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!

[PrettyCandles]

Now matter how much of domestic slattern you are (and I am definitely one!) wipe the highchair down with Dettox once a week, going right into every crease and crevice. Otherwise you are going to become very familiar with the smell and flavour of mould and mildew throughout the kitchen.

[fruitstick]

Agree on highchairs. We have a lovely padded one from M&P which is a NIGHTMARE to clean. A plastic one from ikea would be much better.

Lots of baby puree combination also make great soup for you, just add some veg or chicken stock to your bowl and mix it up.

I always forgot to eat when weaning DSs. The very process of preparing food and spooning into mouth made me feel like I'd eaten even though it wasn't my mouth

This would have had an upside if I wasn't ravenous by 3 o'clock and forced to eat jam doughnuts instead.

Also - don't get into the habit of eating the leftovers. Pureed pear, fine. A whole portion of fish pie at 4:30, not so fine.

[Habbibu]

weetabix sets like cement within about 5 mins of being chucked across the room.

[missorinoco]

And further to Habbibu, ready brek turns into wallapaper paste.

My tip is to microwave a sweet potato. Cooks fast, the inside is very soft, and they can gum it themselves.

[AitchTwoZone]

i would also say, whatever method you choose, enjoy it, because above all else you are beginning to define your child's relationship with food and eating. no stressing. and if you are stressing, just take a break from weaning for a couple of days, you've all got a lifetime of food ahead of you, there's plenty of time.

[Pavlov]

Don't buy baby porridge if you have a mill attachment on your food processor (like for example my lovely shiny and new Kenwood processor ). Instead grind normal porridge into powder and there you go, saved yourself a lot of money ! That is definitely my top tip.

[AvadaKedavra]

Our emergency weaning recipe was banana mashed with avocado, really handy.

[HopeForTheBestExpectTheWorst]

Give your child a proper (open) cup to drink from. Hold it for them at first, then with them.
They learn very, very quickly how to do it. No faffing around with sippy-tippy-baby beakers.

Did BLW with ds, anything that got dropped by mistake was immediately eaten by dog, so ds learnt quickly that if he wanted his food, it had to stay on the plate!
(Incidental Top Tip: get dog)

No weaning recipes as such, because ds ate what we did, the only adjustments I made was to reduce salt and not make such hot curries (though they were still spicy).

The best advice I can think of really is:
Knickers0nMyHead Fri 30-Apr-10 21:55:29
"Give them food and let them get on with it."

Could not agree with you more. Give them everything, and make sure you are eating it too.

[Jojay]

For cleaning up babies when they've finished, buy a pile of flannels.

Clean the baby first, then the highchair, then the floor, and straight into the washing machine.

Much more effective, and cheaper than, wipes.

Oh, and BLW is SO much more fun and way less faff than purees. Definitely the way forward, even if it is messy.

And is is

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Save yourself a lot of effort and just give baby some of whatever you're having. Simples.

[NorbertDentressangle]

Lentils are a great weaning food.

-full of protein which is great if you're child is veggie or not a meat lover.
-great for thickening soups and stews
-lentil based soup/stew is great for dipping finger foods into.

[BessieBoots]

If your baby (like mine) doesn't like water, save the water you boil their fruit/veg in and put it through a tea strainer, then give them that. You can water it down a bit more each time until they're actually just on water.

[mojomama]

seconding the baby-puree as soup for you tip - this works vice-versa: when making a soup, save some of the puree 'base' for your weaning baby to have. Be certain to use a baby-stock, however, as the salt content in normal stock can be too high for little ones (you can always add extra seasoning to your soup after).

(re: Weetabix - this is quite a lot of fibre for a new/small system (such as a weaning baby) to take - wait until they are a little older/more established eater before introducing this.)

also, don't go too crazy with the rich purees - i learnt from painful/green vomit-stained experience that a little salmon/brocolli puree is great but sometimes it's going to come right back at you!

[doughnutty]

Don't give up if your baby spits out at first taste. Persevere for a few days then leave it for a week and try again. It takes up to 15 tries before you'll know they definitely don't like it.
Don't stress if they refuse and don't offer an alternative. They'll make up for any shortfall at their next feed.

