Weaning equipment

[Snickers94]

Hi, I'm going to start weaning my baby this month and want to know what bowls/spoons to get.

I don't want anything bamboo because it can't be microwaved or put in the dishwasher, and I've noticed silicone dummies, bibs etc pick up little hairs and dirt really quickly which I find a bit yucky - are the bowls and spoons the same?

Also wondered whether I should get a baby steamer/blender - I'm pretty lazy so getting out a pot and colander to steam and then separately using a hand blender (we don't have a normal blender) seems like a lot of effort alongside cooking our normal meals. I don't want to do baby led weaning because our diet is not that great and needs fixing first lol.

What brands/equipment would you recommend?

TIA

We use IKEA plastic plates & bowls, tommee tippee sippy cup and little plastic storage pots for popping things in the freezer. Tbh any plate or bowl gets chucked so we just use the high chair tray and the plate merely for transporting from kitchen to dining room. 😆 I don't use bibs in the house as it's more stuff to clean, my DS gets stripped off here and we just have some basic ones for eating out (they were just from a supermarket)

Are you wanting to do puree or blw? Blw is so much less prep but perhaps more cleaning.

Ikea high chair, bibs, plates, bowls, cutlery and tommy tippee sippy cup.

If you're lazy go down the BLW route - you just feed them finger sized strips of whatever you eat: no need for steaming and blending. Though as pp says - can be messier to clean them up after. But other benefits include you can eat your own meal whilst they play/eat theirs!

Bowls wise I just got the IKEA ones, tommee tippee cups and a couple 360s and tommee tippee cutlery.

As above, we did baby led weaning, so in addition to a highchair (ikea), I got IKEA bowls and cutlery, tomee tippe free flow sippy cup and a bit plastic sheet for under the highchair.

wondered whether I should get a baby steamer/blender

No use a fork/potato masher to mash food or a normal hand blender. Don't waste money on a separate steamer or separate blender. You are only going to be using the stuff for around 6 months.

Use plates, bowls, cutlery and bibs you can easily find in Boots, a supermarket or Ikea. (The stick down bowls are crap)

Use little pots to freeze portions in or plastic bags (yes I know it isn't environmentally friendly)

And do a mixture of puree plus finger foods so your baby leans to eat themselves.

We have ikea bibs, the basic tommee tippee sippy cup, oxo tot suction plates for when he’s feeding himself (our Tripp Trapp highchair doesn’t have a tray) and the ikea bowls and cutlery for when we’re feeding him. He mostly eats what we eat, except dinner which he has with his sister since I don’t want to eat at 5pm. Early on we did more blended stuff (using a basic stick blender) but once he got to about 7.5 months there was a very strong preference for self feeding so now we just chop stuff to appropriate sizes and throw it in his direction unless it’s something like porridge, yoghurt or soup. Get the basics and be guided by your baby would be my advice!

Even if you are planning to spoon feed your baby at six months they don't need outer. A knife and fork can chop things up adequately and a bit of squashing with the back of a fork works well. Purées we're from the days when babies were weaned before they were sitting up properly and didn't have the coordination to manipulate food to the back of their mouths.
You need plastic bibs or at least nylon backed ones. Cloths to wipe your baby down after the meal and a high chair that can easily be cleaned. I used a plastic bowl and a set of small cutlery for when they were feeding themselves but , of course, the high chair tray can work quite well as a tray. There is definitely no need for equipment of any sort.

A stick blender is handy if you don't already have one. Ikea stuff is great, bibs, bowl, cutlery etc.

Don't get hung up one method ie BLW or spoon/puree feeding etc. Do what suits you and your baby, it makes no difference at all.

I am.always recommending her on here (I'm not her I promise!) but SR nutrition is really good - on instagram and has a blog and facebook page plus has a book called How to Wean Your Baby which there should be second hand copies of around by now. I got what info I needed from her Instagram.

