Weaning help

[StepsRoadmum]

Ok, a few questions now that I've started weaning my LO.

Firstly, what did people use to make up baby rice for breast fed babies? I'm not sure I have time to express milk to use everyday but we don't really use formula so I'm worried we will end up wasting lots if I buy it so I'm unsure what to do.

Secondly, we would like to introduce new flavours and textures but how often should I be introducing new foods? Is something different every day too much?

Thirdly, what vitamin supplements do people recommend? I know that we need vitamin B, C and D but there are so many different forms and brands I don't know what to buy.

It's all very exciting but also a bit confusing knowing what to do for the best.

I used cows' milk in baby porridge (didn't use baby rice). Everyone went on about mixing it with formula but it seemed like a pointless faff to me when he was only eating tiny amounts.

I gave new foods quite often, sometimes more than once a day. I've heard you should wait a few days in case of allergies but again I figured it'd be quite obvious if he had any (and it was, when he broke out in hives twenty mins after trying scrambled egg)

We only used vitamin D supplements.

You can just use ordinary whole cows milk for the baby rice .

Don’t bother with baby rice.

You can introduce as many new food as you like. I did BLW so I threw a few things in front of her and she ate what she wanted.

I used a brand that was mixed with cooled boiled water. I introduced a new taste every couple of days.

Baby rice is pretty pointless.

No need to stagger introducing foods unless there’s a family history of allergies.

No advice on the Baby rice as I didn’t bother with it. How old is your baby? If you’ve waited to 6 months old to wean then you can just give them a bit of whatever you’re having (be mindful of high sugar and salt content though).

Trying something different every day is fine - that’s what I’ve been doing and my DD is quickly getting to grips with eating all kinds of things. It’s amazing really! It can take a few tries for Baby to decide they like something so I found it useful to offer some foods over consecutive days. Things like banana and sweet potato mash were a hit from the start.

I found the Baby Led Weaning Cookbook by Gill Rapley really useful for ideas on how to get started.

Enjoy! It gets very messy

It's vitamins A,C and D that should be supplemented. What age is your dc? I used baby rice for thickening runny puree. It's not really needed if your lo is over 6 months

Hi, my DS is 10 months. When we started I bought Ella’s Kitchen baby rice and mixed with a bit of expressed milk (I hand expressed into a cup as you only need small quantities). But tbh I wouldn’t bother with it, it’s just bland gloopy stuff! I’d just go straight into a simple purée if I were you. My son didn’t care much for simple purées at first (e.g boiled carrot), it was only when I started mixing them that he was more willing to eat them e.g pear and parsnip, sweet potato and red pepper.

As for when to introduce new stuff, just play it by ear and see how your baby takes to things. It’s hard to predict what their appetite and pallette will be like.

Re. vitamins, I’m using Abidec drops. Tbh I wouldn’t highly recommend as it doesn’t include iron and it’s bright orange and can stain...but having said that my baby LOVES taking it and excitedly opens his mouth when I get the syringe out. Strange child!

My ds is 6 months next week so starting to plan and prepare now. Thanks for all of the advice, guess I'll skip the baby rice and go straight for purées and see what happens.

@dementedpixie Thanks for clearing that up for me. He is 6 months next week. I've seen lots of different vitamins for babies and just wondered if there was anything in particular people recommend.

Why not skip the purées too?

We went straight to finger food (cooked carrot and sweet potato sticks, banana etc). I let him feed himself from day one. Worked very well for us- he’s now one and is an excellent eater.

@MrsBriteSide thanks for the tips, I might start with some sweet potato then see if he likes it. I'll have a think about what we're eating too and see if I can give him some bits of that. I'm very ready for the mess

@silenceisadistantmemory I'm planning on introducing some finger foods soon. Thinking I might try to give him his food first then offer him something to eat himself afterwards whilst we're eating. If I'm honest I'm a bit scared of him choking on something if we go straight for finger foods.

Join a couple of BLW groups on Facebook, there’s a few with really good hints and tips to start you off. This website is good too

www.babyledweaning.com

There’s no rush, but basically if you eat a fairly healthy balanced diet, give your baby a sample of your plate whilst eating. Start with evening meals and then slowly introduce at lunch and breakfast, adding the food alongside your feeding.

