Weaning - I just can’t do it!

[jinglejangle6]

My DS is almost 6.5 months old and I still haven’t started weaning. I just feel so intimidated and overwhelmed by the whole thing! I have so many questions - like can I give him a broccoli floret or a carrot stick to start with? Does it need to be very well cooked to the point where it’s almost like mush?

How many “meals” a day should he having and do I need to provide water with his food every time he eats? What sort of cup do you use?

Also - and this is my biggest worry - what if he chokes on his food and can’t breathe?!

I highly recommend the Ella’s Kitchen book, I think it’s called ‘the purple one’. I felt a bit like you but it was really helpful to have a bit of a timeline and some things to follow! YouTube was handy for choking/ gagging advice and tips. We’ve been going a few months now and it has got easier.. 😊

Yes you can give cooked veg and soft fruits. Toast fingers with butter on are good. Porridge, ready brek, weetabix might be a good start for you if you're worried about lumps and choking

Remember gagging is normal and it may take time for them to get used to new tastes and textures

Oh, and we’ve been using a doidy cup. So far so good!

Thanks - do I serve the weetabix with formula milk?

Should he be attempting to eat something three times a day? Or just once to start with?

Tommy tippee first cup was good for us. I just gave a small amount to sip on at meal times

Just start with 1 meal. You can use full fat cows milk in cereal or you could use formula. I used warm milk with maybe ⅓rd to ½ of a weetabix. It needs a lot of milk

Weaning is literaly the hardest thing for me with babies, everything else I can handle including multiple wake ups at night and potty training but I have kids who don't take to food easily! Here are some hacks I use:

Buy frozen chopped veg from the grocery store. I keep broccoli, sweet potato, butternut squash etc on hand in the freezer. Every few days I take one type of meat like mince chicken/beef or salmon/cod add some veg and then steam it with some garlic granules. Then I blend it smooth and freeze in ice cube trays and pop them in the fridge. At mealtimes I take half a pouch of something and add in some frozen cubes and it makes a nice meal!

I started mine on just a little bit of pureed vegetable starting with carrot (cook until very soft and then either blend or squish through a sieve) I made batches and froze it in ice cube trays. Also had a little bit of baby rice or baby porridge made up with some of the milk from the first morning bottle. Start with little tastes as you're really just looking to introduce different tastes and textures at the beginning not replace the milk that he's having.

Go slow, make it fun and try not to stress over it. They generally make it clear when they're really ready by eyeing up things from your plate. 😊

Re choking: make sure the starter foods are mushy enough and offered in just tiny spoonfuls. When you move on to more textured things, make sure everything is cut small enough. Also consider googling what to do if he does choke to help you feel more confident.

Personally I'd be wary of weetabix if your baby hasn't eaten much any food yet. Weetabix wholemeal bread etc gave all mine diarrhoea until they were much older.

At first it's best to just give little tastes of food after a feed. I started just at lunchtime then added in breakfast. Well cooked veg sticks are a good start if you want to start with finger food.

The beauty of weaning past 6 months is that there's no need to puree.

I just sat my dc with us at mealtimes and offered whatever we were having. DD's first tastes were a roast dinner. DS had roast veg and wedges. Most of it was sucked, nibbled and squished to oblivion.

If you eat a healthy, balanced diet and avoid honey, nuts, whole grapes etc, no need to over complicate it.

Ask your hv about a baby first aid course too. Babies often gag, it's how they learn to move food around their mouths and you have to learn not to panic. Would knowing what to do in an actual choking situation (rare) help?

It's going to be okay!

One meal a day is a good starting place. You can absolutely give a bit of well-cooked broccoli or carrot to start with - which would be a baby-led weaning approach - or you can start with purées, or you can combine the two approaches.

Choking resources are available here:

m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=94j_xAhNR9s

m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ePodw7L_mFM

Remember, though, that gagging is really normal when babies start weaning. It's a bit alarming to begin with, but not the same thing as choking.

Lots of people will say that 'food before one is just for fun' and that's true to an extent, but it's also true that babies do start to need more nutrients then they can get from milk, so gradually introducing food helps them to meet those needs.

I find it helps to think of weaning as a complex set of skills my baby is working on - around taste, texture, chewing, swallowing, motor skills etc, rather than as some sort of lovely social rite of passage. But then, your baby may be more enthusiastic about it than mine!

Lots of people will probably give you very contradictory information, often very vehemently - and then your baby may also have his own opinions! (My baby is the same age as yours and hates EVERYTHING.) In some cases these opinions won't be backed up by evidence, so it's absolutely fine to follow your own instincts. Remember not to include any salt in whatever you make for your baby, and beyond that it's pretty much open season on whatever works for you both. If you want to dig deeper I'd suggest you read a few different books on the topic, and come up with your own scheme for weaning.

Best of luck!

1 meal, about 30 minutes after a feed so baby isn't too hungry. You can give puree or just some of your food (no salt) chopped into suitable sizes. Don't expect too much - it's a brand new skill.

My DD started off with cooked sticks of veg and bits of fruit. They were mostly mashed into every body part and surface she could reach. After a few days I tried her with a bit of toast, few bits of pasta, lumps of cheese etc. It's really about tastes and getting used to putting things in mouth, chewing etc.

Thanks for the advice! When do you progress from one meal to two then three?

Try and access videos that show the difference between choking and gagging. That will help reduce your worries and gagging is a completely normal reflex.
Just concentrate on little tastes of food to start with. My baby is 6 months next week and we’ve just started will very small amounts of baby cereal, mashed banana and will do some puréed veg. He also sits to the table with us at dinner time and I put a bit of what we are having on his tray to play with. Find a time of the day that suits you best and make that the first meal you do. Eventually once they are eating a decent amount for that meal and are started to drop their milk amount, then you can start to introduce the second meal and so on.
But you don’t need to rush, do it at your own pace. And don’t expect them to start eating loads straight away. Most of it is pushed back out by their tongue to start with. I have been starting with a tea time feed, I offer whatever amount he wants, and then I will breastfeed afterwards to top him up.
Good luck and don’t panic about it. Once you start you will find that it’s not so scary after all!

I second Ellas kitchen book- so easy, such a godsend of a book

I think you really need to do some online reading or buy a book. There may be one in a local charity shop or buy a used one from amazon cheaply. As others have suggested, ellas kitchen or annabel karmel are great guidance.

There will be a depressing amount of wastage. See it as messy play. Give him bits of what you are eating as much as possible. Don’t worry about a balanced diet too much, it’s all new and he’ll be getting all he needs from milk for quite some time. They are all different! My nephew was polishing off and clearly hungry for massive meals regularity long before he was one, my girls ate like picky sparrows and drank milk by the bucketload, they are all healthy kids now.

I found the nhs start for life website really helpful.

I’ve weaned 2 babies and we mostly did blw. But all my family were obsessed with purées, so we kind of did a mix. Very first foods were mashed avocado for my DS and my DD had baby food. I think probably sweet potato. My kids loved to eat though and progressed very quickly. Some babies just aren’t that into food. They all catch up eventually.

I think if you’re really anxious about it all then just buy some pouches of 1st baby food. Give a little bit when you’re eating your lunch or some other calm time when your baby has been fairly recently fed.

If that goes well (ie they eat a few spoonfuls) then you can either make your own purées or do more blw approach. I used to feed them their “main food, Ie the purée and then give them some solid bits to chew on, so that they actually got some food, and experienced some new tastes and textures.