Weaning at 4/5 months

[Whiskeyjar]

Can anyone recommend some foods to start weaning with a 4 and a half month old?

Babies gut isn’t mature enough
Nonsense, no evidence at all. The latest research into allergies was introducing foods at 12 weeks. They would not have done that if there was any evidence of it being harmful

I started my baby with organix strawberry and banana porridge - lots of brands do versions of it. She still has it every morning at 8 months. I use formula milk in it left from her first bottle. You just add the milk straight to it no need to cook it so a nice easy breakfast. It's really smooth and sweet so tasty as a starter food I think.

Other things - cucumber strips (leave skin on for grip), banana (I cut them in half and leave a bit of skin on the end again for grip), baby biscuits, toast or fruit loaf cut into fingers with butter.

I also make batches of leek and potato soup or chicken soup blended and it suits the whole family. Freeze in ice cube trays.

I did lots of homemade purees with my first baby but have to admit to taking more shortcuts this time with my second.

What I would say - don't be overly worried if they seem to prefer fruit and sweeter flavours to start as it doesn't mean it will always be that way!!!

I was advised the main signs were, can sit in a high chair, has lost the tongue thrust reflex and has hand eye coordination.

@Purplepinkpurple If the thread was 'should I wean my baby at 4/5 months as I'm not sure?' Then yes, your point would be valid. However, I asked what foods people can recommend as I AM weaning my baby at 4.5 months so anyone jumping on and telling me why am I wrong for doing this are the people who are 'trying to cause arguments' as you put it. I've had some great recommendations and advice from the people who read this and replied as they actually had suggestions. I can easily pick foods that state 4 months plus on them but that wasn't what I wanted- I wanted other people's recommendations on what THEY used and what worked and what didn't.

@whiskeyjar you can make your own purees easily by blending up fruit/veg with some water or milk. It’s cheaper than commercial baby foods and better. You don’t need to get suckered in to Ella’s kitchen advertising either as a pp has suggested. This detailed guide has everything you need to know without plugging anyone’s products:
static1.squarespace.com/static/59f75004f09ca48694070f3b/t/5a5a41479140b7e31a75ccbc/1515864404727/Eating_well_the_first_year_Sep_17_small.pdf

No, of course earlier generations did not "do BLW."

What earlier generations did was that they offered a mixture of foods in different ways, offering a lot of mashed food at the start but also letting babies take solid pieces of food off their plates when that seemed to be working, in a common sense sort of way. And traditionally, parents and carers tended to pre-chew a lot of babies' first foods.

BLW in the true sense (putting your child in a highchair and putting a selection of finger foods ONLY in front of them and having the baby ONLY put in their mouth what they are able to self-feed, even if that means that some babies end up going for months and months doing nothing except playing with food and chucking it on the floor) is a modern idea and is linked with ideas about doing things in a child-led way, which would have made little sense to previous generations.

Did my first DC at 4 months (8 years ago). She had severe reflux and I wanted to get away from just milk as soon as possible as she just threw it all up. I found the Annabel Karmel book useful. I started with purees of root vegetables - carrots, parsnips etc and kept them very smooth. I cooked and blended up a batch then froze them in ice-cube trays.

I used some baby rice and gradually introduced more vegetables and fruit until 6 months when I started some fish, chicken, slow-cooked beef. By about 8 months she was eating pureed versions of just about anything. As she got bigger, I bought some small pots which I froze portions in, then emptied the frozen portions into freezer bags and stored them like that.

I had a second DC that I waited until 6 months and started BLW. After a while I got fed up with it and mixed up finger foods and spoon feeding.

No health differences between my two DC now but the one weaned on purees is much less fussy!

Also, worth pointing out that advice on allergies has completely changed. We were told to avoid peanuts until after a year, but allergy specialists now say they were mistaken and incidences of peanut allergies actually rose considerable during the time that advice was given.

We weaned early too. DD's paediatrician (we're not in the UK) had said she should be weaned at about 3/4 months as it would be good for her weight (she's stocky, let's put it that way). Definitely did the trick 😂. We've changed to another one who's less concerned with it.
By the time we weaned,DD had already been eyeing our food for ages, looking miserably at us from her highchair.

Anyway, we started with single mashed up fruit and then added veg later in the day. Sometimes we added a bit of spice (banana with cinnamon was a decided favourite, I know shoot me now). When a single banana wasn't enough anymore, we moved on to porridge with fruit for lunch and jars of veg in the evening with us. The jars came about because I was concerned that my husband, who does the cooking, was putting in too much fat and often he wouldn't get the consistency right.

Then at 7 months, she grabbed a huge piece of cake from a friend's plate, so I decided to give her bread for lunch. That obviously calmed her grabbing action at every meal.
Now at 1, she eats breakfast on her own, and lunch. And she's just started eating with us, including spicy curry. Though she still gets spoonfed in the evening, as that's the least messy.

Incidentally, had I wanted to wait to wean until she could sit unaided, she would have been 9 months when she tasted her first food...

I haven't started weaning yet as DD is only 3.5 months but this thread now has me all sorts of confused.

What I did come on to say is that the Ella's kitchen pack that they send through the post is brilliant. Get signed up.

Needs you don't need to sign up and pay. Just blend your own food. Cheaper and freshly made.

@kikibo no one says they have to sit unaided...they’re meant to be able to sit with support, eg in a high chair.

Needs is talking about the mailing list Jemima, you sign up and they send you a free pack! I've just signed up so thanks for the tip!

Yes, you don't have to buy anything but it has a wall chart and food ladder of what's suitable at what age, very informative.

Oo ok , sorry Needs

Probably a bit late for a reply now but my 4 month old tried baby rice for the first time last night and absolutely loved it. Be mindful of baby porridges and other items that claim to be 'organic' as I was surprised to see the lengthy list of ingredients and even containing palm oil in some of them! 😮