Another weaning question??

[Colleen1988]

My LO has been having purées since 5 month old.

He has baby porridge mixed with a fruit puree for breakfast, veg puree for lunch and veg puree for tea with fruit puree for pudding.

He has four 9oz bottles in a day and has one every 4 hours from 7am.

He's 6 month in a week and I know we can start giving other foods other than fruit and veg puree.

My question is... What kind of stuff can you give them?

Shall I start blending white and red meats with purées? And can I give yoghurt that are suitable for babies?? what would you ladies recommend please??


Colleen xxx

 

[Coletteypie]

Hi Colleen,

It gets a bit more fun from now on. Tho not necessarily easier! At 6 months u can give anything (except honey!). I started by increasing the lumps gradually in my lg's food. So I started using proper porridge mixed with crushed berries. At dinner I would mash a sweet potato with some grilled chicken (mashed up best I could - but essentially some lumps left in). Things like beef stew are easier cos the meat melts in the mouth. But again start super small bits and build the lumps up gradually. You can tell almost immediately how they are coping with a texture - so at first I had to blend my porridge oats cos she gagged slightly. Also you can now offer finger foods. So things like toast with scrambled egg are a good starter meal. Tho takes a while for ur baby to master putting the food in their own mouth lol. Lots of trial and error so don't be disappointed if they mostly play with it!

When it comes to yogurt I only offer full fat natural yoghurt. I wouldn't use any of the flavoured ones/fromage fraise cos they contain sugar. But natural yogurt is one of my daughters favourite things to eat! I mix it with some mashed fruit usually as a pudding or treat at lunch.

She can now eat a banana if I hand to her with the skin still on etc. But my daughter is 8 months - and I started weaning at 5 months. I found it frustrating at first cos the introduction of new textures can baffle your baby slightly. And it takes a while before they go from tasting and sampling to fully eating and getting proper nutrition from it. That's when they begin to drop milk feeds.

Just take it one new food at a time as well. As the meats and new dairy can be quite a lot of their little tummy.

Good luck xx

 

[Colleen1988]

Thank you hun, that's really helpful how do you serve chicken, would it be ok to blend it but not blend to much so it's totally smooth, just so it's slightly lumpy? Also with toast do you put butter on? Is butter not to salty for babies? xxx

 

[Lolie14]

We started blw last week and as mentioned above, scrambled eggs on toast is a good meal - although half of the egg was thrown on the cat!

 

[Colleen1988]

Eeeek I can't wait to try all this with him! He loves his purées so im hoping we will have a smooth transisition onto lumps and finger foods... We shall see lol xxx

 

[Coletteypie]

Non salt butter! My baby usually sucks the butter off lol. Or u can try hummus or mashed avocado on it. Again these might be foods a few months down the line. See how it goes xx

 

[Phoenix85]

I never did the purees with my second, just started straight with finger foods at 6m and then started giving regular meals cut up.

I'd mash food now rather than pureeing and offer soft finger foods like fruit (banana, plum, pear etc) and you can steam, boil, or bake/roast root veg or hard fruit like apple.

Personally I'm not a fan of yoghurts, but if you do want to give them, like Colette said, avoid ones aimed at babies and young children as they are very high in sugar.
Natural plain yoghurt is best and you can always add your own fruit to it to flavour and sweeten it

Avocado and sweet potato are really good for first foods btw.
Oh and Annabel Karmel does a really nice recipe for chicken with apple, carrot & sweet potato. http://www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/easy-one-pot-chicken
Again, at 6m I'd try just mashing it or even just leaving it as it is and letting him feed himself, rather than pureeing.

 

[Colleen1988]

Thank you when you say mash, how do I mash meat?? is that a stupid question lol? I have avocado for my breakfast every morning so will try home with that!

So can I just cut up banana and give it him on his tray so he can eat it himself? do I need to guide him or just let him work it out for himself?

I wasn't going to do the whole puree thing but he was such a hungry baby, drinking 9oz every 3 hours, the HV suggested just giving small amount of puree between bottles and he gobbled up loads of puree and dropped his milk slightly to 9oz every 4 hours.

He's absolutely loves his purées, I make them myself so im looking forward to giving him proper meals (mashed up obviously)

Xxx

 

[Coletteypie]

Oh good question - if you don't have the aparatus then might be tricky

I have a nuby bowl and masher. The bowl has grooves in it and I can place some cooked meat in it and grind the meat using the mini masher into little lumps in a few seconds.

http://m.boots.com/h5/cat_hub?unCountry=uk&path=/en/Nuby-Garden-Fresh-Mash-n-Bowl_1483529/ - I have this one here but I'm sure there's loads of options out there.

If you don't have something like that then would say chop up finely and maybe squash down with back of knife or fork? Just trying to make it easier for a little person with no gnashers. Or else you could go crazy and just give him a mini slice of chicken to try and eat all by himself. Tho I found my daughter struggled with meat like that to begin with. Bread sticks were a good first finger food. Or toast. Teaches them the skill of picking up food to put in their mouth with easier to grip items.

Bananas are fun but a little slippy for grubby baby hands. That's why I tend to cut the top off, mostly peel it (and cut the peel away or else she tried to eat it lol) but leave a decent amount on the end so she can hold that and munch away. Fresh mango is another good finger food fruit - is really soft and melts in the mouth. This totally depends on your baby's motor skills. Would imagine at 6 months he might struggle but is fun to help them explore and try. You might need to show him the point of finger foods at first - so I used to help guide to her mouth and then her eyes would light up realising what she had control of!

Also is now a good time to introduce a sippy cup with water. I offer it at every meal and she now picks up the cup no problem and swigs away at it, drinking at least a few oz. This prob also helped develop her hand eye coordination as well

This part of weaning is a bit more challenging cos your baby becomes a bit more in control, so can be frustrating if you spend ages cooking them a yum dinner for them to refuse it or throw it on the floor lol! Xx

 

[Colleen1988]

Thanks hun, I'll pop to boots today and get one of these bowls.. Im going to start next week (the week I go back to work) not timed very well lol.

Think I'll purchase something to cover the carpet as well lol.

Ive already been giving him a sippy cup, he has no idea what to do with it but I'm sure over time he will get better.

Thanks for all the Advice, really appreciate it xxx