Tell us your best weaning tips and recipes, please - for a chance to win £250 Kenwood products of your choice

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello. Kenwood have asked us to ask you for your best weaning tips and recipes.

We're looking for everything from great foods to start with to how to know when your baby's had enough and from what to look for in a highchair to how to splatterproof your kitchen (if that's even possible!)

We welcome tips from baby-led weaning veterans - and puree purists alike (and any mix-and-matchers, too!). And also tips about great foods/recipes your slightly older baby (7 months plus) might like moving onto once the early weaning days are over.

We'd also love you to post some simple weaning recipes. If you've got a great recipe that you've already loaded into the Weaning section of our Recipes pages, it's fine just to post the link to it on this thread.

Everyone who posts a tip or a recipe will be entered into a prize draw to win a selection of Kenwood products of their choice, worth up to £250.

Please note that Kenwood will be using a selection of your tips, comments, recipes and suggestions on a new Kenwood weaning microsite that is set to go live on Mumsnet at the start of June and in a booklet that is being published in conjunction with Emma's Diary in July and also in Newsgen, the NCT magazine. If you have any questions about this, please email [email protected]

Thank you - and good luck!

[Habbibu]

A highchair that can be taken out and hosed is a must in our house. IKEA Antilop the obv. choice.

[onadietcokebreak]

Breadsticks are cheap and portable for snacks on the go.

[MamaGlee]

Butternut squash is a fab weaning food

When pureed after roasting it's like velvet

also makes fab soup

Great for BLW too to serve in chunks

[whomovedmychocolate]

Check carefully a sippy cup each and every time to make sure the lid is on properly, or be ready with your mop!

Paint your ceilings in washable emulsion (no really).

Buy a shower curtain to lay under the highchair. If you get two you will probably cover your baby's range. Ideally get three and fashion a sou wester out of the third

[BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny]

Freeze pure'd food in ice cube trays, then all you need to do is heat up a cube or two to save you time, they are roughly the right size aswell.

[BertieBotts]

My best tip to save money is don't bother with a highchair at all, go for one of the booster chairs designed to fit on a normal dining chair, with a tray. The trays tend to be lower down than other highchairs (better for BLW) and they are easy to clean and don't take up as much room in your kitchen. Also, you can use it until your toddler is tall enough to sit at the table on a normal chair.

My best tip overall is remember that food is an exploratory experience, not a nutritional necessity, from about 6-12 months. There is no rush to get them eating three meals a day, however you choose to go about it.

[BelleDeChocolateFluffyBunny]

Put a plastic sheet or an old blanket under the high chair so you won't have to constanly clean the floor when bits of food are dropped.

[BertieBotts]

Oh, actually, I have a BRILLIANT tip about how to get your baby to drink from a beaker if they are not sure or are freaked out by it. (Please paraphrase if you want, I waffle)

Use one of the cups with a handle on each side, and with a lid the same colour as the cup. It works best if it's a freeflow cup (not a non spill one with a valve) Put a small amount of water (not juice yet, in case it gets spilt everywhere) into the cup and leave the lid off. Let your baby hold onto the cup using the handles, but hold the main part of the cup yourself to minimise spillage and direct it to their mouth.

Once they have worked out that there is water in the cup and it comes out when they tip it up, you can put the lid on and direct it to their mouth again. Hopefully now, they are expecting water to come out and it won't be such a shock.

[LadyGaggia]

Adding pureed pear to anything meant that DS would eat it.
Although it seemed disgusting, chicken and pear was a winner in our house!

[lamby79]

My tip is to wait until 6 months (or at least as close to as poss) as it's so much more fun to let your LO enjoy exploring food rather than be stuck with spoon-fed baby rice.

[pipsqueak]

rice cakes are good and butternut squash pureed with carrots and swede is quite nice

[CMOTdibbler]

If your baby always eats what you do, then they will never know that there is such a thing as weaning food, or indeed that they aren't supposed to like things because they are adult food.

This can backfire though, as your plate is never yours again as they always want to share

[countrybump]

Mix a bit of milk or cream into your purees to make them thinner, tastier and easy to eat.

[Habbibu]

Think of amounts and types of food eaten over a week, not a day. Much less stressful.

[crikeybadger]

Rice cakes with cashew nut butter are great for babies who need to put on a few calories, ditto for avocado.

Quinoa cooked with apple, cinnamon and raisins makes a good, high protein alternative to porridge.

Owning a dog is a great alternative to having to clean the floor

[AttillaTheHan]

When feeding your baby give them a spoon to hold. It keeps them busy and encourages them to have a try at feeding themselves when they are more able.

Our BLW saviour was potato cakes, they can be easten hot or cold and plain or with toppings.

[AttillaTheHan]

When feeding your baby give them a spoon to hold. It keeps them busy and encourages them to have a try at feeding themselves when they are more able.

Our BLW saviour was potato cakes, they can be eaten hot or cold and plain or with toppings.

[hobnob57]

We did purees for DD1 and found that the freezing of ice cubes of food was very convenient, as already stated. However, an ordinary ice cube tray is sufficient rather than the specifically marketed lidded ones (which are a fiddle to wash & dry). You just empty the frozen contents into a labelled bag and it takes up so much less room in your freezer. Also when out and about, popping a couple of cubes into a lidded dish in the morning meant that they were defrosted in time for lunch. No bother.

Pelican bibs are ace, but best used in conjunction with a plastic-lined sleeved bib.

Serve egg soldiers only before bathtime.

I remember kedgeree and chicken & apple balls going down very well with DD1. Combinations of food are not important to wee ones. DD1 loved her egg'n'veg - soldiers with frozen farmhouse veg accompaniment.

We're BLW this time and intend to use the tips from the BLW website: steam finger-food sized chunks of veg & freeze in bags instead of ice cubes. DD2 had great fun sucking half a banana with a bit of skin on for holding purposes to death tonight. Great fun.

Rice cakes are the ultimate snack for out and about. And fruit bars. But DD1 loved to suck on an apple core just as much.

[Ponymum]

Our daughter's favourite first food was steamed broccoli. Cut the florets very small, steam until softish, and they are then perfect for a little hand to grasp and self-feed.

[FiveGoMadInDorset]

Cook your measl without any salt, then portion up leftovers and stick in the freezer.

[feedthegoat]

I think it is important to remember that dc are often really open to trying all sorts of crazy combinations and it is what they enjoy that matters, not what you think they ahould like.

I tried really hard to give ds foods that I didn't like as I didn't want to deny him the opportunity to try things. For instance, I don't like fish but he loved fresh mackeral, even though the smell makes me want to throw up!

Oh, and don't give your baby a bowl of tomato pasta in your shiny clean kitchen as showing potential purchasers round. I thought it was a sure fire way to keep him occupied and his plastic tatt off the floor. It didn't look that attractive sliding down the wall, whilst I frantically tried to scrub it off before they came in the room.

[Knickers0nMyHead]

Give them food and let them get on with it. Messy is fun!!!!

[AitchTwoZone]

when they get their pincer grip, a bowl of rinsed frozen peas will keep the moaniest teething baby occupied.

[Pavlov]

CMOT my DD, aged 3.8 still steals off my plate as we always ate the same food, so this time i am stuffing the boy with puree .

Great first foods that babies can hold are bananas.

Remember to have the camera ready as there will be some classic moments.

From 6 months old, babies don't really need pureed food, mashed is fine if not doing baby led weaning.

It is ok to give your baby both pureed/mashed food on a spoon and some bits of food to hold themselves, once they are 6 months old. I have heard lots of people get stressed about which approach they will follow.

Remember - Food is Fun Until They're One.