Share your advice and top tips for weaning with Organix: you could win a £150 notonthehighstreet voucher! NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

We've been asked by baby and toddler food brand Organix to find out your top tips and advice when weaning your LO onto food.

So, what single piece of advice would you give to another mum just about to start weaning? If you were weaning again, what would you do differently and why? What 3 words would you use to describe your weaning journey? Which foods did your little one love during weaning, do they still love the same tastes now?

Share your thoughts on this thread and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £150 voucher for notonthehighstreet.com/

Please note your tips and comments may be used, along with your MN nickname in an email MN will send out. They may well also be used elsewhere by Organix.

Thanks,
MNHQ

My single piece of advice? Cook healthy food for the whole family, and plonk some in front of the baby and let them get on and eat it.

I wouldn't do anything differently.

3 words: anything is fingerfood

DS loved everything he was offered, and the only thing he has disliked in the last 7 years is mushrooms. His biggest love is still sushi and chinese food though

As per CMOT!
I wouldn't change how we did it. We did BLW and just let DS decide what he wanted from what we were eating as a family. I didn't make anything different for him, he just ate the same as us. All wholefoods, cook from scratch, homemade cooking. No jars. When out, he'd have fruit.

Three words: Don't worry much. :)

DS's tastes have come and gone and come back again. He likes stuff, goes off it, likes it again. All normal, imho, just keep offering and trying and experimenting.

When I was weaning DD1 I was very young and lived in a small flat without a proper kitchen so I relied heavily upon jars and packets.

When I had DD2 things were a lot easier and I knew a lot more about cooking, nutrition etc. and although the term 'baby led weaning' hadn't become popular that's more or less what I did, cooking healthy meals for the whole family and DD2 would just join in with a slightly mushier version of what DD1 was having.

I would still use jars when out and about though, they are so handy.

My 3 words: keep on trying. I read somewhere it takes several squillion attempts for a baby to accept a new food or something.

3 words? Messy, constant cleaning!

We're just about to start weaning again but this time we'll let baby decide a bit more. He hasn't made any attempt yet at any of my food so we assume he's still happy and thriving on my milk.

Bananas are the first food we knew our eldest really liked and he still loves them!

Ah, my DD was an Organix baby, thanks to the fruity chicken pots that were on sale every week at the 99p store! Funky chicken we called it. She loved it.

So, my weaning journey was protracted, well mixed feeding went on for months, actually years with my DS. But it was great as the two children just began to join in with our food. That would be my tip| give the young uns what you are eating, explode their palates with great tastes. Always have bits of fruit and vegetables available. We did all this and the children now, at 8 and 5, are not fussy eaters.

Three words: emotional, exciting, exploratory.

Don't worry about how much they eat. They will eat eventually. Think of eating as a family when meal planning rather than several different meals, life is so much easier this way.

Only 6 weeks into weaning so still early days.

My advice is to make sure you wash their face afterwards in full daylight - I didn't realise how much carrot stains until we were in a shop an hour later and my son looked like I'd smothered his face in fake tan.
My three words: more bibs please!

my three words : everyone eat together

weaning can be a bit stressful, but ive had three and one grandson and i think the key is for everyone to eat together if possible, so food is a shared experience. i made my own dinners as usual but always kept some small portions of potatoes, porridge, soups, separate for baby which had no spices or salt etc added, these can also be frozen,

make sure baby is not tired or unwell, then settle down, allow them to make a mess, i used to put one of my old t shirts over them!, try different textures some like smooth others lumpy your wee one will soon let you know.

If they refuse there is no point in forcing the issue, just leave it for a while and try again later, cutting food into funny shapes can also help and different colors are good too.

In my day we started weaning at about 12 weeks, times have changed now but babies tend to get hungrier round about 3-4 months but only you can make a decision on whats right and make sure you dont just offer puddings, i know many mums whose wee ones wont even try the savoury because they enjoy the sweet stuff so much!

its also good to have a bowl that has suction cups on the bottom to avoid the food getting tipped all over the place!

