weaning advice

[chester21]

I know that the World Health Organisation states that weaning shouldnt be introduced until 6 months. But my little boy who is 19 weeks is ready and i have tried him with pureed jar food and he woolfed it down. now i know he is ready how do i go about it where do i start and how often do i give him each day etc. I am a first time mum and feel that if i ask my hv i wont get much support as they have to abide by what the government state. thank u

it is usually best to start with baby rice. I found the way that worked best for us was to start with offering lunch, usually around 11am. I offered 2 ice cubes worth of baby rice (made with milk - breast or formula) and then offered her normal lunchtime bottle about an hour afterwards. If that went well i started experimenting with adding veg to the baby rice - carrots, sweet potato, parsnips and pears, apple etc. if you find you little one is taking this meal well, say over a 2-3 week period, you can think about introducing a second meal in the afternoon, say around 5pm, then offer a normal bottle at bedtime.

It is up to you when you introduce meats. Some say wait to 6 months, others don't. I would though go through the range of veg/fruits before starting on meat. Mixing the veg with baby rice will add bulk to it and keep your little one fuller for longer i found.

Another good combination is avocado and banana. The two flavours work really well together and i have never met a baby that didn't scoff it whatever their age.

A good book is the Gina Ford Contented Little Baby guide to weaning. It has a helpful feeding framework that you might find useful. THe annabel karmel website is good for purée recipes.

HTH. good luck.

One of my friends was very recently told by her HV that the weaning guidelines had changed and you can start weaning from 4 months. I don't know how true this is. but i weaned my DS at 19 weeks too.
I started mid morning, he normally had a bottle at 11am so i'd give him half of his milk followed by one ice cube size portion of fruit or veg and then the rest of his bottle he was easy to wean and took it really well so i just gradually increased this amount over a week or two.
at week two it was going well so i introduced breakfast (mid milk again) and he had two meals for a week and then after another week i started giving him tea about 430pm -5ish. As his meal sizes increased he lost interest in his day time milk and dropped the milk feeds naturally.
by 24 weeks he was on 3 meals with a couple of small snacks mid morning and mid afternoon with milk at breakfast and bed time.
I think you should just take the lead from your DS and follow your instincts - there is no black and white. Weaning my daughter was completely different. as she showed no interest at all until 24 weeks and even then wasn't really fussed!

I hope this helps. x