Weaning is all consuming - help!

[Becka14587]

DD is 7 months old and I'm finding weaning increasingly stressful. She's actually quite a 'good' eater. She refuses to be spoonfed but will grab the spoon and eat from it, will pick up finger food and has got the hang of chewing and swallowing although will often keep something in her mouth for a long time and not spit it out if she can't chew it so I end up having to pull it out of her mouth.

This, plus the fact she'll get distressed and seem like she's finished but then suddenly want to eat more means mealtimes take a long time, often sat there for around an hour. I don't know if this is normal or not? I want to give her opportunity to explore the food, play with spoon etc but it takes so long and is making bedtime later and meaning I'm always stressing about getting lunch out the way if we're going to a class etc in the afternoon (I'm doing three meals a day)

Then it's the prep and planning. I'm effectively a single parent (it's complicated) and find all I'm doing is thinking about food. I'm reasonably competent at cooking and have recipes to follow but dd often will start getting upset while I'm cooking which makes it massively stressful. In the kitchen/ diner she has a jumperoo, playmat with toys and her highchair but sometimes she just won't stay quietly in any of them. I don't make things that are overly complicated but even steaming veg takes at least 10 mins which is often is too long for her to tolerate. I do try to do some prep while she naps, but her nap lengths vary from 30 mins to just over an hour so I never know how much time I've got and need to do other things too.

I want her to try a variety of foods and have a good relationship with food so I don't want to just give her the same things every day or use bought purees all the time. She's also got constipated a couple of times so trying to work out what foods are causing that and give her plenty of fruit. She sleeps well at night and I've always put this down to that she drinks plenty of milk during the day so I want make sure she's eating plenty to keep this up while slowly weaning off milk. Just so much to consider, I wish I could relax more and enjoy it but I'm constantly worrying

Then there's making sure I eat, I have a big appetite and am breastfeeding, I'm not one of those people that can just exist on coffee and snacks all day. I try to make something we can both eat but still struggle with the planning and prep. I've always had a good relationship with food but now not enjoying eating at all.

What do people do to make this all less stressful?

I missed whether you said how many ‘meals’ you are doing but 1-2 is enough at 7 months. Do breakfast or lunch at a time that suits you for the rest of the day and give her some finger food to eat/play with while you eat dinner (assuming you eat together which is good to do if you can do she can watch you eat).

You could batch cook and freeze a few things she likes for when you don’t have time to prepare food -vege tots and egg muffins have been a hit with mine. Or freeze some veg heavy pasta sauce and just make pasta. Steam veg in the microwave - it only takes a few minutes.

It sounds like you are putting too much pressure on yourself. I only moved to three meals a day once I felt DS was ready so take the pressure off and consider going back to two meals a day for while.

Avoid going down the rabbit hole of internet baby recipes for lentil fritters or courgette croquettes. It's admirable that some women do this however I am not going to martyr myself to the BLW gods at the expense of my sanity. I would much rather spend my time bonding with my child than being chained to the oven all day.

I currently manage by batch cooking when I make my dinner in the evenings and/or using up left overs in some way for the next day. You don't need to make it fresh for every meal. Be kind to yourself, your baby will benefit far more from that than a cauliflower quinoa parcel.

This

Basically echoing everyone else, but also adding – steam stuff in the microwave, much faster. A few thin slices of apple, pear, veg, whatever, a few drops of water in a little container, a minute in the microwave and there you go.