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Baby weaning

21 replies

ADTB · 22/09/2019 16:43

I'm starting to wean my baby next week and have got all my vegetables ready to purée... I have been reading some things online to try and prepare (first time mum winging it) and I've seen a few websites saying 'once baby has mastered grains, they are then ready for vegetable purées'

Does this mean I NEED to offer baby rice etc before I start with veg... or can I just start him straight on veg purée?

Sorry if this is a really basic question Smile

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mindutopia · 22/09/2019 16:46

How old is he? Mine all started with normal (non puréed food) at 6 months. But before 6 months babies should only have fruit, veg or rice porridge. After 6 months, they can eat everything and there is no need to restrict what you offer unless you’ve been advised to do so due to allergies in your family.

ADTB · 22/09/2019 17:07

@mindutopia thanks for the reply! Smile
He will be 5 months when we start to wean. We are having to do it early on GP and HV advice as he has severe reflux and after trying many different powders and potions, he is still not able to keep all of his milk down and is not putting on the weight he should be.

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BigusBumus · 22/09/2019 17:10

I know everyone on here groans when someone with big strapping teenage sons comes on to say how they did it, which goes against current guidelines, but i will offer my opinion nevertheless and you ignore it if you like. Smile

Back in 2002 we weaned our babies around 16 weeks (4 months ish) although many, including me didn't get beyond 12 weeks without adding bits of food in to experiment. All my babies had Petit Filous as their first food on a rubber spoon to make them interested in flavour and sweetness other than milk. We all did that back then, (my friends and I anyway) then added silky smooth purees of fruit and the sweeter vegetables, getting them used to it before moveing on to another. i.e. Pear puree for a week, then Butternut squash for a week and so on.

The we progressed to leaving a few lumps in and giving the baby a spoon to hold as well as doing the spoon feeding, and then little meals like bolognaise with those tiny star shaped pasta bits that go in soups etc.

None of us used baby rice, how bland and unexciting is that stuff? Literally no flavour - how is that supposed to excite a baby into wanting food?

For what its worth, none of my babies only ever wanted sweet foods and rejected savoury because they had a Petit Fious as their first food. They are late teens now and between 6ft and 6ft 4 and eat everything in sight! No allergies either.

I suppose what I'm saying is If you stray from the current guidelines, your baby won't suddenly be allergic to everything and die. They won't only eat sweet food and they won't be malnourished. Its OK to use a bit of common sense when feeding, if it tastes nice to you, it will to your baby as well. If it tastes shit to you (baby rice), it wont excite your baby into wanting more either.

Good luck! I long to be back at those days, seems so simple now compared to the teenage stuff. x

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ADTB · 22/09/2019 17:11

Oh - and also, do I need to be sticking to single vegetables or can I mix two in one purée? I.e. peas + broccoli?

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BaaBaaBS · 22/09/2019 17:11

I think the idea with starting with baby rice is that it has no taste, so it's an easy one to start them on. Just be careful with the reflux, we were advised to stay away from 'acidic' fruit and veg initially as it can make it worse. Things like apples, oranges etc

lifesnotaspectatorsport · 22/09/2019 17:14

I started weaning my DS at 5 months because he was just constantly hungry. I remember reading that it's good to only introduce one new food per day at first so you know if they react badly to anything. I started DS with plain baby rice (he guzzled it) then mixed baby rice with single veg like carrot, sweet potatoes for the next few days, moved on to plain veg, then mixes of fruit & veg. Only one meal per day (lunch I think) at first, then added breakfast.

ADTB · 22/09/2019 17:14

Thank you @BigusBumus - any opinion and advice is appreciated. Yeah I have the same feelings on baby rice and really didn't want to be giving him something that tastes like cardboard as his first food  But your right, there's so many guidelines that change all the time and all the stuff on the internet is just so conflicting and confusing.

@BaaBaaBS Thank you, that's really good to know as I hadn't even thought of that.

Smile
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ADTB · 22/09/2019 17:16

@lifesnotaspectatorsport brill, thank you. I think I'll start with single veg for the first week or so then and see how he goes and then move on to mixing them.

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lifesnotaspectatorsport · 22/09/2019 17:17

I think it's good to expand the variety quite quickly and have a mix of savoury and (naturally) sweet tastes. FWIW my son is 2.5 now and eats really well. We were in China when I was weaning him so he got started early on rice and garlicky veg/ dumplings - his favourite food is still Chinese!

ADTB · 22/09/2019 17:27

@lifesnotaspectatorsport haha that's brilliant! Grin Yeah, I really want to give him a good variety as I don't want him to end up being a fussy eater. My partner and step daughter point blank refuse to eat vegetables and step daughter won't ever eat what we have for tea, has to be either chicken nuggets or burger and chips so I really want to avoid that happening with my son.
I have told my partner they will be expected to eat vegetables when our son starts to sit at the table with us Smile

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BigusBumus · 22/09/2019 17:42

I had a friend who did exactly what i did regarding weening. (We used to pre make little meals, like the aforementioned Tiny Pasta Bolognaise in bulk, put portions in tiny freezer bags, so there were like 6 and swap 3 with each other for something else. We were both decent cooks though). Anyway, her boy got to about 2.5y and started to get fussy. She would offer choice after choice, throwing away perfectly good cooked meals and offering something else until he got what he wanted which was toast with jam, every time. The secret is not to cave in. If my boys didn't want what was offered they went without and maybe had a boring snack before bed and slightly more milk or whatever. They were then starving at breakfast and i would make sure they had loads to eat then to make up for it. No otherwise healthy, normal weight child will starve to death because they didn't eat their cottage pie of an evening! Again, use your common sense.

