Eating what we eat...really?!

[MusicMum18]

Hi,
Just been to health visitor today, lo has lost little bit of weight but still ok.
I have been using Annabel Karmel to create lots of varied fruit and veggie purees. For each meal I've been giving lo some fruit or veggie finger food in strips then I give her purée. She wakes every couple of hours in the night for a feed. Health visitor said she needs more now and that I need to give her what we're having.

I just tried this and I had a cheese sandwich for lunch with salad so it felt a bit weird but I gave lo a cheese sandwich. She loved playing with it mashing it up, putting it in her hair etc. but if don't think she consumed much. So I am worried about how this will work? I'm having pie later so do I just give her a slice of pie? It all seems a bit strange, esp as she has no teeth!

I'm also worried about sugar. Just been to supermarket and literally everything seems to have the stuff in! Are there any good baby ranges or yoghurts with less or no sugar in?

My lo is just over 6 months old, is very interested in food, hasn't refused any fruit or veggies yet.

I'm just not convinced about giving her the same as us. I'm worried she won't be able to eat, get fed up with it then go hungry. I've heard I shouldn't feed her and she should do it herself but it's hard not to feed her when I see so little going in her mouth!

Also how much whole milk etc should I give I've just given her some cheese which she looked bemused with when it melted in her mouth before spitting it out. Also with yoghurt I'm never sure if she's hungry for yoghurt or chewing on spoon as she's teething at the mo.

Sorry for panicky message, I'm just a bit overwhelmed and don't know what to do.......

She doesn't need whole milk yet she should still be on formula or breast milk. Food is only really for fun until they're 1. Don't worry about her not eating it. My little one has always eaten what ever I've had, never puréed a thing on my life. They're guns are so hard because the teeth are right underneath so don't worry about her not being able to chew. And she will gag, but that's normal as she's learning to swallow. Also, don't stress so much about sugar and salt. It's really not going to kill them. I try to make most meals from scratch but I do occasionally use jars of sauces. My little one 14 months, will eat absolutely anything and is very healthy.

You are doing it right.
Having babies is weird!
Deep breath and keep going and soon you won't look back.

Who wants to live on just fruit and veg!

Gums *

It is very overwhelming when it comes to weaning

Just keep in mind that their stomach is only as big as their fist, so they really don't need much

AS to sugar, you do realise that it is in yogurt as well as everything else? There isn't much it isn't in these days

I'm assuming with you mentioning milk you aren't BF? (No judgement just wondering) with my 2 DC when we finally swapped to cows milk, we offered as much as they'd had formula and they naturally decreased it as they ate more food

Honestly though, just offer her a little of what you're having. Its more about introducing textures and flavours at this point, as long as she's still having formula she'll get everything she needs from that

Don't panic!

If you want to keep giving purées that's fine. Lots of babies are weaned this way. I wonder if the hv was just pointing out that now she's 6 months she can have more than just fruit and veg purées and can have more texture. Ie you need to move onto the next stage (because AK approach assumes you'll start before 6m). One way to do this might be to chop or fork mash what you are eating and spoonfeed it or you could carry on following AK recipes but including meat and grains.

Or you could do BLW (where you literally give your baby a cheese sandwich, veg sticks etc). Yes they eat a bit less at first but once they've got the hang of it they can handle any texture. So it may seem harder at first but you avoid getting stuck at the purée stage.

But as far as I know there is no proper scientific evidence that suggests either approach is better than the other so just do what you find works for your baby.

Rachel's organics little explorers are sweetened with fruit puree rather than sugar but greek style yoghurt is normally what I give my los as sugar free and fairly cheap. Add a sploge of mashed up fruit to sweeten it yourself.

Yogurt and cheese is fine and it's ok to mix whole milk with food when cooking but make sure your baby still gets plenty of formula/breast milk for the next few months.

My LO totally refused to be spoonfed so I gave him 'proper' food laid out on his tray for him to squish, throw or nibble as he pleased. He didn't eat anything until he was over 7 months (just not ready, I guess) but eats like a horse now at 20 months. I just laid out a variety of flavours at each meal - sweet potato mash, grated cheese, sticks of softened pepper, steamed veg etc. It wasn't long before I just started serving full meals - chilli, lasagne, shepherds pie. I just chopped them up a bit and made sure there was a carby side to soak up all the wet stuff (potato, rice, cous cous etc).

I hated weaning. Dreading doing it again with DD2!
DD1 was a spoon refuser, so I did just give her what we were having, generally. Not much went in at first, but it doesn't have to. It's all about exploring textures and learning to eat at the beginning. I never puréed anything.
Mine is 23 months and has only ever eaten plain natural yoghurt with fruit in. Don't see the point in giving her sugary 'baby' yoghurts.

I hate this nonsense about "food for fun until one". It is absolutely not the case. From 6 months your baby needs iron in their diet or they are likely to end up anaemic.
Don't be afraid to use purée. I've done they with two children and both are fantastic eaters. HVs sometimes spout nonsense about food. With dd1 I remember being told that there was no need to make meals for her but I could give her "you know, the food children eat like fish fingers and chips".

singsong formula is fortified with iron so that's not possible. And they're not going to get much iron from mashed root veg and yoghurt! I don't know many 6 months old that will eat cabbage or red meat.

