A week of food for a 7 month old

[LittleChilliBean]

My daughter is 6 and a half months old and we've started weaning; first with single flavours and now I'm starting to introduce mixed flavours.

I'd be intrigued to see what meals your little one has over a week. I nervously attach a plan that I put together for next week. I'd love to hear what people think and if it's similar to what you do. I'm a first time mum (unless that isn't obvious).

Thanks in advance.

This is nice and organised, appeals to the lister in me :D I did something similar with DD, she was my first also.

I would say, in case you haven't already, when will you be introducing the common and less common allergens? Very useful to be aware of allergies early on, I say this as a parent of a child with many allergies! I'm so glad I knew what she was allergic to before she started nursery.

My DC have multiple allergies so I intended to do this but one day in and I just threw anything at them that we ate (and we avoided their known allergens).

I would like to try introducing common allergens as soon as possible. Can I ask which foods your little one is allergic to?

She's got many allergies, some quite specific non allergen ones like banana and lentil, and some really common ones like egg and nuts - thankfully none are anaphylactic as far as we know. She gets hives, swelling, vomiting and diarrhoea for the more serious ones and less serious cause gastric issues and eczema.

Everything is very sweet-based and mostly shop bought? A fruit/veg in a pouch will taste very differently from the home made one since it goes through high heat and high pressure to give it shelf life.

I wouldn't give puffs. They are ultra processed extruded snack, and despite the very appalling carrots, it is actually corn flour and oil , same as Cheetos.

I’ve got a baby a few months older (as well as an older child). Looks like lots of fruit and veg, so that’s good. But I’d echo a PP and say a lot of it is very sweet - might be worth trying courgette, aubergine, avocado etc which are less sweet. And like a PP said, carrot puffs aren’t ideal. If you are trying to introduce finger food, why not a well-roasted finger of courgette?

We have largely given our baby what we are eating, which works well. Even at 6.5 months, I tried to prioritise giving an iron-rich food, a protein/fat and a vegetable at each meal. It might be worth looking at adding more food like that - eggs, salmon etc.

good luck - I have loved weaning with both of mine!

Tropical fruit are by far some of the sweetest. So don't give mango or banana so frequently. Take advantage of the seasonal fruit. There must be some watermelon and melon in shops before the winter, and try to offer not so sweet tasting vegetables without the masking effect of sweet vegetables or milk sugar. Adding cheese to broccoli is just a way to put lactose and sweeten them. Same with carrots, it masks the broccoli.

Add variety, and as a PP said, roasting in the oven is a great way to offer variety.

Thank you for your reply. Everything apart from the carrot puffs is made at home from fresh fruit or veg.

I completely agree about the carrot puffs and I struggled with picking something for Wednesday as we're out all day and I don't know if there are facilities to heat up food. Any suggestions for an alternative would be much appreciated!

Thank you for your reply. I would love to get to a point where she's eating what we eat so it's good to hear that has worked for you. I like the idea of courgette, aubergine and avocado so will try these.

At the moment she mainly has purées that I've made at home but I definitely am trying to introduce more finger food. This definitely comes from my nervousness although she does cry if we try to give her bigger bits. This doesn't apply if she is picking up the food herself so I just need to be brave and leave her to it!

I’m lazy so my 8 month old went straight to finger food when we weaned at 6 months and she tends to just have what I’m eating or what I have in the fridge. I’ve never really done the single flavour route because unless I’ve made a pasta sauce, I figure that with finger food she is often having just one flavour at a time just on a mouthful rather than meal level.

Breakfasts tend to be toast plus peanut butter/cream cheese/hummus or porridge fingers with flaxseed or fruit depending on what I’m having in my own porridge that morning.

For lunch and dinner I try to give a protein and two veg or one veg and a carb. Yesterday she had chicken thigh with tomato and cucumber for lunch and basa fillet with some salad leaves for dinner. Today she will probably have tomato, spinach and cheese pinwheels for lunch and chicken, baby corn and mange tout for dinner. She loves pasta but only in a sauce and manages fine with a stew I made at the weekend with no salt stock cubes. I also make pancakes with different flavours in.

Try not to over think it. Meal planning in loads of detail does put you under pressure to do it exactly right. I do try and make sure we have two iron rich foods a day plus a good mix of fat, protein, veggies and carbs but I do it like I would my own diet. My DD isn’t keen on fruit but I still give a piece every day or so. I find she eats best if I’m eating the same thing as her. And it’s actually really nice to have a lunch buddy during the day.

Thanks for your reply. Melon is a great idea, I'll get some of that today.

I have given her non-sweet vegetables without any other flavours added prior to this week. I make everything at home and after tasting, it seemed very bland so I felt I had to add extra flavours. But I think you're right, I need to persevere. I think it'll be a lot easier when I'm not puréeing things.

This is the ideal for me! I do need to let go a bit and allow her to just explore the food on her own and give actual meals. We eat a lot of Asian and spicy food though and I'm not sure if that would work for her. I'd love to try her on pasta but I worry about the bits and how she'd handle it; this is completely my nervousness though!

I’ve been surprised with the strong flavours my baby has enjoyed. She loves her pinwheels stuff with garlic and she’s quite keen on savoury pancakes made with garam masala mixed in. I offered her a bit of cheese with a dot of American mustard on it and she kept coming back to it. Yet banana is the worst enemy and she makes disgusted faces every time.

