Weaning on to solids

[shivawn]

Hi!

So my son is 24 weeks old so I only have a couple weeks until we start solids but I'm feeling a bit lost as to where to start. I like the idea of baby led weaning but it's hard for me to imagine my baby suddenly being able to chew and swallow normal food....I guess they just get the hang of it after awhile but it feels like such a jump from where we are now.

I don't really plan on buying pre-packaged baby meals but I was looking at them in the supermarket anyway and noticed that a lot of them say 7+ months or 12+ months (things like chicken casserole meals). Why is that? I thought it could offer most meals after 6 months.

What foods did you start your baby on? How much did they eat? How long did it take them to get the hang of it?

Thanks! :)

The different ages will be to do with different textures I imagine. Most things are ok after 6 months except honey, unpasteurised foods, whole nuts, high salt/sugar

The meals that say 7+ etc will have bigger chunks in that a 6 month old might not be able to manage. My baby could only manage smooth purées at first, lumps would make him gag. Swallowing solids is a whole new skill.

They don’t eat much at first at all… it’s just to get used to picking things up, putting things in their mouth and tasting things.

Melon is a good one to start with, nice and soft and sweet.
Generally big pieces of things are good because they’re easy to pick up, keep hold of and have a little chew on.
Small pieces are bad because they can accidentally put the whole thing in their mouth and won’t be able to deal with it so you’ll have to try to fish it out.

My hv advised that we start with root veg and then go from there. We are starting with purees though

You can offer just about anything except whole nuts, honey and unpasteurised cheese. The 7 month + meals will be more textured and lumpy, the 12 month + even more so (and could also contain honey if it’s something like as snack bar).

I’d try finger foods alongside purées and see what baby takes too. One of mine wouldn’t even pick up a finger food until 9 months but weaned wonderfully on purées. The other much preferred to feed himself so we’d only ever spoon feed liquid stuff he really couldn’t manage with his hands like soup or yoghurt.

We done purees first month, by 8 months he was having meals.

What Mummy Makes has been a life saver rather than making 2 different meals we have the one meal together frequently. Also the batch cooking has been amazing.

I was really apprehensive at first with BLW , now my baby is 9 months and confidently eating fusilli and is feeding himself porridge in the morning (albeit just with his hands 🙈).

DD is 7 1/2 months now, I started off with homemade single veg purees, but offered the same soft cooked veg alongside so she had the choice. The purees definitely were the preferred option when we started (although we weren't allowed to feed her, she took the spoon off us and fed herself). Then moved on to gradually combining veg in purees and adding other foods/textures. She's much more into solid foods now, and we're doing two 'meals' a day as standard... breakfast is usually baby cereal or porridge with fruit, and dinner varied depending on what we've been doing - today was salmon with potatoes and asparagus, tomorrow will probably be pasta with some of the veg puree I have in the freezer as a 'sauce'. I do have some pouches/jars in the cupboard for emergencies or if we go away somewhere. Have fun with it as well, I went out to lunch today and gave her some of the food I was eating, just to see what she thought.

If you are interested in baby led weaning I'd recommend joining the fb group baby led weaning for beginners & beyond (BLWBB) there's loads of information on their it made me so much more confident when starting my son on solids and lots of recipe ideas!

My little one will be 8 months next week and I’m still a bit clueless 🤣 I think you’re definitely best trying it a few ways though and seeing what they actually like. For him, he much prefers ‘feeding’ himself. He loves things like melon fingers to be able to hold (although a lot end up on the floor). I started off as robot mum who was only going to feed pureed veg and very quickly have slipped into ‘those sachets are actually really good’ 🤣 We’re moving house so when we’ve moved I’m going to start following the recipe books I bought (wean in 15 and what mummy makes) but in the meantime I’m just trying to feed him as best as I can 🙈 The ellas kitchen sachets and the copy version that supermarkets do are literally just puréed whatever it says on the front, they haven’t added anything bad. So after a few weeks of blending, washing up, dealing with all the mess etc I decided to give in and try them. He likes to have his own spoon to hold while eating or he just tries to grab mine thinking he can feed himself but he ends up pinging it everywhere so it’s easier just to give him an extra spoon now 🙄 I used the 4+ months ones to give him first tastes, my HV said 10 times for each thing but I just did a few attempts at each food. I buy the ellas kitchens 7+ meals now and he has that for dinner usually. The melty sticks are also handy to have in my bag if we go out somewhere. Will hold and chew on a piece of fruit at some point in the day and I try to give him baby porridge or normal weetabix for breakfast. I’m still giving him his milk on the weetabix but I think it’s supposed to be full fat milk I use. Trying to add in a third meal now to get him to cut back on the amount of milk he’s wanting because he’d still rather have milk than food so it’s proving difficult 😂 definitely have a look at the sachets though, they take a lot of hassle out of it!

BLW is amazing. I was so nervous, but I went to an organised group at my doctors surgery. They gave the babies bread sticks, cucumber, homemade mackerel pate (the fish and full fat Philly). Loads of stuff! The babies absolutely loved it. They were covered in food, but enjoyed exploring all the tastes and textures. I'd 💯 recommend it.

We did both together (purées and BLW), and it’s been great as they are confident to be able to eat by themselves but you can also feed them when BLW is difficult (at someone’s house who have carpet/smart restaurant/etc.).

Hi OP, if you're interested in baby lead weaning I really really recommend Solid Starts. Their website and Instagram is full of free resources that a really good, fact based and easy to digest. There's also an app with an enormous database of foods with guidance on how to serve by age.
Like you I couldnt imagine baby suddenly eating, but they have reflexes that encourage chewing and swallowing if you give them 'proper food' (i.e. purees don't trigger the reflex but a rib bone or corn cob or mango pit will because of the resistance) anyway I could go on but give them a follow!

Solid Starts and SR Nutrition on Instagram are brilliant, the Charlotte Stirling Reed book in particular does a 30 day step by step guide and focuses on bitter tastes and allergens first.

Our DC refused to be spoon fed so we skipped purées and just did blw. He’s 15 months now and adores his food, really good appetite and eats everything.

We keep a couple of pouches in for back up, mainly the spag bol ones to use as a quick pasta sauce. They tend to have different textures (thicker and lumpier as they get older).

I do a bit of both. I love the convenience of Ella's kitchen meals. My baby is 9 months but eats the 10/12 month meals instead of the pouches. There isn't enough in the pouches now😂 he has things like egg, pinwheels, pizza twists, pasta, macaroni, fruit and veg. I've yet to come across a food he doesn't like. I was terrified of him choking so started with purées and worked my way up. He feeds himself amazingly. I get a lot of ideas from tiktok.

Thanks everyone, lots of great ideas and advice here! I've followed Solid Starts on Instagram too! I'm excited now to see how it goes!