Starting Weaning

[AliceRosesMum]

Hi- I'm new here so please go easy on me!
My daughter was born term but small ( 3lb12) and after birth was very very ill.
Her health is more stable now and she is 10lb5 at 24 weeks. She is on several groups of medication which she takes orally which have different textures ( suspensions/ liquids and tablets- tablets are crushed and administered in water)
As we approach the 6 month mark we are starting to think about weaning. She is sitting up, shoving anything and everything in her mouth, trying to pinch our food and has a tooth ridge.
She has definite medicine preferences- some she practically grabs off you and tries to but in her mouth, and others she definitely dislikes.
I am a first time mum with no other mummy friends at this stage of little person development.I signed up for some weaning classes with the health visitor who cancelled them, and with our local doctors surgery who also cancelled them.
I have ordered some hipp baby jars and wondered if there would be any harm in experimenting with them? I'm thinking of tastes of different flavours rather than 'proper weaning'
Any advice? Thank you.

Welcome to MN, ARM

It's been a long time since I weaned my DSs so any advice I could give would be waaaay out of date.

Bumping for the tea-time crew.

hi there

you could try your little one with baby led weaning, www.babyledweaning.com where you essentially give your child finger foods. if they can sit up, can pick up and chew and swallow a piece of food, you know they are ready to eaat! and you don;t need to buy jars or prepare special meals

this is also a good way to introduce new tastes and flavours without getting set on 3 meals a day

Have confidence in your instincts, you sound like a great mum to your little girl. You'll know if you try something and she isn't ready or isn't enjoying it, you can always stop and try it again in a week or two. It does sound like she'd be open to trying some new tastes and textures, to me. She'd probably enjoy having something yummy to take away the taste of the nasty medicines too!

I can't see any harm in trying her with some fruit or vegetable purees, or even some pieces of soft fruit or steamed veg, just take it slowly and don't worry, it's all for fun at this stage, the milk is giving her everything she needs.

Oh, and welcome to MN!!

If you want to startexperimenting with tastes it is better to make your own purees rather than go straight to jars. Carrot and apple are popular first foods. You will have less waste and save money! You can freeze the purees into ice cube trays to make little portions.

It sounds like your DD is ready; I am assuming her health problems are not related to digestion etc.

Thank you for your help. We tried a little mushy banana this morning and it was a resounding success. We have also given her a plastic spoon to play with too so it doesnt get regarded with suspicion. And isaidno- her health problems are unrelated to her digestive system, sensible point to ask though. Thanks.

Glad she liked it! It must be a very exciting time for a baby!

Don't be surprised if she doesn't eat much at first. My DS took about 2 weeks to eat anything much - I started weaning about a week shy of 6 months. Then suddenly, he got an appetite and started wolfing down his purees and we haven't looked back since.

Even if you decide to do purees rather than BLW, I would recommend trying finger foods as soon as you think your baby is ready. I started soon after starting weaning and at 9 months, DS loves to feed himself, even though most of his meals are spoon fed. Lots of books say to introduce finger foods at 7 months, or even later but there's no reason why you can't try earlier if you want to.