Weaning

[Mimi2018]

Hello

My baby is 6 months today and I'm starting the weaning process soon

Can I please get advice as to what to give her first and how often and everything I need to know!

Thanks!

Most people start with pureed single veg. However, my baby hated veg and still won’t eat single veg. So we relented went with pureed fruit and then gradually introduced savoury and textures. However, some miss purees completely and offer finger foods- carrot batons, bits of banana etc. So friends if you want to go for the blow approach or traditional weaning

It depends what approach you’re taking. We have done baby led weaning with both of ours. They just started with whatever baby friendly things we happened to be eating in a given meal (minus added salt, sugar, honey or whole nuts).

Dd’s first meal was roasted carrots and parsnips, mash and a Yorkshire pudding. Ds was cucumber and melon sticks, new potatoes, a bit of a roll (we were having a bbq) and a few baby puffs. Just whatever we had to hand that he could easily pick up and eat. We’ve never restricted foods or phased in any foods, just healthy easy to hold bits from our meals.

We started with one meal a day and worked up to 3 a day as we had time. There’s no hurry and they usually don’t each much anyway the first month or two. We were doing 3 meals a day probably by 7.5-8 months.

Thank you both..

Could I start with rice powder as a lot of people say that's a good one to start with for texture as it's bland?
Then after maybe a couple week combined veg and fruit purées?

And I am also introducing water as-well in a bottle?

Could you explain the types of approach as I'm not sure?

I wouldn't bother with baby rice - it doesn't offer anything nutritionally.

Have a look on the Gill Rapley website if you want to learn more about baby led weaning. Essentially it's about just offering baby foods in the forms you'd normally eat them (so no pureeing or mashing unless it's something like mashed potato that you'd have mashed yourself) and giving them the same as you're having as far as possible (but no honey before 1, no whole nuts and no salty foods). Baby takes the lead, so you just give them the food and let them explore. It's totally normal for it to take a few months before they really start eating much/anything, but they're learning all the time about how to control food in their mouths and exploring textures and flavours.

No experience of traditional weaning, but I think all the companies that sell baby food probably have guides available for this (based on the amount of junk mail I got from them!).

You should offer water with each meal but don't worry if they don't drink much/anything. Again it's just about learning, and they'll be getting their fluid requirements from their milk. Although a bit of water can help avoid constipation.

As your baby is 6 months you can just give regular food (whatever you're having )but without any whole nuts, honey or added salt. Ds's first food was roti dipped in curry and dd had a toasted currant tea cake, pinched from her brother! I didn't do blw but never bothered with purees apart from some fruit ones to put on weetabix, just gave mushed up food and finger foods. Started with one meal a day but dd in particular weaned pretty quickly so was on 3 meals a day within a month or so.

Have a read of this. I think it explains the differences in a fairly balanced way

www.doctor-natalie.com/baby-led-weaning-fab-fad/

Thanks for that

No I won't be doing baby led weaning prefer the traditional way..

So I think I'm going to start a couple of days with baby rice just for texture and something bland then swiftly move on to boiled mashed carrots and potatoes which I will put in little containers in the freezer and also will give her fruit purées

Can I also add porridge to the menu?

Also which brand is the best for baby rice purées and porridge basically baby food? Heinz's, Cow and hate etc?

Also as I have exclusively breast fed LO I don't think she will take water in a bottle if she doesn't I can just spoon feed her right?

Finally do I have to start solids bang on 6months does it matter if it's a week or so late?

There's no need to spoon feed her water. If you're breastfeeding in particular then she'll be getting everything she needs from you. My DD would barely take a sip of water from any cup/bottle until I stopped bfing at a year, she obviously didn't need it before then (wish I hadn't worried!).

You can use normal porridge oats, or if you want a smoother texture the Ready Brek is very fine. No need for the baby ones.

And no, definitely don't need to start bang on 6 months. That's just the earliest you can start.

Reddy brek all the way... a lot of baby porridge doesn’t have oats in it, most of it is milk.
My baby hated bland foods btw. Much prefers stuff with flavour- would t touch baby porridge or baby rice

So in the beginning she will hardly eat anything, so try not to stress too much... i did a combination of purees and BLW. Initially you want to intro them to simple veg or fruit purees. one ingredient only, and give them the same thing for a few days to let their digestive system get used to it. (my daughter struggled a lot with constipation so we had to take it really slowly). I would start with things like carrot puree, sweet potato puree, pea puree, pear puree, apple puree etc. build up with new and combined flavours over a few weeks, and let your little one have a beaker of water with meals but don't worry too much if they don't drink very much as you will still be giving milk. i added in things like cucumber sticks, bits of toast, steamed carrot sticks etc for my baby to feed herself alongside the puree. initially choose one meal to give, e.g. lunch, and over a few weeks build up to breakfast, lunch and dinner. I think by around 9 or 10 months they should be on 3 small meals a day alongside milk. don't stress too much if they don't eat much initially as milk pretty much provides all the nutritional value up until they are one. But over the next six months you will introduce new flavours and textures, to help your little one have a varied and healthy diet. It can be quite disheartening when they throw it on the floor or reject your meals, but keep going, and you will get there in the end. I found keeping a food diary really helped as my daughter has intolerances to some foods and really struggled with certain vegetables as they gave her trapped wind etc.

itshappened you can’t do a combo of blw and purees. The approach you talk of is traditional weaning. Blw is allowing baby to feed itself from day one

@rubyroot I agree. It annoys me (irrationally) when people say they are doing both. You cannot do "a bit" of BLW. You are doing bog standard traditional weaning.

OP I bought Annabel Karmel book for about £2 off eBay. Called something like "when to wean, how to wean your baby". It is all you need for traditional weaning. Recipes are delish.

Thank you all very much

Just another thing..

I am off to Dubai with LO and husband in two weeks time.

LO turned 6month yesterday.

So I'm not sure whether to start her on solids in the next day or so before Dubai or wait until I come back from Dubai and be fully focused on it when I'm back?

The reason I ask is because I don't know how her digestive system will react to solids and the last thing I want is her having constipation in Dubai as that will stress me out her not feeling good so I'm thinking to wait until I come back?

But on the other hand is it ok to delay her on solids? Would there be any problems doing this such as my breast milk not being sufficient for her for the next 3 weeks??

Thanks

It's very much up to you. Your milk will be absolutely fine for the next three weeks but I don't think it would do any harm to offer the odd mashed up banana or finger of toast to gum on if you want to.

I was told if bf then baby shouldn’t get constipated. My baby sometimes went two or three days without poohs when first weaning, but was never hard enough for him to be constipated. I think there’s a bit of adaptation to solids which isn’t always classed as constipation.
You could always try for two weeks before you go and if he gets constipated whilst here you could just go back to exc b feeding whilst in Dubai or take some pureed prunes with you

I'd wait until after Dubai, Dave yourselves the stress! She'll be absolutely fine waiting a few weeks - bear in mind that most BLW babies won't swallow any food during that time even if they start at 6 months.

Just wanted to add my experience that bf babies can get constipated 😬 my poor DD really struggled when she started eating.