Early weaning-food prep

[Smellybears]

Hello!
As advised by his feeding nurse (he has cmpa and severe reflux) , started weaning at 17 weeks. He has porridge for breakfast and baby rice for his tea at about 4.30pm, he hobbled them up! He will be five months next week and nurse said to start him on veg.
What I’m wanting to know is how to prepare the veg please? Boil or steam? Mash or whizz with a blender? By itself, mix with baby rice or his formula?
Also, I was thinking carrots to start on but can anyone else make any recommendations please? I know veg first and to try a food for 4 days to make sure no allergic reactions.
Thank you so much

Any root veg on its own or with a little bit of water to thin it down. I boiled mostly but doesn’t matter how it’s cooked. I passed the veg through a sieve as I found it easier than cleaning the blender lol.

I think I started with sweet potato, then swede and then parsnip before carrot (carrot can upset reflux sometimes). After that I moved on to other things like broccoli and peas.

Reflux and CMPA is a mine field when it comes to weaning so I know how hard it is. X

Liverpoolmum thank you! I’m actually in Liverpool myself I didn’t know that about carrot so you’ve helped massively thank you! We eat loads of sweet potato so will get started on that!

Ah no worries. Happy to help. 😀 x

Anyone else have any tried and tested suggestions?!

Hiya! I started on veg before baby rice- identical situation to you, reflux and severe milk allergy.
I steam vegetable- we tried sweet potato and carrot and parsnip so far, which I blend with the water I used for steaming from the main pot. We also tried banana puree today for the first time as well, he seemed to like it. Will try sweat peas next and then come back to purees I have frozen.

With the sweet potatoe, do I have to mix his milk or baby rice with it? Also I feed him breakfast and tea, would both his meals be the sweet potatoes or just one? FTM so sorry if I sound daft!!

I mix with water I steam on that has some veg flavour, but you can mix with your milk instead. Either is fine but if you mix with prescribtion milk it usually tastes green ss and drawn put them off and mask the real taste of food, so I was told to avoid it. You can use cooled boiled water too. I made two small meals from potato.

Sorry previous message was meant to read prescription milk tastes gross, so better not to add it.

I wouldn't mix rice with the potato. You could even just bake a sweet potato/ potato in the microwave and remove the insides to mash. Thin with milk or water

Don't use a blender on potato though as it will become inedible!

Squash is good too. Cooked Pears mixed with baby rice is very tasty.

Boil root veg - carrots, swede,sweet potato, parsnips etc
I mix with broccoli or cauliflower and a bit of stewed apple or pear to add a bit of sweetness
Blitz it with a stick blender until smooth (add a bit of water if too thick)
Bag it up in individual portions and freeze - take one out at night for use the next day!

If you’re feeding 2 meals, I would only feed a new food at one meal at a time. It’s a good way to introduce a new type of food ie veg at tea time and 3/4 days later mashed banana at breakfast. That way they have 6/8 days on a new food to get used to it (hope that makes sense).

I found pears made my LG’s reflux worse as was the case with a lot of fruit but it’s a case of trial and error. Some reflux babies improve in pear. Definitely avoid acidic fruits though. X

I also agree with PP; don’t mix with prescription milk. My LG is on neocate which is foul. I wouldn’t want her to get too used to that and not want normal tasting food. X

Ok thank you! I won’t mix with his milk then veg all the way for now, I’m a bit dubious of fruits just yet as I’ve heard they can make reflux worse.
I blended sweet potato a few weeks back (couldn’t find the masher) and it went into a mess!! Lovely colour though! 😂

How have you found banana at breakfast? I’ve read it can make reflux babies worse? Also has anyone tried avocado for breakfast?

Banana was fab for us today. I do the same fruit/veg twice- in the morning at then in the afternoon. He loved it both times and no problem with reflux or whatsoever as of yet.
Trying avocado tomorrow I think, or peas! We were told to try something new every day, and come back to whatever they did not like within a few days.
I know it's not BLW but I find making purees fun as well!

To be honest, I wasn’t going to try her with banana but I left her with my mum for 10 mins and came back to her munching on banana and she was absolutely fine. She’s also ok with mango but as I’ve said, they’re all different. I’ve heard so many different opinions. We’ve not tried avocado yet but probably will at some point (she’s nearly 8 months lol).

BTW the coconut collaborative do a range of kids yogurts that are dairy and soya free. My little girl loves them and they’re a nice breakfast alternative. They’ve also got natural probiotics in which helps with reflux. You can get them from sainsburys. X

That’s great regarding the dairy free yoghurts thank you. I guess everything with a baby is trial and error and thats what the banana is going to be! Everyone on this site has been so helpful and I’m glad that I can come on here and get help as I feel his feeding nurse isn’t that great.

With the banana do you just mash banana or do you add anything to it?

I mashed it with a bit of cooled boiled water so it was a consistency of yoghurt or so. It will be trial and error as sometimes they will not like something. Ours Stroud not seen to be a fan of sweet potato, so we well reintroduce in a few days time. Lets me know what worked for you!

I just walked in and she had half a banana in her hand scoffing it (she was 6 months). At your LO’s age, I would probably mash it with water too.

Are you under a feeding nurse at alder hey, OP? My LG is and while the nurse is nice enough, she’s a bit ‘in over her head’ in my opinion. I’ve basically made all the decisions after diagnosis based on my own research and took them to her. If I’d have waited for her to take action, my daughter would still be screaming every day. X

Yes it’ll be the same one as there’s only one! She comes across as dim and that she’s winging it a lot of the time. I went the other week and she was looking at the wrong babies file! I’ve asked her questions and she hasn’t a clue, that’s why I know just come on here. I consultantly have to remind her that he’s had a reaction to carobel ‘oh yeah, I remember now’.

I completely agree with you. She told me 4 weeks ago at our last appointment that my LG needs to see a dietician for formal diagnosis of CMPA at his was after 6 months of appointments with her. We’re now in a 4 month waiting list. Hope she gets it sorted for you a bit quicker. X

Formal diagnosis?! We’ve seen a specialist already who was great, then she referred us to the feeding nurse. Will that mean that we will need the same as you, formal diagnosis from a dietician?