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?

Shovelling my eye! DD clamped her mouth onto the edge of the bowl as I was too slow! Maria if you find a way to instill some patience do let me know!!! I did let DD suck on an apple wedge while I prepared her lunch. She totally enjoyed scraping her teeth on it. Then she gagged. Guess that's all part of the game!

a question ladies: I'm not wrong that you can use cows milk in cooking and on cereal from 6 months am i? I put a teeny bit in my ds's brekkie this morn and it went down v well. This afternoon he was howling (in pain?) for about 40 mins - it seemed tummy related and when i mentioned to my best friend (as i txted her in horrow) she semed horrified i'd given him cows milk. She reckons in cooking from 7 months and not on cereal til 10 months to a year. I now feel terrible. Am sure my dd had it on cereal etc from about now (though she was weaned in the days when they told you 17 weeks still) but I sm doubting myself so much.

Should i stick to ebm / formula on cereal (is just baby rice at moment - next step was oats but am scared about that now)??

Waaaah.

Carrot tonight. Was going to try carrot and parsnip but after the milk incident i don't want to intro another new thing today.

One tip: careful with the carrot alittlebitshy (remember what happened with my baby, not sure if you followed my carrot sorry)- my boy got completely hyper, and I mean HYPER!!!- when I tried him with carrot. ALthough perhaps I overdid it, as I gave him 3 cubes of carrot all at once . I think carrot is very high on the glycaemic index & too much of it drives their insulin levels sky high (or something like that, hope I'm explaining it correctly).

I do milk in food (and that includes cereal) from 6 months. My understanding is that it's OK as long as it's not their main drink.

None of my 3 have been any good with cups - mostly just play with them, take the teeniest bit - so I confess to putting milk in their first beakers too.

My guys are exlusively breastfed so no formula kicking about and I'm FAR too lazy to express!

Hope your wee ones's tummy upset was a one off littlebitshy.x

alittlebitshy - the advice is ok for cooking/on cereal for 6 months but not as a drink until a year purely because cows milk doesnt contain all they need unlike bm or ff. Saying that it is a bit of an intolerance risk and so can upset stomachs easily.

We were a bit dodgy with cows milk at first but now seem to be fine at nearly 9 months.

I managed to get my dd to take quinoa at lunchtime because dp has a lot of cooked stuff in the fridge for his lunch (bleugh but dont ask) - I just mixed it in to some lentil casserole and it all disappeared.

Maria - I wouldnt worry about the patience thing - once you've moved onto things with quite big lumps in - especially meat, then lots of chewing takes place and this slows them right down.

maria i'll keep you posted about ds and the crarot/hyperness. he had a thick layer of the bottom of an oval bowl (boots weaning bowl from 5 years ago)'s worth. iyswim

Have discovered the Annabel karmel cubes. I heart them. We were forever snapping proper ice cube trays when taking them out, with dd, and having a lid is fabulous!!! That said, they're big cuces so at this stage they're on the large side of adequte but I'm so impressed.

What should I do about the milk thing? Shall i stick to the ebm/formula (ds has one bottle forumula a day so we have the lazy option cartons).

Now i'm feeling like i have to justify my formula use. Cos I worry ppl will think i don't do a good enough job bfing ds (rest of day is all breast, and in the night). What is wrong with me today?!

Littlebit, I used formula in food after six months cos it was too much of a faff to express and I could never express enough. But normal cow's milk is fine too. Don't forget formula IS cow's milk so I am not sure why your friend was so horrified. Lots of babies have cow's milk (in the form of ff) from birth! FF has added iron and vitamins which is why I used it but it doesn't matter either way esp if your LO is getting a nice varied diet. if you are using cartons I would use cow's milk cos it is much cheaper!

Hi again girls, good morning

Well, my poor DS has a blocked nose for the second day in a row... which means we had a kind of horrible sleepless nights, us helping him unblock his nose (using snot sucker & saline drops- he HATES it but it does the job )... and him waking again & again crying... Anyway. Better talk about happier subjects, i.e. weaning.

So, yesterday & today we tried 1 cube sweet potato for lunch, mixed with loads of baby rice & EBM. He seemed to actively dislike it! And even though usually he opens mouth wide & attacks the spoon (!), today & yesterday, with the sweet potato he turned away & just would NOT have it. Seeing that I don't want to force feed him at all, I just left it at that & he had no lunch, so I'm planning a bit more milk as a top-up before his lunchtime nap... Interesting how they have their own tastes & preferences So what do I do about the sweet potato, do you think? Should I move on to giving him other things as first tastes, & then mix up the sweet potato in the future with something else?

