Confused about where to start with weaning?

[mummytobe_93]

FTM here! I plan to start weaning my LO at 6 months maybe a little bit before if u think she's ready as we are actually on holiday when she turns 6 months old, so it may be a bit harder to start abroad! She's nearly 5 months at the moment. I'm just trying to get myself prepared for the weaning stage. I think I would like to do a combination of BLW and traditional spoon feeding if anyone does this? If so where do I start?
I know you can't give honey or nuts etc but I would quite like to make my own healthy food to give her rather than jars, does anyone have any books they recommend?
Also regarding BLW what sort of 'finger foods' do you start off with and what should you avoid? Is there any risk of choking at all?

Thanks

 

[george83]

I never did blw so this may not be much use! I started my lo on baby rice and it was a disaster so I wouldn't recommend using that at all, he screamed every time it went near him, my hv then said they get confused by the texture of what taste like normal baby milk. I then tried sweet purees and just left the spoon on his high chair tray with his toys and they eventually made their way to his mouth. I started with sweet potato, apple, pear etc. after that I started using annabel karmel's weaning book for recipes which was really good. It does mention finger foods but possibly not in as much detail for somebody wanting to follow blw. I brought loads of plastic containers and made batches of purees to begin with and then more substantial meals and ended up never buying jars of baby food.

Looking back I felt like I was quite stressed by it all last time in that I felt my lo had to be doing because he was 6 months and he had to eat certain amounts, this time I'm going to try and relax more - if he eats it great if not it doesn't matter.

 

[Sarah lo]

I loved every minute of weaning my daughter. We took a very similar approach to what you say you're looking at doing, we just basically went with the flow and offered her everything.

I started her on one "meal" a day at lunch time and it would be a simple vegetable or fruit puree plus a few bits of finger food to play with, then after a couple of weeks I dropped the lunch and gave her porridge for breakfast and continued with the purees and finger foods for dinner.

I made all my own baby foods and i have one of those Beba baby food makers (steamer and blender in one) it was expensive but I got loads of use out of it and actually still use it now for steaming our vegetables and blending/chopping small amounts of things when I don't want to get the big blender dirty.

Her favourite purees to start with were sweet potato, roast butternut squash, carrot, apple, pear, mango, banana, blueberry etc. Finger foods weren't all that popular with my daughter but I still continued to offer them - things like steamed carrot sticks, cucumber, pieces of fruit, bread sticks etc. After a few weeks I started to mix vegetables together in her purees and slowly worked my way up to making her casseroles, curries etc. I experimented with lots of different herbs and spices to give her plenty of different flavour experiences. And gave her lots of different textures to try like baby pasta, rice, cous cous etc. I just basically had fun with it.

I'd also recommend the Annabel karmel weaning book as a place to start, she has some great recipes.

 

[Girly922]

We started DD with porridge every few days, and let her try some fruit puree here and there. We then moved the porridge up to every morning for breakfast and started gradually introducing finger foods when she turned 25wks.

Finger foods we do:
Toast fingers dry or with a thin layer of soft cheese
Crumpet fingers
Scotch pancakes
Bananas
Strawberries
Roast chicken
Pork chop
Gluten free pasta (no sauce yet but you can if you don't mind the mess)
Sweet potato mash
Sweet potato wedges
Tomato
Sweet peppers

The list goes on. As long as you're eating healthy, fresh foods, LO can eat whatever you eat. Just keep the salt content to a bare minimum.

Choking, we haven't had any choking but they will gag. Let them gag, it's all part of the learning to eat process. The difference between gagging and choking is that if they're making a sound it's gagging, if it's silent they're choking and need help.

You may also find with BLW, they don't eat a huge amount to begin with. It's all a learning process. Remember food before 1 is fun, they're still getting most of their nutrients through milk, so if they don't eat a huge amount don't panic.