I didn't find weaning the pain that lots of parents do. I was lucky, and I wouldn't do anything differently.

My only advice would be to try to be flexible. So no rigid, set in stone, mustn't vary by even a minute mealtimes. Don't worry about cutting corners here and there if you're struggling for time or energy. If the baby doesn't want to eat at its usual time don't fret - snack time is just around the corner!

Single piece of advice would be to go with your baby's cues as you know them best. Read the NHS guidance but go with when you feel your baby is ready.

I'm currently weaning for the second time and I'm taking a much more relaxed approach. I'm cooking lots of homemade food but also using ready made pouches/jars as they are really handy when out and about.

Weaning this time has been messy but fun!

DS (3) loves strong flavours as well as pasta, rice and soup. He eats pretty much anything! Favourites are homemade chicken curry, ramen and chilli. He isn't really keen on lamb or pork but that's about it. DD just started weaning last week so is getting tastes of butternut squash, carrots, apples and porridge. We're planning on introducing baby led weaning as well but will still do spoon feeding as well. I love the cheese puffs for letting kids feed themselves.

My single piece of advice is don't beat yourself up if you don't make most meals yourself - packet/pouch/jar food is very good these days and kids by and large love it.

Three words : No spoon feeding.

My children loved soup and still do but I'm glad I served DS 2.5 broccoli everyday for the past two years just recently I stopped and he asked where it was and started eating it!

Weaning is not a dark art or something to be afraid of. Follow your babies cues and add some common sense and it will be fine.

I didn't cook special food, ds had what we had. He loved most things. This has all changed recently when all he wants is rice and asparagus.

Three words: Get a dog.

Don't bother with purees, just offer your baby some of whatever you're having (assuming it's healthy!) and be prepared for most of it to go on the floor. With time it will go in their mouth. Don't worry about stuffing them full of solids, especially if you're breastfeeding.

EauRouge - we have a mini schnauzer who loves clearing up after kids teatime!

My advice is to wait until baby is ready and not to cave to pressure when baby is still 4 or 5 months old. They grow up so fast, no need to rush from one milestone to the next

The best way for myself and children was to cook a family roast dinner on a Sunday all from fresh produce and make batchrs of food for the children too. Using up all the cooked vegetables, putting some with potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice etc... I staryed of my blending single vegetables on their own the adding a few together then adding meats, fish and more. I found it very hard when we were out and about, to beable yo warm food up and it was at this time i used jars. I found them ideal and chose ofganic range ehich my children enjoyed just as much as mummy's dinners. As they got older it was easy for me to have a pack lunch of healthy finger foods with me. They ate 5 and 2 now and we have a pack lunch bag with us were ever we go. We don't leave home with out it (we call it our 'back up bag).

3 words: bide your time.

There is no need to hurry weaning - waiting until baby is ready for it will make life for you all a load easier. Baby-specific recipes may sound very wholesome, but sod that extra effort when you are shattered from 6 months with no sleep - just lob some of your dinner in front of them, and if they're hungry/interested, they'll eat it. And you'll be surprised at how much a 6 month old likes sucking on a piece of roast beef, despite her toothless state! Plus which, cooking your own food with no salt will change your palate too, so you will enjoy the flavour of your food more.

Also, don't beat yourself up when your 4 yo who was baby-lead-weaned, and breastfed for far longer than most, suddenly stops eating anything - it's NOT your fault, he is just testing boundaries. Apparently.

DC1, I made a zillion different purees and portioned them up in a quadrillion mini ice cube containers (which used up all the remaining freezer space not already occupied by expressed breast milk....). Religiously sat and attempted to spoon feed him every meal time from 5mo. Realised at 6mo that the ice cube containers were a) far too small and b) breeding in the freezer, uneaten and inedible Very proud of self that dc1 would eat bloody anything right up to 18mo when he basically went on strike.

