Where to start with weaning at 6 months

[19annie86]

Just need some general advice with regarding to starting to wean at 6 months.

Baby will be 6 months in 2 weeks time. Iv bought baby rice to begin with. I know they still continue with bottles, but for example, if baby had morning bottle as usual and the 3.5 hours later had a few spoonfuls of the baby rice, is that few spoonfuls enough to do them say another 3.5 hours until next bottle would be due or do they take few spoonfuls and then a bit of bottle to keep them going

Any advice welcome

With my daughter I kept her bottles the same for a good couple of months, OP. As she got to eating more substantial amounts I gradually reduced the amount of milk at each feed. It wasn’t till she was 1, if I recall, that meals started to replace a bottle. Mainly as most food ended up outside her and all over her! Some days she wouldn’t take much solids, too, so don’t worry if you find she goes a couple of days refusing solids. Still have it there as an option and to poke and prod about, but don’t worry if it doesn’t go down in these early days.

Would really recommend this book

www.srnutrition.co.uk/2021/01/how-to-wean-your-baby/

We didn't use baby rice - we just started on soft / pureed fruits and veg

It took my DS a while to "get" eating so for the first couple of months he had all his milk feeds at the usual times (he was BF not FF though, so don't know how much he was taking), as he only took a few spoons of food at a time. The HV told me we were aiming to get Baby used to eating three meals a day by 8 months - this worked for us and after that his milk feeds slowly decreased.

Ditch the baby rice, all it does is fill baby up, it doesn't provide any actual nutrition. You don't need to do anything special for weaning, just stop putting salt in your food and give baby some of whatever you're eating, once or twice a day. Keep giving milk as normal, do milk first and then an hour later, solids.

Baby's main source of nutrition should be milk for a good few months.

Baby rice isn’t recommended anymore - it’s got no nutritional value and just fills them up. Make some simple fruit and veg purées - you will find recipes online, and then slowly start to give them a mushed up bit of what your eating (minus salt and spice). They have tiny appetites for a while. Milk is still the main food.

Your HV will be able to direct you to some advice.

What @MolliciousIntent said.

No need for pureeing anything, that’s from when people weaned too early for the child’s gut to cope with. Throw the ‘baby’ rice in the bin.

Agree with Mollis too, just give bits of what you normally make. Fingers of vegetables and fruit were always what I started with. Toast fingers with cream cheese. They suck them to mush to begin with.

First week one purée fruit/veg for a week.then second week two purée fruit or veg etc
third week three purée fruit baby porridge whatever.so by the end of third week they are on 3 meals a day.still giving milk first though which will gradually reduce.I bought Ella’s kitchen pouches and Tesco ones.not well thought of on here lol.

That's all completely unnecessary though, your baby should be eating real food, not mush.

We started yesterday! He is 5 and half months. This is what we started with and he has LOVED it,just exploring! He is sitting and no concerns with his airway and has been showing lots of interest in food!

Bottles/milk stays the same to start with and you start introducig food/textures. Agree with pp baby rice is pointless. They consume so little to start with that there is barely any calories in it so definitely don't reduce milk

Hi! My DD2 is nearly 6 months too and we’ve just bought her highchair today! I did baby led weaning with DD1 and she loved it. Did seem a bit scary at first but she’s an amazing eater now. Instagram is a good place to look for inspiration, just search #blw and most accounts will have the babies age in the bio so just look for babies similar to yours. For DD1 I just gave her foods at the same time we had tea and usually just off our plate. Doing it this way meant it was hardly any hassle. Still kept her milk feedings the same. Think she was around 10 months when I noticed she was drinking less milk and eating more food. Do what you feel comfortable with, my mam nearly fainted when she saw me feeding DD1 slices of pepper and strips of chicken 😂 it was all purées when I was a baby but I turned out fine too 😂🤷🏼‍♀️

Oh and to agree with PP about salt content, not everything we make would be suitable due to salt so we would make alternates if I was ever worried about salt. You could just add salt to your own meal after. Also babies under one shouldn’t have honey.

I did baby led weaning with my son and will again when this baby is ready. So much less faff than purée and better for motor skills. There are lots of benefits. There are some great Pinterest boards to follow with food ideas and a few v helpful Facebook groups. I bought a recipe book too and still use it for some of my son's favourite meals.

I did baby led weaning and am a complete convert. The main principle is that you let the baby feed him or herself - so no spoon feeding. The idea is to take away all the pressure from feeding so that it is an enjoyable experience for your baby. I try never to pressure my child (now 2 year old) into eating or to use tactics like promising pudding if they try veg etc, which is easier said than done at times.

I didn't always just give baby exactly what I was eating. I started off generally giving one food at a time but didn't do any pureeing or pouches. So, for example, in week 1 I did some sweet potato one day and then some broccoli the next meal etc. I moved on to proper meals fairly quickly but still made something adapted or separate for my child at times. I worked from the principle that I want baby to eat the sort of healthy meals that adults eat and they are much more likely to do that if that is the food that they are introduced to early on. There is a window where children are receptive to new flavours and textures and if you only feed pouches during that time it can be harder to get them to accept different textures later.

There are some foods which are best avoided to start with like raw veg or other very hard or crunchy foods. It's also important that your baby is sitting well before starting blw as if they can't sit properly there is a higher choking risk.

I also did one hundred foods before 1 so introduced baby to one hundred different foods before their first birthday. It means they are getting a good variety and that you have introduced all the allergens before then.

