How do I introduce food to my baby?

[FTM521]

Hi mums,

I'm looking for some advice on how to introduce a little food into babies diet. She's almost six months and is showing signs that she is ready.

My HV is nowhere to be seen or heard from (she's been like that from the beginning) so I was hoping I'd find some advice here.

Can I ask you mums who have weaned what foods did you start with? Would you recommend starting with shop bought or making it myself?
Are there any foods or brands you'd recommend?

What times would you recommend giving the food and how much? (Or is it every feed?)

Do they still have the same amount of milk and feeds throughout the day?

I've heard a lot of people say they'd avoid the baby rice stage but I'm not sure what the reason is?

Ultimately I'm worried about doing it wrong; feeding her too much or not enough or the wrong times of day etc.

There's so much conflicting information online so any advice any mums have is so much appreciated, thank you x

I confess at the start I tended to just give mine a bit of purée once a day from a shop bought pouch. This was after realising that so many of the purées I made myself never got eaten or only a spoonful at a time! At the very start it’s a case of slowly introducing the idea of food rather than it being much sustenance for them I think? Start with once a day - maybe around lunch? After I’d done this for a while I introduced another meal time as well and then gave her finger foods as well. She’s about to turn one and has only really recently started eating any significant amounts! So don’t stress if they don’t take to it immediately. Their main calories should still come from breast milk or formula at this age. I’ve found just letting my baby explore foods and accepting that sometimes most of it will end up on the floor or all over her face made it easier, because to begin with I was really stressed about her not eating and I think that just going with the flow and seeing it as a learning curve which might take a while is the best approach. Now she’s older she’s on 3 meals a day and I try to give her a variety of food groups and textures etc. I found it all very daunting to begin with but it’s got easier! Solid food shouldn’t replace milk feeds and I think perhaps baby rice is sometimes avoided because it sort of fills them up but doesn’t provide much nutrition but I might be wrong with that! I’ve never used it. I’d suggest things like fruit purées, scrambled egg, mashed veg to start and then you can give them little bits of bread or soft steamed veg like carrots to have a go with? Plain yoghurt, porridge etc? Then things like cheese on toast, pasta after a while. If you avoid adding salt, at a later stage you can basically give them what you cook for yourself a lot of the time which takes away the stress! I think you have to do a bit of trial and error with your own system and see what works. The worst part is at very start they gag a lot which can be terrifying. As scary as it sounds, look up a YouTube video about difference between gagging and choking as they are different things. Wretching is normal at the start coz they aren’t used to having solids in their mouth but it stops quite quickly.

Sit her with you in some sort of high chair arrangement when you eat and put a few things she can play with/squidge into her mouth while you have yours. Anything non-processed so gentle on tummy and good shape for clumsy hands/ not choking. Stuff she can suck is good like a mango stone with the flesh taken off (huge, can't go down her neck but tsasty and can suck it for ages), a banana, orange segments, halved tomatoes... anything like that.
She''ll make a right mess and likely not much inside her so carry on with normal milk stuff.
Don't give her baby rice - it's god awful stuff, stinks and disgusting texture, it's just for filling babies up but unless that's vital to you don't bother.
At this stage it's all about exploring textures and tastes in an easy go-at-your-own pace way so that food is interesting and she is in the driving seat so no surprises she can't reject easily so she remains curious whenever you put something in front of her. It's not about nutrition particularly or filling her at this step one point,.

Eldest wasn't that interested, so we mainly started with fruit which he played with as much as ate, then moved onto mashed up versions of our dinner (personal tip, wait a while before you give them lentils - that night was horrific as his little body tried to deal with them!). Then things like scrambled egg, porridge, toast went down well - although we had to feed him, he took ages to get the hang of cutlery. Now he eats just about anything.

Youngest, the problem was more keeping him away from food - the moment he was put a chair (or saw food was coming and clambered up himself) he was reaching for anything and everything and cramming it in - I once watched him take a piece of super-spicy kimchi, chew it thoughtfully, then start roaring to be passed the bowl to have more! Unfortunately he's now my fussy child, but I assume he'll grow out of it.

so I'd say it depends on the child quite a bit - she might surprise you and it just sorts itself out!

Just be aware that eggs and banana's can slow up bowel movements a lot. so if she is prone to constipation don't go straight to those and if you give those, give small doses.

Do some research on reputable sites as to whether you would like to try baby led weaning (BLW) or more purées and softer food that is spoon fed. I started with lunch, just offered some food when I was having my lunch, avacado, mango, banana, toast fingers etc that was easy to pick up. Then some porridge at breakfast time and adding in meals from there. I introduced a few pouches later on as they are useful if you are out and about. She likely won’t eat much to start off so don’t anticipate milk consumption dropping at the start.

