Really hating weaning

[Littlemilkybird]

Has anyone got any advice to make it easier?

DD is 7 months and has been having solids for 1 month. She is formula fed and has bottles 3 hourly in the day. She is very enthusiastic about trying foods, very good at picking up food and getting it into her mouth (totally refuses a spoon) and we have got all the major allergens in, so some success there. She doesn't take much food down at the moment but I know this is normal and am not worried about that.

My issue is I'm just finding it all really surprisingly hard! I've always found meal prep and cooking disproportionately stressful and never have 3 meals a day myself. I try to give her one meal for breakfast / lunch time and make things like porridge and fruit, hummus (a lot of hummus) with pitta and vegetables, yoghurt, occasionally omelette. I feel like even those simple meals take me a while and it all just ends up on the floor and the mess is just something else! I find it hard to even fit that one meal between her bottles as she has an incredibly sensitive gag reflex and if she's been fed within 1-2 hours of the meal she usually ends up bringing up her whole bottle which she finds distressing and the meal is then over. We are also out for most of the day every day with various classes and activities and trying to fit food around these is so hard. The evenings are easier as DH cooks and we just give her some of what we are having but she's started waking a lot at night and I'm not sure if it's due to her eating late (around 6:30pm - can't eat earlier due to DH's work).

I know it's pathetic but I'm honestly finding the routine and extra work really overwhelming.Sometimes I feel relaxed about it as, like I said, she's trying things enthusiastically and getting all her allergens in repeatedly. I know nutrition comes from milk mainly before 1 and I'm wondering if I should just keep offering low pressure tastes of things. However, the other babies in NCT class seem to be on 3 meals a day already, their parents take food out for them for the day (I could never feed her in public!) and food in general seems to be a big part of their routine whereas it is a bit more optional in mine.

Can I please ask what has worked for people? Particularly interested in anything (less messy) that I (DH!) can batch cook to reduce meal prep time

Don't do 3 meals that involve cooking! That's an insane workload for good that mostly won't be eaten. Trade porrige for strips of wholrwheat toast on half of days for breakfast. Or dry multigrain cereal is ok occasionally.

Definitely just feed her what you would eat most of the time. She really doesnt need much at this age.

This was a while back for me but your post really resonated. I remember doing nothing for a while except make food and clean up!

My kid didn't really eat what I would call a meal until about 1, around the time began nursery. Nursery really helped us out with cementing the idea of mealtimes and eating so don't know if that's in the near future for you?

Otherwise I would just carry on with low pressure easy food. Toast, omelette strips, stuff like that. I wish I had stressed less as mine eats most stuff now.

children are messy. Let her be messy but a cloth feeding jacket and a silicon bib for catching stuff and that way her clothes stay clean. Make sure and use a high chair. Overnight oats is good, no cooking, oats in milk in fridge overnight then add mashed banana and cinnamon? Make a pot of something she eats and freeze into lots of small portions, take out and heat up for lunch? I’d rather go back to the days of weaning than the fussiness of older kids!

Toast fingers with various toppings (butter, soft cheese, a thin layer of peanut butter, hummus, etc.) is a good quick option for breakfast and lunch. For out and about, I virtually always took cold food – thin crispy breadsticks or some crackers are good for not too much mess, plus some thin bits of cheese, and a bit of fruit or something like cold cooked carrot sticks, or steamed apple slice (or really, really thin raw apple or pear slices, like a couple of mm).

Steaming harder fruit or veg in the microwave makes it really quick and easy – slice into fingers, pop in a wee dish with a drop of water, 20-30 seconds in the microwave, done. Leftovers keep in the fridge for a couple of days, so you can do enough for a couple of meals in one go.

You may find the gagging incidents reduce quite rapidly as she gets better at learning how to move food around in her mouth, but in the meantime, could you sometimes time food for just before a bottle? What times is she having bottles?

Ah thanks for the advice and reassurance all! Some good food ideas here. I'm going to try some easier meals and try giving food just before a bottle - I'd been worried about filling her up before her milk but I don't think she's taking anywhere near enough for this to happen anyway. We didn't have a microwave but have ordered one now as I think this will help also - doing everything on the hob or heating things up in the oven just seems to take up so much more time!

Weaning is fucking awful. I would take potty training over weaning any day. I’m past that stage now so don’t have any useful tips but I would told 3 meals a day from 9 months and snacks when they turn one.

