weaning - what do i really need to buy...

[wombleprincess]

right, before i waste even more money, and advice on what i really need to get started?

depends what route you are going down...purees or BLW.

BLW all you need is a nice bowl or two.

purees you need some soft spoons and something to do the actual pureeing with. The hand held blenders are ideal, but buy a normal one as opposed to one for weaning..they are cheaper. I'd avoid all the weaning ice cube pots etc as they aren't really necessary...normal ice cube trays are fine and you can buy small storage pots in poundstretcher much cheaper than some blue or pink affair designed especially for weaning.

Alternatively I'm sure if you grate the veg before cooking, then you won't need a blender at all.

Depends on what route you want to take - BLW or purees. For both you need a high chair - my favourite is the uber-cheap IKEA antilop - £15 and fab. Bibs with sleeves useful, as are pelican bibs for catching food, and a few muslins.

For BLW you don't need much else save a splash mat for under the chair, and maybe a basket steamer that fits in a pan to steam say carrot sticks or broccoli florets so they're soft enough to bite and chew easily.

I haven't done purees, but for a baby 6 mo plus they shouldn't need too fine a puree - mashing will do the trick with most things - then spoons, bowls, and maybe a couple of tubs for travel, I guess.

There is a Lot of stuff out there which is marketed to make you think it's essential - don't fall for it!

sorry, what is blw?

baby led weaning

basic principle is that you don't bother with purees or mashing and feed the baby appropriate finger foods from around six months.

information

here. The book is really good.

and

here....this is Aitch's (another MNer) blog

I did a mix of spoon feeding with DD (soups, breakfast, yogurts) and BLW (giving her the veg and pasta, meat fish etc to feed hersefl)

Stain remover

Don't waste money on a splash mat for under the highchair - buy a cheap shower curtain. splash mats sold specifically for this purpose are too small.

also, if the baby can sit unaided and get the food to their mouth and have lost the tongue thrust reflex (where they naturally try and spit everything out that isn't a teat or nipple). This usually happens somewhere between 5 and 6 months.

ooh, that's a good tip on the shower curtain soupdragon .

Cheap plastic tablecloth/sheeting for the floor. Bibs if you're worried about mess, ones with arms are good.

That was it I think.

Antilop highchair from ikea is very good.

Yes, wasn't thinking - by splash mat I meant old bit of tablecloth - that's what we used!

lol at stain remover. hadnt thought about that. and now i know why all her handmedowns have orange marks at chest level. doh...

hadnt even heard about BLW, most of my nct group have weaned early and are pureeing like mad.

Pureeing sounds like a lot of work. DD started solids at about 6.5 months when she helped herself to Sunday roast.

I tried with baby rice at about 20 weeks and it was spat back at me. Stopped and then three weeks later DD grabbed a handful of mashed potato off my plate and stuffed it in grinning.

DS is 18 weeks now and I can't wait for him to be ready to do that. I'm going to do full BLW this time around.

how old is your DC wombleprincess?

oh, and good old sunlight goes a long way to removing orange stains from bibs and clothes.

she's 20 weeks, just so adorable at the moment. not showing any signs of wanting food (ie contentedly feeding on milk, just dropped the 10pm feed hurray). quite like the thought of BLW, it sorts of fits with my thinking more, iykwim, will definitely do some more research.

Ikea is brilliant for cheap stuff - my DS was very slow to support himself properly (he didn't walk till he was 20 months) so the blow up cushion that fits inside the antilop was brilliant. Also they do sets of rainbow coloured plastic bowls and plates for £1 a set which are microwavable and freezer proof. Which are brilliant until they get to about 2 when they demand every is served on their Thomas the Tank Engine plate

Ikea sell great bibs too that have arms and food catcher at bottom! You can wash them in sink and they dry by next meal time.

We started weaning on Sunday. Doing mix of purees and BLW. Had apple purree and a cooked broccolii floret for brekkie.

I have bought

Highchair (cheapey IKEA one for Granny's house, ££££ M&P one to reach breakfast bar at home)
Lino offcut from carpet shop to pub under high chair (£2)
Soft spoons (Sainsbury's)
Little pots with lids (Sainsbury's, about £1.50 for 4)
Long sleeved bibs (IKEA, £2.50 for 2)
Have made purees and frozen in ordinary ice cube trays (had these already) and put into freezer bags (also from Sainsbury's).
Already had a hand blender. When I finish the purees in the freezer, I am just going to go for mashed stuff and more finger foods.

Can't see that I'll need anything more than that.

oh something that you'll definitely need no matter which method you're using, is lots of flannels for wiping hands and face - again ikea are brill for packs of 10 flannels for a v small price. Best not to get white ones as banana and tomato stain badly.

lots of laundry tablets.

I didn't do blw, but I didn't do purees either. If you wait until around 6 months then you'll probably find that mashing with a fork is fine.

You can introduce finger foods straight away, so even if you decide not to go down the blw route, Aitch's blog is v v useful for this.

Wilkinson's do 5 flannels for 99p.

Ikea is awesome. We got some small plastic plates and bowls super cheap, perfect size for DS and very fun and light for him to chuck about.

an industrial strength chisel for removing weetabix from surfaces....

full arm bibs and nothing else.

A dog to clean up any mess to save you from vacuuming

another vote for the plastic cutlery, bowls and plates - a plate is a good sized meal portion. The only problem I have with them are the orange plates - they don't make the food look very appetising as they are so fluorescent! Ikea is a v good start for all things weaning, basically!