Please help me get organised with weaning...your best tips!

[Peanutbutternutter419]

So ive been weaning ds for a couple of weeks now, just offering little bits of food here and there. Mostly homemade veg and fruit, baby rice and porridge which had gone really well and i think ds would be happyto have more.

However i am all over the place with preparation etc and it seems to take forever to prepare a little bowl of food so i need your best tips for making things easier!

I have bought some tiny pots to freeze pprtions as i had made a big batch of veg and froze it all tpgether so ds couldnt have more than 2 portions out of the whole lot! Rookie mistake!

Also how do you have cooled boiled water at the ready as it takes forever to cool it down and im making sure he has a fresh bottle morning and aftenoon.

Thanks

Personally, I wouldn't purée. Takes forever and not needed. Just steam any veg ie a carrot stick and give to him to hold and eat himself. Half a banana give him to hold and suck.

Otherwise he can eat anything you eat as long as no salt. If you out there's always something they can have. Ie out with friends 8 month old this lunch in pret. He munched some crusts from bread, melon and pineapple slices and had some natural yogurt. that's fine for a baby that age, carbs in bread, fats from yogurt and fruit. Gets main nutrition still from milk. This eve at ours he has eaten a new potato, broccoli, cauliflower and some salmon. Veg and potato he helped himself to and nibbled/ ate, salmon we gave on our fork.

Then you can spend all that small pot blending/ purée time having a glass of wine and playing with baby instead :)

Read up on BLW (the book by Gill Rapley is excellent). I found it so liberating not having to do purees. Then all you need is an easy-to-clean highchair (ikea's Antilop) and a clean, wipeable mat for the floor - so anything baby drops can be handed back to them.

It is messy - I used to feed DS just in a nappy to save on washing

Agree with lurcherlove and forevergreek - don't get hung up purée

Read up BLW (just google it and loads of info comes up). It might not be for you but it will give you a better idea of what it's about.

You can mush your own food up if you eat a healthy balanced diet (and BLW isn't for you) or you can do what FG said and give whatever your having.

Long bibs from Pound shops, mat for floor (or old/cheap shower curtain) and Antilope Ikea highchair were my only purchases for weaning.

Have fun with it and take lots of pictures!

Are you using the cooled water for the preparation of formula? Are you in the uk?

Agree with the others, our dd just ate what we were having, takes much less time and makes you eat healthily too. Why not try something like ready bek and chopped banana, blueberry pancakes or crumpets with butter for breakfast?

Best thing to do is let dc eat what you eat. That way there's no extra preparation and you can all eat together

I started with purees, these were often from our main meal but put aside before adding seasoning and pureed.

Or I would cooked veggies then freeze or keep in the fridge for a couple of days.

After a few weeks I started adding meat, cheese, fish or pulses to the purees to make it more of a meal. Often it was just something we were all having but slightly modified!

I also offered finger foods from around 7 months, but mine weren't to keen on them to start with, and slowly added texture to their purees (with little pasta shapes cooked in watery veg puree for example).

By 11 months they were mostly eating what we were eating!

Re cooled waterd I just used it from the kettle.

If your ds is over 6 months he is fine to have tap water- I was told this by a dr and a health visitor. I do both purees and for finger food. For purees I might use some leftover cooked veg that we have had the night before and puree using hand blender, add bit of grated cheese and microwave. This is a really quick meal. Other quick meals are mashed avocado with some tinned tuna, or microwaved jacket potato scooping out inside and mashing with cream cheese. Once a week though after ds is in bed I do a batch cook of a couple of annabel karmel recipes and freeze them in ice cube trays for when needed- ds is almost 8 months and will have 5 or 6 cubes.