I would try it again at a different meal - or even [whisper it] as a roasted finger food. When I started with the veg I didnt mix it with the baby rice - just a bit of ebm.

When they've got a cold they dont want to eat anyway so it could be that as well.

if it gets turned down again then just move onto something else instead - you can always go back to it as a casserole ingredient.

Gone off sweet potato? Crikey! Sounds like it might be the cold (very sorry to hear about your sleepless nights). When you're ready, why not try sweet potato straight up? You can roast it in its skin so that it totally melts -- no need to prick the skin or anything, I just wrap them in foil. Hope things improve soon!

I bet the cold has made him go off it a bit Maria. DD has just had a cold and would only eat weetabix and rice cakes for a couple of days. Try the sweet potato again in a couple of days and just give him what he feels like at the moment if he is poorly, which will probably be more milk.

Plum organic porridge is good for breakfast and has quinoa in it.

Just realised Kate has already said everything I said. Not too with it this morning

Enjoy your food shovelling today!

at Pudding. I find that my dd will eat toast no matter how coldy she is and yoghurt in fact but the lamb casserole at lunch today was a nonstarter, no amount of shovelling would work ...

giantkate - is roasted veg a no-no then?

noooo - its just that most blwners start out with roasted veg (it was a rubbish joke-sorry) - its a great thing for them to eat...and they can have it from 6 months - as long as your dc is happy with finger food generally - it all goes very soft so they can just gum and chew it.

I would make it into a baton and dont overcook it as thats supposed to be a cancer risk. Mind you my dd happily ate some pieces of normal sized roasted courgette the other day..she is 8.5 months though.

Thanks for the tips girls. I'm just also realizing that it may have been a mistake to mix the sweet potato with baby rice (too much carb, and probably not a nice taste). I'll try it on its own next time, or with a bit of EBM. Tomorrow I'm trying apple! I'll give 2 cubes completely on their own (no baby rice). Lets see how that goes down. So far we've established pear (he loves it), baby rice (what a blaaaaaahhhh food) and courgette (surprisingly he loves it ). Carrot was another story (I mentioned my carrot aka baby-cocaine story).

Just a couple of questions. Do you think it's a good idea to persist with more veg before I move on to the fruit (e.g the apple or papaya)? Or should I just alternate? And one other question- I've been bulk cooking, pureeing & freezing in ice cubes. But then I've found it a huge hassle to freeze the ice cubes 2 by 2 or 3 by 3 in individual freezer bags (plus, what with labelling them and all it takes AGES). So I'm just putting all cubes of each veg or fruit in one big freezer bag, & then taking out the number of cubes I need each time. How do you do it girls?

OK, I'm now sure it's the cold that is putting him off food... After refusing his lunch (sweet potato, baby rice & milk), he then also refused his supper (pear, baby rice & milk). So it's either the cold, or it's the fact that I've been offering slightly more milk today (because he seems to be taking smaller feeds)... Oh well. I suppose I knew that weaning takes its time, especially for first tastes to be established, but it's kind of disappointing to go to all that effort to make the purees & then to express the milk and then it all goes down the drain . Oh well. That's motherhood for you isn't it!

maria - I just use normal ice cube trays then leave them in there in the freezer - when i need some more I pop them out into unlabelled bags and try and remember what they are - usually ok with some controversy over white fish and mash...

I would alternate the veg and fruit tho fwiw have only done apple, pear and banana - thought that tbh dd would probably like all fruit so wanted to concentrate on the veg. We did brocolli quite early on and that was a big hit. We put some olive oil in with it though once it had been cooked.

btw everyone the plum porridge is on offer at boots at the mo...

maria - my dd always preferred lumpy rather than runny - have you tried it slightly thicker? and dont worry they all go off their food - and you want to go at his pace anyway.

dont underestimate the power of The Cold - mine wont even bf at the height of one let alone eat solids.

maria - we freze the pop all of each type into a bag and get x cubes out when need.

atm usding annabel karmel cubes - bigger but withlid!!

Maria I now freeze veg in cubes, but I'll do a whole tray at a time of the same on e.g brocolli and then tip them into a bag once they're frozen. So I have a bag of brocolli, bag of sweet potato etc. Then I just take out whatever I need the night before. I wouldn't bother bagging them up in portion sizes.