I cook the fusilli for a minute longer than it says on the pack so it’s nice and soft. Initially she just sucked the sauce off and threw the pasta on the floor but I think she’s starting to understand that pasta is more than just a vehicle for sauce.

I tried not to be worried about eating finger foods as they have to eat it some time and I just couldn’t be arsed with pureeing. And yes, seeing my DD shoving a bit of pepper right in so she gags is a bit unnerving but it gets easier when you see how capable your baby is. And of course the more they do it, the better they get.

Hi OP, another FTM here. I haven’t RTFT so sorry if I’m repeating any of what PPs have said! Firstly - love the chart! I need to get better at meal planning.

I have a 7.5 month old, weaned at 5.5 months and he has good days and “meh” days. Sometimes he loves food and shovels it in, other times he’s not fussed. He goes off it when teething or if he has a cold.

We only do two meals a day atm. I think it’s a bit much for their digestive systems to jump straight to three meals a day, plus it can be a lot of prep and clean up and on the days I’ve tried out three meals a day I’ve felt he hasn’t had enough floor/playtime. His wake windows are only 2.5 hours max and he still has 3 naps a day atm.

We’re mainly doing BLW and moved away from purées quite quickly as they were such a faff and I wanted him eating what we were eating as quickly as possible to cut down on prep. He tends to have some kind of mushed up version of our food on a pre loaded spoon plus finger food. Obviously makes a right mess but he gets the food into his mouth most of the time now! I’d actually like to feed him more myself but he doesn’t let me - he just grabs the spoon! I’d recommend the Bibado dippy spoons with two handles - really easy to hold.

I don’t have an actual plan (I need one!) but typical meals for us look something like this:

Breakfast:

• Weetabix and full fat milk + half banana finger food
• OR toast soldiers with smooth peanut butter and squashed raspberries (I just have the frozen ones and take a few out of the freezer first thing - now he’s developing the pincer movement he can just about pick these up)
• OR Fage 5% yoghurt with smushed up blueberries

Lunch or Dinner (depending on what we’re doing that day)

• Some kind of cheesy pasta - DH and I had a courgette and Parmesan pasta the other day so I portioned some off before seasoning. I then blitz it into a lumpy mush with the hand blender. Adding yoghurt or milk can help make it sticky enough for the spoon too.
• OR Salmon with potatoes, onions and tomatoes (a tray bake that DH and o had - again, just all blitzed up).
• Mug Omelette! Just crack and swirl an egg into a mug and put in the microwave for a minute.
• I’ll usually give a finger food too - like roasted sweet potato or parsnip, broccoli (microwaved from frozen - the frozen stuff is actually more nutritious than fresh). He’s also enjoyed asparagus, tomato and cucumber (though now he’s got teeth I don’t give cucumber anymore).

The solid starts app is brilliant for showing you how to serve food to babies of different ages.

My next step is batch cooking spag bol, fish pie etc and freezing portions to cut down on prep even further. I freeze some stuff in ice cube trays atm which is ideal for just popping out a few in the morning so they’re defrosted by lunch!

Hope that helps!

I would point out there's a lot of very sweet things on that - carrot, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and all that fruit. I would consider having more savoury flavour like green beans, meat (unless you are veggie), fish

Ps mine are our food pretty much from the start - I whizzed it up with a hand blender or mashed with a fork. By 7 months they ate things like a roast dinner, curry, fajitas,pasta etc. meat I shredded with two forks

DD2 is 7m and she just eats whatever we eat.

So today...

Porridge with banana, cinnamon and chia seeds
Deconstructed cheese sandwich, cucumber, tomato
Spinach and ricotta tortellini, yoghurt and fruit for after.

Tomorrow, breakfast will be the same, or potentially peanut butter toast fingers
Leftover pasta, or another deconstructed sarnie, depending on whether she had bread at breakfast
Chicken and veg stir-fry with noodles, yoghurt and fruit for pudding again

Wednesday will be porridge or toast again
Leftover stir-fry
Butternut squash risotto, yog and fruit.

Massive kudos for the organised chart and neat handwriting. As a stationery addict I'm jealous of your chart!

My DS is 8 months and he's my second. I have learnt to be a lot more relaxed with him than my first! Don't worry about making everything hamemade-their isn't always time and it does them no harm!

I would add finger food even at this stage. DS2 is much less dexterous than DS1 was but adding in finger foods with every meal has massively helped him and meant he's onto lumpy foods a lot quicker. I try and add finger foods but also spoon feed as he's a hungry bugger.

I don't tend to give him what we have but more similar to toddler meals. I'm also not adverse to a bit of fat or sugar as I was with DS1 (in moderation!)

Below is last two days of meals

Breakfast
Apple cinnamon porridge (made then processed so not as lumpy)
Toast with peanut butter

Warm milky Weetabix with mushed banana
Apple slices

Lunch
Broccoli scone (what mummy makes)
Cucumber slices
Tomato slices
Pouch of Salmon pasta

Soft tortilla wrap with cheese and cucumber sticks
Melty sticks
Peppers and hummus
Boiled egg
Satsuma

Dinner
Lentil and veg dhal with rice (defrosted from home made batch)
Broccoli florets
Bit of naan

Carrots
Green beans
Chicken casserole pouch
Yoghurt

I try and do a mixture of spoonfed and picky bits and do freeze meals ahead so I have portions for toddler too. Makes a big difference

Also worth buying a wavy chopper knife as makes slippery fruit easier to pick up

Good luck!