Weaning 6-9 months old baby

[Lilia]

Hi!!!

My DD is 6 months old and I decided to start giving her food like pasta, meat, cheese etc. Just need some reassurance: if you could give me tips, what food to avoid etc. I've got a question as well - I bought some baby pasta, on the box it says that it's from 7 months, but our Health Visitor said that it's ok to give pasta to a 6 months old baby, the same about bread sticks.

Thanks

:-)

Lilia, don't worry too much. You'll soon find out what works and what doesn't. In general, you should introduce a new food every 3 days or so to check for allergies. Once a food has been "introduced" then you can add it to the list of things that are "ok." The main things to avoid under the age of one are eggs, seafood, peanuts and cow's milk as a drink (cheese, yogurt etc. are ok).. I think that's it. Try the vegies first and meat a few months later as it's harder to digest. I added small amounts of salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary etc. to the food that I prepared so that it would taste good. My theory always was that if I thought it was gross, I wasn't going to expect my child to eat it. Most of the pre-prepared "baby" foods (like baby pasta) are really just a rip off. If you look in the pasta section you can find little mini pastas meant to go in soups that are just as good and a fraction of the price. Buy a mouli and make your own food...it's cheaper, healthier and fun! Also, once you've done a run of "introducing" food you can mush up your dinner and feed it to him. If you have been exclusively breastfeeding, be prepared for a bit of constipation until his body gets used to the solids. Avoid the bananas and apple sauce when he does have constipation. Good luck

Salt is a no-no at 6mths, it's bad for the kidneys and a baby simply doesn't need it. I never use salt in cooking and haven't done for years but none of my family has ever come down with a disease related to lack of salt!

Lilia are you referring to jar foods or adult table foods?

SueDonim, salt in adult amounts is too much for a small baby, but small amounts for a 6 month old is fine. I personally like salt in my food, so I use it in my cooking. And I think that it makes food more interesting for my son. (so far, 18 mo., he eats everything) The most recent evidence is that for adults, salt is only a problem if you already have high blood pressure, it doesn't actually raise it if you have normal blood pressure. Anyway, good homemade food is the best thing you can do whether or not you put salt in it. And if you don't want to add salt, you can add other things to give it taste like lemon juice or vinegar.

Hi Lilia

My dd is now 8 months old but from 6 months I was making her pasta dishes. Two favourites were pasta shells with bacon, courgette and tomato and pasta shells with spinach, tomato, parmesan and basil. I didn't buy the baby pasta (did at first but not after that ) it's a rip off as SofiaAmes says. I bought tiny pasta shells which I then moulied (spelling ?!) - I made the consistency coarser and coarser as she got older.

I also give her strips of cooked carrot to eat (she has 4 teeth), little pieces of chicken, breakdsticks, bread etc. She loves garlic and spices in all her food.

I think a healthy attitude to the salt thing is good. Babies don't need salt so don't season her food but if you are making something for yourself and it's a little seasoned it wont hurt her.

After all, weaning is all about getting them to eat what you eat. You cant go on cooking separate meals forever.

BTW, my HV said eggs are ok but they can sometimes have a bad reaction so try yolk first and then egg white next as this is the more hazardous. Also you need to give them at least 3 times to know they are safe apparently. I am in the process of giving dd eggs. I have tried once and it was ok - trying to ensure she will be able to eat things like omelette when we are away in Portugal in a few weeks !

My son, nearly 8months, eats most things except bitter tasting veg. I introduce a new taste by mixing it with something he already likes, like sweet potato, so he got his first taste of chicken like that. He loves all pasta sauce things esp if sweetened with carrots.
Just give him things you'd like yourself, but mushed up. There's very little to avoid except eggs and peanuts as has been said. I like to give him little bits of what we're eating all the time so he gets different tastes. That way we recently found he really likes chicken liver pate and hummous!

Have fun with the feeding

I used to use ice cube trays and freeze individual portions of cooked pureed specific foods, e.g pumpkin, chicken,lamb, potatoe etc and made up a meal of a few cubes of meat and whatever vegetables for that day. This was also the same with fruit. I had to do this as many of the bought baby foods contained milk products which my daughter was allergic to. In hindsight it was a good thing as I knew she was getting good food and actually never really ate jar food.

I used to make bread sticks by slicing brown bread and spreading with marmite and baking in a low oven until crisp.

Thank you for your suggestions. Sorry, didn't reply straight away. My DD was teething - ery stressful time.