My DD is 6months old...some weaning questions

[hellogoodbye]

Hello. My DD is 6 months old and we have started weaning (purees). I do like the whole baby led weaning thing but don't think its 100% for us. Do you think it is ok to do half and half? ie at one meal offer purees and the next finger foods?

We gave DD some broccoli and carrot the other day whole to play with. We were in a resurant and it all got EVERYWHERE! It was a family place and we cleared most of it up. But my DD didnt eat any of it really. It was soft etc.

Meat - what/when/how do I offer meat/chicken/fish etc. Can you blend it?

BLW usually says feed anything you eat, but what about tough meat etc? Surely you cant give this to a baby?

Can I give fruit smoothies to my DD? Like the innocent smoothies? They only have fruit in?

Do you need to offer teh solid foods at the same time each day? We are always very busy and often out all day, so is it ok just to offer at a convienent time or should it be a routined thing? She is BF on demand too.

Do I still need to be boiling the water I offer?

Are strawberries ok at 6 months?

Sorry for all the questions!

I'm not so good with the finger foods stuff, as my son is 8 months old and I've just started (I was too afraid of choking before).

In terms of meat, I have done chicken and salmon so far with my son. He tends to like it mixed with fruit. I've read a couple of things and babies tend to like that kind of stuff (sweet with savory). Just puree it to the consistency you want.

Strawberries are fine at 6 months..they say they are highly allergenic but I talked to an allergist and they stated that sometimes people think there is a reaction to strawberries but a lot of times it's just because they are more acidic and tend to react on baby's skin.

Those are the only questions of yours that I feel I could answer well. Good luck with the rest!

I think most people do a combination of puree and finger food so don't worry about that.
Re things like smoothies - obviously you need to look out for 'hidden' sugar etc but even if that's ok I think the main problem is likely to be volume - babies really don't eat that much so if you're sharing with your dd then fine but otherwise you'll be throwing a lot away. That's why people tend to use ice cube trays to freeze stuff - for portion control!
The timing thing will depend on your dd. I've always been pretty vague and as and when but some babies like their routine. Overall with weaning your motto tends to be try and try again you'll soon get to know what works.

Thanks. The smoothies I am thinking of have no sugar etc in, just fruit. I drink them all the time so was just thinking of giving her some of mine when I have them. Or maybe using them to add to her solids when they are too thick. ie if I mash a banana and it could do with a bit of water added - add some smoothie instead if I have an open one in the fridge.

Can you give Tuna to a baby? And is it healthy? Sorry I know it sounds silly!

oooh tuna - hmmm - well I gave my dd tuna sandwiches well before her 1st birthday but well after 6 mths iyswim. Don't know what the 'official' advice is (can I win an award for most uninfomred mother of three?) but as a general principle you can give them anything that is fresh or freshly opened, in a small quantity. I don't think a total diet of tuna would be very good but that goes for any food stuff - variety is what's needed.

I agree with NorthernLurker. Tuna is fine...out of the can I know for sure. You have to be careful with fish because of mercury levels (with some fish). You can probably find out more about that just by looking it up on the net. I know for sure salmon is fine, so is cod.

Re meat, they'll suck and gun on it to get the jiuces out, them discard. At 6mo she should be able to eat most things unless you have a history of allergies. Milk should still be her main food, so don't worry too much about what/how much she's eating!

when I started weaning I did a mixture of finger food and mush. DS was never that great with lumpy stuff until fairly recently (9 months) when he started chewing properly. I started with baby rice and then cooked fruit like pears and apples. I then tried a bit of mashed banana.

After he'd accepted those (a couple of weeks I think) I started introducing pureed veggies, sweetpotatoes, butternut squash, carrots, parsnips. That sort of thing. I also used to give ds some bread to gum, some rice cakes, larger lumps of banana, that sort of thing.

I started introducing proteins with things like grated cheese on his veggies and plain yoghurt mixed with fruit (yoghurt and banana always go down well)

Finally I started introducing more complex proteins at around 8 months, starting off with vegetable proteins like lentils, chick peas and so on, then steamed fish such as salmon, then chicken then red meats until now he's eating everything and anything.

How much you mush and puree is down to your dd and how keen she is to chew, try a few larger lumps of things like bread to see if she's willing to gum things a bit.

Once you get going it's surprising how fun it is thinking of new things to give them (if you love cooking as i do that is!)

