Fairy Non Bio wants to hear your thoughts about feeding and weaning - £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

As part of our new partnership with Fairy Non Bio, we’ve produced our first ever Mumsnet Babies Podcast. There are ten episodes in the series and so far we’ve released five. Episode one is about feeding and weaning, and you can listen to it here. Fairy Non Bio would like you to listen to the podcast whenever you can, and then discuss your experiences of weaning and feeding your child.

Feeding your child is one of the joys of parenthood but it can also be an uphill struggle. We imagine ourselves watching our little ones devouring something delicious and home-cooked, into which we’ve poured both love and superfoods - but the reality is usually rather different. Fairy Non Bio would love to hear your stories about feeding and weaning. When did you start weaning? What process did you use and what worked well for you and your child? Do mealtimes often become a battleground or are they mainly about having fun? Is your child a fussy eater? How do you deal with that - do you ignore it and let them eat nothing but yoghurt and toast if they want, or do you try to sneak veggies into their meals? Have you experienced interference from family members, friends etc who have different ideas about feeding children? Whatever your story, please share it with Fairy Non Bio by posting on the thread below.

Everyone who posts below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

If you want to rate the Mumsnet Babies Podcast, please go to the iTunes store and add a review!

Thank you and good luck!

MNHQ

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Try as many things that you can and keep a diary, dont forget that babies will often try things several times before they actually like them. ALSO most adults have food that they dont like so just chill if they dont like it

as you can see we have been very relaxed about it! much moreso than with my first son, we had a mixture of purees and baby led finger foods. i have just been following her lead.....wish i could nap at the dinner table!!!

I haven't really followed the guidelines with my two children, as I didn't wait for 6 months to wean, I started at around 3 - 4 months. First with porridge and yoghurt, and then with full dinners. My kids loved home cooked foods and then we would batch cook them in little pots and put them in the freezer so that they were there whenever we needed them. By 6 months both my children had a full Christmas dinner mashed up. We found the kids didn't like the jars because they were tasteless. I would recommend putting a plastic mat under the highchair though. We have pale carpet and most of the foods go orange when mashed up and it's a nightmare getting that out of the carpet or pale babygrows.

With my 1st I started weaning at 6months. Everything was home made. He liked to feed himself, it got messy but I didn't mind. I put him in old clothes and had a splash mat under his high chair. I started with veg first rather than fruit so he didn't get used to just sweet tastes. With my 2nd I weaned at 6 months also, all gone made food but I followed baby led weaning. I didn't blend the food just mashed it and gave whole pieces of things early on such as fruit. Was a lot easier and my daughter would eat with her hands. I found with baby led weaning they were onto proper food a lot quicker.

I have loved baby led weaning. My son is 7 months now and eats most things himself unless a spoon is required. He is so good at chewing and swallowing and it means that he eats what we eat (healthy) which is so much easier

Really struggle with feeding with both of mine, they will start off OK but just seem to lose interest rapidly so hardly ever finish a meal. That said, having us all eating together at the table at the same time definitely makes things better.

We've done a mixture of puree and blw witg both of ours. I have a real paranoia about choking, so have definitely erred on the side of caution with finger food - probably more than I needed to! DC1 is generally a great eater and always has been. DC2 is slightly more fussy and had been introduced to family meals much earlier due to lack of time to batch cook separately for her. However, I have to say I've been very lucky with both of them liking fruit and veg - so far!

I have 3 children ages 17, 16 and 3. All my babies were quite large when born but the two younger ones seemed to level out and eat / drank normal amounts and were satisfied.
My eldest child was 10lb 1oz born and drinking 9oz bottles from around 2 weeks old. he went on to hungry baby food but was still hungry. My health visitor actually told me 'off the record' to start weaning him early , which i did and he took to it really easy considering his young age .
My younger two were weened at around 12 weeks and 16 weeks. but all 3 of them ate almost everything i put in front of them. the fussiest is my youngest daughter , who has always had a thing about smelling food, and if it smells too strong she wont even try it .

Both DS and DD were weaned at 4 months - the recommended time then. I started DS with bought babyfood for a while before starting to blend my own. He could not tolerate lumps until he was over 12 months. With DD she decided when to tackle lumps when she was sitting on my lap as I ate pasta and she helped herself and chomped her way through it without problems. I never had a problem with them eating vegetables as I used to put vegetables on their plate, mutter, "That's too much." and take some off again. They few up begging for more vegetables. They went through a phase when 2 and 4 where DS would eat pasta but not rice and DD would rice but not pasta - and then on one notable day they switched! Never did work out what was going on there.

