Weaning: let's share our stories/recipies/trials and tribulations!

[rebelwithoutababy]

Dear all, we're just getting going with weaning our little one (nearly 7 months now, started when she was 6 mo) and it's an emotional journey for all of us! Thought it might be good to share the journey with other MNetters: what foods/recipies have worked well, what hasn't, where you are with BLW vs. mush, what happens to the milk, and how clean is your house!?
We're doing finger foods and a bit of mush, and the latest success story is Annabel K's chicken with sweet potato and apple (which DH liked too!!)...sharing's caring everyone!!

We've ben at it for just over a week, dd turned 6 months on Friday. Yep, she's an 11.11.11 baby.

Unlike Ds, where I was Annable K, I think I'm kind of going the BLWish route.

So far we've done apple, banana, rice cake, bread, carrots, sweet potato, broccoli, cucumber, strawberry.

Had a week of baby porridge and have switched to normal porridge and water after dd exhibiting signs of allergic reaction. Shit. My big problem though, is that she appears to be a spoon refuser. If I load spoon and leave it on the table, the spoon goes in with some porrodge on it. If I try to feed her, we have refusal and crying. I am completely flummoxed, as ds was a greedy little bugger.

Hi. I started weaning dd2 4 wks ago at 23 weeks. We're traditional weaning and all going brilliantly except dd2 hates porridge and I also made Annabel K's chicken with apple, which dd2 hated :(. Think it was the texture though rather than the flavour. dd2 loves really smooth purees (ella's), yogurts, rice cakes, cream cheese, organic carrot puffs and toast. Am going to make Annabel K's lovely lentils tomorrow and hopefully they'll blend really smooth and be a hit :).

Thought seriously about doing BLW this time, but as traditional weaning worked so well with dd1 (though she refused spoon from about 8/9 months till now - 3.4 yrs) thought we'd stick with what I know! Playing it safe I know but less stressful for me (dd1 autistic).

Hello! My dd is 8 months now, have been doing BLWish - I spoon fed her porridge and fruit purées to begin with but she won't let me anymore and insists on holding the spoon herself. Finding the whole thing a bit stressful actually - am a crap cook with a crap diet but obviously really want dd to eat well, find it hard to think of things to give her and worry she eats the same stuff too often. Not helped by a blooming dairy allergy! She is loving food although it's still more of a plaything I think. Favourites are houmous and pitta and satsumas!

Hi all, Thanks for sharing! We started just over a month ago now, and what with colds, mysterious vomiting bug (ending up in A+E visit!), and me going back to work 3 days (DD at nursery) we made v little progress for the first month! We seemed to be going 2 steps back for every one forwards. I initially wanted to do BLW, but with nursery and return to work, it just started to feel impractical, so we did Annabel K/Gina Ford (don't shoot me: I just had no idea how to wean a baby, so read everything I could!), but DD also started to reject the spoon, so, since she was all but 6 months, we started doing more finger foods, and (touch wood) success!! I think she was just finding it boring and frustrating, and she is a little madam so I don't think she liked not being in control! She has now enjoyed chicken and apple/sweet pot (AK recipie) and lots of fruit and veg (even broccoli!!) and likes cucumber and carrot sticks (I lightly steam the carrot so its a bit softer) and loves rice cakes and breadsticks and strawberries! She also loves yoghurt: we got the Plum ones, and also the Rachel's My First Yoghurt. She is chomping down on the spoon now, and then happily knawing away at other stuff in between! I am going to try a different chicken recipie (with apricots, another AK) this week, and also think I might give her some of the bolognese sauce me and DH are having later in week. Will report back on how that goes.
I think there are always going to be good and bad days, though, and one book I read said not to worry too much about how much they have each day, more the average over the week - they are little people after all!
Our main problem now is that she isn't a big fan of breakfast at home (although she loves it at nursery!) and so she wants her lunch at 11am! Any tips greatfully recieved! Also, how much are your babies having milk-wise?
xxx

I'd probably go with the 11am lunch, then give a snack in the afternoon before tea. I can't remember what I did with ds, but because he has regular meal times, dd falls in line.

I'd love to give yoghurts, but until I figure out whether dd defintely has a milk allergy, we're not even going there. Shame, she loved cheese on sunday - but it made her bright red.

I keep reminding myself that they don't actually need food until 1 year old, so it's all just playing. I'm still giving as many milk feeds as dd wants and am slightly panicking at going back to work in under 4 months, as I can't remember how the hell I reduced ds' feeds. SHe tends to go 8, 1130, 1, 430,630, 11,2,5. Probably the odd one in btween.

It's odd doing the BLW, because I can't guage how much food she's getting - when I weaned Ds, it was all about the ice cube tray! But then, judging by dd's behaviour with porridge, there's no way she's eat anything else from a spoon.