Food's for fun until you're one!

[rachaelsara]

My top tip is to buy all the reduced fruit and veg you can get your hands on, then cook, mash/puree it and freeze it for whenever. Same goes for chicken and fish, as long as you get it home from the supermarket quick and cook it thoroughly straight away, it's fine!

This approach meant I tried food and combinations I wouldn't normally choose, great for the kids attitude to food!

Having four dd's we kind of have to budget!

[MiniMarmite]

My top tip is not to worry about how little/much they are eating and don't waste your energy trying to persuade them to eat things. You will both be more relaxed this way.

I think they pick up your signals early on so trying not to discriminate about 'good' and 'bad' foods from the starts stands you in good stead for later.

[imaginewittynamehere]

I second (third/fourth??) the Ikea Antilop for a highchair.
We had a lovely looking wooden thing for dd1, awful to clean, crumbs in every crecice & tricky to get her in & out of as she got bigger. Antilop is a dream, easy to get in & out of, a breeze to clean & cheap.
Just a word of warning though the seatbelt is rubbish. I have customised mine with a reins harness & the attachments designed to anchor them in a pram (dd2 is a bit of an escapologist though so short of superglueing her in it was necessary)

[TheCrackFox]

Just make your own food without salt and then you can chuck a bit in the blender for the baby.

Ds2 loved roast dinners.

[mustrunmore]

You can cut an avocado in half then hold it together with an elastic band! That way it wont go brown, and when you're out and about you can take that and a banana, plastic tub, plastic spoon for squishing.

Never put a highchair on carpet. Even with a spill-mat, you'll still trash it with bits of food.

Dont start making bloody pizza faces etc to try and tempt your child into eating; its a rod for your own back. If they're hungry, they'll eat, amusing presentaion or not.

[Bicnod]

Make a big batch of cheese sauce and freeze in ice cube trays to use as and when. DS will eat anything covered in cheese sauce.

Easy cheese sauce recipe:

275ml/10floz whole milk
25g/1oz plain flour
25g/1oz butter

• chuck all ingredients into a saucepan and whisk continuously over a medium heat until it simmers, then turn down heat and whisk until becomes smooth sauce.
• take off heat and stir in a couple of large handfuls of grated cheddar cheese until completely melted into the sauce.

Also, have chopped frozen veg (I use the 'value' frozen ready chopped veg as its about the right size for little mouths and fingers) in the freezer and mini pasta in the cupboard so you can always have pasta with mixed veg and cheese sauce ready in about 10 mins as a quick healthy meal when you can't be bothered to cook from scratch are in a hurry.

[perapera]

I agree about the IKEA highchair - nearly two years later it looks exactly the same as new. And only £12!

As for foods to try - lentil soup worked well, as did bits of random fruit and veg e.g. broccoli, bananas, cooked carrots, pear, kiwi, swede. Have to admit I gave in to pureeing in the end though.

[JulesJules]

If you don't wean too early you can skip all the baby rice malarkey and you won't have to puree everything. I got a cheap microwave steamer to steam fruit and veg and roughly mashed it with a fork. Have lentils, rice and mini pasta in the cupboard - ideal for bulking up the veg and fruit.

Agree that ideal foods for out and about are avocado and banana, also bread sticks.

Have muslins, LOTS of muslins. Use as bibs, wipes, towels etc and just chuck in the wash.

Don't buy expensive cookbooks full of complicated recipes for weaning (mentioning no names...) - it just makes it more frustrating when the food gets spat out. Keep it simple to start with and then just let the baby eat what you have, before adding salt.

[theyoungvisiter]

This product is absolutely brilliant for blw-ers out and about, or indeed for anyone with a messy eater. It's also a good table-saver at home if you have a particularly staining meal.

It sticks to almost any table and just rolls up (messy side in) for you to pop in your handbag. It's saved me a small fortune in babywipes over the years and I thank the mumsnetter who originally linked to it - can't remember who you are but if you're on this thread, well done!

Other than that, my best tip is DON'T STRESS.

There is a whole industry dedicated to making weaning seem like rocket science, but it's not. Put reasonably healthy stuff in front of them until they stop eating, then take it away. Repeat 4 times daily until they leave home.