If I was eating I would sit them with me, on my knee or in a high chair, and they’d either just take directly from my plate or I’d put some of my food on the table for them to have a go at.

You can do the obvious veg sticks, broccoli stems, carrots, pear slices, bananas, slices of melon, green beans, baby corn etc. They have all liked noodles, chunks of jacket potato, pasta, toast with umpteen toppings (avocado, butter, Hummous, fruit spread, banana), eggy bread or oat bars or pancake strips. They would eat soup, yoghurts (very messily) with their fingers and seemed to enjoy. One was a meat fiend and loved nothing better than strips of meat or chicken/chicken legs and would suck and gum a slice of steak until it was grey. One loved sucking crumpets dry of butter!

After a month or two they would be entertained for hours practicing their pincer grips with dry Cheerios, plain rice, sweet corn or peas.

If I was eating they’d have a chance to eat so maybe the started on two chances for food in a day roughly, but if we were out and not stopping for lunch they’d just have milk instead. I see it more as an activity for them to do really, which keeps them busy whilst you eat, which is nice.

I do baby led weaning with my 8 month old :)

I started by giving her dinner, then at 7 months I gave breakfast as well and now at 8 months we’re doing lunch too. I always offer solids an hour after milk so that milk remains her main source of nutrition.

I followed Joe Wicks’ approach of offering a finger food and a puréed/mashed version with it at the same time for 2 weeks and to start with vegetables E.g DD had a broccoli floret to hold and put to her mouth and I offered her spoonfuls of broccoli mashed up with a bit of breast milk at the same time. I did 2 weeks of single vegetables then 2 weeks of 2 flavours at a time E.g parsnip and cumin or cauliflower and paprika. After a few weeks of vegetable, Joe then suggests offering fruits - the idea behind this is that baby won’t get used to sweeter foods and refuse bitter tasting things like veg. Then I free styled as I could see DD was confident with lumps/textures and I now give her anything we eat as adults but adapted to be baby friendly (no added salt/sugar, food cut to smaller size etc).

Try to offer all different flavours even if it’s food you don’t regularly eat. I found that pouches come in handy for this! E.g I don’t eat mango (can’t stand it) so I bought a pouch for 90p or something which was cheaper than the cost of a mango and I didn’t have to prepare it.

I hope that all makes sense!

I’d you have a good milk drinker then you can take it slowly for a good while yet, as they will still be getting what they need from the milk. Have a look online at traditional and BLW methods to see what suits you.

BLW always looked much easier to me, but both of mine have been completely unbothered by milk and dropped right down the centiles, so have been weaned early and thus had to have fortified purées to ensure that they get what they need.

Ultimately though, whichever way you choose to do it, they all do start eating properly at some point.

The NHS website is good.

It all depends if you want to do puree or blw. I did blw, it was so much less hassle.

@Noona86 @TopCatsTopHat @Kotatsu @tealandteal @PiesNotGuys @HJFTM @Timeturnerplease @Fallagain

thank you so much everyone this has been so helpful ❤️

You don't have to choose between BLW and purees, you can do a mixture of both, babies don't need teeth in order to be able to chew a softly cooked carrot stick/broccoli stem etc. My current baby prefers to feed herself so I am mainly going the BLW route with her but do give her some mashed up food too (she's not a fan of purees).

There will be loads of advice here. We had dietician help to wean our eldest and allergist advice for our second.

Here's what I found most useful.

1. start with breakfast as you're always at home. Introduce tea/dinner next when they are happy eating the first meal. Again you're nearly always at home. Leave lunch till last so you can put off feeding them outside the home.

2. it doesn't matter if you do BLW or purées or both. Do what works for you and baby.

3. introduce allergens early and often as it reduces likelihood of them developing. Peanut butter sandwiches lol.

4. keep breakfast simple and the same. If no allergy issues then weetabix and cows milk is a great one as is toast. If allergies are already present baby rice can be good as there are no allergens in it.

5. it's a process that takes 6 months. Over that time they will gradually decrease the amount of milk they take and increase the amount of food. This is normal and what should happen (forget the food before 1 rubbish) if in doubt increase the solids not the milk. They will drop milk feeds themselves and it will be when they consistently neither ask for nor want a feed.

6. give food and milk at separate times if you can, but at lunch time give food first and then milk. So a typical day might be - 7, milk, 8, breakfast, 10, milk (later snack), 12 lunch with milk after, 3 milk (later snack), 5, dinner, 7, bedtime milk.

7. they can have water from a sippy cup now if they want.

8. don't make like harder for yourself. It's ok to use pouches, it's ok to give toast, it's ok to make your own, it's ok eat with baby, it's ok to not.