General chat thread for puree lovers!

[Neenztwinz]

Before I started weaning my twins, I read about BLW and thought it looked like an amazing idea.

When I tried it I found my darling LOs didn't pick up a single thing never mind get it into the mouths.

So now I puree food and spoonfeed them and they are eating massive amounts and loving it - and sleeping all night!

So I thought I'd start a thread for others who are doing the same as me - we can swap ideas for meals and say what works for us (ie what makes them sleep ).

I gave my twins four plums plus ebm and baby rice for breakfast and they have had a big bowl of sweet potato, haricot beans and brocolli for lunch. More of the same for tea (plus maybe some swede and parsnip). They are 6.5mths old.

What did yours eat today?

I'm also really interested in timings from anyone with a really good system. Had success with a puree today - was an Ella's kitchen one not home made I'm afraid!

though my timings (especially in the early morning) are based around the school run so would do breakfast at 8am if i could but we need to leave the house then...

I'll add myself to the 'Proud to Puree' thread!

DS's routine is

7 - 8 Cereal for breakfast

Mid morning bf

12 - 1 Lunch, yesterday was Sweetcorn chowder followed by a yogurt and he fed himself some cheese.

Mid afternoon bf

4.30 - 5.30 DInner, yesterday he had Lentil bake and fed himself clementine

7 - 8 Cereal

Portion size wise his food nealry fills a tommy tippee weaning pot.
He doesn't feed exactley the same time evey day but around the times above.

He also has a couple of bf's before bed and about three times between his bedtime feed ans breakfast.

Our routine's pretty much the same as goingfor3's although we don't do the bedtime cereal, just another milk. We found so long as we left about an hour between milk and food then they were interested enough in food.

How much to feed is a bit of a tricky question. Before they're one they don't need the food in a nutritional sense (although they do need extra iron) so its not necessary to ensure say 3 meals of 5 oz at each meal. We let the dss guide us, started out with a tablespoon or 2 in the bowl and they took as much as they wanted. once they were consistently polishing that off we started making more up. In fact the plum baby pots were perfect meal sizes for our dss (although they would both eat adult size portions of fruity porridge right from the start...greedy boys ).

Thnanks for replys re routines any more would be appreciated. i have to give breakfst after morning nap as she not interested before (still full after 9oz bottle) so we end up with breakfast at 10am! not sure if thats ok or not...........

I have a freezer packed with all kinds of yummy home made puree but she refuses it but seems to love ellas garden and hipp organic pots. Does anyone else wean on ready made food or is this terrible

flourybaps it really doesn't matter wehat time she wants to eat. DS is my third so he has to work around the other children!

DD1 had quite a few ready made foods. With dd2 and now ds I tend to make nearly everything as it's just as I spend so mich time cooking with five of us it doesn't really make that much difference to me cooking for a baby too. I cook in bulk so currently he has about two weeks worth of food in the freezer.

Here is my puree loving routine!

6am BF
7.30 am Breakfast, fruit purees, porridge, cereal etc
11am FF
1.30pm Lunch (have just introduced meats) but anything veggie like and yog or fruit
3pm- 5pm poss FF depends on naps7hunger
5pm Tea, Baby rice, more fruit, tofu etc
7.30pm FF
Sometime in night BF

Quantities about the same amount as is in a hipp organic pot or 5-6 icecubes

Avocado with OJ, or apple juice, banana, baby rice or on own And she has about 1 half.

Flourybaps I do a mixture of both. I try to allocate a time at wkend when Dp can have Lo and make a load of whatever im low on all at once.

Now im back at work going to plan our dinners from AK book so i can then keep at bit for LO for next days lunch with a bit of veg added from freezer stock.

Butt i do use Hipp organic especially the fruit ones in the pm as sometimes i forget or dont have time to prepare something

flourybaps - I think once you've started withthe bought stuff they will prefer it as its sweeter but look out for the protein content - some of them are really low even for meaty combos...you could try combining the readymade and your own half and half then gradually reducing the ready made maybe?

does she have the same response if you tip the food out of the lovely colourful-looking-like adult-food-pots and into a placcy bowl like the homemade?

Good tips thankyou, didnt know about the protein content i will look into that.

Last question (bloody hell I should go and buy a book hey!)

I have an avent first cup to try and encourage dd to drink water but you have to sort of bite on the spout to get the water to come out and its not going well, any reccomendations? Ps not the doidy cup, need someting I can take out and about with me so pref with a lid of some sort thanks very much loads of great tips on here.