Anyway, she talks a lot about a mixed approach of some puree (very early days only) and some finger foods - my baby took to finger foods really well so I stopped bothering with puree after about 10 days - I only ever used a normal stick blender which we had anyway, and after that time I just mashed stuff with a fork if it needed it.

Even if you think your diet is too poor for BLW - presumably you're going to buy veg/ fruit/ protein such as eggs, meat, fish, pulses etc for your baby so you can just steam the veg till there very soft, or give soft fingers eg avocado, banana plus berries etc - you don't need to puree it. You can serve it instead of the puree version or alongside.

Either way, you don't need a special baby food steamer/ blender. We did have a bamboo plate and bowl from groupon, I really like them for some reason, though agree with you about the microwave and dishwasher - it's not that onerous to wash one bowl though. We have some doddl cutlery and another little form and spoon set my sister got her which are good as they don't have stupidly long handles so she finds them easier to use herself, though at 16 months now she is getting better with the longer ones. We have a few just colourful plastic bowls from a mjltipack - just from amazon but they have a lid each and can go in freezer, dishwasher and microwave and useful for putting snacks in and chucking in the bag for on the go. Also some trays like ice cube trays but bigger/ deeper and with a lid - you can use for puree but I stick portions of pasta sauce/ mash/ yoghurt etc in, or whenever I've cooked if theres a bit of veg or sauce over I'll freeze a couple of 'cubes' - they get popped into a labelled bag once frozen then theres always the makings of a (sometimes random) meal in there for her if I'm not up for cooking or we are having something but suitable for her.

Thanks all - I think I'll skip the baby blender then.

Probably use my boots points to get some bowls and spoons, then, since nothing fancy is needed! My mum has ordered us a high chair so sorted on that front

In terms of baby led weaning, I think I would be worried about nutrition, things like fruit I could give of course but a lot of the foods we eat are very spicy or have salt in, and our diet is not great so I wouldn't feel comfortable giving her the food we ate! I want her to be brought up healthier than I was

We found the dustpan and brush with the long handles a godsend for tidying up

@Iggertyziggerty

We found the dustpan and brush with the long handles a godsend for tidying up

Oh yes! Also we got a cheap shower curtain to stick under the high chair.

On that note - our dog was also very helpful on the clean up front OP, just a suggestion

I find the nutribullet really handy. We already had it, and fed Ds on a mix of purée and finger food, but it’s super handy to make homemade veggie loaded tomato sauce for pasta , soups etc. Either freeze extra pasta sauce so quick ready meal type thing for toddler, or we all eat the same.

@Snickers94

Thanks all - I think I'll skip the baby blender then.

Probably use my boots points to get some bowls and spoons, then, since nothing fancy is needed! My mum has ordered us a high chair so sorted on that front

In terms of baby led weaning, I think I would be worried about nutrition, things like fruit I could give of course but a lot of the foods we eat are very spicy or have salt in, and our diet is not great so I wouldn't feel comfortable giving her the food we ate! I want her to be brought up healthier than I was

Why not see it as an opportunity to sort out your diet as well? She deserves you being as healthy as you can be too!

@Caspianberg I was thinking a nutribullet may come in handy even for us, I have a blend active at my mums though and was wondering if this would do a similar sort of thing?

@NavigatingAdolescence oh yes I am trying to become a bit healthier now, but it's a work in progress. I've never eaten well since I was a child so it will probably take a while to make a full lifestyle change, although I am trying and hope by the time baby is 1 she can eat the same things as us

We had a set of IKEA cups, plates and bowls.

Some nuby small and medium coloured tubs for snacks / left overs.

Munchkin spoons that go white if the food is too hot were useful. They also do a collapsible silicone bowl with a lid which was really helpful for in the changing bag. You can use the lid to put a small amount of food on off your plate when eating out and quite often we put the half the kids meal in to take home for later as they didn’t want to eat by the time food arrived.

