French weaning - anyone tried it? Tips please!

[FretfulPiglet]

I'm planning to wean DD at 6mo and have heard that French mums add homemade vegetable puree /stock to milk and this helps babies to accept vegetables more readily.
I'm not sure if you are supposed to do this with a spoon or bottle? And how frequently?
Any advice please?

My French aunty weaned my cousins on something called 'flocal (?)' in the 70's. It was a vegetable liquid which replaced milk. My grandmother was scandalised.

My French family now just use Aptamil and jars of food.

Thank you - I hope your cousins love their veg!!

I've found this which seems to advocate the French approach: www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/3625/puree_helps_kids_make_smooth_transition_to_vegetables

Do not feed anything other than milk through a bottle. Isn't this just normal purees?

I think the French tradition has been making up formula with vegetable water. The Leeds study above says that they gave parents the choice of adding puree to milk by bottle or spoon (all were over 6mo so not like adding cereal to a bottle to try to get a young baby to sleep through, which is rightly -imo- frowned upon). Was thinking it might be worth a try!

TBH

Getting children used to vegetables can be done in many different ways. Yes my cousins - now 6ft 3ins strapping 42 year olds - eat a wide range if veg etc but this is also part of a wider French culture of eating vegetables/salad.
My children now they are school age also eat a wide range of veg and salad - but that is simply due to what they are offered at the dinner table.

Anyway - interesting experiment if you do it

I heard French children generally don't have snacks; the focus is on healthy main meals, all together as a family. Anyone else heard this? Or know of any links/references?

cantbelieve here is an interesting article on French children's diets

Our daughter had no trouble eating vegetables when we started weaning her onto food. Didn't faff with bottles, just gave her mushed up vegetables.
Perhaps it was because we did as cantbelieveimonhere has described even though we're not French.

DD just started eating veg and 15 years later she still loves them. Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Steam or roast veg and hand it to baby. They will serve themselves. Job done.

Steam veg, hand it to baby, baby chucks it on the floor and shouts 'BA!' looking pleased with herself

Baby lead weaning a great. The trick is to provide lots of savoury foods to chew on and only give the odd sweet thing ONCE a savoury pallet has been established.

I agree with tandem
Blw has been brilliant for us with both my boys.

Plonk soft veg onto their tray and name it when you do. That way they'll get to know and be familiar with veg (puree is so anonymous).

Avoid sweet foods and focus more on the savoury and harness that instinct for curiosity and exploration. Purees are from the era where we weaned too soon. by 6 months ALL babies should be on some type of lumps.

Next, keep offering veg preferably before their favourite foods ( for ds1 that was the carbs and for ds2 it was the meat) so its like they have courses. A veg course and then the rest.

We NEVER told ours what they should eat. It was entirely up to them, limited to what was on their tray obviously.

This method meamt ds1 learned to like potatoes, carrots, olives, rocket, avocado, which he'd turned his nose up at at first. So ignore any food preferences just keep offering and serve veg as a first course until they've tried it a few times. Dont starve them into submission. If they don't eat it offer the carb or meat but offeitthe rejected food again another time.

Ds2 we managed to get to like tomato, cucumber, cauliflower broccoli.

Now (aged 2.5 and 1) there is no veg thry won't eat and nothing they won't try. ds1 LOVES broccoli beans peas and cucumber. hell ask for seconds of those before finishing the rest. I expect they'll go through a fussy eating stage later but im confident they'll come back to eating variety again if that does happen.

My friend did puree weaning out of choking fears. Misguided because her 17 month old gags anyway. Its inevitable and important learning.

And she is constantly badgering her dd about what to eat or try. We NEVER do the 'have some carrot. No, have sonw carrot' routine. And she has to bring food with her when they go out because she doesn't think her dd will eat what's on offer. My two otoh will eat anything. Vietnamese food, curries, veg, anything. The kids eat what we eat. Other than toning down the chili heat and reducing salt, we've not adapted our food around the kids.

I know I sound smug but this is something I feel I got right. (Whereas my friend got the sleep and napping right)

Many thanks theoriginalwinky, I think the book listed at the bottom of the article is what I've heard of. Must order it; think there is a sale on Amazon today.

Although the obvious challenge would be implementing something which is countercultural, I'm a big believer in children eating "proper meals", being stocked up to be in good form and play/study etc (as is age appropriate) in between meals.

We started weaning our 8 month lo at 6 month. And so far it's generally going well, she is eating pretty much everything she is given. Most things pureed initially (now with some "texture"/soft lumps) on a spoon. After I'm satisfied she has eaten a good amount, I'll give her some finger food to explore/eat. Slowly getting more confident with giving her more "chokeable" foods for finger foods (she is a pfb, can you tell?!)