Not terrible at all.

Current baby i care for is on purees tho is offered 'food' by mummy as Mum has a fear of baby choking.

7am ish FF 6ozs
8.10 ish cereal and 3 large baby spoons of fruit
10 ish FF 4ozs
20-40 minute nap B4 or after
11.45 lunch, 2 (ice cubes) x meat or fish, 2 x veg, 1 x carb & fruit
12.30-3 Nap
3pm ish FF 6ozs
6pm ish as above tho different foods, same fruit.

meats/fish : chicken livers, chicken, turkey, beef, veal, salmon, cod, plaice, hake, sardines.

veggies : carrot, pumpkin, yellow peppers, sweetcorn, mixed peppers, courgette, cauliflower, white cabbage, broccoli, spinach, peas, fine green beans.

carbs : potato, borlotti beans, butter/flagilo beans, rice, pasta, chickpeas.

I do a veg colour a day, ie green day is spinach/peas/fg beans etc so i can see if something has come thru quick!

fruits : apple, pear, apricot, peach, banana, strawberry/apple or pear, raisin/apple, cranberry/pear.

She has a fruit for the day, 3 large spoons = 3/4 cubes each meal time.

For drinking try the first cup by tommee tippee.

I use an open cup, i hold it as she chews on spouts [rolls eyes]

Ps wrt protein count that is really interesting in the hipp orgnic jars the califlower cheese has more protein in than the lentil bake or the chicken with rice and veg, (none of which my dd has tried yet, still on the fruit and veg and baby cereal stage yet).

Great idea for a thread! Going to start weaning 24wo dd very soon and am going to puree.

Does anyone know of a good meal planner online that shows when they can have what?

Going to start with baby rice then move on to veggies.

Ps Do you all give your lo's deserts?? If I do it will just be fruit but is it necessary?

laura - i think you can do it yourself really if you want to go down that route - just start off with veg and fruit as you say and do one every couple of days.

my dd has a couple of cubes of apple/pear/other fruit with natural yoghurt after dinner and some banana after lunch but no more 'pudding' than that - I suppose they could have some rice pudding if you made some up but its quite sugary...

other people and hvs will say that if you've waited til 6 months then barring exceptions like peanut and honey then they can have most things and you dont need to wait for meat or wheat/eggs etc but other people have allergies in the family and are more cautious so you just need to do some reading and decide whats right for you...

btw they normally hate baby rice on its own - and who wouldnt

Laura, if you google weaning you should get lots of information. I only give a dessert if they have scoffed all the main and look like they still want more. Then I give a banana or baby rice mixed with ebm or follow-on milk (which they love and I have to admit I like the taste of it too - nice and sweet).

I think baby rice is good to start with cos it tastes like milk (if you make it with milk of course - don't bother making it with water, it is horrid). Then mix apple, pear (a fave), plums, banana etc one food per day to check for reactions. And veg too - sweet potato, parsnips, swede, butternut squash all go down well cos they are quite sweet tasting. Then you can try broccoli, spinach, green beans etc. Just steer clear of citrus fruits until later and some say don't give potatoes, aubergines or tomatoes till 9mths cos they are common allergens. Depends if you have allergies in the family. I mixed all the food with baby rice at first cos they started to reject stuff otherwise.

Happy feeding!!

Giantkatestacks, how do you make your quinoa porridge? I have tried to mix quinoa flakes into food but they seem to hate it.

Right, so this is our routine for 10.5 month old DTs...

7ish am 6/7oz formula
8ish am (an hour after milk) breakfast - alternate weetabix and ready brek or sometimes toast and peanut butter
9:15/30am nap
10:15am snack - always fruit at home (usually fresh pear or banana or mango or melon) but breadsticks / ricecakes when out sometimes
11:30am lunch - fish/meat/pulses with pots and veg, sometimes yoghurt or fruit puree afterwards but only as Neenz said if they look like they are gagging for more
12:30pm nap
2:30/3pm max 5oz formula (sometimes only 2oz, don't let them have more than 5oz or they struggle with evening bottle
4:30pm supper - same as lunch (not same meal but same combo of food)
6:00pm DD usually 5oz milk / DS2 9oz milk

Sometimes they have a baby biscuit about 5pm if they eat their supper early (on the one day they go to nursery they are fed at 3:45pm!). I don't tend to give them finger foods any time soon after milk or mushed food as they gag a lot and will bring up everything!