I found the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy Podcast with Katie Ferraro on spotify quite good. It is American and has quite a prescriptive approach but there was lots of good information too. The host is a nutritionist and mum of quads.

If you do do baby led weaning they don't actually eat that much to start with so tend to need normal milk feeds.

I knew I would get someone arguing about my comment lol.I work full time and have two other children and that’s the best I could do.Obviously other mothers use those pouches and jars too otherwise they wouldn’t sell.we would all love to do homemade cube trays of dinner all the time.lol

I really really recommend Solid Starts OP. Their website, app and Instagram if you have it.

In answer to your question, at that age keep milk the same as they won't ingest much solid food. I'd say ditch the baby rice, weaning is about learning to chew and swallow rather than about getting food into them. Baby rice won't teach them to eat.

Nothing wrong with pouches here and there. The point is there is no need for homemade cubes either. Just bits of whatever you are eating. You don't need to be pureeing anything.

We started off with broccoli and carrots a little softer than would normally have them then onto strips of chicken or bits of fish, toast with various things on, sticks of banana. Anything they can grasp really. Little bits of pasta etc.

Food of Love by Kate Evans has a great portion of her light hearted book dedicated to weaning. She recommends seeing it more as good exploration and that nutrition still comes from milk. Introducing a whole soft piece of food for baby to try... boiled potato, piece of banana for example. They learn coordination through feeding themselves, and how much to eat.

I'm only one week into being a mama but when the time comes to wean this is what I think I'll try, and to let it be a gradual transition that baby dictates speed of

I did baby led weaning and am a complete convert. The main principle is that you let the baby feed him or herself - so no spoon feeding.

Nobody told my second child this. He sat there with his mouth open waiting for me to put food in there for him. He's still a lazy sod.

@TheMightyThor
Fair enough. I started BLW thinking it was a bit of a fad but it really worked for my DS. If he’d sat there not eating for weeks I would probably have written it off too! I don’t think there’s anything wrong with some spoon feeding particularly if baby seems to want it but I never needed to. I’ll be interested to see if my newborn is the same.

Honestly, just get food, offer it to them. Purees are fine, finger foods are fine, a combination are fine. I'd skip the baby rice though.

We usually did finger foods, but would spoon feed yogurt etc, and have a few pouches in to take out as emergency food.

We kept bottles/boobs the same, and followed their lead on that (and food).

I think the only 'rules' are:

No whole nuts
no honey until 1
Things like sausages etc cut into lengthway strips rather than discs

I'd suggest you aren't shy about introducing allegens - the best time to introduce them as far as reducing allergies and intolerances goes is 4-6m. People who wait until nearer a year 'just in case' are actually raising the risks.

I wouldn't overthink it though, just give a variety of foods and try not to overthink it too much.

People get very het up over weaning on MN op.

You'll get the blw telling you their baby was eating chicken wings by 6.5 months and also the staunch organic steamed vegetable blenders. Not much middle ground like you'll find in real life.

Personally I did purée at first, no baby rice just single fruits or vegetables for the first week. This was more for my benefit than the babies, I felt more comfortable with this.

We just did a mix of whatever we were eating roughly mashed and also finger foods.

Keep going with your usual milk routine for now as your baby will probably only be eating small amounts to start with wether that's purée or self feeding.

We started a little earlier at 5.5months. He’s 6 months now and we’re doing a combo of purées and baby led. Generally we have introduced single fruits/veggies and with the purée I’ll give him a piece of that fruit or veg so he gets to experience both. We also give the snack type crisp puffs and wafers suitable for 6 months.

my first was only ever given purées as I had such a fear of choking that I made his eating worse for it I believe as we then couldn’t get past swallowing lumps. That’s why I’m keen for a mixture this time.

agree with @Chocolatcookie id love to have time to cook a fresh meal all the time but I don’t and the reality is the foods that we eat aren’t always going to be suitable for him and that’s just the way it is. Pouches/jars there’s no harm in them I don’t believe but everyone has their own opinions.

i would avoid the baby rice. That’s what I started my first on and it gave him terrible tummy upset! Just go straight to fruits/veggies

good luck!

Start with vegetables rather than fruit as they prefer the taste of sweet things (as milk is quite sweet) so better to get them used to the taste of vegetables before sweeter foods like fruit. Introduce allergy foods as soon as possible (I used to mix ground up nuts with yoghurt) and give food with decent iron content because they need the iron now (though maybe not so vital if baby is having enough formula, more of a concern for breastfed babies, but I'd still err on the side of caution and try and get some iron rich foods in). I used to just mash up whatever we were eating for dinner (adding salt after cooking, to our own portions but not baby's) and made vegetable curry for his lunches to get him used to stronger flavours (it worked, he loves strong flavours and spicy food), but the very first couple of weeks I just gave mashed up steamed veg (don't need to mash at 6 months but I started at 4 months to avoid allergies).

We started with homemade bone broth, poached egg yolk, and avocado at about 5 1/2 months. We started by offering it up to her once a day and built up to 3 times a day while still offering bottle/breast on demand. I think her second foods were butternut squash and spinach+peas. We used the book baby foodie. I cooked one big pot of bone broth and made 3 purees each on two different Sundays and froze everything in cubes then bagged. By the time we finished the last of the purees she had moved on to solids and was just getting some of whatever we made for ourselves (low/no salt though)