Baby's first foods

[Tiegs]

I will be starting to wean my baby on solids but unsure what to start him on fruit/veg / porridge
Any ideas what one is best

i found the facebook group Baby Led Weaning UK helpful

I don't have social media

I used jars and pouches - really easy as there is a huge range by age groups

We did baby led weaning and it was just whatever we had that was suitable from our own meals to start. Her very first meal ever was garlic and honey roasted carrots and parsnips (honey is fine to feed when cooked), roast potatoes and a Yorkshire pudding.

I think breakfast is the easiest meal to start with since you’re nearly always at home for it. Porridge with fruit, mashed banana, fingers of toast with avocado or peanut butter spread on top, pancakes cut into strips, natural yoghurt with a bit of fruit puree stirred in- all easy options!

I loved this book as it gives you a handy guide to what to introduce when over the first 30 days as well as some lovely recipes. Super handy if like me, you overthink everything when it comes to your little one!

How to Wean Your Baby: The step-by-step plan to help your baby love their broccoli as much as their cake https://amzn.eu/d/0doCDFPU

Thank you

Don't over think it. You can offer simple steamed veg to begin with, such as carrot fingers, broccoli, avocado, green beans, butternut squash, courgette, pepper etc etc. Long finger shaped pieces are ideal. I'd prioritise savoury over sweet. You can do cooked apple slices, banana, mango, peach etc.

Here's the NHS advice page:

www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/baby/weaning/what-to-feed-your-baby/from-around-6-months/#baby-led

Pouches and jars tend to be sweeter than fresh food, and based on the same few base ingredients all the time. Fine for a one off here and there but not ideal for every meal time.

Honey isn't ok whether cooked or raw. The risk is of infant botulism and cooking doesn't kill the botulism spores.

Thank you as I want to cook everything fresh rather than hsts just unsure if to do purée or blwe

We used jars and pouches all the time - the ingredients are fine. The main thing is that they are quick and easy especially when you’re back at work. Didn’t want the mess or time in blw.

There is no need for purées. You can use a fork to mash up avocado or steamed carrot or you can give them bits to hold themselves. I'm a fan of BLW as I found pureeing, offering and having my offerings rejected for months on end dispiriting. My youngest DC was in the age group of starting weaning at 6 months and I just gave him what his siblings or the whole family were having with some mi or adaptations. It was a lot less work and, of course, the DC learn by sitting with family and eating what everyone eats.

We spoon fed purées. It was easy as I could buy loads of jars and pouches each week and the range, flavours and ingredients were good. Blw was too messy and time consuming for me.

Traditional weaning would be a mix of finger foods and purées. I wouldn’t get hung up on anything so prescribed, just offer both as makes sense e.g. spoon feed the yoghurt, cut the toast into fingers. And sometimes you can purée the carrots and other times you could do them as soft batons. It’s good for them to try things different ways and have a variety of textures I think!

I’ve done baby led weaning with both children. My son’s first meal was a pasta dish and my daughter had chicken and asparagus pie. We just offer a bit of whatever we are having, so long that it is cut appropriately there’s no need to mash/puree.
Pouches and jars are expensive and seem like a faff to me, so much easier just giving them a bit of whatever family meal we are having and letting them explore the food themself.

well i did three meals a day to form a routine i didn't expect mine to eat anything just have fun

for meals i would place food directly on tray and let her decide what she wanted to try

for breakfast

two chopped fruits
either crumpets,pancakes,fruit loaf,toast,waffles,dry cereal
milk in a sippy cup

lunch

two chopped veg so could be
chopped avocado,pickles,cucumber,tomato's,fine grated carrot,cooked beets,bell pepper
some carbs so either torn up pitta,wraps,crackers,sandwich thins
a chopped fruit
protein so either chopped hard boiled eggs,sandwich ham,cooked chicken,prawns,seafood sticks

dinner what ever were eating pretty much but low salt i have done Swedish meatballs ,cottage pie,roast dinner with steamed veggies,bolenase,stir fry ,curry .Just chopped up

BLW doesn't involve lots of time, that's part of the appeal. And fresh food should always be preferable over tinned/jarred/pouches, wherever possible. Giving solids to babies is always messy, that's part of the experience. NHS advice is to give finger foods from the beginning, alongside spoon-feeding if that's your choice.

Baby led weaning vs purées is a personal choice and there is no right or wrong answer really. Baby led tends to end up with baby eating slightly less at the beginning, where purée is more similar to consistency they are used to, and generally the adult feeds until they can hold pouch/spoon so they have larger amounts of food earlier.

However baby led encourages independence, trial and error, plenty of variety and you don't need to go from liquid to solid (like a 2nd weaning stage).

It really is parent preference, I did a bit of both - I tended to do purée before bed using cubes I had frozen so that there was a full tummy and more chance of a good sleep - and in the day just let him get his hands on and nibble at stuff which was all that really happened for me with the BLW stuff for quite a while, lots of dropping/throwing/missing mouth etc - the evening meal made me feel like tummy was more full, solids were tried more, and mine really did sleep better with a full tum overnight!

It's best to start with bitter flavours, like green veg. Don't just stick with sweet flavours, that includes sweeter veg like carrot. The Joe Wicks Wean in 15 book is good. And avoid anything you can buy in the baby food aisle, so overpriced and most is ultra processed. A lot of it is also made much sweeter than you would cook a meal, for example, curries with fruit in them. You really want to get baby used to savory and bitter flavour.

There’s nothing wrong with the contents of jars and pouches. This is a katsu curry ingredients from a pouch age 7+ months . No way was I spending time making this when I can get in the baby food isle.

Organic curry sauce 49% (water, organic tomato puree, organic cornflour, organic herbs and spices: curry powder, cumin, ginger, allspice, coriander, sage, thyme)
Organic cooked rice 15% (water, organic rice)
Organic carrots 12%
Organic chicken 10%
Organic potatoes 7%
Organic onions 3%
Organic swede 3%
Organic raisins 1%
Organic olive oil <1%
Organic garlic <1%
Other stuff 0%

Thank you all for your help and advice really appreciate it

How do you introduce foods that are prone to allergies to you just give it to them several times to see if they have a reaction ?

Frozen veg and fruit can be your friend as you can just defrost small portions as you go. My daughter was slow to wean and flip flopped between wanting blw and purees so I tended to do both. She also had a lot of allergies so the purees were good for know if she had eaten any and thus no reaction because there was no reaction and not because she hadn't eaten it.
We would dip the whole food into the pureed food also to tempt her into exploring the whole food.

Allergens. Introduce as early as you can. If you are nervous do it on a day you have support. Give new allergens early in the day and when the gp is open then in the rare chance there is a reaction medical help is easy to come by.
Some food causes contact reactions just from being on the skin and is nothing to do with allergies. If they get super messy it might be worth taking a photo before you clean them up. If they come up in a contact rash you can compare photos and see if they are just red where the food was. Tomatoes and aubergine are the main culprits for this.
We generally held back veg when we were cooking our evening meal to give her the following day.

Thank you so much really helpful

I'm not disagreeing that it was easier for you, but I've found a BLW shared plate approach waaaaay less messy and time consuming than trying to spoon feed.

I just sit on the food mat, with a plate loaded with food for both of us, with easy to grab bits on my son's side, or maybe a pre loaded spoon. He takes what he wants off the plate and I eat the rest.

I really recommend it for an active baby too - my son hates being strapped into his high chair. He's much happier stealing.y food than being offered his own.