8 month old meal ideas?! Help! Shopping !

[UnicornsAndGlitterxx]

Baby currently on Ella's kitchen but I feel like it'd be nice to introduce home cooked meals, has anyone got any recipe ideas or things I can buy at the supermarket tonight that I can make for her?
What ingredients or things to buy at the shop?

Just give them small bits of the stuff you eat!

Both my DC at that age have enjoyed things like cottage pie and peas, chips, pasta in tomato sauce, rice and meatballs (chopped up), omelette, slices of cheese on toast cut into fingers etc as well as fruit (satsumas, bananas, orange slices, pear) and well cooked veg.

Chunks of cheese, cucumber, boiled eggs and rice cakes as snacks. I also taught them to suck on yoghurt pouches as a easily transportable snack.

if we were having a roast chicken they would have a little bit of everything apart from maybe gravy.

Spag Bol they would have exactly what we were but I would chop the spaghetti up a bit.

It's amazing what they can actually manage themselves.

You need to keep a bit of an eye on high salt contents in e.g gravies but a little bit of salt is fine so don't worry too much about it.

@pastabest thank you for your reply! I'd been putting posts up about needin advice with sleeping aswell and no one responded i thought I must be doing something wrong on here ! And even tho she's 8 months she still gags on things, even cow and gate jars with little bits she would gag on and it made her sick once :(( I give her bits of toast and stuff etc but she coughs so I'm just bit cautious as to if she's dealing with it well? I was thinking about buying fromage frais yoghurt as a snack as she hates the fruit pouches, it's like every jar she hates , she still drinks her milk (not as much as she's teething atm) so I'm not worried about her not being full but I don't have a baby food blender to even blend what I'd eat for her to have x

Gagging is normal and part of the process of learning how to eat solid food - though it is horrible to watch. Do you know the difference between gagging and choking and how to deal with an emergency?

Mash with a fork, then pass through a sieve...
You can freeze down in ice cube trays, then just bag each up, and take a few cubes and reheat for meals.
Apple cooks in a pan to a pulp...
Bananas mash down as well.
Baby rusks melt in a bit of milk...
Also babies love to just eat them, bit messy , so old bibs...

@HerSymphonyAndSong I'm only 19 so I just want to be the best mum I can be too her and get as much advice as possible, it's still new to me8 months on, i believe when she's chocking she would go bright red and have her airway blocked? I believe I'd put her face down along my arm and do 5 hits (not horrible!!) between her shoulders? She's never checked so I've never thought of it tbh!! Feel dumb now! X

@mummmy2017 thank you for this! I never thought of using a sieve !x

Gagging is completely fine and normal - it means they are learning to use their gag reflex, not that they are choking and they will work it out themselves. They will go still, silent and blue if they are choking.

My DD is 7 months and has been eating fully solid food since 6 months - our regular meals are:

• wraps with cream cheese or peanut butter
• Weetabix & banana
• 'Shepherds' pie - made with beans and lentils because we're vegetarian
• scrambled egg on toast
• sweet and normal potato wedges
• pitta bread with hummus or tuna (mixed with natural yoghurt)
• pasta
• egg, cheese, spinach and broccoli

Really, all you need to do is give them whatever you're having and just adapt it if there's salt included or honey & whole nuts

We started with sticks of vegetables but moved very quickly to whatever we're having. Tonight she's having tofu, broccoli & noodles then a yoghurt and some cheese for after for a bit of fat.

If she was choking she would be silent.

@SherlockSays that sounds lovely! It seems as if she can't bite anything though like break it and chew it? Maybe I'm just being to paranoid and need to let her explore and try new things and stop worrying to much x

@NinnieNouse okay thank u she hasn't chocked before x

DD has no teeth so can't bite as such, she just gums stuff until it's wet and then swallows we do a mixture of spoon feeding and finger foods. I think it's really a case of trying and seeing what happens - I've been lucky really because she will take anything I give her lol

OP- does your local SureStart centre have weaning classes? I found it so helpful.

@SherlockSays thank u for ur post I think I'm goin to just go for it and just see what she likes and doesn't like x

Sorry I didn’t mean to imply that you weren’t doing things right - I was posting quickly and should have said that if you make sure you can identify the difference between gagging and choking (and how to deal with the latter) then you might find it easier to let her work out the solid food herself with your close supervision. My son gagged lots at the beginning but never choked and he rarely gags now.

@NinnieNouse I'm not too sure? Tbh I didn't know they had any, or that it existed 🥴

Have a look on FB or local library. It might be where you take baby to get weighed?

@HerSymphonyAndSong no it's ok you didn't come across as anything but giving advice! It's just new to me still and is there any chance anyone in here could give me any advice on there routines? What there babys do when they get up to when they sleep? And what time? How could I establish a routine? Or is it not possible at this age with teething?x

@NinnieNouse if I ring my health visitor do you think she might be able to tell me where it'd be?x

Yes, your HV will know. I went to some fab courses at our site start centre. Weaning, first aid; they're so helpful.

@SuperSange thank u! Will they give advice on routines or what other mums do?i did a post t find if other mums would tell me there's so I could establish one but I got no reply's

What sort of routines? I was a bit baby-led, so I let my boy establish his own routines. I soon learned them and also learned to plan around them. I wouldn't worry too much yet. The only think I did bear in mind was that he was inly awake for a max of two hours during the day. Then it was nap time. He was carried in a sling on my front so soon nodded off.

I also followed my son’s lead really and he is heavily into breastfeeding and wasn’t really interested in three meals a day until about 9mo, but since he was about 10weeks he has always woken up at 6.30am ish so he usually feeds around then and then has breakfast at 7.30 ish, followed by playing and then BF before having a nap at about 9.30ish for anywhere from 40-60 mins. Then we go out for a bit (probably wants to BF at some point) and then have lunch at 12.30 ish then BF and sleep at about 13.30 for 1-2 hours. Then go out or play until tea time (prob BF a couple of times in between, might have a snack) at 17.00-17.30 ish. Then bath around 18.15 and stories, cuddles, lullabies, BF and bedtime about 19.00 (he set this time himself). He wakes up a lot in the night though!

He is 10mo now. But it changes all the time as he develops/teething etc so not really set in stone!

My daughter is 8 months and loves potato and baked beans (low sugar and salt ones) I just mash some up for her with a fork when we have jacket potatoes. She seems to manage finely grated cheese with it as well.
She also has omelette when we have that... I cut spinach up really finely with scissors to put in the omelette along with cheese.

Pasta she can have too... I just chop it all up with scissors once its cooked!

@SuperSange as in like when do your baby's wake up ? When are there bottles etc when do they nap? I just like to hear different mums with different routines to see how they do things so I could sort of consider trying them x