Plain/greek yoghurt is fine. You can mash and spoonfeed anything suitable you're having, and if what you're having isn't suitable then a jar is fine! Give her finger foods too, and relax.

I've got four dc and at six months all of them loved sucking the juice out of a chunk of meat, great for iron. It's really easy for them to hold a slice of roast beef etc and suck on it.

Food is for fun until one. The iron they need will be met by formula intake or if BF, by vitamins.

Don't panic. You are giving her the good stuff. But she might just be getting hungrier and/or exploring new tastes and textures too so more easily distracted as well.

What I found interesting in France, on holidays when DD was 9 months old, was that the purees in jars there were things like French beans and salmon rather than just plain carrots. 2 distinct layers, but that there was a protein as well as veg/fruit aspect to it.

Maybe start putting some more protein, and/or some carbs (spud, pasta, rice) into at least some of your HM purees. Or, if your meals are suitable (as in not too high in sugar and salt - whether HM or shop bought, spicy or plain, etc is irrelevant), why not just puree up some of that and mostly give it as puree (maybe DC can have it less ground up now) and perhaps a small bit as finger food.

At this stage most of the calories your baby is getting is from the breast milk or formula you are giving them. Food is ancillary to that. If you think about it all the textures and tastes are new to the baby and so it's only natural they will want to explore it/wave it around/drop it on the floor/occassionally chew it.

If you want some ideas/reassurance I found the Gill Rapley book on baby led weaning helpful (maybe borrow from a library). My son won't take food from a spoon so he's just having what I cook or eat. Some has been successful (broccoli, satsumas and chicken randomly), some hasn't (cooked carrots, bananas). But it doesn't really matter as he's just learning.

Panicking - vitamins don't have iron in them. Babies from 6 months get iron from food and milk.

Hi, thanks for advice everyone.
I am breastfeeding but at the moment lo is waking for breast feeds every 2 hours in the night and hv said it was because she needed more food during the day...
I have been feeding her to sleep, this is working for the moment as I don't want to do controlled crying to get her to sleep.
I've just cooked tea we've had some breaded sole with carrots and broccoli and green beans. Thinking about it I should've given her some potatoes too. She does have a dabble but I'm starting to find that if I offer food she will wait for me to give it rather than feed herself.
Regarding the whole milk, hv said not to give as drink but to incorporate into her diet ie porridge with whole milk, full fat cheese, yoghurt etc.
Tomorrow I'm having pie, do I just give her a slice of pie? Seems so weird.

I'm also giving vitamin d plus multivitamins drops which hv recommended

Yes to pie. Yummy!!

You're doing all the right things. But I think you probably need to just adjust what you are eating a little. The HV means feed the baby what you are having when you are eating something suitable. Think homemade firstly so you know what's in it obviously. Not sure if you meant a homemade or shop bought pie in your post but no, you wouldn't give a baby a piece of shop bought pie. The sort of things you want to be having are chicken and veg, shephards pie, bolognase, lasagne (making it yourself), frittatas, quiche, french toast, mash potato and cassarole. Then just give your lo a tiny chopped up amount to chew, mess about with. Your lo will eat some but will spread more around.
On the days you make something like a shepards pie or cassarole just spoon some out to cool and freeze and then use that on days that you are having something not suitable like ready made food, pizzas or take aways. As your lo starts to eat more use ramakins to make/store portions of food for him/her.

Don't worry too much and enjoy! This is quite a fun stage as you share food with them and find out their favourites and dislikes.

It sounds like you are doing great.
With potatoes you can either give them as finger food or mash with a fork and spoon feed. It doesn't have to be one way or the other all the time. You can even make each meal a mix of finger food and spoon feeding if you want. See what she prefers.

I would deconstruct the pie into pick-upable pieces. But yeah, my DS loves pie, especially the pastry.

Just a couple more questions..

Food is for fun till their one...After reading Annabel k this morning she says babies need iron, fish twice a week, red meat etc. from six months. if food is just for fun then what if the baby doesn't eat any/enough of these nutrients? I don't understand therefore why my lo has lost weight, as if she hasn't been taking enough food surely she'd be taking more milk when bf?

Also in terms of bf how quickly should the bf reduce, at the moment I'm still feeding through the night.

In terms of 3 meals a day, I'm going to try this, but is it too soon for this. Should I be doing two meals a day? I'm just giving her the actual food were having, homemad pie and cauliflower cheese today. We try to have main meal then a 'lunch of soup and salad, sandwich etc. so should lo have same or should she have brekkie then 2 full meals?

Music- that's because "food is for fun...." Is nonsense. AK is right about the need for protein/iron etc.

My weaning strategy has always involved purée getting slowly more lumpy (always homemade food not jars of orange slop) with finger foods as extras.