Once DS was past 6 months and I had a better idea of how much he would eat, I started freezing puree 'meals' in pots. I bought a shedload of the tommee tippee snack pots. I just keep them frozen in the pots and defrost overnight. I still use the freezer cubes for basic fruit and veg though. The veg is particularly handy because its easy to take out a few cubes and whip up a cheese sauce to mix it with.

If you're batch cooking a load of purees you might want to do what I did - I kept it quite thick and didn't add any milk or anything. That way I could just adjust the consistency with milk as needed when DS was fed. Otherwise, I would have ended up with loads of runny puree by the time my DS was onto thicker stuff IYSIM.

alittlebitshy - Glad you're getting on well with the AK trays. Keep an eye on them though - I think a few MNers have had problems with them. Can't remember what though - possible something to do with the lids getting out of shape? If you do a search on MN you'll find some chat on it I'm sure.

Thanks re the roasted veg giant.. - sorry, completely missed the joke .

Quick poll - which veg do you think works well roasted vs steamed/boiled? Will be doing a bit of a cookathon next week, so looking for some ideas.

Oh, I use the ice cube trays from lakeland - they're silicon so pop out very easy.

Right, off to make some banana muffins. Mmmmmmmmm.

Maria, I use the Beaba freezing trays with a lid. Prob like AK as they are larger than ice cube trays but are perfect for DD's meals (3-4 Tbsp equiv). Then like Kate I pop them into unlabelled bags. Before going for more fruit, you could try squash and peas, which my dd just loves. Get petit pois (got some from M&S) or else you have to pass them through a sieve.

bdq - you're so well behaved getting them out the night before - makes me feel a bit

I make up the meals individually rather than all together - so in the freezer at the mo there is lamb cass, lentil cass, carrots, mash, white fish, peas and I think some swede. So I can have white fish, mash and peas or lentil casserole and mash or any combo at all iyswim. I just get out the right combo then microwave for a minute and then let it cool down.

Now am tending to use them as macaroni/rice/quinoa sauces instead - so two cubes of lamb and lots of macaroni and some cheese. For this I agree with bdq and leave them thick - you can always make them runnier but cant bulk them up without baby rice.

roasted veg - sweet potato, squash, courgette, potatoes, parsnip

boiled/steamed - peas, broccoli, beans, asparagus, swede, potatoes

DramaQ, am sooooo impressed at your new domestic godessness! Banana muffins indeed!!!

B was off his food at lunchtime - bloody teething, but still NO TEETH! - but made up for it at tea. He's been more than a bit fractious, so have given him a shot of medised. Hopefully we'll have a better night tonight, last night was awful.

Maria, its common for them to hate apple cos it is quite tart - mix with lots of milk and baby rice! i used to cook and puree a food then put all the trays in one freezer bag, then put a sticker on, then when frozen pop the cubes into the bag and put the sticker back on. But the ice cube stage doesn't last long. I just tend to cook stuff two or three days in advance now and keep stuff in the fridge. I am sure it is the cold, yes it is very demoralising to throw food away!

T loves roasted parsnip, but I am too lazy to do roasted veg just for them to gum and throw on the floor. I have had to go back to basics today cos they have been refusing more and more, So I gave them butt sq with milk and baby rice, then parsnip and carrot then sweet potato and they wolfed it all so that was a relief.

Oh dont be giant.. I've just got a wierd thing about defrosting food in the microwave. I do it when I have to but I try not to!

On peas - I just use frozen peas mashed/pureed with other stuff and DS has taken them ok.

On apples Maria which type do you use? I use gala or pink lady as they're quite sweet. I tried apple with pear before apple on its own (he'd already had pear).

I actually didn't mix fruit or veg with baby rice very often when I was starting out unless something was really runny and I needed to thicken it. But, I'm a bit lucky in that DS hasn't refused anything.

whinegums aw, I feel I've let you down because I didn't make my muffins! I went to start them and DH came home so we had tea. Then I spotted a load of veg leftover this week that we wont use over the weekend so I've just been pureeing it all.

However, am now wondering about my very ripe bananas that I had aside for the recipe. My recipe book (its a very good muffin book) says that you can freeze ripe bananas in an airtight container until you need them. Now I would never freeze bananas so my question is... would you freeze them with or without skins?