When did you introduce pasta?

[lisbapalea]

I am weaning 6mth old DD2 and keen to avoid the mistakes I made with DD1 (overly neurotic, worried about how much she ate at every meal etc etc, resulting in a fussy child - STILL!).

So far after 2-3 wks of playing about DD2 is pretty keen on most things, and is on 3 'meals' a day. These are usually:

Breakfast - half a weetabix or porridge with cows milk
Lunch - a veg based puree (favourite is avocado and squash)
Dinner - fruit based puree, maybe mixed with yogurt

I also try and give some kind of finger food at each meal, but she's a bit cack handed so that usually gets dropped and ignored! Last night she sort of choked on a rice cake but we all got over it...

Anyway, we're off on a self catering holiday in about 3 wks time, so I am keen to get her used to proper meal flavours before we go, so that we can all eat the same stuff when away. Am thinking of aiming for chicken casserole, fish and sweetcorn chowder and spaghetti and meatballs etc. I have just made a batch of hidden veg tomato sauce which I think I will give in combination with something like squash puree to get her used to it.

So my basic question is when to introduce pasta to the sauce - I have some of those tiny stars which I thought I could cook up and add in to begin with, and then just mash up full sized pasta in a couple of weeks.

Any other family favourite recipes that go down with early weaners would be great!

Just realised that that whole post sounds like I am still overly neurotic!

I promise I am more relaxed this time, but DD1 didn't like pasta until she was 3yrs old, so I am determined to get it right this time as it's such a foolproof family food (in my opinion!)

I used those tiny stars from very early, with a milk and cheese sauce - they loved it.

Thanks nigellasdealer - I will get over myself and bite the bullet sooner rather than later then!

We gave pasta when DS was 6 months. He had adult pasta eg spirals, as finger food (BLW as he was a spoon refuser)

We gave DS fusilli pasta (spiral shapes) at 6 months as it's easy for them to pick up on their hands! I'd really recommending getting a copy of The Baby Led Weaning Cookbook by Gill Rapley, it have me a lot of confidence with what I could/couldn't give to DS.

Even if you'd rather not do baby led weaning you can still use the recipes and mash them up.

Thanks all - the tomato sauce was a big hit at lunchtime today so I will try it with baby pasta in the next day or so, and have added fusili to my shopping list to try after that!

I am definitely happy to mix BLW with spoon feeding, but as she is a bit crap at holding food and getting it anywhere near her mouth at the moment, I am focusing on spoon stuff for the time being. I'll dig out my copy of that BLW book as I do have it somewhere from weaning DD1....

Have you tried the little Annabel Karmel pasta or the cute Hello Kitty pasta?? That normally goes down well with tomato sauce.

www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-151663-Hello+Kitty+Organic+pasta+shapes

www.waitrose.com/shop/HeaderSearchCmd?searchTerm=annabel+karmel&defaultSearch=GR&search=

I had some of that tiny pasta that you put in soups in the cupboard, so I was super excited when we started weaning that the baby could have "baby pasta"! But it was too much of a faff to cook different pasta just for the baby and just squish big pasta into bits now. My baby doesn't much like tomato sauce (think it's the onions and he's just going to have to get used to it), but I've just discovered that if I put cheese / white sauce on anything he'll eat it. Once your dd can start feeding herself I'd definitely let her - I found long sleeved bibs and being able to stand back and watch have stopped me being so

Ah thanks! Yes I am very keen for her to be feeding herself so she's not as dependent on the spoon stuff - currently she just gives up when she drops something though, but she loves it when I hold up a proper piece of food to her mouth so she can suck / chew / dribble on it!

Current favourites for that are strawberries, although she enjoyed the crust from DD1's homemade wholemeal pizza that she bought back from preschool but declared 'disgusting' (she may have had a point, but DD2 didn't seem to mind it!).

Little pasta stars were a big fail! They were obviously too small for her to really notice and 'chew', so she gagged and then threw up the contents of her stomach over the wooden kitch table - nice!

I think full size pasta that she can gnaw from her hand (when she can be bothered to hold it) will be the way forward.

She did like the cous cous that I gave her from my own plate though, so I think I will give her that again today, with some broccoli mush.

It's all a big fat game of trial and error isn't it?!

I used the tiny stars almost straight away in a cheese sauce and then regular shapes as finger food also pretty much straight away. Not spaghetti though, mine had a tendency to suck it up in one strand and then it would get stuck in their throat.

I used the tiny stars from the second week of weaning (6m) with a tomato and butternut squash sauce (AK book) His fave recipe is 'tasty salmon' (sautéed tomatoes, cooked carrots, cheese and salmon. I know she's marmite on here but I find Annabel Karmels 'Weaning' book brilliant, he loves all her recipes and I've tried it all myself and found it delicious!

Did pasta from the start, the spirals or bows are good as they can hold them, also the little shells good because they tend to "scoop" the sauce inside helping them eat more of it. Tiny pasta shells cooked with frozen peas and cream cheese stirred in is a nice quick easy meal.

Spaghetti is really easy for babies to pick up. And lots of fun. In terms of her food handling, you might find it comes on in leaps and bounds - our 6m old is so much more dexterous than just a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks everyone - you're helping to build my confidence back up! I think she is really changing in terms of holding stuff, so will be a bit braver this week I think!