon fed . Easy way to introduce huge range of flavours and tastes. Worked our way through the ranges for different ages.

Worked well - they both easily moved on to same food as us as they got older. Have never prepared separate meals - they eat everything!

I did Anbabell Carmel as I also had no idea where to start!

I made a lot of purées and mixed with a bit of baby rice etc
Started with lunch in case of any wind poo fests in the afternoon rather than after bedtime!

Gradually increased texture and amounts over the months

They are now huge teenagers who eat anything and everything

I've started with porridge how long do you think I should continue with this before trying anything else?

I'd say let baby lead the way. My first started on a mcvities gingernut...... I kid you not, he grabbed it off me and started gnawing on it at about 16 weeks, I know not recommended now but he wanted everything in sight and actually too hard for him to bite a piece off with no teeth so I didn't take it straight off him as was enjoying it so much I didn't have the heart😂 Basically allowed him to try anything we had that was nutritious and he wouldn't choke on plus organic cereals with breast milk or fruit puree added. I did used to puree down our meals such as chicken roast, but pre adding salt/stock cubes. They particularly like finger foods as they get used to it like tiny cubes of cheese, chopped up grapes, banana, chopped up omelette, toast soldiers with tiny scraping of marmite as I was trying to discourage sweet stuff. Just be relaxed about it, their main food is still milk so doesn't matter if more is on the floor and their face😋