Hi Rebel. Dd2 is BF and feeds mid morning, mid afternoon, bedtime, then 3/4 times during the night! Tried to switch to FF but dd2 often prefers nothing rather than drink formula (think she may not be keen on milk as all cereal offered mixed with milk has been vehemently rejected). She is really enjoying sips of water from her sippy cup however so eventually we may just have no milk.

When weaning dd1, breakfast was the last meal that we established. Think she may have been 8 months or so before she ate much at breakfast. I reduced size of bottle offered at wakening to 4fl oz and usually waited an hour till eating.

Never got round to making AK's lovely lentils yet but hope to soon as feel bit naughty buying ready made baby food . Also have odd worry that we're already on three meals a day ( but promise you dd2 shouting for food if not given when she wants it).

So exciting watching dd2 sitting so well playing with toys and when she grins seeing her 2 teeth .

seaweed, what is it with all these bloody night feeds? I've tried feeding dd more during the day, but still, night time it is.

Last night she fed every 1-1-5 hours. It was ridiculous. How she didn't explode, I don't know. I blame chicken pox, but it'll be teeth again soon.

Astr0naut we have nights like that too! Usually reach out to cuddle dd2 after one of those nights to find nappy has leaked through everything to my sheets! Solids def made no difference to night feeding, but did give a definite pattern to daytime. Am almost resigned to indefinite night waking and possibly BF till 12 months. I know plenty of mums do this but have to say I never thought I would. Dd1 was on formula by 5.5 months and think she was also sleeping through too by then!

My motherly guilt is back upon me regarding dd2's (7.5months) weaning. She has a milk allergy (on special formula) and all the things ds enjoyed I can't give her (I think he lived on Petit Filous and my creamy tuna bake).

I fully intended to make all the lovely Annabel Karmel stuff but the book has sat on my recipe stand in the kitchen since the 6 month mark - mostly due to the fact that after my first attempts at feeding dd with a spoon, it ended in her having massive paddies and clamping her mouth shut, as well as the fact I have a 'challenging' toddler rampaging around the house so am knackered ALL the time. Anyway, after an enlightening trip to Ikea with dd2 grabbing handfuls of the root vegetable strings on their gravadlax plate, I surmised the blw thing might be the way to go. She greedily eyes up all manner of dry carbs, flicks around the more slippery steamed veggies and fruit and occasionally eats an amount I'm happy with. I also think some of this is to do with her teething symptoms. She tried to eat my chin today.

What is it with thses babies and their dairy allergies? I'm holding fire until the pox has gone and I can talk to a HV about it. However, margerine doesn't cause any distress, neither does adding three spoonfuls of milk to porridge. Must be the quantities.

I feel like I'm doing this all quite randomly this time. I remember actually writing a list of Ds' meals at 8 months to shoe the hv, as I wasn't sure he was eating all the right things (we're veggie, so I worried about protein and stuff.) Ds, naturally, ahd a fabulous and varied diet...

....until the age of 2.

He will now eat nothing but shreddies, cheese/peanut butter sandwiches, carrots, peas, prawns. Fish fingers and veggie sausages are either the greatest food on the planet or poison, depending on his mood. Pasta had a brief resurgance, but is now listed under 'poison' again. I could weep when I think of the stuff he used to eat, and I think that's made me more relaxed about dd because what's the point.

I know what you mean astronaut

Ds1 was eating things like skate and caper butter, rabbit stew, dolmades and all manner of really lovely, varied stuff. Now it seems he will only eat anything remotely different if it's got tomato sauce all over it, and even then he licks the sauce off to leave most of the rest. And here was I all smug a few months ago about the boy who would favour cucumber over chips and blueberries over chocolate.

About these dairy allergies, I don't know why it seems more common now. Maybe it isn't, just better diagnosed maybe? Weirdly, when I was pg with dd2 (who has the allergy) I developed an intolerance to some dairy- yoghurt makes my lips itchy and my throat feels swollen. Cheese is the same, sadly. I wonder if that has sonething to do with why dd has got it too?

Last night dd2 had terrible indigestion and tummy ache, probably the worst in her little life . This hasn't happened before during weaning, just the odd slightly restless night. Only difference with yesterday's food was that dd2 had "plum" instead of "Ella's" at breakfast and tea, and the "plum" contains quinoa. Am wondering if this caused problem .

All seems better today, although I deliberately offered plain purée.

Hi all,
I'm really trying to do blw, although am doing some 'mush' (I blend but not to a puree and ds seems fine with it).

However, I'm struggling to think of meals that we can have which ds can also share. I think he's getting bored with sticks of veg as he ends up pushing them round the tray and onto the table. He really likes chicken, cucumber and toast - but they are somewhat limited for dinner options!
Quite a bit ends up on the table/floor as he throws his arms around and lets go! (Damn that cream carpet choice!!) I'm not sure exactly how much he gets down but isn't that the point of blw?

Offered dd2 steamed potato and parsnip for her tea tonight. Not successful at all. Choked on potato so switched to purée!

However dd was very tired so may try again next week as I know she likes feeding herself but neither of us like the gagging/choking .