Weaning advice

[NatU123]

Hi everyone!

I have an 8 month old baby and have been weaning him since 6 months (pureed food) he currently has baby porridge for breakfast, a jar for lunch and whatever we have for dinner mashed up. I'll also mash banana for a desert. Does this sound about right? Should I be giving him different food for breakfast and not just porridge?

Does he need finger foods? Is this a part of weaning or can I stick to pureed food. I've given him fruit to suck on - peach, plum, banana, apple and pineapple sticks. I sometimes give him melty sticks which he loves.
I've read babies don't need snacks so maybe I should cut the melty sticks out?
One last question - should I be giving him yogurt at this age? I thought they were full of sugar

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Does he need finger foods? Is this a part of weaning or can I stick to pureed food

I meant can I stick to just mashing his food leaving lumps to get him used to chewing.

Not sure about when they "need" finger foods as such as we've always done blw. For the yoghurt though full fat Greek yoghurt is really good for them without the sugar that ones more marketed for kids have. My eldest is nearly 3 and still loves his plain yoghurt.

I use a lot of plain Greek yoghurt. I whack it on fruit with some chia or ground linseed, put it in 5 bean chilli to add some fat, put it on banana pancakes with berries. Mine absolutely loves it.

You could start offering some of the veggies you are doing for dinner as finger foods, this buys me time to get my dinner eaten so we all eat together, then I can feed baby the rest of their mashed food.

I try and vary breakfast a little but oh sticks religiously to weetabix- you could vary what you put in the porridge. I keep frozen fruits in the freezer so I can just defrost what she needs. I have a Black Forest mix, raspberries, blueberries, mango and cherries. I just mush them up if they are a choking risk.

I would mix up breakfast a bit, could try weetabix, low sugar Cheerios, eggs, toast etc. Would probably avoid jars unless out and about as they are expensive. I would also add finger food Or try grated food like grated apple/cheese etc.

Melty sticks are just a pulp of corn flour and oil pushed through an extruder to make an ultra processed snack which has absolutely zero benefit and the down fall to introduce babies to junk food.
And yes you are right, babies do not need snacks.

You can stick to pureed food until he mastered chewing and then move to mixed textures, such as a soup with small bits, baby pasta, even tiny cuts of omelette, ..
People often forget soups and broths which allows you to offer the wetness that help lubricate first food. Maybe try swapping the map to something you make
If you are using baby porridge, look at the ingredients and nutrition table. Often it is loaded with sugar

Thanks to you all 🙂
Greek yogurt is in & melty sticks are out

I would keep the melty sticks for long pram journeys!!!

@OverTheRainbow88 out of pure curiosity - I am French - why do you give food to entertain kids in pram, car, queues, supermarket trips.... .
Where does this come from? Enforcing a snacking or grazing habit? And especially ultra processed food which kids and adult women alike seem unable to cope without? Is it the culture?

I live in Australia, and I am amazed at how parents are a de facto mobile pantry with snacks popping out every single hour. Bringing half the kitchen to the beach or worse at sports meets/ events in which case it is the whole kitchen.

In France, we give breakfast, lunch, a small biscuit/pastry/.fruit at 4, and dinner. And nothing in between. You will never see parents handing out snacks at a playground in a Parc . With the exception of kids popping into a bakery after school to buy a croissant , you don't see children eating in the street and especially salty stuff, which is considered party food and very much to be avoided.

I really struggle to understand the Anglo-Saxon approach to introducing children to food and developing eating habits. How snacky food-like substance (a melty puff is not food it is an edible highly palatable lab engineered substance) and baby crips are pushed as normal foods that will take a daily place in their diet

a small biscuit/pastry/.fruit at 4,

That is a snack. Well I would call that a snack. My kids mainly snack on fruit, plain Greek yoghurt or something else fresh, once in morning if they’ve got up particularly early and once in the afternoon. Occasionally if out and about or in a Cafe they’ll have a slice of cake (well the eldest does)

Now we have a 20min walk to school, 20 min wait to walk around the busy one way system to drop off; then 20 min home- that’s a bit too long for my youngest to sit in his pram so I must admit I give him a snack!

All my family are healthy and not overweight and we barely eat any processed food so I think I will carry on as we are.

Isn’t a croissant and pastry full of butter and fat?

I can’t answer for others, but generally speaking all my friends give their kids healthy snacks and at my sons nursery and school their snacks tend to be a breadstick and then fruit.

Also in long car journeys sometimes given purely for some peace and quiet-
Again these Long Journeys are about 5 times a year, so can’t see that having a long term impact on their health and food attitude

Isn’t a croissant and pastry full of butter and fat? This just sums it up. We talk about food, in Australia they talk about nutrients, and the more they debate about fat, carb , protein the worst and artificial they eat.

I didn't;t make any mention about weight in my post
@OverTheRainbow88 or said that you or your family were overweight.

I was talking about eating habits, and your reply reinforced what I was trying to say, people give food to keep the kids quiet or happy, whereas kids should learn that being unhappy/bored happens and is part of life and that food is not the right crutch for that.

I would definitely be giving finger foods, yes. You want baby to be exploring textures as well as tastes, and learning how to chew and deal with food in their mouth. Just purees won’t do that.

Meh, whatever makes your life easier! One of my children is much happier with smaller regular meals - or 'snacks' you might call them. If I try to make her wait to only have 3 meals a day, we all have a horrible time! She is tearful and grumpy. This isn't her asking for snacks, she doesn't recognise it as hungry but if she has something to eat, eg an apple and some cheese then she is happy. There's nothing 'wrong' with smaller meals and snacks as long as what they are eating is healthy. As she gets older she can go for longer. My other child isn't the same and was weaned the same way.

Also, if you DO want to give melty sticks then check out your local polish shop if you have one. Big bags of tiger sticks 100% corn long sticks, for much cheaper than the ellas kitchen ones.

I completely agree with @LeGrandBleu i think a huge contributor to our general health and eating issues in the western world is that from a young age kids are given food to keep them quiet. Grizzly babies used to get rusks, now they get melty sticks, bored toddlers get food to occupy them in the car or the pram, we use food as a bribe for toilet training or to distract during tantrums, and we are obsessed with avoiding fats and carbs even though they are perfectly normal parts of a healthy diet.

The ONLY parenting book i have read is French Children Don't Throw Food and I would recommend it to anyone.

My Boys have breakfast at about 6.45am then lunch at 11.30; 12 if at school, almost 5 hours without a snack is far too long for them in between meals. As is lunch at 12, dinner 5.30.

Dedicated "snack time" is reasonable, that's exactly what Bleu was describing, but ad hoc giving of snacks whenever it's convenient for them to be quiet, not so much.

@Ohalrightthen OMG, I love it, that title is so right! So funny ! French children do not throw food indeed!

When we moved to Sydney, I was horrified by some scenes in cafés when you had groups of mothers with children and by the mess the children were allowed to do, smashing muffins, throwing food on floor, smearing avocado everywhere and not only would the mothers be completely cool about that , they didn't clean up before leaving the cafe and that poor staff had to pick the stuff from floor and scrubbing. This would be so unacceptable in a French cafe.