Weaning must haves

[Tee20x]

Thinking about starting weaning in a few weeks and am about to do an online shop to get some bits - any recommendations for particular items or "must haves" ?

I double bib - so a long sleeved overall and then a silicon pelican bib on top. My baby likes to drop spoons off the high chair so we have about 10 and get through most of them each meal. I also bought a 10 pack of facecloths and use 1 per meal - clean the baby’s face, hands, high chair in that order and you don’t go through as much kitchen roll and baby wipes.

To be honest you don't need much?! Sure there are loads of overpriced fancy gadgets to purée food etc but honestly the thought of giving my baby a blitzed up Sunday roast made me feel queasy!

I bought a cheap hand held blender and that was it and to be honest that wasn't used long before teeth came through so you don't need to purée everything?

IKEA do a load of kids plastic bowls and plates and cutlery

Get some wipe clean place mats and loads of bibs and you're good to go!

Erm, nothing we just have our food.
So a nice high chair?

They already have hands and a mouth.

Gave*

I've seen a lot of people raving about silicon suction plates/bowls etc I'm assuming they're worth it to avoid the plate being flung across the room - but how many sets of plates etc to get - just one or a few?

What about those ice cube tray things to freeze batch cooked meals in?

I'm the queen of buying things that look useful but I never end up using so just wanting to double check before I go crazy haha

The Baby Led Weaning Book. It's amazing. One of the many joys of BLW mean that they spend ages eating and playing with the food so it's great for meal times - including when at restaurants as long as you contain the mess to the highchair and clean before you go. My friends' babies were finished really quickly and got bored when we went for lunch but mine was playing merrily for ages.

There's great advice about safety and which foods to give at each stage and how to prepare them. Great healthy recipes too for the whole family. I still make the oven-baked risotto.

We didn’t buy any special plates/bowls until DC1 could feed himself with a spoon (around 1). Until then I would hold the bowl and load his spoon for him and put finger foods directly on the high chair tray (we did blw) so he didn’t have his own bowl. Once he did have a bowl I found the oxotot ones had the best suction.

I never did purées with either child - just mashed up the food we had, so those ice cube trays would have been pointless for us.

There are a few items I've found really helpful for my 8 month old.

The bibado bibs are great. I highly recommend them. I'm doing baby led weaning with my first dd so I don't need much but I've found the baby vital spoons good for feeding her weetabix, yoghurt and porridge. The brand skip hop do handy bowls with lids for taking out on picnics and when you go out to friends houses (now that's allowed!!).

I just put the food on the high chair tray - I keep the bowl with the food in front of me and put more on the tray as she eats. I plan to buy one of the fancy bamboo plates with the suction pad when she's older and doesn't find throwing things on the floor so much fun .

A pvc mat for under the high chair to protect the floor is helpful.

I bought a good mid range hand blender but have barely used it as the blw was much more successful than purees.

A sippy cup. You can google best sippy cup reviews to see which one your dc might like best.

What mummy makes and weaning made easy are good weaning books.

I've recently discovered the pocket snack booster high chair which is great for taking to others' houses, restaurants and on holidays.

I did BLW and bought:

• 2 bamboo bamboo plates - very useful
• 2 spoons - could do with a million more
• 5 bibadoo bibs - bought two then bought more!
• IKEA high chair
• what mummy makes book

And that's it! Lots of friends with expensive and fancy high chairs ended up getting IKEA ones too