What to wean with?

[Cocococo]

I cant believe there is such an amazing abundunce of special spoons, bowls, cups to wean your baby with. Special rubber tipped spoons and cups, bowls with suction grips, special curves for getting the last morsel out - when most of the food is going to be tipped on you and the baby it seems amazing there is such a lot of choice! LOL!
Any advice on which brands are actually the best?
Cheers

Hi Cocococo, when i was weaning my kids i found the Avent range really good ,they do a small soft spoon which my kids loved,also their range of feeding bowls are good,some of which come with lids which i found really usefull when out and about.hope its of some use.

I found the Baby Basics range by Heinz best for us. Despite what the label says, save the excellent Anyway Up Cups for an older child, it's a rare 6 month old with the industrial sucking power needed to get these going...
My postnatal group swapped a lot of gear around, easy to do with everyone having sterilisers. That way we each found what was was best for our child without having to spend a fortune.
I did succumb and buy a dish with a sucker on the bottom, and it was useless!

Cocococo, unfortunately I think this is very subjective. For instance lots of people love the anyway up cups but we hated them because the hanles are so large they were difficult for our baby to hold. Personally I always go for simplicity and never buy things that make rediculous claims. How necessary is anything that professes to get the last morsel out? One can do this oneself! As for suction grips I wonder how many toddlers are successful in rubbishing that claim? My advice would be keep it basic. We have three of everything one at home one in the car (for trips to Grandparents, days out etc) and one at the childminders: a cup (with lid), a dish and a spoon. I confess we have lots of spoons as this house seems to have a spoon fairy but otherwise IMHO that has been quite adequate. Good luck!

hanles ?!!! Obviously I meant handles!

The Heinz weaning spoons were great. These were the only ones our son would tolerate initially. He also got on really well with the Heinz first beaker. If you are anywhere near an IKEA then they do a great range of cups, plates and bowls, which are really good value.
I would also second (or even third) the rubber suction comments. We found them a waste of money.

Yeah, definitely Heinz baby basics, we had a couple of spoons, their first drinking cup and a couple of bowls. Now onto character crockery - Tweenies etc, but using Heinz first knife, fork and spoon set. We also use a variety of cups, from a Bob the Builder cup with built in straw, a plastic crocodile mug and a couple of traditional type drinking beakers. Quite a collection, but they come in useful when my sister and her 3 kids turn up!

Ikea is great for the plastic bowls and plates - I bought them when ds was 6 weeks old (not that he was using them then!) and they are such good value. I very much agree about the suction thing - absolutely useless.

Another vote here for the Heinz bowls and spoons and at 18 months my son still can't manage the suction power needed for the Anyway up cups, so we always used the Avent magic cups which don't drip, but don't need as much suction. I don't use them now, as ds has a full set of teeth and the spout gets chewed through in no time at all.

Another vote for Heinz baby basics range. We still use the bowl (with special scooped out sides for getting all the food out!) now and my son is over 2.5 years. Actually the scooped out bit is really useful for sloppy food like ready brek etc. Was seduced one day into buying a bowl with suction pads. Took it back next day - lasted about 10 seconds before my son pulled the bowl off the pads! The baby basics spoons are really nice and soft as well and I found they didn't deteriorate as quickly as others we'd had.

Very early on I really liked the long handled Tommy Tippee spoons. They soon become a bit redundant because the bowl of the spoon is v small but that's good when they're tiny and having first tastes.
Anyway up beakers are really good when they reach the wilful/clumsy toddler stage.
I think I was weaned with teaspoons and a tin plate!

Thanks for that, thats really useful, you've helped make it seem a bit easier. I think we'll forget the suction bowls then - they sound pretty useless!
Just a question about the soft-tipped beaker for water, just how much water should babes be taking as rough guide? Do you offer a mouthful of baby rice and then a sip of water when you wean? He's only had breast so far (11 weeks)I'm planning to wean him at 16 weeks but I wondered if it might be worth trying him with the water nowish to get him used to it.

I didn't give water when weaning my baby (unless he woke in night). I started giving water with meals when he was older - about 7/8 months (using Anyway Up Cups) but used bottles for milk until he was a year or so.

When it came to the weaning with rice I did it around the 11am bottle (which became 12pm lunch) mixed the rice with formula (I bottle fed) inside the cap that came with the Avent bottle as you initially use such small amounts. As weaning progressed I added rice to single pureed fruits and veg and moved the weaning to after his last bottle. Weaning can become quite an emotive subject - I'm sure other people have done it completely differently to me - different times and different ways. Hope that helps a bit.

I gave water (from the heinz 1st baby basics beaker - v small holes make it excellent for not choking them) from about 11 weeks - I know there is no need to if you are breastfeeeding but she seemed to like taking the odd drink from her beaker (also gave expressed milk from it rather than using a bottle). So when I started weaning I always had a drink of water handy and gave her a few sips after the meal. I thought it was important to have water when starting weaning to stop dehydration, but I might be wrong?