Since we've been doing BLW, DD has started refusing me feeding her. She won't let me spoon feed her, and I can't put any food in her mouth. I have to hand it to her so she can feel it and feed herself with it. She knows what she wants that's for sure!

Good luck!

 

[Miss_Cellany]

I haven't started yet (will be in the next few days) but we're going to do blw. I have the blw cookbook by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett which explains everything and has very yummy meals suitable for weaning to get you started. It's really good to give you an idea of how to adapt meals for baby (i.e. Size of veggies, sticky rice, suitable curry pastes)

 

[liz1985]

We tw with finger foods from the beginning. His very first tastes I started with breakfast and as he was 5.5 months we gave baby cereal but a flavoured one but as soon as he hit 6months he had weetabix and porridge. I cant remember all his first tastes but it included
Carrott
Parsnip
Pear
Avacardo
Sweet potato
Banana

We never purred just mashed it well with a fork and added a little water or milk if it needed it. He took to food really well and within a couple of weeks he just had what we had without any added salt. I used to try and freeze some of meal incase we there was something he couldn't have one day.

We gave finger foods from the start. Usually some finger food after breakfast, his whole lunch would be finger food and finger food after dinner. Some first finger food we gave.

Soft fruit cut into long slices e.g
Banana
Melon
Mango
Pear

Toast
Crumpets
Pasta
Cheese
Avacado
Sweet potato wedges
cucumber sticks
Cooked carrott sticks
Organix snacks

 

[clever_blond]

I did spoon feeding with dd1 and am doing blw with dd2. I much prefer blw to spoon feeding. Have never given dd2 food from a spoon and she is a little superstar eater. I started with steamed veg like carrot sticks, sweet potato, and swede then moved to raw cucumber, and pepper and avocado sticks. Now she eats pretty much everything we do, she had a roast dinner the other day and had pasta last night. She absolutely loves to eat.

I was worried about choking but had a word with the dr and hv and they both said that babies have a very good gag reflex and so long as they are left to put the food in their mouth on their own they are no more likely to choke then if spoon fed (in fact dr told me spoon fed babies were more likely to choke on finger food as they learn to swallow before they learb to chew). We havent had any choking incidents so far. Have fun with it and enjoy. Xx

 

[candyem]

We will start our daughter at 6 months. We are going to tw with lots of finger foods.

We tried blw with my son and weaning was a really stressful experience. He was tasting everything but not really eating anything, went off his milk and started losing weight. He weighed the same at 1 as he did at 6 months. I dont think it is the method we used because even when we tried spoon feeding he just wasnt interested, or maybe not ready!?

Decided on a slightly different approach with dd so I know how much or how little she is eating.

Good luck - try not to get too caught up in it and enjoy watching your baby learn to eat.

 

[Livebythesea]

We will start our daughter at 6 months. We are going to tw with lots of finger foods.

We tried blw with my son and weaning was a really stressful experience. He was tasting everything but not really eating anything, went off his milk and started losing weight. He weighed the same at 1 as he did at 6 months. I dont think it is the method we used because even when we tried spoon feeding he just wasnt interested, or maybe not ready!?

Decided on a slightly different approach with dd so I know how much or how little she is eating.

Good luck - try not to get too caught up in it and enjoy watching your baby learn to eat.

What did you end up doing with your son to get him to eat/gain weight? My doc said his weight was low at 9 month appointment and they'll see what happens at 1 year. Thank you

 

[xannekex]

We did Traditional weaning with my two boys, but with my dd we did a mix of traditional weaning and BLW. She started with purées and also finger foods like steamed fruit and veg, and we gradually moved onto her eating the same as the rest of the family by around 10/11 months. She now at almost 15 months eats almost everything we give her (except she struggles with raw veg like carrot as she has no teeth yet!)

I recommend the Annabel Karmel books for purée recipes.

For BLW style meals we just usually gave her whatever we were having. It makes eating out so much easier! But from about 9 months she would not be spoon fed anything! Which made meal times really messy for a while

I love the weaning stage-so much fun!

x