They don’t need 3 cooked/hot meals. 2 can just be picky bits; toast, finger food, it’s about trying lots of different flavours and textures, not necessarily finishing anything. If they don’t eat, just give it again later.

At 7 months mine was still just having one taste of a puree or finger food a day - please don't stress about 3 meals yet. Also - ignore the NCT group! One of mine boasted that her baby was on 3 proper meals a day way before the rest of us, it turns out he was eating 3 ice cube sized portions of puree....

Weaning is really stressful and time consuming though, batch cooking is the one. Once she is ready you could batch cook pasta sauces, stews, all sorts of finger foods and freeze them which will make life much easier!

All babies are different. My second really was on 3 meals a day by 7 months unless he slept through it and I was packing food for days out but my first absolutely not! They all get there.

Things that made my life easier second time was nearly always offering what I was eating. If it ended up on the floor at least I hadn't done additional prep. Batch cooking so you could give leftovers. Generally only one proper hot meal unless it was heating up leftovers or beans on toast or something.

Slow cooker changed my life for managing late nights due to work. I could have it ready for the boys and either eat with them or with DH depending on the day.

Also the early stages of weaning are by far the hardest as it feels like double the work due to all the milk feeds as well as offering 3 meals.

Try batch cooking some things for the freezer for lunches. These make super simple lunches at home and are perfect to take out and about.

My daughter is 17 months now and obviously eating much more than she was at 7 months but I still do this!

Couscous fingers are still a big hit. onehandedcooks.com.au/recipe/pick-n-mix-couscous-fingers/

Also savoury muffins (google 'savoury muffin BLW' and you'll get lots of ideas.

Also savoury pancakes eg spinach pancakes.

Google 'fritter BLW' and you'll get loads of ideas for savoury fritters you can batch cook and freeze.

I also make homemade chicken nugget type things and pork and sweet potato rissoles which again are so easy to bring out of the freezer for a meal.

Even now I will often take out one or two of the above things for lunch. If we're at home she might have some hummus and breadsticks, or some tomatoes or cucumber or leftover steamed veg from tea on the side. But equally - and especially at 7 months - serving them on their own is fine too!

@Mumof2littleguys1 completely agree about all the milk feeds as well! It feels like we've gone from having a lot of freedom in our day to being completely ruled by weaning and milk! I'm struggling to see how other people seem to fit it all in ...

@cheesepleasegromit thanks for the reassurance. I never really question what people mean by three meals a day ... but to be honest, even if it is just thimble-sized portions of puree I'm still in awe of those managing to fit it all into their day..! I think part of the problem is we just spend so little time actually at home and DD is so much easier to manage when we are out and about...

Thanks all for more suggestions. @teachermummyme those couscous fingers look great.

Good food for batch cooking evening meals: shepherds pie, casserole, pasta, chicken and veg tray bake (I blend my LOs portion sometimes)

Good food to batch make then freeze and reheat in microwave (these also are good finger food to take out in a little Tupperware as they’re not messy): pancakes, oaty cups, vegetable fritters, vegetable tots, muffins- the weaning GP on instagram has loads of ideas!

Non cook/minimal prep: overnight oats, overnight chia seed pudding, wheatabix with fruit/peanut butter/puree (my LO has this pretty much every day!), toast, banana, avocado, rice cakes.

Also the classics: beans on toast (just buy reduced salt/sugar), fish fingers, potato waffles

Not ideal but great in a rush/emergency: a pouch! The habit of eating regularly is important to get them used to, so sometimes it’s ok to cheat and give them something ready made because you’re busy!

Its likely she’ll grow out of being sick as she gets used to food, and drops the odd bottle as she goes along.

I actually enjoyed weaning- but it coincided with lockdown, so gave some kind of structure to the day as there wasn't much else to do! I am definitely with you on the pressure to come.up with new exciting meals each day, though (plus snacks).

At 7 months almost anything can qualify as a meal- and she may not even really need 3 meals to begin with.

Due to the various shortages pre and during lockdown, we used to make random selections on a plate for some meals, based on what we could get- so easy things like hummus, toasted pitta, sliced olives and cheese plus a few small bits of fruit for lunch, for example, or random plates based on what was in the fridge or freezer. Crackers and toppings are always fun too, as you can change the toppings depending on what you have/what you want to introduce- e.g. peanut butter on crackers or rice cakes with cucumber or similar. Our lockdown adventures tirned out well, as she still eats almost anything at 4!