Lottle · 23/09/2019 06:14

Boots parenting club give you a free ellas kitchen 'First Tastes' recipe book with lots of advice that I found useful. We did veg purees. He's never had baby rice but does have porridge. All the best!

Chocolateandcarbs · 23/09/2019 06:34

I followed the Anna Karmel cookery book for ideas about first purées and generally put some finger foods on the tray too (something like veg sticks or toast). I made the purées
in advance, froze them individually and just defrosted 3 a day.

Kyriesmum1 · 23/09/2019 06:51

@ADTB download the boots app and join the parenting club and you can redeem a coupon to get the free weaning guide, very useful! We started weaning our LO at 5 mths as she has a dairy intolerance and doesn't like her milk! Yes you can mix veggies, carrot and potato is a good mix that our LO likes!

lifesnotaspectatorsport · 23/09/2019 08:02

Once he's eating 1-2 small meals a day, let him try whatever you're eating. That will give him good exposure to a range of tastes and textures and let you learn what he likes. Keep him away from burgers and chips as long as you can! Once he's used to other flavours, he may even find them a bit boring. DS is not great at eating plain veg except for peas and carrots but he's fine with it in pasta sauces/ chilli/ cottage pie etc.

WhyBirdStop · 23/09/2019 08:29

If he's not gaining weight surely you want calorie dense foods? Fruit and veg purées have fewer calories than milk, hence the not weaning until six months, I know you've been told to do so earlier for medical reasons. As your HV has advised it speak to her, logically to me you'd want to be giving porridge made with formula, breast milk or full fat cow's milk if you want him to gain weight, there is little nutrition in baby rice.

firstimemamma · 23/09/2019 08:35

Mine started at 5 months 1 week on home made fruit / veg purées. Only moved on to other foods after 6 months so a good first few weeks of nothing but fruit and veg. Never tried him on baby rice as I don't think it's very nice or nutritious.

OrangeSwoosh · 23/09/2019 08:36

I read this book and found it very helpful. The main take home message for me was to feed less sweet veg (swede, spinach, broccoli etc) and fruit (eg plum) purees first as babies will readily accept sweet foods and so to develop their tastes for less sweet flavours. The book has plenty of journal references and basically says that babies exposed to less sweet flavours early on, had a more diverse palate at various stages of development (I can't remember the exact ages but say 2 and 5 years or something)

Baby weaning
MustardScreams · 23/09/2019 08:39

Give finger foods as well as purée. There’s nothing worse than trying to get onto lumps etc and baby hates the texture!

Baby rice is completely devoid of nutrition, you may as well soak sawdust in milk and feed that.

Stick to actual food. You don’t need to just give one flavour of purée. Cook without salt and mash what you’re having and give baby that. Let them hold a preloaded spoon and feed themselves.

Weaning isn’t just about eating, it’s exploring food textures, playing with food, learning how to chew, strengthening jaw muscles, sensory play etc. Just a diet of purée is boring as hell! Make mealtimes interesting so they can explore and have fun as well.

BertieBotts · 23/09/2019 09:01

Honestly, it absolutely does not matter what order you introduce foods in. If you look at guidelines from different countries they are all massively different which says to me that none of it is evidence based and it's mostly bollocks.

I had my first 10 years ago in the UK and my second is just one, born in Germany so I have looked into this recently.

All of the guides from baby food companies make it sound overly complicated so that you will buy their products which "make it easy". It is fine to just do it your own way.

Grains are very difficult for a baby to process and digest, generally they will pass through untouched. So I would not give too many grains, they can be used as a "vehicle" for more nutritious foods, such as toast with avocado or cream cheese spread on, or pasta with sauce on it. Baby rice and/or porridge are really just a way to give texture to milk/purees, and may be fortified with vitamins.

Nothing bad is going to happen if you give your baby foods in the order not recommended on the internet or by the weaning book. Don't stress, make it fun.

The UK's guidance on what to introduce (or not) before 6 months seems to be based on fears of allergies - but more recent research suggests that it is beneficial in terms of preventing allergies to offer allergenic foods before 6 months. Other countries recommend that meat, fish, dairy and so on are introduced before 6 months with no widespread difference in allergy rates.

The idea of introducing foods one at a time is so that you can identify if anything causes a reaction, but this isn't necessary unless there is a history of allergies in the family. You can do it if you want to though.

Watch salt levels - strictly no more than 1g per day up to 6 months, 6-12 months on average up to 1g per day, 1-3 years on average up to 2g per day. If a label only shows sodium, multiply by 2.5 to get salt equivalent. Be aware that UK children's foods tend to be low in salt as baby food manufacturers were called out on salt levels a couple of years ago, but they still cram masses of sugar into their foods. Anything with added fruit juice concentrate is going to be high in refined sugar, which is bad for developing teeth. Petits Filous are a bit out of fashion now due to the sugar - I have given them to both of my babies but you're encouraged to use plain greek yoghurt (with a bit of fruit puree mixed in if you like).

You can give finger foods before 6 months as long as you follow BLW guidance - sitting up rather than reclined, allowing them to do it completely by themselves (if they can't, they're not ready) and always with supervision.

This is pretty nice for mashing up portions of your own food if you're eating something suitable. But be careful with buying from amazon as there are a lot of Chinese products on there which probably won't be BPA free, even if they say they are.

WhyBird It's a little different in the case of reflux, with reflux the milk isn't managing to nourish the child as too much of it is being brought back up. So the idea is that solid foods (purees) stay in the stomach longer/are less likely to be brought up as they are thicker, so the calorie density isn't really the problem.

ADTB · 23/09/2019 09:56

Thank you everyone, I really appreciate all of the advice.

@BertieBotts thank you for so much detail and I couldn't have put it better myself regarding the issue with his reflux.

It all seems like much less of a minefield now Smile

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