Weaning; advice

[RachSt12]

Morning everyone,

I began weaning my son 4 weeks ago and I was pleased with how it was going but after doing some reading this morning I wanted some advice from others as to what they do with their babies.

Breakfast: Porridge with puréed fruit (different fruit each day), a small spoonful of yogurt.

Lunch: we've just moved on to introducing meat, but it's a bit hit and miss, but he will happily take any fruit/veg puree I give him and to boost calories I add some soft cheese.

We've not managed to progress to three meals but I am planning on today and will probably give puréed veg/fruit with some yogurt.

He's not keen on milk so I'm trying to get as many calories/calcium into his meals.
He will take about 500mls of milk a day, sometimes less as he tends to get a bit constipated when we try new foods first the first time- is this right?
Any advice, does this sound right? Should I offer finger food at tea first before offering another puréed meal?

Thank you.

Crikey, sounds a bit complicated to me

Mine have all had whatever we are having, three meals a day from the start.

My youngest has just turned 6 months and today she has had

Breakfast - porridge, berries, Greek yogurt & fruit bread

Lunch - tomato, cucumber, cream cheese, hummus, rice cakes, bhajis and samosas

Dinner will be pasta bake, broccoli & sweet corn.

She has a doidy cup of water to play with during meals and then BF whenever else during the day.

Mine just had what we had. Nothing puréed, no baby cereals, no feeding with spoons (let them feed themselves) etc. Finger foods from day one.

I think it's a really individual thing and everybody ends up doing what suits them and their baby. I know lots of babies the same age as my DD and all were weaned differently (even if their parents intended to do similar things to each other at the beginning!)

We started with one meal a day and we used puréed food because solids as per baby led weaning made her vomit copiously! I would have loved to have an 'uncomplicated' plan like the pp who first answered your question but honestly, that wouldn't have worked for us. If your son has taken well to what you're doing, I would keep going with your plan. The types of food he's eating sound good to me. Your HV can advise on balanced diet if he won't take much milk - that really doesn't sound like much milk to me so I would be keen to keep taking him to be weighed over the next few months just to make sure all stays on track.

Also we spoon fed DD - she now uses a spoon herself at 1yo with no problems. I don't know any 6mo who could feed themselves with a spoon so don't worry about helping with that, he will learn when he is ready.

Sorry to keep messaging! I had the Ella's kitchen book which I found really helpful as it talks about how and when you can introduce stuff, new recipes to try as you move from purée to solids to family foods, etc. Obviously if your baby is happy to eat family meals and you want this from day 1 you won't need a book but if not, it's good.

I'm doing a mix of spoon and baby led weaning because ds2 loves food so much he gets frustrated trying to feed himself so for today we have the following.

Porridge with toast
5oz milk
Jar of tomato pasta with some actual pasta to feed himself.
5oz milk
2 little yogurts mid afternoon
10mo + pouch of Ella's kitchen with veg sticks to eat.
5oz bottle.

He's 6 months and not a big milk drinker so I give him another bottle at night. He's been weaning 2.5 months. It's a slow but steady process. I also give him rice cakes baby crisps and bits of fruit if I'm eating because he goes made if we eat without him. There's nothing I don't let him try if your baby is over 6 months I would let him try anything and if he's not a milk drinker try a dream feed. I also haven't moved on to cows milk because I need him to take more formula x

Thank you so much for your responses, really helpful to know what other people do.

I like the idea of combining finger food, in fact I offered some melon at lunchtime and he sucked in that after he'd had his main lunch.

I do worry about his milk intake, he is on a high calorie milk as he was born 3 months early, so actually he's 4 months corrected. I do now offer him water and the dietician seems happy with his weight. I do need to get him weighed this week just to make sure he's on track.

I'm going to look into a few of your suggestions, it's so interesting to hear what others do, so thank you!

Also we spoon fed DD - she now uses a spoon herself at 1yo with no problems. I don't know any 6mo who could feed themselves with a spoon so don't worry about helping with that, he will learn when he is ready.

They watch you and copy, or use their hands. Food like risotto is great fun!

I've been weaning my dd for a couple of weeks. We are doing a mix of finger foods and spoon feeding. You could start introducing finger foods with things to suck off them e.g. toast fingers with hummus, cucumber stick with cream cheese. I find that encouraged her to start chewing on things. Pieces of soft fruit and well cooked vegetable also go down well. Avocado is great as it's so soft and easy to chew.
You could try starting to chunk up the purees, say mashing some vegetables instead of pureeing so that he starts getting used to some texture. I am trying to give dd the same as us as much as possible but doing things that are fairly soft so easy to eat like cauliflower cheese, bolognese, fish pie, risotto.
He might turn his nose up at first but keep on offering a variety of things and he will soon get stuck in!