Weaning / going on to solids

[3lele]

Hi everyone

I’m a FTM and no clue how I go about doing the moving onto solids. My daughter will be 6 months soon and I want to start her on solids but how do I do it? Lol sounds like a dumb question but what I mean is, how often do I give solids and when? Like is it after a bottle or before? Or just whenever?

also, do u need to be mindful of sugar/salt? Etc. any help is appreciated x

Hiya. Do you have a children's centre near you? Mine run free courses on how to get started on weaning so might be useful to find out if yours do one.

Do you know if you want to do purees or baby led weaning? The purple Ella's Kitchen book is brilliant as it sets out exactly what you need to do all the way up to 12 months and beyond and has tons of recipes in it - this is puree led in the beginning but also has recipes for finger foods in there to make.

You have to be careful of sugar and salt especially - no more than 1g a day at a maximum but you should try and minimise as much you can. I also bought this book and read up on BLW for my second baby (7 months) as my first was a puree fiend but my second hates it so I've had to go down a completely different route!!! This book gives you the science behind it but also lots of suggestions of how to start. I'm now using a mixture of both these books for weaning my daughter.

Baby-led Weaning: Helping Your Baby to Love Good Food amzn.eu/d/bfnQehK

Good luck!

Hi Op,

I always used to wean before they were due there next bottle. They aren't meant to have any sugar before 1yrs old and you should limit the amount of salt they have. I think recommended is not to exceed 1g.

When I first started out I tried my little one on:

Weetabix
Toast
Sweet potato (boiled so nice and soft)
Banana (mashed)
Yogurt
Porridge

I think to start out with try once a day (I used to do lunch time) and then gradually add feeds in just see how your little one responds x

Its well easy OP don't stress, I used the book by Charlotte Stirling-Reed 'How to Wean Your Baby: The step-by-step plan to help your baby love their broccoli as much as their cake' which I found on Amazon and literally just followed their instructions. For the first couple of weeks it was mostly just starting with vegetables, blending them with breast milk/formula and feeding off a spoon alongside giving them whole, so you'd have brocoli blended with breast milk along side boiled brocoli florets for him to play with etc.

Thank u everyone! Very helpful!

@Imenti hello :) unsure about the children’s centre, I’ll look into that. & I’m not too sure which I want to do yet, would be useful to read up on both I guess so I’ll do that x

The solid starts app is good. It tells you how to prepare/cut different food for babies age

@claire841 thanks love. I will check this out x

There's a list of foods to avoid here and this guide from the Caroline Walker Trust has some great suggestions for first foods to try.

There's also a Weaning Section on MN under "Feed the World" where you can find MNers also going through this exciting stage