How long on each food?

[HarryHarry]

When you were weaning your baby, how many times in a row did you offer the same food before moving onto something else? The doctor says to offer the same food, eg carrot, for 3 or 4 days but the Annabel Karmel app seems to have a different food for every meal. Also, how long did you stick with single ingredient meals before mixing it up a bit? I'm so confused!

It’s not advised to do that anymore unless there is a history of allergies in your immediate family (then you’d only do it with the suspected allergen and related foods). The advice now is to offer variety from the start. Both of mine have had 2-4 different foods per meal usually from the start and not usually the same things on consecutive days (unless we’re all having leftovers). Even when my dd did have a suspected allergy it was pretty obvious and easy to figure out the food to avoid (allergy went away after 1 anyway after eliminating it from her diet on advice of GP and then re-introducing).

Totally agree with mindutopia. The advice of the doctor seems to be either aimed at parents where the babies have suspected allergies or very out of date.

If there’s no allergies and LO is over 6 months, I’d just give LO whatever you fancy. There’s a list of foods to avoid here, apart from that anything goes.

If you are doing purees try Banana-cado or Butterbean Baby puree. You can add finger foods on the side like sliced peppers or cucumber.

If you’re doing BLW try things like porridge fingers, sandwiches, baby frittata or just whatever you are having. DD was particularly fond of homemade sweet potato wedges or a roast dinner.