New mumma - weaning!

[RIRO30]

Hey everyone!
I have weaning approaching with my twins!
where the helllllll do I start?
I don’t have time to read any books 🤣
What did you offer first for your baby? Do I go for a veggie puree? Porridge? Weetabix?
When did you give them the first meal? Morning or lunchtime?
when did you go onto 2 meals?
any advice welcome ❤️

I think breakfast is the easiest to start with because you’re nearly always home and breakfast foods are also the simplest- fingers of toast with various toppings, microwave porridge, natural yoghurt with a blob of fruit puree, mashed banana, scrambled eggs, mashed avocado, weetabix - all really easy!

About a month later we started dinners and would usually pureee a bit of whatever we were having with the blender, just leave out the salt whilst cooking and add when eating if desired, unless it was totally unsuitable then it’d be toast or the odd pouch.

Look on Solid Starts - loads of good ideas and advice!

I did baby led weaning with both of mine, there's no need for purees just wait till they are showing the signs of readiness (sitting unaided is one of them) and then let them have what you are having. You'd be surprised what they can handle! Its so much easier and purées were only invented to shore up the premature weaning industry, if you wait till they are ready they don't need purées. And no, they don't choke, in fact purées are more of a choking risk.

I just waited until my daughter was old enough & showing all the signs of being ready and then starting giving her little bits of whatever I was having, prepared safely for her of course (or more accurately she started grabbing handfuls of food off my plate🤣).

Breakfast is an easy one to start with, toast, porridge, scrambled eggs etc, all great to have a go at. Fruit & veg- I wouldn’t do puree’s, just prepare safely and let her have a go. My daughter is nearly 15 months old now and eats me out of house & home, she’s always just had what I have which to be honest is much much easier than preparing separate meals especially if you have twins.

I’m all for doing whatever method you find easiest/your baby enjoys but sitting unaided is not a readiness sign for weaning, in fact it’s a 9 month milestone. For weaning it’s sitting with support whilst holding head steady e.g. in a high chair, hand eye coordination so bringing objects to mouth and ability to swallow so loss of the tongue thrust reflex.

Thank you all!! Baby led weaning really scares me 🥹 but as we get closer to when they’re ready I’m sure I’ll feel more confident with it!

Baby lead weaning is great, but it’s not the be all and end all, although I can understand it might be easier given you have 2 mouths to feed! You can always combine the different approaches together, I used to give some toast, scrambled egg etc but also some purées or yoghurt. I used to tie myself in knots trying to cover every vegetable on the list, but it doesn’t need to be super stressful.

Baby led weaning doesn't mean they can't have puree. It just means they chose what to eat and how much. So your job is to offer appropriate, healthy options, their job is to figure out how to get it into their mouths, chew it, swallow it, stop when full.
Real baby led weaning is much less work than purees. You give them exactly what you have, modified if necessary, you put plates out for you both. You eat, you stop when done. You don't ask or force or even encourage baby to eat. You just eat together what you want.

So with all of mine.
Breakfast scrambled egg / boiled egg / butter, toast. Salt only on mine after serving.
Avocado with lime juice
Yogurt and fruit. Baby yogurt in bowl too, give them a spoon and let them crack on.

Lunch
Shredded meat
Cheese
Cooked bits of veg
Salad ( yes my kids got leaves too. Cucumber sticks, bits of tomato, bits of spring onion )
Any soup, again with their own spoon
Any leftovers

Dinner
Paneer and curry sauce
Strips of steak
Rice
Pasta with sauces to dip
Tons of veggies roasted in tons of evoo, spices herbs, no salt
Homemade chips
Anything we were having with no salt, although I did use spices.
Salmon or any other fish.
Steamed veggies.

My aim as a lazy person was to never cook a separate meal and get all my kids eating exactly what the family did.

I've never allowed ordering from kids menu.

Sadly the mess has always been absolutely atrocious but the kids are healthy and happy and eat like adults, no junk, and will eat most foods.

Dont encourage, dont congratulate, just offer and chat, no stress at all.

I just basically fed mine what I was eating or normal things we already had around the house. I only made special things (like savoury muffins or little mini pasties for when I needed something portable).

I started with lunch and added a meal a month. So lunch at 6 months, breakfast at 7 months, dinner around 8 months. I don’t remember what my 2nd one ate, but eldest, her first food was Sunday lunch, roast chicken, roasted carrots and parsnips and a Yorkshire pudding. She is 12 now and still particularly fond of a roast!

Ignore regular meal times/ foods at first just play with food. Once they are regularly eating 3 times a day you can introduce breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I found cooking some extra veggies with our evening meal to give the following day
Frozen fruit and veg can be a lifesaver as you can defrost tiny portions so less waste.
Be brave and get allergens asap, if nervous give them early in the day and during the week when there's more support around if needed.
You can get contact reactions with some foods just red marks where food has come into contact with the skin. If they have food allergies over them take a photo and then if they do come up with red marks you can compare photos and see if it's just where the food was - tomatoes, peppers and aubergine are particularly known for it

Use the solid starts app, it will show you how to safely prepare foods for each age range.
Start with savoury / veggies and avoid the sweet stuff for as long as you can as otherwise that's all they'll want!
Don't force anything or pressure

I know you said you don't have time to read but I followed a plan in Charlotte Sterling Reed's book and that really helped me as I didn't have to think about what to serve, I just followed the book

The Joe Wicks book is great too

I always find the sweet stuff funny. My daughter would only eat sweet things if they had spinach in and has never liked carrots which are usually a good reliable weaning food! She is nearly 5 now, hates spinach but still has to be bribed to eat carrots!