The key for weaning is actually sitting with them whilst you and them eat as they watch you and learn from you. You give lots of different food, give them a couple of plastic spoons and surprising, the just work it out in the end.

BLW is messy but fun (and I was dreading this stage). Get a plastic mat for the floor (or shower mat) and stick any food in front of them.

@stepsroadmum you’re welcome. I was nervous about finger foods too. Been weaning for a month now and I still am! I give her stuff like sticks of cucumber, toast soldiers, sticks of steamed carrot and watch her like a hawk. The sweet potato mash is good as it sticks to the spoon nicely! I’ve been mashing some bits from my meals up with a fork and she’s been spooning it in her mouth herself. I’m getting more confident with how she handles lumps and finger foods as time goes on. She bloody loves weetabix with whole cows milk so I recommended that as an easy breakfast to try. Also porridge with some banana mashed in. Ooh it’s so much fun once you get started!

Also there is a significant difference between choking and gagging.

www.babyledweaning.com/features/gagging/the-gagging-thing-v-the-choking-thing/

There’s a good book by Gill Rapley, called Baby Led Weaning. I found this eased my concerns about feeding.

The worry about choking is scary. What really helped me was the knowledge that choking is silent. It stopped me panicking when he gagged on something and coughed it up.

See meals as a form of messy play, makes it all so much easier!

I’d second the recommendation for the Gill Rapley book. I knew I wanted to do baby led weaning anyway, but that really convinced me it was the best thing for DD and allayed the fears I had.

DS seemed a bit baffled by finger food to start with - he actually really benefited from baby rice (mixed with expressed milk - you only need 1-2 tsp) because he recognised the taste and knew it was supposed to be swallowed.

Then once he had the hang of it he moved onto yoghurt pretty quickly (within the week), and baked apple purée. He’s 7.5 months and eats a mixture of purées and finger food now. We give him the same breakfast every day (yoghurt and a banana which he eats whole), some sort of savoury soft diet mid-afternoon (dal, vegetable mash, cauliflower cheese, home-made soup, that sort of thing) and a couple of chunks of fruit or cheese or some other finger food. He also usually has a nibble of whatever we’re eating which might be pasta, bread, rice, pizza. I give him the occasional mini rice cake or baby biscotti if we’re out and he’s hungry, because they can be eaten non-messily.

I make the purees in advance (usually about four portions) and freeze them so he isn’t eating the same thing every day. I find he will eat purée more reliably than finger food - he seems to like to play with the finger food more than he wants to eat it (we gave him cut up spinach and ricotta cannelloni in a bowl, and he spent ages carefully picking it out of the bowl and putting it on his tray. We took a piece off the tray and put it on a spoon and he ate it).

Our main problem now is that the food we eat is often quite spicy or strongly flavoured, and I’m not sure how to transition him into normal food - it’s not the texture, I don’t think he will like the taste of pasta puttanesca or Thai curry. And I don’t want to make special meals just for him for the next five years.

Just try him with your normal foods Sashkin. Our dd had curry, chilli con crane and garlic steak in her first month of eating.

I totally agree with giving the baby what you are eating. He learns by watching so eat with the DC . There are manypotential pitfalls, avoid as many as you can; if baby gags watch them but don’t necessarily interfere as they are learning to manipulate the food, don’t give them ‘special’ food or they will learn to expect something just for them, don’t bother with puréed as there is no need , leave salt out of your cooking and your baby can have what you are eating, sit at the table and eat with your baby, if your baby pulls a face at new food try it again a few days later they may need many trials to get the hang of it.etc .
It’s fun when they start eating!

Do you all use baby stock cubes? Or just use less stock?

I haven’t done anything with stock yet (only started Monday) but apparently you can get low salt stock cubes.

Kallo do stock cubes with the lowest salt content. Called 'very low salt' or something equally obvious.

Or you can make your own (never done it myself though!)

And OP, I'd recommend the BLW cookbook. It's got a good explanation of the BLW principles and lots of recipes that are good for everyday family cooking.