started with fruit and vegetable puree, now what?

[Hazelraphael]

Have been EBF DD and she hit 6mo 2 weeks ago. In the last two weeks, after her 12noon breastfeed, I've been giving her tastes of vegetable and fruit purees. So far, so fine.

I haven't read much about weaning. She's getting hungrier, and, actually, the purees have started throwing the BF-ing into turmoil too.

What should I be doing now? She wants more food. I can fill her up with breast milk, but that's means extra feeds a day, which completely throws a well established routine of BFs into disarray. She gets so hungry now she could BF every 2 hours. I found breast feeding difficult to establish and worked very hard at it and now with her breast feeding on demand again I'm finding it hard again and I can't plan my day at all. I am glued to her.

Do I just give her larger amounts of pureed vegetable and fruit instead of BF-ing every time she's hungry? I have been reading articles on weaning and the way I understand them they are saying I can now just hand her cooked broccoli and carrot batons and expect her to eat them whole? To bite them with her lips? And swallow little chunks of them?

I feel lost. How much solid food should she be having? She's hungry. So what do I give her? Also, should I be giving her water?

You can add in finger foods - they use their hard gums to bite bits off. You can also add in protein (fish, meat, cheese,etc) and also carbs like pasta,rice, bread, etc

No need to boil water for drinking once they are 6 months either

You can give pretty much anything bar whole nuts and honey. They are surprisingly adept at chewing food without teeth!

My dd is 10 months and now she is going from her 11am breast feed through to 7pm. It took a while for her to really start getting full from solids and there was a period where it seemed like I was breastfeeding her more again. One day it was like it all clicked and she eating away.

I offer water a lot throughout the day.

Food wise, yes cut up chunks of fruit, veg, toast etc. It might take a while for her to get the hang of it but she will.

I also do things I can spoon feed like mashed potato or sweet potato with a combination of veg stirred in like sweet corn, grated carrot, spinach, tomato and some herbs. I fry this up. Also pasta with a homemade tomato sauce with celery, carrot and pepper in. Natural youghurt mixed with fruit is also good (dd loves it with strawberry).

I sometimes heat the fruit a bit to soften it and store little pots in the freezer which j defrost when needed and then add the yoghurt to it.

Toast with diff toppings - cheese, mashed avacado, mashed tomato.

Roasted veg - parsnip, sweet potato, broccoli, asparagus.

Just keep offering different things, see what your dd enjoys. She might not like something one day but then eat it the next. It's all so new, a lot of it is learning about the diff tastes and textures. As for amounts, I think start giving slightly larger amounts 2 or 3 times a day and just follow her lead.

And like I said keep offering water throughout the day. My dd wouldn't drink at first but then I found a cup she liked and if she saw me drink from it she got excited and wanted to do it too. Now she goes and picks it up herself, she loves it.

I'm now bottle feeding but have just started weaning DS in the last few weeks.

When he wakes up we go down stairs and I make up a bottle. Then make baby porridge using some of the formula. He has that and then the rest of his bottle. At about 10 ish I offer finger food. Rice cakes, cut up peppers, slices banana etc and let him have that and as much of his usual bottle as he wants. 1.30ish soup or pureed veg or similar. Butternut squash was a big hit today and again offer his usual bottle but he'll usually only have a small amount. Finger food again at about 3.30 and offer a bottle too. 5.30ish blitz a portion of whatever we are having for dinner (so no added salt when cooking). Sometimes no need to blitz if we are having potatoes and veg I just mash it all up and let him have say a bit of our fish as finger food. I try to offer finger food with every meal for him to handle and suck/naw on. Then final bottle at bed time at about 6.30/7 ish.

The amount of milk he is having during the day is starting to decrease but first thing and last thing they still get demolished.

Make you favourite food. Pop your baby on your lap while you eat. Et voilà

Don't feel lost

There are basically three weaning routes to take: puree only, letting the baby feed themselves non pureed food only (baby led weaning / BLW), or a mix.

Most people do both, I'd say.

The advantage of puree is (if your baby likes it) you can get more food into a hungry baby. BLW is fab for many reasons - they can exercise their natural independence, choose what they're interested in, practise motor skills, and learn to chew and swallow. And they love to play! and learn about the textures, colours and tastes. But learning to get food to their mouth, munch it up (lips and gums are more than adequate for many foods) and swallow it in any appreciable volume takes some time. My DD was more than happy with this until she was ten months (when she properly worked out swallowing), but it sounds as though your DD wants to crack on. So I would give her bigger amounts of puree and see if she wants to eat more. You can puree pretty much anything! just watch the salt. You can also give her naturally mushy foods (e.g. weetabix smooshed up with a little whole milk, breastmilk or water).

The disadvantage of puree is you're not teaching them to chew or swallow non-pureed food. So you go through another process in a few months, where you introduce gradually bigger and bigger lumps and get them to do it that way. The fact is, at some point your baby has to learn to chew chunks of food, when she's a baby, and she's absolutely capable of doing it now. So don't be afraid of giving her chunks of food. Babies are very good at gagging, and not choking. Just avoid slippery round foods that would easily get lodged in the throat (grapes and cherry tomatoes).

Put her in her highchair when she's not tired, and not hungry, and give her some food to experiment with. Think of it as play and try to give her a range of textures, colours and tastes. Ripe fruits (skin on to help her grip), roasted veggies, buttered crumpets, strips of omelette, veggies cooked in butter are all good things to try. Stay close by, sit and talk to her and make encouraging noises and smile, and if she gags, stay calm and trust her to spit the food out. If you're really worried about it, watch a baby first aid video on choking so that you feel confident about spotting the signs and what to do if she really does choke. (But this really is rare).

Seeing this as play really helped me to be patient and to enjoy it a bit more.