Weaning! Any advice welcome

[Rafagirl]

Hello we are first time parents, our baby is only 14 weeks old but just started to think about weaning... (obviously still a while to
go yet) but any good recipes? Or the store bought jars as well, is hipp organic good? Thanks.

I would recommend two books to start with, none is a cookbook
www.amazon.co.uk/First-Bite-How-Learn-Eat/dp/0007549725/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&crid=3AJGZZOKRD13W&keywords=first+bite+bee+wilson&sprefix=first+bites+bee%2Caps%2C427&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1612917287&sr=8-1
and
www.amazon.co.uk/Dental-Diet-Surprising-between-Life-Changing/dp/1781809305/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&crid=356SAP5EDXS8J&keywords=dental+diet+book&sprefix=dental+diet%2Caps%2C425&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1612917317&sr=8-1

You have the unique opportunity to shape your baby's taste. Focus on the food you want him/her growing up eating. You want your baby to eat vegetables , give vegetables, and stay away from ultra processed baby food (puffs, veggie sticks, baby crisps, cereal bars, ....).
Even minimally processed baby food should;d be the exception and not the rule.
Be mindful that pouches and jars don't taste like their fresh food equivalent, and a baby will develop a preference for the taste that is given. A lot of pouches also have sweetness as a dominating taste, so use sweet veggies such as carrot, sweetcorn or add fruit to veggies to make it more palatable.
Baby porridge is very sweet.

The main point will always be to focus on the food, not how it reaches the mouth (spoon or finger). The industry has jumped on this concept that you need "finger food" for development and offers a wide range of highly processed addictive food.
Read a bit about nutrition and how important it is to offer variety and diversity of taste and texture.
It doesn't have to be the spoon. or the finger. I use my fingers for blueberries but a spoon for soups.
You need to talk with your partner about what would be the best food for your child to eat, what you wouldn't want them to be and plan their weaning accordingly

We just fed them exactly what we were eating from the get go from around 5.5mo. I was going to wait until 6mo, but in both cases DC snatched food and shoved it in their mouths before we could retrieve it, so we just went with it after that. I made a few small changes like adding salt and hot sauce either at the table or after taking their portion out, no honey (substituted for maple syrup on the occasions it was needed), and used ground or finely chopped nuts instead of whole. I also cut the ingredients into slightly bigger chunks initially to make them easier to grab/stab/scoop. If they were awake when we ate, they joined us at the table and had a bit, and if asleep then they skipped that meal - no issue as food is complimentary at that age. The food would usually just be put straight onto the highchair tray and DC was left to lick/chew/squish their food as they wanted whilst we ate ours. They never had pouches as a result, as they were never needed. It worked well for us: no stress, no extra work needed, nobody had to eat a cold dinner after spending time feeding the baby.
Totally anecdotal of course, but both are good eaters now (4 and 6yo). The 4yo prefers standard child-friendly food (if choosing from a menu), but will eat everything except for avocado most things if served it. You would be hard pressed to find a food the 6yo doesn't like, and she would grumble if made to pick from the children's menu. She was in heaven last Summer when she discovered the restaurants in France sold mussels on the children's menu.

I would also highly recommend IKEA's Dragon cutlery - they do a mini set of knife/fork/spoon that are really good quality and actually fit for purpose. After getting utterly frustrated with plastic forks that couldn't pick food up without it slipping off, and plastic knives that were so blunt the poor kid had no chance of cutting butter with it let alone a potato, I saw them recommended on MN. They still use them now, and they are just as good as our adult sets, just smaller for little hands.

Don't expect baby to get the hang of it straight away, same with drinking water
I found milk about half an hour before food worked well
Started with 1 meal and worked up from there, milk feeds stayed the same until about 8 months when DD started dropping them
You don't need anything fancy - highchair with a tray, a few bibs (easier to strip them off at home though!), a couple of bowls, plates and cutlery (I raised IKEA), some storage tubs for putting batch cooking in the freezer. A plastic mat for under the high chair is handy if BLW or giving finger foods.
Flannels are better for cleaning up than baby wipes, cheaper too!
We did BLW so gave what we are but DD liked porridge fingers for breakfast and savoury muffins - loads of recipes for both if you Google