Can anyone answer my weaning questions?

[jinglesticks]

Hi, I have just started weaning at 6 months and have some questions - can anyone help?

1. can you over-feed a baby? My dd loves shovelling food into her face - either fingerfood or feeding herself with a spoon. I don't know if I should stop her when she's had a certain ammount.
2. Can i feed her strong flavours like garlic, red wine sauce etc?
3. When are babies allowed spicy food?

Posibbly silly questions, but I'd really appreciate some answers.

Thanks

1. If she's feeding herself, then prob not. Possibly a good approach is to keep to a reasonable portion of meat/carbs/fruit/sweet stuff, but allow unlimited veg
2. Yes - and loads of babies love strong flavours
3. Whenever you like

Yes, what CMOT said. Good answers

ditto

1. If baby feeds self, I'd be surprised if they did overeat (if they start being sick, then maybe reduce quantity available).

2.We fed DC a version of whatever we're eating (within reason) - so garlic, spices, herbs etc. Home-made wine sauces burn off the alcohol as they cook, so you don't need to worry about that (I can't comment on shop-bought as I haven't tried them). I imagine you already know that salt needs to be low.

1. DC ate a lot of dahl (and still does given half a chance!), so you should be fine to give your child spicy things, although chilli or v.peppery flavours might be difficult - that might depend on the child. I know DC adores anything spicy/flavoursome, but she won't go for anything 'hot' as it were - I'll be glad when I can put the chillies back in!

If you'd like to try the dahl recipe, we found a particularly easy one in Lizzie Vann's 'Baby & Toddler Cookbook'. We found her recipe quantities easier than Annabel Karmel's - found a copy in the library and loved it so much, I bought one.

Thanks - I really want to feed her what we are eating but was worried that meant bland food for 6 months and the only thing i could think of was shepherds pie! Bring on the dahl!

She hasn't made herself sick with eating, but I worry that she's chomping away because it soothes her gums rather than because she's hungry, so I'll give her lots of carrot and cucumber so it doesn't matter too much if she's greedy.

Thanks a lot

Also agree with CMOT.
IME some days they will eat more than you think possible and other days they will eat hardly anything. So don't worry about how much she eats - she will be fine.

Just wanted to correct an earlier poster - it's a myth that cooking food burns off alcohol content. Unless you cook something for hours and hours, some alcohol will remain. So IMO it's worth being careful with alcohol based sauces

www.ochef.com/165.htm
fdrrecipes.com/magazine/new-deal/188-alcohol-burns-off-during-cooking.html