I started them on Ella's Kitchen sachets as having twins and a 2.5 year old I just didn't have time (or inclination) to make my own food, only for it to be refused / puked up! They then moved onto Plum Baby as could not get Ella's Kitchen next stage ones round here. Now they have Plum Baby pots once every 2 or 3 days if we are out or I have not had a chance to get fresh stuff cooked / no food in freezer either.

Interestingly (so I thought!) they used to bring up all their food (and I mean a humungous projectile vomit) about 4 times a week each. I was at my wits end. HV suggested moving on from Plum Baby as it is quite runny compared to my homecooked food, and also they were still having a 10/10:30am bottle then which she suggested cutting out. Now they are very seldom sick (touch wood). Just added that in case anyone else has a similar problem.

Flourybaps (great name btw), when my DTs had 8 month check I asked if I should just carry on feeding til they purse their lips and refuse and she said yes. But now I do stop earlier than that which I think has also made a difference to them being sick. I would carry on piling it in and they would sometimes get through 5 pots between 2 (more often 3 or 4).

Oh and yes agree on the protein thing. The amount of protein in bought food is very low. I used bought food for 4 months and only very recently started actually cooking for them and since they are eating my food they do sleep an hour later in the morning and sleep better at lunchtime nap too. Could be coincidence though!

Flourybaps also hated those cups that you have to bite with all your strength to get anything out of. Mine use these ones from Tommy Tippee but they do pour it all over themselves and spray the walls as they shake them .

Sorry, that was long

Sorry wanted to also say that these cups are the best one I have found, which DS1 uses for water and milk whenever we are out and they never leak. They do come out quite fast, but both DTs seem to like them too (not for milk, they were aghast when I tentatively suggested it).

That's great Egg. Definitely with you on the refusing/puking up thing. Mine never puke but when they refuse it is so demoralising! They haven't refused anything for a few weeks tho (I just go back to mixing everything with loads of milk and baby rice if they start refusing). LOL at not giving finger food after mush.

BTW, what's it like with twins when they start crawling? (mine are not far off [very scared my idyllic home life is about to be shattered emoticon])

Ha ha -that's the first time anyone has said my cooking sounds good! . Maybe I should just feed everyone purees

We are following (whispers)the Gina Ford Weaning Guide. I loosly follow her routines anyway. The recipes come from her book. It is an idiot's guide to weaning.

DD is 6.5 mths. This is what her routine looks like.

7.15am wake and play in cot (7.15am on a good day).

7.30 BF
8/8.15am breakfast (porridge and fruit)
9.30am 30/40min nap

11.45pm lunch (chicken casserole and lentil casserole this week) and an attempt to drink water (just phased out the mid morning milk feed).

12.30pm nap -anything between 30 mins and 1.5hrs depending on her mood. If she only has a short nap, then she has another nap around 2.15pm

3pm bf

4.30pm 30 min nap

5.15pm dinner (porridge and fruit)
tv, bath and stories.
6.40pm bottle then bed.
Next week or the week after, going to start on things like fish pie and pasta for lunch and potatoes and sandwiches for dinner. God knows what she will make of that.

As for us, we have frozen food and a bit of salad

neenztwinz - the quinoa porridge? I bought it in a large Boots. Will go downstairs and see who makes it [clumps off] Plum super 4 grain porridge...

thanks for the very useful cup links Egg - I am totally bamboozled by the choice tbh. At the moment we are using a nonspill and dd seems to be fine with it but know they're not optimal at her age...

Pudding - so your dd doesnt have anything between 8.15 and 11.45?I dont think we could manage that...how do you cope with the crankiness? or maybe there isnt any [looks jealous]

dd had rice for the first time tonight, there was a marvellous look of incredulity...

Hi, love this thread!! Well done Neenz on starting it, exactaly what i need.
amber I used to give DD1 Weetabix and hot milk before bed from around 7 months until she was 2ish! Always knew she was going to bed 'stocked up' then. She loved it too and still does.
My LO is 22 weeks and we have been on purees for a week now. Tried Pear, Sweet Potato, Parsnip, Carrot. Apple seems to be a no go. ??Why, anyone else had a no for Apple?
Any suggestions for a plan for introducing another meal? So far we are just doing one, whenever is convenient. Would like to start a breakfast soon though to fit in with the family.