From my own experience, and hearing the stories of other mums at baby groups etc I'm developing a theory..........................................................................................................................................breast fed babies generally eat a wider variety of food and have a smoother weaning journey, compared to those who were formula fed.

I'm not trying to be controversial, I'm sure there could be some formula fed babies who take to new foods well.
However, it appears to me those babies who have been used to flavours via breastmilk seem to accept pretty much everything. Anyone else found this?

Anecdata from my house cantbelieve would say the opposite (kind of). DD1, mix fed, formula only after 5 months will eat anything. DD2, EBF til 2 years thanks to dairy allergy is a fussy little madam (although does love vegetables especially broccoli and avocado)

Thanks for your ideas and tips everyone. And TheOriginalWinkly's link is great .

Just as a bit of background I did BLW plus purees on toast/rice cakes (etc) for DS1. He likes his veg and proper meals but doesn't like many of the foods he loved as a baby, esp. fruits. He's a picky snacker, so I could do with following the 'French Kids eat everything' advice!
The Leeds research suggests that the French way led to increased consumption of veg, but I think that which ever way you wean if you focus on giving vegetables that is a fantastic start for babies.
Yes HSMMaCM I'm probably over-thinking it all second time round!

How old is your Ds1, Fretful?

My DS1 was weaned on lots of fruit and veg, and especially loved banana up til the age of 1 when he went right off them and wouldn't touch them, except maybe once a year, until he was at least 4. Now he has one every day (he's 7).

I've found they go in fits and starts with fruit and veg; certainly DS2 does. I also found that salad veg wasn't something they would eat until later - 3-4, iirc with Ds1, don't know yet with DS2 as he's still only 2.7 and won't do it - so I left it until later and didn't push it.

Ds1 is currently going through a bit of a "Calvin" stage - pulling faces like he's about to be sick if he's made to try anything new - but in general he's a pretty good eater so I'm not too worried. I'm more worried that DS2 is going to go through a "white food" phase, like a friend's DS4 did from 3-5, and is only just coming out of it now - I would find that hard to deal with.

Son (now 4yo) was formula fed and we did BLW and he ate and still eats a wide range of foods including vegetables. Sample of one I know. I can see the logic that breast milk introduces them to different flavours earlier but I wouldn't assume that a FF child will end up being fussy as it could just become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

With my second (hated hated hated weaning with my first) I just sat her on my knee, and fed her directly from my plate.

I left out salt, mashed things a bit with my fork to start off with, just gave little tastes on the tip of my fork, building up to bigger forkfuls. She never tasted baby food from a jar.

By 8 months, she was using a fork and spoon independently to eat family meals from her own plate. She eats most vegetables, and is not picky at all.

On the other hand, my first, who was a complete nightmare with weaning and basically wouldn't eat anything except raisins and jars of smooth puree until about 14 months, is also a good eater now, not picky either, and eats just as many, if not more types of vegetables as her sister.

So in my experience, it makes no difference in the long run. But being relaxed with my second was certainly less stressful for me.

He's 3.3 Thumb (was EBF then FF) and often constipated (which is impeding potty training) so I'm trying to prevent my DD from experiencing the same - it's so helpful to hear your experience; thank you!

cantbelieve My FF since 6 weeks baby has eaten everything I've put in front of him since 6 months, and it was BLW so he's never been fed puree or been fed from a spoon, he even takes yoghurt spoons off me to feed himself. So it's not an exact science you've got there I think I've been lucky that BLW worked for us though, I wanted to do it and I'm glad he's responded and at 9 months has such a varied diet that he feeds himself. But I don't think its a failing of the parents if children turn out to be picky eaters tbh, apparently I ate all the veg going until 3 years old but then nothing until my teens. I used to actually throw up if my DM made me eat some. What a little cow I was totally not her fault.

Fair point! Every baby is different I guess

The truth is your baby will decide! I had one that had no teeth until she was one and frankly blw would have taken hours - thank god for Ella's kitchen is all I can say. The second one was only interested in finger food and had sharp front teeth (bfeeding ouch!) so could handle almost anything. She is now the fussiest 18 month old eater I have ever met. So if you are being SMUG about Blw then more fool you! You will probably have another, different child who will show you that you and the decisions you think you make have very little to do with it... My sister has three children and they too were all completely different. Just do whatever works and don't beat yourself up about it.

Baby led weaning is a far less complicated way to get the same result IMHO!!

I BLW one child and spoon fed the other. Found BLW much more wasteful and messier and my BLW baby is a much worse eater now, although I don't blame the weaning method. French method sounds interesting.