Tips to prepare for weaning

[Newtothis11]

We're going to start weaning DS in around 6 weeks (when he's 6months). Is there anything that's good to do before hand to help him? Eg. Playing with spoon/bowl.

Just have him seat with you at the dining table while you are having lunch and dinner and let him become naturally curious. Then when it is time, introduce him to his first puree while you are having your meal.
Put some newspaper under his high chair because a lot of food often ends up everywhere except baby's mouth!
Put some of his puree in a corner of your plate so when he doesn't want to eat from his but from yours you give him some puree.
Try to go as natural as possible. Boil your own carrots, potatoes , don't introduce him to snacking and processed food. Start with vegetables first and only later to apples, pears and bananas to get him uses to flavours which aren't sweet. Anyway carrot and potatoes have a sweet taste.
Giving him now a bowl and spoon to play with may end up in disaster later on as they are not toys but utensils. But you can give him a toy while he is eating if you want.
The first times it will be just discovery. Discovery of a texture, flavour and of new way of using the mouth. So it will take a while before he eats a whole plate.

Read Gill Rapley's Baby Led Weaning book. No pureeing needed. Brilliant.

Puree is just a phase which gives the parent a chance to introduce soups and broth with baby pasta. Soups are impossible to eat with fingers. Yes you can dip them and suck them but weaning is also about teaching how you eat.
You have a unique change to introduce a love for vegetables and giving him risotto, minestrone, pumpkin-carrot-potato soup and often in a dish it is the unique combination of several ingredients combining that makes them unique. Not everything can be eaten with fingers. A poached pear has almost a vanilla taste but if you eat it with the fingers it will smash in the hand and you miss the feeling of it melting in the mouth. Step by step when the child is eating with the parents or sitting next to them when they eat, he can can try food from their plate. Tiny bits of everything and once he has developed his mastication muscles he will very quickly upgrade to food in pieces.

Nobody says a child who eats with a spoon doesn't eat with his fingers as well. My son would happily suck an asparagus and the next day eat asparagus risotto with parmesan cheese, a trio that created a unique flavour you can't have by eating them separately .

Try to avoid for the first two years to give crisps, chips, rice crackers, biscuits, all highly processed food, engineered to make you crave them. Toddlers love the baguette end and it is great for the teeth. Try to give real fish instead of fish fingers. A sole has a very delicate taste and cut in some butter in a pan is very much liked by young children. Or frozen cod boiled. No bones and easy to eat.

In the end it is about what appeals to you. In my opinion you have a wider exposure if you do both spoon and finger.

I second having a read of the BLW book by Gill Rapley. I did self feeding with both my children and it's been great.

The BLW Cookbook by Gill Rapley has a good, succinct account of the principles of baby led weaning and lots of suggestions for food foods to give and recipes to cook so I prefer it to the original BLW book.

That's a good point that giving him aspirin to play with may make him think it's a toy. I'll stick to toys in the high chair for now!

We're going to do purées and finger foods, can't wait to see his face when he gets a first taste. I quite like the Ella's kitchen book it's nice and simple to follow what foods to add in when. It's not do good on finger foods, I'll have a look at the baby Led weaning book you've suggested I'm sure that'll have some great ideas.

Annabel Karmel has nice recipes for the first meats. I still remember (10 years on!) a chicken onion apple and carrot recipe that was incredibly tasty so my son and I would just eat it together.
Real meat is dry and hard and long to chew without teeth and only using gum, so cooking it in the juice of veggies for 20 minutes makes it softer.

Processed meat (chicken nuggets, industrial meat balls, sausages ) are softer only because the meat has beed blended and sometimes boiled, but avoid it. High in salt, nitrates and other nasties.

I would get plenty of ice cube trays and those little pots ready. My 6 month old still only eats small smears of food and if you want to prepare your own purée it's great to stock up the freezer and just defrost what you need day to day.

I use my hand blender very frequently and also got a Nuby steam and mash thing which has been great for the odd few berries and bananas.

The River Cottage baby and toddler cookbook is great. It covers weaning in a relaxed way, some finger foods and some puréed food.

Please don't give your baby aspirin to play with

We didn't bother with purées for either of ours. We had one of these to use at the beginning to make a bit of a paste, but we moved on to baby led weaning fairly quickly. It's messy but prep is easy.

I recommend you don't get too attached to the food you lovingly prepare. Much of it will end up on the floor! Our dog got quite fat...

Oops not aspirin! A spoon bloomin autocorrect!

I was more thinking is there anything I can do to help DS get ready rather than the practicalities of food prep- think I'm ok on that (well to start with at least)!

They're ready when they're ready.

The three signs of readiness will come with age - tongue thrust reflex gone, able to sit up, able to grab things and put them in their mouth.

You could do sitting up practice and tummy time. The rest happens naturally.

Go to IKEA and buy their long sleeved bib and a shower curtain