Porridge and pasta - advice needed!

[jinglejangle6]

I’m weaning my 6.5 month old baby. With pasta, can I just give him whole bits of fusilli and penne? Is tomato sauce ok to serve with the pasta or is it too acidic for their little stomachs?

And with porridge - do I have to get special baby porridge or can I just use the adult stuff? What’s the best type to go for and do you serve it with anything? (I literally never eat it myself!)

At that she they can eat anything apart from honey and salt.

I always made porridge with whole milk and vanilla seeds for my babies.

Whole pasta is fine but watch him like a hawk throughout. Don't leave him unsupervised when eating.

Such a fun stage!

Use plain porridge oats rather than any of the pre-packed versions like Oats so Simple. Less sugar and far cheaper.

Yep normal pasta is fine and so is tomato sauce although I’d be cautious of sauces in jars with the added sugar and salt; could make your own or just check the ingredients for the best one. I got the supermarket brand ready brek for DS but on reflection normal oats would have been fine too.

When DS was first weaning he wasn't keen on textures - ready brek was much preferred by him for the first couple of months. We added fruit (usually one of the baby fruit pouches) and some natural yoghurt as well as milk.

Ive been using normal porridge oats and mixing it with some stewed fruit. I make it with formula milk because my 7 month old is really difficult to feed, he much prefers solids.

We also went for ready brek to start partly because it's fortified (and my DH has a weird love of it...) but soon moved on to normal oats. I also used to mix stuff into it - either fruit purée or mashed banana or peanut butter to make it a bit more interesting. Regular pasta is fine too although it will depend a little on whether your baby is keen on finger foods. For the first month, we used orzo in a very wet sauce as DS only wanted to be spoon fed. Once he got the hang of finger food, fusilli is generally the easiest for him. Tomato sauces are fine, I also make pesto (generally with spinach or kale) and thin it down with some yoghurt which he loved. When I'm feeling super virtuous, I also buy lentil or chickpea pasta for DS as they have more protein/iron in (and you can get some dinosaur shaped red lentil pasta which is bloody adorable).

Ready brek is handy for making a small amount quickly. You could blend in a few slices of well-mashed banana or stewed fruit. Babies have no expectation of sugary food.
Homemade veggie sauces for pasta are easy, avoid salt (including anything like stock cubes) , freeze in ice cube trays. Or take out a spoonful or two and season the rest at the end for adults.

When I was first weaning our baby we used to buy the special baby oats then I realised normal oats were fine. I use to blitz them in the food processor to make them fine like the baby oats to start with. I don't think there is much difference other than the size to be honest. Enjoy the messy journey

If you blitz some normal porridge oats you'll get that baby porridge texture.

Ah cross post

We use readybrek because it’s fortified (lol i think it also tastes really nice ). Don’t waste your money on baby porridge. I give DD who is 11 months fusilli and penne, but also macaroni works well when they get better at feeding themselves. It goes pretty soft when cooked, my DD loves getting a big squidgy handful of macaroni cheese 😂

Pasta shapes are fine as is sauce but the sauce does make them slippery so pick an easy to hold shape. We liked the spiral tubes as they are easy to grip.

Normal porridge made up with whole milk is fine. We introduced it at 7 months and handed her loaded spoons of it - it sticks so well to the spoon so if they tip it up they don't loose it all.