Baby Weaning - First Steps - What do I do?

[Thundered]

Hi

My LG was 24 weeks last Friday (almost 6 months) she's able to sit up right, puts thing things to her mouth easily - basically giving all the signs she's ready for food. As she's 24 weeks I'm happy with this.

We've started giving her baby porridge (as in the last three days, only once a day) around 2pm before her milk feed (not when it's due though) I'm just confused on some things and I'm scared I'm doing it wrong.

1. How long do I continue just trying her with baby porridge/any food before it actually replaces a milk feed? She seems to eat the porridge fine and enjoys it. Do I need to give her the milk after? Apart from the porridge / milk feed she usually has 7 - 8 ounces every 3/4 hours.

1. As we've tried baby porridge for the last three days, I'm keen to try something new I.e soft cooked carrots. Do I literally just do the same as I'm doing now? Try her with them, see how she reacts and then move onto something else? I do want to try her with fruit but I'm keen to do all the plain kind of foods first.

1. I just can't get my head around trying my LG with food to huge step of having 3 meals a day.

1. I'm very worried about constipation, am I okay to try her with Prunes and Lentils now? Or I am best waiting another week until she's officially 6 months old? Sounds a bit daft writing that really.

Sorry these probably sound like stupid questions but I'm a FTM (if you've not figured that out )

What are your routines on weaning? Especially this early on? I feel like you go from so much information when they are born on breast milk / FF to not much around weaning. I feel like I'm winging it and I don't like it.

I've got an appointment with HV next week too but would really like to hear your routines / advice.

TIA

No honey until 1. No/very little added salt and sugar. Give food an hour after milk. No need to wait 3 days before introducing new food as an allergy is just as little to happen on the 100th time having a food as the 1st time. Current advice is to give all the major allergens as soon as possible. I just left DD drop bottles when she was ready. Remember to give water with food. Finger foods should be given from 6 months.

I did blw as purées and knowing when it give more meals totally confused me.

I would suggest getting a book to guide you through it. If you're doing purees the Ella's Kitchen purple book is quite a good place to start.
But basically, yeah, you just offer them different stuff and if they eat it great, if they dont still great. Continue to offer milk as normal. If they start eating in reasonable quantities you may notice they then don't want as much milk. Just go at her pace.

Once they start dropping/reducing milk feeds then try to give more nutritionally balanced meals rather than just single fruit or veg or porridge.

I signed up to an Ella's Kitchen mailing list and got a very helpful wallchart which suggested quantities and timings. Although it was a bit too puree-focused, it was useful to give me a plan for getting from 1 carrot to 3 meals a day. Definitely recommend if they still offer it. Unless you have particular allergy concerns, there's no reason to stick to one-ingredient meals at that age. Easier to make stuff you can eat too (with no salt, honey or nuts). I remember early hits were lentil and spinach soup, spinach mixed with ricotta (i had it in a baked potato for my lunch), ratatouille, tomato and pepper soup, etc.

I did BLW As pureeing everything seemed effort and when to intruduce different textures etc just confused things even further! Started on veg stick for a week once a day. When we felt she had the hang of it we tried different things. Just took her lead on it really! Don’t worry, you get the hang of what to do pretty quickly :)

I think you're over thinking it all! ( I did too with my first!)

My youngest is now one, with him I just did blw, it was so easy. If he wanted anything fun my plate I gave it to him. He just tried all sorts of food straight away, joining in with family meals. At first he just played with it, then slowly ate more, and now he's on three meals a day and snacks

I didn't drop any feeds as I fed on demand, so he self regulated.

I highly suggest you just go with blw, Just put a bit of your food in front of him when you have lunch ( provided they're is no honey or salt).

Thanks everyone, I was thinking of doing a mixture of feeding her and BLW. I will try the veg sticks though and see how we get on.

I've looked up Ella's Kitchen too and ordered the purple one book.

The day I just gave up and gave DS some toast was the best day! He was delighted! We started at 24 weeks too and kept with the same amount of bottles until he was about 9 months when he started to drop them. He always had a bottle about 30 minutes before a meal until then too.

I did lunch as his first meal - fruit, savoury muffins, sandwiches, sticks of veg, baby crisps, rice cakes etc. This was when he was usually in his best mood. Then we added on breakfast and then dinner. We did BLW and honestly it was so easy I'm not sure why I bothered getting the blender out.

Didn't puree, just offered something suitable off our plate each meal time (just adapted what I cooked and how I cut veg). He didn't eat much at all but BF when needed and we could tell by nappies when he did start to eat. Sat him in high chair when we were eating.
I couldn't be bothered with puree or the freezer full of cubes of mushed veg.

I live in Germany and the advice here is to transition babies to 3 meals over at least 2-3 months. Only one midday meal for 3-4 weeks, then add one evening meal for 3-4 weeks and then add breakfast. This reduces the risk of constipation as they're introduced so gradually. Most baby weaning books here also list which foods contribute to harden stool or loosen stool so I keep tweaking DD's diet if I feel she's struggling a bit. Eg. Carrots, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Avocados and especially Bananas tend to cause constipation. Pears, Apples, Broccoli, Peaches, Plums will counteract this. Wholewheat cereal and drinking lots of water also help.

If she does get constipated, use this magic poop puree recipe! I found it online and it works wonders. If DD hasn't gone for 2-3 days and is gassy/cranky then I feed her this once a day until something happens.

1. Peel and chop 2 pears. I use Williams pears, ripened until soft and almost yellow
2. Steam pears in a pot or baby food maker for 10mins
3. As soon as the pears are cooking, pour hot water into a bowl and soak 2 soft prunes for 5-10mins
4. Puree everything until smooth

The prunes give the puree a fairly sweet taste and DD loves it especially when served slightly warm. You can also replace prunes with 3 dried apricots or add a tiny pinch of seasoning (cinnamon, vanilla or cloves).

Ella's Kitchen do a little pouch of puréed prunes - I went straight to finger food but always had a pouch handy and would give baby half if she seemed constipated, always did the trick!

(Of course you could purée your own)

Thank you everyone, I've mixed it up the last few days and feel much more confident, Ella's kitchen is fab,

Thanks user for that recipe too, I'll definitely try that if she's gets cranky.