DC2, I made some basic purees to kick start her around the 6mo mark. Nothing too exciting and switched her onto blended versions of whatever I was unsuccessfully attempting to feed DC1 as soon as I could. Not at all surprised when she went on strike for a bit around 18mo.

DC3...puree? pah! she got whatever dc1 and 2 were having, in identical form. This is the child whose favourite foods were cocktail fishballs and courgette (not necessarily together) at 8mo. Was always allowed to eat however much or little as she wanted of the standard main course, and the basic 'no dessert if you don't eat your mains' applied right from the beginning. Age 3.5 and still eats bloody everything

What do we learn from this? Life is too short to use a stick blender.... I'm not sure about BLW (which to me still implies chopping up stupendous amounts of random food 'to give baby a choice' ) but stick some normal, healthy food,which still looks like food, on a plate, and let them get on with it :)

Currently weaning ds2... thinking of trying the BLW route as after about 6 weeks of puree pouches he will not move onto stage 2 and the stress of weaning has begun again. When he spits it straight back out like its poison it does my nut in... maybe BLW will take a bit of stress away... until he doesn't eat anything. Then what? BLW scares me a little if I'm honest =

Ds1 is now 3 and will hardly eat anything and definitely would not be caught even looking at veg let alone eating it. I DO NOT want that to happen with DS2.

3 words... Cool and Calm (like Koko as Ds1 says)

So, what single piece of advice would you give to another mum just about to start weaning?
Your LO is just a small adult. Adapt meals if needed for their smaller mouth and limited teeth, but aside from a few exclusions (honey, nuts) they can have (and will probably love to eat) exactly the same as you!

If you were weaning again, what would you do differently and why?
I wouldn't change anything. I was lucky enough that DD was a breeze to wean and had a variation of what DH and I were having until she could have exactly what DH and I were having. She still eats a good variety of food now she's a temperamental toddler!

What 3 words would you use to describe your weaning journey?
Food Is Fun

Which foods did your little one love during weaning, do they still love the same tastes now?
Pasta. We started with soup pasta within the first few months of weaning and worked up to the same pasta as DH and I eat. Also, cheese. But that might be genetic, there's no-one in either family that doesn't love cheese-!

My advice would be to do a first aid course and be sure you know how to deal with a baby choking, just in case. Then you can go ahead with finger foods etc without any worries.

My advice would be not to expect anything except that it will be messy!
I wouldn't do anything differently because my DS is a great eater and eats a wide variety of foods (I did a mixture of puree and finger foods).
3 words to describe the weaning journey - messy, fun, surprising! Messy because he loves to throw food on the floor and rub yoghurt on his hair. Fun because I let him have fun with food and make a mess! And surprising because he eats all sorts of unexpected things like olives and curry.
He is only 13 months so still a baby but his favourites include scrambled eggs, toast, all fruit but especially strawberries and nectarines, yoghurts and Yorkshire pudding!

Ds1 I did by the book, made purees and frozen them , gradually introduced lumps etc
With ds2&3 I ditched the purees and gave them whatever we were having. I found roast chicken, carrot batons and broccoli were excellent first foods to try. I would also give them a whole pear to munch on and was also surprised how much they ate!
Easy quick tea by microwaving a sweet potato (skin on) then peeling skin off with fingers (comes off very easily). Then either mash or cut into wedges, can add some Philadelphia for extra yumminess.
Rice cakes great for snacks, organix apples ones were a favourite in this house! Goodie bars also v popular here

I wouldn't change anything, it was worth going through purée process with ds1 to realise what a lot of unneccessary it was
3 words - weaning = messy play

New mums should remember that milk is sufficient nutrition till age 1, so don't stress about weaning. Anything that does go in is a bonus, and they often eat more than you think -watch those nappies change!!

Ds3 has very interesting favourite foods including red onions, green olives and red cabbage. Also still loves apples and pears