Q&A about weaning with Annabel Karmel - ANSWERS BACK

[LucilleMumsnet]

This week we're running a Q&A about weaning with Annabel Karmel MBE. Mother of three Annabel is the UK's leading children's cookery author. In her latest book, Quick and Easy Weaning, she takes the stress out of your baby's transition to solid food, guiding you through the weaning process step-by-step, from your baby's very first purée to introducing more complex flavours and textures.

Post your questions about weaning to Annabel before 10am on Friday 20 June and we'll send over a selection and post up her answers on Monday 30 June.

This Q&A is sponsored by Ebury Publishing.

Is your disapproval and concern about baby led weaning rooted in the fact that parents who take this approach to weaning won't need to buy your purée based cook books, equipment and ready meals?

Why should people buy your products (or any other, such as Heinz baby jars) as opposed to buying fresh fruit and veg and making their own purees? As you know, it is fairly straight-forward, cheap and nutritionally sound to blitz fresh fruit and veg and freeze what you have left over.

I know on your website you do have recipes for parents- I know from a business point of view it makes sense to release a range, but please explain why people buy your stuff when it is oh-so-easy to do at home. If you really cared about kids and parents you would be promoting this.

Hi Annabel. I found the complete baby and toddler meal planner really useful when weaning ds1 (now 3) and a few recipes have made it into my long term stand by family meals.

I especially liked the meal plans by age group. I used them as a general guide of how to phase in food and where to include milk feeds.

I'll be using your book again soon when weaning ds2 (20weeks old). What does your new book offer to parents who are more experienced at weaning?

My DS is 7 months old, is it best to be giving savoury dinners in the evening or a multigrain porridge type mix that is supposed to be more sustaining overnight? I am currently introducing new foods at lunch time as that in our main family meal.

Hmmmm. AK are you a fan of mumsnet?

What are the advantages of puréeing everything rather than just giving your baby normal foods in finger-sized portions?

OTW I would have thought

My dd1 was purée weaned using your book at 4 months, as per guidelines. She's an incredibly fussy 14yo.

Dd2 was BLW at 6 months and eats everything!

A link?

Have you actually tested your recipes as quite a few don't work and saying a baby needs 2 ice cubes of food when they need 7-8 is a way to make a mum worry her baby was greedy and would end up fat?

Just to counter some of the negative (and rude!) comments on here, I used Annabel's complete baby/toddler book to wean DS and he really enjoyed the meals and eats really well. I now use several of the recipes from the toddler finger food book and they're great. The chicken nuggets and fish fingers in particular are great and I now use the rice crispie coating for DH and myself.

Whilst I do batch cook and freeze portions of DS food, I also appreciate AK's ready meal range for those days when I am too tired to cook. DS enjoys them. Not everyone has time to just whizz up a freshly prepared meal.

Hi,I've found your books really useful so far as a FTM with no idea about weaning! my baby is just nine months and I am just starting to introduce finger foods. She's happy to chew pieces of food if I put it in her mouth for her so I know she's ok with the texture, but she won't put them in her mouth herself and just plays with it! I'm assuming she'll get there but in the meantime, Isn't really eating when I give her finger food. I know she's hungry as she'll eat a yoghurt etc after. How long should it take to grasp this?

I concede her book was a great help in my first nanny job when I had no clue but the fact remains some of her recipes do not work.

Weegiemum ds1 was weaned on purées and eats everything in sight.

Good luck finding a selection of suitable questions

My ds is 12m and was doing well with weaning until 9m when he got a bad case of gastroenteritis. We have now regressed with weaning and he won't eat much lumps. He is still only eating purees. How long can this regression take, and do you have any tips other than to keep trying more lumps and finger foods?

What Stampy said....

I have to say I am shocked by some peoples comments on here. If you don't like her suggestions just don't do them or even pick up the books! For us we love them. Our whole NCT group have her books.

We started weaning 3 weeks ago at 5 months. I am still a little unsure on how much I should be giving him as he is a 20lb baby, fed on breast milk and I just can't fill him. I don't want him to get fat. The jars you can buy seem to have a lot more food in than what I am giving my little boy.

Also how do I know he is ready for finger foods and giving him three meals a day? how do I know when I should be dropping milk feeds?

I batch make and freeze potions which is great as I don't have to worry about where his food is coming from on a daily basis.

Which foods are good for helping him with constipation?

We have tried all your first stage recipes so far, looking forward to the next stage. We now have fruit for breakfast and veggies for lunch. The only thing he hasn't liked so far is avocado.

SweetPea - we had to start again with purees with our dd when she was about 9 months and just pretended it was our first time on food. We just took it steady and she was soon back where she had been. To be fair, I don't remember the problem being she was ill but I just wanted to say try not to worry. He will be eating normally again soon.

Tabby iirc milk should stay the same. The food is as well as, not instead of when the baby is so young.

What a your most popular sauces for babies? I use passatta and a basic cheese sauce but would love new suggestions. Thank You.

Also my baby has been weighed recently and has moved from the 75 percentile to 91 for weight. Should I change his meals or just decrease bottles? Thanks

I weaned DD (now 2.2) and DS (9 months) in exactly the same way following guidance in your books. DS will eat everything and loves his grub. DD not so much . She will eat a handful of homemade meals spag Bol, chilli & rice, cottage pie, chicken casserole, stew. And is great at eating beige food (toast, crisps, breadsticks etc). My main problem is I cannot get her to try anything new, she is a nightmare and nursery are having a terrible time trying to get her to eat. I would love her to eat fresh fruit (she will chug down fruit pouches no probs). She is also stubborn when it comes to feeding herself, but I generally give in and feed her, as left to her own devices she wouldn't eat a thing! So I guess I'm looking for tips for a fussy toddler, I am saddened everytime I try her with something new as I feel she's missing out on such great tastes! Any suggestions welcome.

Tabby, don't be shocked . Annabel Karmel promotes herself as a weaning and baby expert, so it's fair enough that other people have the opportunity to question and challenge her. Especially when she is actively seeking questions from a general parenting forum.

Do you still believe that BLW is inherently dangerous and that giving babies 'normal food' could cause a lot of cases of choking?

I remember hearing a debate between you and Gill Rapley where you claimed that BLW could cause babies to choke on foods such as lychee stones - surely you know that BLW does not actually mean "handing over smooth round foodstuffs and then leaving the room"

Queen - is that what she said?

I did BLW with both DDs (4 and 2 now). They can both hand me clean cherry/lychee/olive stones when they have such things, and I believe that BLW helped with learning about textures and testing their limits.