What are your top tips for stress free weaning

[swizzlestix]

It's been 10 years since I last weaned a baby into solids, would love to hear your top tips please

Just don't stress about it. Be led by baby.

Food before one is just for fun.

so don’t worry about how much goes in.

All you need is a hand blender- whenever you
make yourself something eg. Like carrots, put a portion aside and blend it down with some of their milk.
freezing portions is great- can use an ice cube tray.
no honey, no salt- including stock cubes.

What helped for us was a waterproof/wipe clean mat, the IKEA high chair and coveralls. We also got Doddl cutlery as he got bigger.

We half followed the SR Nutrition 30 day plan, particularly for the allergens, and gave him a lot of what we were having. It was mainly veg to start, with egg and peanut butter.

We just let him decide how much he wanted, and soon realised he was ingesting more than we thought because of how quickly his nappies changed.

We just let him go with it, different textures and went big with the finger foods. One tip was that we didn’t wipe his face or hands as he was eating, only once he had finished, as I didn’t want him thinking it was “bad” to be messy.

He’s a fantastic eater now a year on from weaning, eats everything and anything put in front of him, despite navigating a throwing and fussy stage! Just remember that they have fluctuating tastes and appetites, just like us.

These are so helpful- thanks so much 😊

I remember doing a lot of separate stuff for my first. With my second, I would literally siphon off a bit of what we were having and mash it with a fork. I never used a blender as I wanted to keep some texture. Starting all over again very soon and will just be using good ol' forkie again!

Blend whatever you're eating! :)

Annabel Karmel book, sorted 😊

Baby led weaning. There's no need to blend anything.
With the exception of honey, baby can pretty much eat whatever you do.
My baby had steak at 7 months! (No teeth either)
The solid starts app will show you ways to appropriately cut/serve food.
I never worried about salt/sugar, everything in moderation. If something was high in salt I'd balance out the rest of the day with low/no salt.

First steps nutrition

Ella's kitchen weaning planner has really good examples of what to give your baby and when

Brilliant - such good advice! Thank you 😊