You don't have to boil drinking water from 6 months I think.

Have fun!

HeadFairy - when did you start introducing proteins?

Half and half is completely fine - it's what I do.

Tap water is fine from 6mo - no need to boil.

Strawberries are fine.

Can offer at any time of day that suits you - no need to stick to a feeding routine unless you're trying to get your baby into a general routine, in which case a feeding routine can help get them on track - if you see what I mean! It's quite easy to do food on the go though - I've lost track of the numbers of times my two have eaten cold cheese on toast in their buggies Just bung it in foil and take it with you for later.

The smoothies would be fine if they are just fruit. Though if they're made with fruit juice I'd personally avoid it if it was from concentrate. If you want quick fruit though, Organix (and several other makes) do 100% pureed fruit pots which you can keep in the store cupboard (no need to refrigerate) and they're much cheaper than those smoothies.

As for meat & fish - fish is easy for all 6mo babies to eat. BLWers say that meat is fine too but I've never had any luck with meat for DS (9mo) apart from liver. You could blend it and make it into a spread for toast, if you wanted to do as finger food.

Good luck!

Thank you for all the answers.

Tinkjon - As I said before, I wasnt talking about buying smoothies speciallly but I drink them myself. They are 100% fruit and NOT from concentrate (I dont buy any juise etc from concentrate and always check the carton).

Thank you

I'm doing a combo BLW/ purees with ds (7mths) and it is going really well! He can eat strawbs if they are soft and cut up, fish is flaked, veg mashed a bit, but I usually puree meat. i quite often feed him with a spoon while he holds something else in his hand- between us we seem to get enough in!!

re meat. give them a strip of steak and see how they get on. dd used to suck and chew at it for ages and then discard the remains. she loved it.

re BLW specifically... the whole thing of 'getting enough in' isn't the point, the point is to let them feed themselves and if that means a little or a lot then no matter, so long as you aren't limiting milk. it's not for everyone but i just wanted to pick up on that. you don't actually know how much your child needs on a day to day basis, you're just guessing. they know, however.

I guess I am still a bit of a coward when it comes to meat, as I can't shake the whole choking fear! Ds is no 3 and I want to do it differently from my first 2, as I feel I pureed too much and then, despite eating all flavours etc, when it got lumpier they started refusing, and we've had a hard couple of years getting them to eat a good varied diet since! Ds certainly seems to be a whole lot better at the finger food thing, but he also likes to eat from a spoon (and sometimes uses it himself, after a fashion!)and he gets a bit frustrated (and very vocal!!) when the food doesn't get in as easily and quickly as he would like! If I can ever afford steak again I will be brave and give it a go!! Cheers!

do you ever do stews? casseroled meat is good as well, jooly. it's really not a chokey thing because they can't really get it in their mouths when they're wee, they just sook it and worry at it until it becomes absolutely deeesgusting.

I did stew/ casserole the other night- but I pureed it (roughly) for ds . I don't know why I worry about choking, really- he has toast every morning and chokes regularly! I really think it is trying to change MY mindset that is the problem!!

my DS is 6 1/2m now and he is doing well with mashed fruit and veg - have just bought a glass grater from ulula.co.uk which is fab for pureeing small amounts of fruit/veg (highly recommended - best buy so far!), even raw apple and raw carrot work well.
DS is most keen on banana and steamed/boiled butternut squash - he will take the banana roughly mashed but not the squash, that has to be lump-free. He is less keen on the more cellular foods like apple and carrot. Having said that, I did find some organic 100% fruit purees in Tesco healthy food section - 2 small tubs for ~£1.09, each one does at least 4 portions, comes in 3 flavours - pear, apple & blueberry, apple & apricot - DS likes these very much. Have to be at room temp though for eating, and kept in fridge so a bit tricky.

Tried the blw thing a week or so ago and it didn't go well - he nearly inhaled a whole steamed carrotstick, which upset him; and nearly choked on loose steamed broccoli floret tips. He has a mean suck on him!
Will try it again later, when he has got the hang of chewing a bit better. He's still mostly in "suck and swallow" mode at the moment, but I have got him some nice spelt hard biscuits to chew on.

hellogoodbye, I know you're buying the smoothies for yourself anyway, I just thought that if the reason you wanted to give your lo some was because of a convenient way to serve fruit then the pots are cheaper.