Weaning tips

[hippiemama]

We started weaning our daughter just after she turned four months with very small portion sizes of veg/fruit and baby rice which she has taken to wonderfully. She's now five months weighing 19lb, and I'd like to introduce some finger foods to get her used to something a bit less mushy.
I will be getting some Rusk's, is there any other foods fellow mum's recommend to start with??

P.s. if you're gunna mum police me in saying you shouldn't wean until 6 months, don't comment.

I wouldn't get rusks, too sugary. Can you not just give bits of cooked veg and soft fruits

I can, and I will be carrying on. She's very interested in having the food/spoon in her hand so I'd like her to be able to explore with foods herself as well.
These finger foods aren't to fill her up anymore, they'll be for her to explore!

Rusks are biscuits so not good.

Toast, fruit and veg.

You're supposed to avoid gluten until 6 months so toast and biscuits aren't recommended. Cooked veg and soft fruits would be best.

Ah okay, toast isn't one I've thought of. I'd assume no butter though?

I haven't actually looked at the packaging on Rusk's yet, I was heading out this afternoon to have a nose. I saw some the other day but they contained palm oil (surprising in a lot of baby products) so I didn't get them.

I'm an awful cook so I really struggle for ideas!

Why avoid butter?

There are some brilliant finger foods, at that age my little one loves the kiddylicious wafer things (they come in a box and say ‘no mess’ this is a complete lie), she also loves the Ella’s kitchen sweet corn and carrot sticks (they are sticks that come in a packet with plastic tray rather than the crisp packet style)
A lot of the kiddylicious brand is dairy and allergen free so they are great if you don’t want to introduce that type of food yet.

Also toast is great, my dd loves it still with margarine and jam!

My DS is 6 months and we have just started, so far he’s had

roast sweet potato and butternut squash , roasted whole and then cut into fingers so he can hold the skin and suck the flesh.

Baked apple with cinnamon cut as above.

Watermelon slices, Mango fingers with the skin on to hold.

Tender stem broccoli and cauliflower steamed.

All have something he can hold to help him eat. Sweet potatoes are his fav so far.

The sweet things are always, ime, the easiest to introduce!

I also would let my children gave finger food too, pasta, french bean, soft carrot.

Let them use cutlery, plastic child friendly spoon for example . It's messy to begin with but better in the ling run

Thank you all.
I was thinking no butter due to being high in cholesterol? We have dairy free butter at home so I'll have to check the ingredients to make sure the salt content isn't high etc.

Some great tips there though, thank you. I will do a bit of shopping and some trial and error.

Children do need fat to grow, hence full fat milk.

Check with current nhs guidance for amounts. 😊

Toast, rice cakes, chopped up fruit and veg, chips

My DC absolutely loved to suck and chew on dry cereal at that age

Butter is absolutely fine, just spread a bit on toast to give some extra calories and then you can also use jams and other spreads. I know Tesco have sugar free jam, and I used unsalted butter.

There’s no such thing as sugar free jam, unfortunately! It won’t have refined sugar, but refined and unrefined sugars are basically metabolised by the body in the same way. I tied myself in knots trying to avoid refined sugar when I first started weaning before deciding it was a bit of a waste of time (and some of the alternatives that are often suggested, like agave syrup, are actually even more unhealthy than sugar). Obviously I don’t give DS loads of crap but I’ve chilled out about the refined sugar in his diet and just aim for balance with occasional fun stuff.

I avoid rusks most of the time because I love them and almost inevitably end up eating them all myself They have loads of iron though - half of a toddler’s RDA - and my son is low in iron so it’s an easy way to get it in there. I quite often pack individual ones for nursery lunch.

Kids should have full fat dairy til they’re two so don’t worry about the butter. I’d rather mine had butter than some heavily processed alternative tbh.