Share your 'weaning for beginners tips' with Lidl to win vouchers NOW CLOSED

[EmmaMumsnet]

Lidl would love to produce the ultimate 'honest mum's guide' to all things weaning, and need the help of the wise MNers who have been there and done that (and got the splattered t-shirt to prove it!).

Please share your trials and tribulations when it came to weaning your baby onto solid food – your favourite recipes for each stage of the weaning process, feeding tips and any shopping essentials.

"Lidl are very proud of their great range of fresh, quality and affordable products that are ideal for homemade weaning recipes. Their Fun-Size fruit and veg range (with Cauliflower Clouds to name just one!)) are a great way of getting your Kids into new snacks. They also stock their own organic baby food pouches, Lidl’Uns, which come in a variety of flavours – perfect for meals on the go, or even adding into other recipes!"

Whether you are weaning your first baby or are an old hand, please share your tried and tested recipes, and top dos and don'ts, favourite Lidl products, and any tips to help make weaning a breeze. Everyone who posts below will be entered into a prize draw where 5 winners will each get £50 to spend in Lidl.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

Standard insight Ts&Cs apply

ps. always expect the radius of mess to be larger than it should reasonably be.

Food as play was my godsend, so sitting him in a heap of cold cooked spaghetti or with a range of cut up fruit or veg - carrot, apple etc. Our HV recommended getting them acquired to the taste of veg before fruit because fruit is sweeter so they won't go for veg if they've already tried fruit.

Blend with their usual milk, and use more milk than veg/fruit/porridge at first. Once they start to get used to the new taste and texture, add less milk after each day or so.

Start with blander foods too, don't go for tomato or mango on their first try of real food!

First favourite flavours were: banana, pear, sweet potato

My second child mind you, decide to do baby led weaning, so he went from boob, straight to sticks of cheese and cucumber from his brothers plate!!

We started quite plain and simple and added different flavours one step at a time. I tried to make batches of puree in advance but as I went back to work and life started getting in the way I learned to stress less and that pouches are fine to a certain extent...Top tip - buy lots of ice cube trays rather than the branded baby freezer trays...they work just as well

Def baby led weaning my
Little boy started on things like mini crackers and cheese and would try anything he was given especially
As he usually had what we had made him feel like he was not missing out didn't have to mess around win jars or purée as he wouldn't eat them but if he was given chopped up fruit veg pasta he would try everything

Frozen veg is great for baby led weaning! Just defrost 2 or 3 carrot sticks, broccoli stems, etc.

You can make homemade ice lollies with natural yoghurt and mashed banana l- great for teething gums.

Let your baby lead the way. Don't make it stressful, you and baby both need to be ready. And if your baby isn't interested then wait a little while and try again - mealtimes should be fun.
A great way to engage with your baby when weaning is singing nursery songs. I found this helped to keep her interest in the food and make it up beat.

This one is just a bit of fun:
If you have time remember to write down/film reactions to things they really love/hate, my mum did this with me and it was really fun to look back at my self being weaned!

We did a mix of puree and finger foods. Worked well so I knew they were getting some food in them! Also they don't really get to eating properly until! After a year so don't worry about it

Don't stress over the kind of weening. Baby led, purée, home made, shop bought, finger food, spoon fed. Let your baby experience them all depending on what is convenient for you on any given day.

The freezer is your friend. Make a full batch of pasta and sauce, sugar free muffins, porridge etc and keep some in the freezer for quick meals or for when your planned meal isn't so baby friendly.
Freeze single portions. Bun cases are great for things like porridge: put portions in bun cases in the bun tray, put cling film on top and put the whole thing in the freezer. Once frozen take out and put into freezer bags to keep. Bun cases peel off easily when a portion is needed.

Keep a bag of frozen veg and some frozen fruit in for when you are not organised. Pots of organic puréed fruit (4 for 80p in Lidl) are good to add to porridge, weetabix and yogurt if you don't have fresh in.

We got on really well with BLW. Baby just ate dinner with us and it was so easy.
We did a baby first aid course to help with our confidence.

My children were brought up in the Caribbean where Avocados are used as a weaning food. Apparently it is the perfect food, easily digestible, high in calories and full of nutrition. Lidl always has them in stock.

My second daughter was allergic to cows milk for the first few years of her life and I found most baby foods had cows milk in them so I had to make all her meals from scratch and so used to make them up in batches at the weekend. So she just ate meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and soya milk formula. Of all my 3 children ( first 2 are adults now, 3rd is a teen) she has got the best diet and is the most adventurous in trying new foods and loves her fruit and vegetables, she just doesn't want or crave the naughtier foods sugary drinks, sweets, crisps cakes and the like, she is the slimmest of the 3 and has the best teeth. My other two could have baby food and so I gave them processed stuff and their diets are completely opposite. If I could turn back the clock I would treat all of them as I did No 2 daughter. I also found the 2 on processed babyfood were very difficult and were slow to eat lumpier food, finger foods and anything with any texture.

My main tip is to not panic if baby isn't interested in solids at exactly 6 months. Neither of mine were and I got quite stressed, kept making more and more different things for them to try.

The best thing I did was leave it a few more weeks and both babies were far more interested in food then. They also far preferred finger foods to purées.

Use a sandwich bag as a piping bag to get purée into ice cream trays for freezing. Fill bag snip corner off and squeeze. Then take out what you need portion wise

relax and offer them bits of whatever you're having

Wait until you are both ready! Don't be in a rush to try and wean baby, so many mums think they need to be the first, or that they have to get it over with, but its a slow process, and can be loads of fun and much less stressful if you take off the heat!
Let your gorgeous babe tell you when they are ready to eat! (Ps we knew ours were ready when they couldn't take their eyes off of our grub, and would open their mouths like birds when we ate lol!) xx

Don't listen to other people pressuring you into early weaning- start when your baby's ready.
Be prepared for mess- my LO loves feeding himself but isn't great at getting food in his mouth!

If your dc are enjoying good, healthy tastes, keep it going. Let them eat them and enjoy them for a couple of years. As soon as my ds tried sweets and chips his taste changed and he won't eat anything good from him anymore. Meals are so stressful now.

Don't stress out about the mess, embrace it!
Don't feel guilty about using good quality ready made baby food - they can save loads of time and energy
Don't worry if your baby doesn't eat everything, they'll eat when they are hungry!

Bibs with sleeves, entirely washable highchair, being part of the family mealtime asap, don't faff about mess.

I hate this saying but it's true, be patient, if at first you don't succeed clean up and try, try, try again

My tip - prepare for your kid to like the opposite of what you plan.

First child - wanted to blw, he choked on everything, ended up starting off with purees.

Second child - decided purees etc had been a good start for us, but she refused anything like that and would only have finger food.

Baby led weaning all the way!
Offer one fruit or vegetable to begin with at one meal for three days, then add another. This makes sure of no adverse reactions.

Keep upping the offers of the different fruits & veggies and increase the number of 'meals' per day.

Add carbs, proteins and fats as you go e.g. toast with peanut butter, porridge fingers etc.

They can eat what you're eating as long as no honey under the age of 1, and no salt or refined sugar.

Salt free bread sticks would be a fantastic addition to a baby friendly range!

Solid food is less watery, so it will appear they aren't getting very much. Check the nappies...

"Food is fun until they're 1", and continue to offer breast milk.

Bottled water isn't suitable due to the mineral content, filtered tap is fine

Take it at your own pace. Use real food, not baby food