I know you said no baby led weaning, but we did a mixture. Toast soldiers, cucumber sticks, cheese sticks, banana, apple pieces are all good snacks. We had the IKEA £10 highchair and bought a silicone ‘plate’ for the tray on Amazon with 3 sections which worked well.

We also had the tommee tippee silicone bibs which were easily cleaned and also went in the dishwasher. I didn’t experience any of the issues you mention with silicone items.

We liked the standard free flow tommee tippee cups and the 360 cups. What I didn’t like about those was not having a cover for the lid. Nuby do a version with a lid but I found it leaked.

I wouldn’t bother with a baby food blender. You only use purée for a very short space of time.

@Marmite27 thank you, I guess a mixture would be okay as I would probably want to give her solid snacks but I think pure BLW is where I found difficulty.

With things like apple, toast and cheese, how do you ensure that baby doesn't choke if they don't have teeth? Sorry if it's a silly question!

[quote Snickers94]@Marmite27 thank you, I guess a mixture would be okay as I would probably want to give her solid snacks but I think pure BLW is where I found difficulty.

With things like apple, toast and cheese, how do you ensure that baby doesn't choke if they don't have teeth? Sorry if it's a silly question![/quote]
Their gums are really solid! Just think, all the teeth that are due to erupt are there waiting in the gums.

Generally my two used to suck things to death, then spit it out!

Don’t forget, first weaning is about trying new tastes and textures, they will still get most of their calories from milk. Don’t think they have to go to 3 meals a day and no milk overnight.

One of mine was a demon for stealing food off my plate, so beware

@Snickers94 - yes that blend active looks the same as a nutribullet tbh, so I wouldn’t buy another.

Easy pasta sauce - onions/ peppers/ courgette/ aubergine/ tomatoes/ garlic or similar whatever is available. Roast with oil in oven. Add tin tomatoes. Any herbs Blend in batches in blender. Tasty for adults. Can freeze in silicone ice cube trays then pop into food bag when frozen for baby/ toddler sauce portions.

I also cook up fruit, blend, ice cube tray. And handy size to add one cube to porridge each day for fruit and to help cool.

Finger food - mine couldn’t eat slices of apple at 6months, he just spat out. He can now 18 months with more teeth. But many other fruits or veg are softer. Inner bit of cucumber in batons, blueberries in half, raspberries, banana, kiwi, etc.

Things like root veg you can cook some sticks of various and they last several days in the fridge so can just heat up a couple at each meal to try when small.

[quote Snickers94]@Marmite27 thank you, I guess a mixture would be okay as I would probably want to give her solid snacks but I think pure BLW is where I found difficulty.

With things like apple, toast and cheese, how do you ensure that baby doesn't choke if they don't have teeth? Sorry if it's a silly question![/quote]
Toast - fine, their gums are hard enough they tend to suck them first

Apple - big choking risk - grate it, or you could poach apple pieces to make them softer (and remove skin) then as they get older offer whole, it’s less of a choking risk that smaller pieces for some reason (there is a reason to do with the mouth shapes they make, I just can’t remember it exactly!)

Cheese - grate it at first

A mixture is a good way to go, we did a lot of finger food but I wasn’t religious about doing BLW - if it made sense to spoon feed a certain meal then that’s what we did, though she also ate porridge and yogurt with her hands and still does most times!

Like I said above definitely have a look at SR Nutrition - her Instagram has loads of good graphics that explain things like how to serve different foods to avoid choking.

Also do a first aid course or watch some videos about the difference between gagging and choking and what to do in each case - will really help.

There’s a good site called Solid Starts too which explains how to serve different foods so they’re safe for baby - sometimes a little bit OTT I think but good to start with.

Generally bigger foods/ pieces are safer to start with. Cook veg etc till it’s soft enough to squish between your finger and thumb.

Also the thing about BLW just being what
You eat - people always say that but for us at least it was a good opportunity to make our meals healthier too. If you’re buying veg to purée and blend for the baby anyway then there’s no reason not to offer it in finger food form too, you may find they prefer one way or the other.