Weaning classes but not weaning classes... bear with me

[NotOnMyWatchSunshine]

Can I ask if anyone would have been or would be interested in a class, like an hour long maybe that you can bring your child (or not) to and learn the basics of starting to cook for your baby when they start weaning? I was talking to a friend today and she said she was a bit naive when it comes to stuff such as:
Freezing guidelines/tips
Best ways to store food once done
How to purée
How and when to defrost
Reheating
Basic recipes (very very basic and simple)

It would be in my home (in theory, this is really early days) and is cook say two dishes a session and the parents would watch and ask questions and help. I guess a bit like the very basics of cooking. I always assumed adults could do this but I guess I never thought about it properly until today.

Any thoughts? Am I being weird by even suggesting it?

Most children's centres or community centres offer learn to cook type courses. Some have crèche or bring child with you. There used to be lots more of that kind of thing but because of budgetary cuts there aren't so many.

You might be better finding a "niche" like vegan baby weaning or similar, but that depends very much on your area.

Most people I know are too time restricted so use the pre made food, too financially restricted so make their own, have older kids so just mush up what they're having, use only finger foods or usually a combination. The majority go to groups to entertain their kids and find their cooking advice online.

So I think you'd be marketing to a very small group of people, so either you make that the point (like weaning locally or weaning the vegan way etc.) which will depend a lot by area or that it aims at a specific group of parents (eg. New mums) or involves the children. Really to make this viable I think it would need to be aimed at people with lots of money (who probably would not be interested) or at a group you could get charitable support for

Or you do some really inspiring interesting food and get the foodies on board! But I don't know many babies who start off with much more than pulverised root vegetables as a starter food, so might be better for older toddlers?

It does all sound very well meaning, but I know from experience that even the most inspired ideas and well intentioned can fall flat when people don't properly take into consideration their market and customer. Could you maybe do a survey locally to see if there is any interest? It would also be a good idea to research the demographics of your area and what's else on offer. Then you would need to consider health and safety and food certification and what would be necessary to do that.

Might be a nice thing to do with your friends and see how it goes first, too. Like a little pilot study?

How to puree? ummmmmmmm am I missing something?

Basic recipes? Nope, just what we were having cut appropriately, no honey, whole nuts, minimal salt.

(yep, I decided I wasn't going to bother with puree. You don't need to if you leave it to 6 months)

Thank you for the helpful comments, some stuff to think about for sure. It's a very affluent area (I'm not included in that 😂) and I've looked and there's nothing around that's like this (there may be a reason for that) more just cooking with toddlers and the usual.

No need to be unpleasant Harrysmummy246
Not everyone is a fan of BLW.

OP, I think what you're suggesting is a very niche thing, I can't think of anyone who'd be interested. Middle class affluent parents are the ones most likely be interested, but on the other hand they often know more about nutrition than the poorer parents who wouldn't be able to afford your class.
I agree with the first poster who said you need to find a niche like vegan weaning. But that will only work if you're in a fairly big city.
Something like healthy, quick and easy meals for babies and toddlers might work best. But overall I don't think there will be much demand for a weaning class.

You’re right OP - most adults do just know this, your friend is a bit dim. Maybe just organise this session for you and her. You’re basically trying to teach people basic adulting e.i. How to cook and store food it’s teaching people to suck eggs and it’s got nothing to do with weaning in my opinion. Well meant - but I don’t know who would really be interested/ would need this, except your slightly inept friend.

Yeah I don't think this is a good idea OP, sorry. Most childrens centres already offer a weaning workshop for free - it's not as interactive as your idea but it doesn't need to be.

People who are willing to learn in this day and age have the resources at their finger tips. It's still easier to ask your friend what they do than google it yourself, but the information is most definitely out there.

And if not, the baby food companies will just do the thinking for you!

I do think a weaning Cafe could work though? All the fun of baby lead weaning with none of the clear up! And you could run workshops and things there on different areas of parenting. Just an idea, haven't thought it through though.

This is why it takes more than good ideas to be an entrepreneur. And you have to be quite cold sometimes, and cut an idea off if even though YOU think it might be a good idea other people don't. The initial idea is a seed, so you take the seed and you feed it with facts and water it with creativity and shine over your love (like a great big sunshine) and either it grows or it doesn't. But if it doesn't, you find a new seed and you just plant it over.

One of these days you might grow a tree. I do not think this is a tree, but it might one day be a leaf on a bigger tree IYSWIM?

I think there are plenty of useless parents who would be willing to pay for someone else to do the thinking for them.

@CileyMayRhinovirus that such a lovely way of thinking about it and I really really appreciate everyone's (mostly) opinions! I'm not vegan and don't think I'd have the knowledge or desire to go down that avenue but it's good to bear in mind. Thanks everyone, maybe not such a go-er!

No, surely all of that is common sense isn’t it? I mean if you’ve managed to make it this far in life feeding yourself as except for a few foods you can’t feed a young baby, it’s no different than what anyone would have always done. I just made normal food. If I froze things, I froze and defrosted them like I always did anything else. I didn’t do purées but if I had, I would know how to work a blender. I think it’s mostly just common sense, or involves a bit of googling.

You might pick up on a few super anxious FTMs who have money to spend though, if you were to pair it with a first aid course, as I think that’s quite a helpful thing to do. But there’s so much free information and children’s centres do these sorts of classes sometimes. It would be hard to convince people to pay for it.

I only know of one mother who is intimidated by preparing pureed veg but she can afford to, and is happy to, use bought purees.

I think you're up against this. Most (not all, but severely restricting your customer base) parents fall into one of three camps:

1. you are interested and care about food which probably means you're already proficient in the kitchen and can steam a veg and puree it for stage 1 then make your own recipes for next stage meals or follow the Annabel Karmel book or the Ella's kitchen recipes

(This group won't seek out lessons)

2. you are not remotely foodie or you use lots of take aways/ready meals yourself and you are therefore happy to use baby food from pouches and jars

(This group won't seek out lessons either as they're happy/can afford to buy good quality baby food)

3. parent is back at work and short of time so cooks when they can but uses pouches etc. as well.

(Too busy to come to lessons)

You need to think about the safety and insurance aspects, especially if you are doing it in your own home.

Perhaps test the market? I had a business idea at a similar stage and ran two free trial sessions for individual mums in my local area (affluent). These went down very well, however I found that as soon as I advertised it on a paid-for basis, I got absolutely no interest. So I put the idea to one side. Which was fine, as I had only spent a small amount on a bit of advertising in the local NCT newsletter.

Better to see if the idea has mileage now than spend a lot of time developing it and then find that no one is interested.

Yes, I went to one. Organised in someone's home, think it was £15 for 2-3 hrs. Quite useful as it was first baby. MC parents but not wealthy.

To be honest, the people likely to make their own food will be able to cook. There's free classes at community centres already

Look at mummy cooks instagram (she's irish) she does a lot on weaning and does classes but has a while range of products also.
It might give you some ideas.

I think weaning your first child can be one of the points at which someone might think, actually let's stop buying all this ready made, maybe it's time to improve how our family eats. Some proportion of affluent families will be unsure where to start on this - so a "Feed your baby / Feed your family" approach could plausibly find a market.

You've been right to ask for feedback, lots of good ideas above - maybe you can work out how to survey your potential target market and get a better feel for what they might be interested in.

Do you have any qualifications in either food handling, cooking, working with families or teaching adults?

If you do, it might be better to go down the route of offering your services to community centres etc.