Lizzer - Thanks I think I'll get the Heinz beaker it looks really good and it seems from the postings below that people seem to like the brand. I'm giving expressed milk from an Avent disposable system at the moment. Didnt think about trying it with the beaker did you just chuck the beaker in the sterilizer?

Alli - good idea to use the Avent caps at first, I have quite a few of those and they are quite roomy.

Can't wait to get started now!

Hi Cocococo (what an easy name that is to type!) I certainly did just bung the beakers in the steriliser (I just had a tub with milton in it didn't bother with the steamer type so don't know if you can put them in there?) I think it was a really good idea to get my dd used to beakers really early as she has always been fine taking her drinks from them and so didn't have to faff around with bottles and teats etc. But my friend (Hi Bexi!) used the Avent disposable system as she had to express a lot when she returned to work and it seemed a marvellous idea to me compared to my pre-historic ice-cube trays of milk - but they did the trick anyhow!

Another thing is dd went to bed with an Anyway-up cup full of water from about 9 months even though I was still breastfeeding and would settle herself with it as (I presume) she was very comfortable with taking a beaker - in fact she still has one now at 22 months so I'm glad I introduced it so soon.

Its certainly quite an exciting time when you start to wean - I remember feeling we were really embarking on the next stage and I loved watching her enjoying eating (and similarly when she screwed her face in digust at some of my offerings!) Oh, it almost makes me feel broody again...(NO!) Have fun

Cocococo - if you are breastfeeding regularly you don't need to give water at all. When my baby was little I didn't know this and used to try and give water when he had hiccoups. I then read a book that said not to bother and so he had nothing but the breast till 20 weeks when he had his first taste of solids. I don't think I bothered with any water till he was about 6 months and he took to it fine. Do initially try to stick with water though rather than juice as I know some babies that actually refuse plain water because they have got used to juice.

Most of the weaning foods are so watery anyway and they take so little to begin with then there is no worry about dehydration.

Oh no! I didn't even know there was a whole other debate about weaning vessels etc. I was writing purely to find out if anyone knew of any good vegetarian books on weaning a baby? My baby is 14weeks old and hungry! I have breastfed him since birth but I am starting to feel like I am not producing enough milk to satisfy him, I am considering giving him some formula milk at bedtime before we start on solids but as he is my first child I have no idea what i am doing, any tips?

Loulabell - I used to give me ds baby rice with pureed veg through it and formula milk. Pureed carrot and turnip were especially popular and broccoli too. He still loves broccoli!!

Sometimes I would just stir through some formula milk and miss out the baby rice completely. Then I moved on to mashed potato with pureed veg mixed in.... a bit lumpier.

I did the same with pureed fruit. I cheated a bit at first and bought the Heinz organix jars that are pureed for you.... easy-peasy!

Have fun!!!

mine loved mashed potatoes,broccoli, dairylea cheese and a few drops of olive oil, and banana,biscuits(or rusks) and fresh orange juice all mashed together you can also do it with formula instead of orange juice,they still have that for breakfast sometimes

There's a vegetarian cookbook for babies and children which I swear by. It's by Carol Timperley and it's brilliant alot better then Annabel Karmel in my opinion.
I got my copy from the jojo catalogue but they don't do it anymore. You should be able to get it on the internet somewhere.
Baby & Child vegetarian Recipes by Carol Timperley
Ebury Press ISBN 0-09-185-3001

There's also a pretty good book which I got from WH Smiths last year
Veggie Food for Kids by Sara Lewis
Hamlyn ISBN 0-600-60211-7

It sounds like its just for kids but there's some good baby recipes in it and alot of info on veggie weaning.
Have fun.

We had the vegetarian Mother & baby Book by Rose Elliott, but I don't know where it's gone... (Also Not Just A Load of Old Lentils, which I still dip into now & again.)

My 4 were weaned on jars & packets I'm afraid.. (& Farley's rusks).. but they never had formula.

I began weaning my DS at 13 weeks because he was so hungry, he is now 22 weeks. Today I tried pureed carrot and parsnip and he loved it. I basically puree all types of veg(broccoli, cabbage, courgettes etc), although I read recently you shouldn't give babies under 1 year turnip as it 's too high in nitrates (haven't a clue what this means and DS loves turnip). I add baby rice or potato to veg/fruit mix as he loves thicker textures. For breakfast I use baby cereal powder and mix it with formula milk. I try to add formula milk in as much as I can because he doesn't like the bottle and I never breastfed.

Lizzer, the Anyway-up cup at night sounds good - do you just leave it in her cot? Or does she reach through cot bars to get it?