Leftovers can also be your friend, as well as simple breakfasts like greek yogurt and fruit, toast and scrambled eggs, Weetabix occasionally, porridge done in the microwave, toasted bagel with cream cheese and strawberries...

Also, speaking from the other side: pouches can be useful if you need something when you are out and about. As adults, we eat things of similar textures, like soups and things like apple sauce, so those textures etc have their place. (I also used to like those small bento boxes with a random selection of fridge/cupboard contents to eat on the move if needed.)

Breakfast- microwave porridge with squeeze of fruit purée from a pouch, baby porridge you can just add a bit of hot water too (those are more expensive though), weetabix with milk, smashed banana, fingers of toast
Lunch- stuff on a plate like crudities, few breadsticks or baby crisps with a dip like sour cream, hummus or tzatziki, maybe a bit of roast chicken for protein and some fresh fruit
Dinner- Ideally I’d cook this by batch making purees and freezing in ice cube trays every few days (I had the beaba machine so easy) but if I hadn’t got round to it then would do an Ella’s pouch
Once we got onto snacks it was mostly yoghurt!

I definitely didn't put that much effort in at 7 months. I just gave whatever we were having for him to basically muck about with and whatever got eaten was a bonus.

E.g.,

Breakfast: some of our porridge cooled with whole milk. Mash a banana in or leave banana on the side. Or toast soldiers with avocado/egg yolk spread on.

Lunch: Soup and crusty bread. Dip a hunk of crusty bread in for him to suck on, help him spoon some soup in too. Or if we were out something simple like rice cakes with humous, Greek yoghurt, various fruit/veg cut appropriately.

Dinner: Some of whatever we were having. I just cooked without salt and we salted ours at the table.

I hated it too. So boring.

But I did as much as possible just feed them from what I was eating so if we were out then bits of jacket potato or quiche or little bits of sandwich and stuff.

Don't worry about her being messy out and about. Just have loads of wipes and nappy sacks for cleaning up. Nobody will judge you for a baby being messy as long as you don't leave the mess.

A few things worth highlighting, as they haven't been made obvious from posts above:

• bread should ideally be toasted (even lightly) to reduce the gumminess, which is a choking hazard (recommendation is to do this until about 1)
• cut anything round lengthwise (until about 4 or 5)
• be very careful with raw veg, apples etc as these are definitely choking hazards (until 4 or 5)
• no honey until after one (reduces botulism risk)

-if you are sharing a meal, salt at the table be very careful with salt intake until at least 1

Pasta, cous cous and bulghur wheat all are fun to eat in the early days (and sensory play, as a bonus).

I also found the Ella's kitchen range very handy to have in for those days I hadn't got the time or ingredients in, they were nutritious, tasty and time saving! Winner

Weaning can be stressful and all babies are different. You say your baby is on 3 hourly bottles, could you maybe move to four hourly bottles and would give you more time to fit everything in. If I remember correctly my routine used to be at 7 months.

7am - 8oz bottle
8-8.30am - breakfast
9-10am nap
11am 8oz bottle
12pm - lunch
12.45ish-2 nap
3pm bottle 8oz
4.30 - short 20 min nap
5pm tea
7ish - 8oz bottle and then bed normally around 7.30

Obviously this wasn't set in stone and didn't always go to plan! But I found spacing bottles out and having food an hour after milk helped. Baby still met their milk requirements.

And I'm a big fan of doing whatever you can to need make things easier. Breakfast was always weetabix or baby porridge (as it was easier than normal porridge to heat up!). Sometimes they had pouches twice a day due to sheer exhaustion on my part, it was absolutely fine and nobody was harmed due to it. I found annabel karmel recipes easy too and good to batch cook. My baby had a dairy intolerant and my husband is vegan and coealic and we wanted the baby to eat meat so eating what we eat wasn't always appropriate. Plus there was times I wanted a pizza or dirty takeaway so good to have things on standby!

Thank you all again! Will look at getting some Ella’s kitchen bits in as back up.

Thanks @Flubadubba. I use the solid starts food guide religiously as very nervous about choking!