Started around 5 and a half months but just a little taste each day to start with and milk still very much being the main thing. I just went at my babies pace and built from there. One thing i definitely learnt was that you need to try the same food around 30 times before deciding that they dont like something as their taste buds evolve all the time.

Blw weaning here and lots of fun. I do try and sneak veggie in where I can but they are much older now!

Do it when it feels the right time for you and your baby, don't let books or people tell you,every child is different

I started my LO on solids at 6 months old. I blended up vegetables and fruit to start with and used every fruit/ veg I could get my hands on so she could get a taste for them all. I didn't use shop bought baby food. After a while I started blending the food we were eating (all cooked without salt etc) and then introduced her to food which hadn't been blended. She eats everything I give her and always has :)

I dont believe in weaning before 6 months. DS1 was BLW and now at nearly 4 is an incredibly fussy eater. DS2 was weaned on mashed up food from 6 months and is currently a really good eater at 19 months. I found BLW stressful and wouldnt do it again. My eldest and I often have disagreements at meal times. I am trying not to make a big deal out of things but I find it very difficult because he is so wasteful and just wont try new things. He wont even eat basic things like pasta and mashed potato, or even yoghurt. Its incredibly frustrating.

I never sterilised anything and I supplemented with breastfeeding until 14/15 months.

Baby led, and finger food all the way.

I started weaning both DDs around 6 months. I made lots of fruit purees (blueberry and pear was a favourite) and also made lentil or chicken and carrot purees. Finger foods were cooked carrot sticks and broccoli heads. Toast fingers also went down well. I always took bananas (for quick mashing), rice cake snacks and fromage fraise when out and about so I didn't get stuck at cafes etc for something for my DDs to eat.

I weaned my son when he was just short of 6 months old and started him off on the cereal mixes and things that didn't have lumps and then progressed to the more complex foods/recipes over time, although I was flipping terrified of him choking as he used to be a nightmare for digesting stuff properly!! I think everyone has different ways of doing it, my brother used to horrify me with the things he let his kids have when they were little, he didn't get hung up on it or worry but just let them try stuff for themselves and to be fair it worked for them.

I weaned both of my children at 6 months and from the word go they had more or less normal family food. I mushed up some bits and left other whole for them to chew on, spoon fed somethings and let them feed themselves others. They both have fussy periods and definitely have favourite foods but I cook them something nice and leave them to get on with it- it's largely up to them if they eat it or not! I sometimes give them pudding, but mostly not and they don't have to eat all of their mains to get it. I would hate for food to be a battle ground!

I started weaning my DS at 6 months on finger food and BLW, usually involving something we were having for dinner as that made it easy and a relatively stress free experience.

Just starting to wean my baby, most of it goes on the floor - she likes to get her hands right in it.

I started about 5.5 months with both of my kids.

They both took to it with no problems.

I started with puréed food but added in finger food fairly quickly and stuck to that mix throughout.

My eldest is a bit fussy now but I tend to make things that I know that she will eat to help with this.

This baby led feeding had me a bit sceptical as it wasn't around when I had my eldest but it has been the way to go and I now have a toddler who will have a try of any kind of food and likes almost all of it.

Starting weaning just before 6 months... used both finger foods and purees to start. Occasionally meals can become a battlefield but my son will usually eat ok with encouragement. Not as fussy as my daughter was and loves peppers!! I used to have to sneak these in sauces with my daughter (still do at age 6!) Not really experienced any comments from family members, they are impressed he likes his veggies though!!

My eldest "baby" is 23 & she was given baby rice at 11 weeks old on the advice of my Heath visitor. In those days, weaning at 3 months old was the suggested thing to do. Obviously, since then, "they've" now decided that 6 months is the way forward. I'm not entirely sure why, but there you go. My 8 year old twins were both weaned at 4 months & guess what?? All 3 of them are still alive!!!
My advice?? You know your baby... Go with your intuition. It really pays to listen to it. Yes, take advice & go with recommendations, but don't get caught up in what other mums are doing & saying. Trust in your own ability & instinct & tell yourself; I'm doing okay...

I started weaning my baby girl who is my first child at six months. Ella was the only thing she loved for months and it had to be soft. She is now just over a year and still lives to be spoon fed but will also feed herself. She now loves everything and anything and loves healthy food which is bonus.