Feel so out of my depth with weaning! I'm Clueless. HELP!!!

[shadow]

After discussing it with my HV, me and OH decided to wean Jadon as soon as he hit the 4month mark. He genuinely seemed ready, was showing all the signs, and the HV said he should be fine.

He has taken to it really well , we started him at 16 weeks on pure baby rice once a day. He didnt really like it at first, he wasnt used to his feed being interupted, as we'd give him a bit of milk, then a spoon of rice, etc. But he soon got used to it and will now happily sit and finish the bowlful (I increased it to one tablespoon, and he'd eat the lot, and then drink 6oz of milk!).

My problem is I dont know what to feed him next. I was looking at the ready made jars and packets yest and urrgh, they are full of sugar. I suppose they are ok if we have to go out somewhere, but I'd rather make my own.

So yesterday I boiled one potato and one peice of brocolli, and blended them together. And thats what he had for tea. He wsnt much impressed, infact he winced after every mouthful and make an "urrgh that icky" face. I froze the remaining as there were about 3 tablespoon fulls, and thats what I was planning to do, freeze them in icecube trays, and then defrost when needed.

I bought a carrot, bananna and peaches to blend up (not together!) but am really a bit clueless now.

My HV told me to introduce different foods one at a time so if something disagrees with him then I can pinpoint what it is.

So how often should I be introducing new things? He seems ready to have two solid meals a day, one for his 2nd breakfast (around 10ish) and one for tea (around 5ish). But I really dont know what he can have.

I know because he's only 4months that he's not allowed certain foods, but when I've done a search online it brings up all tips for brand websites like Cow and Gate, Heinz, etc and they are all just promoting their own food. Alot of places I look only give examples from 6months on as that is what the new government guildines suggest as the approriate age; there's no way Jadon could have lasted til 6months, he would have chewed my arm off by then!

Please help me, I'M CLUELESS!!

 

[Jade&Evie]

I'm no expert but maybe try introducing foods one at a time: for example- banana on monday the introduce apple on thursday. let him get used to the taste.

I don't nvy you. Weaning scares the shit out of me! my HV has said she thinks Evie will need food around the 18/19 week mark- she's 13 now

Definately make3 your own foods though- the jars are so expensive and its far more rewarding to make your own!

Keep us updated on how he gets on- in a couple of months I'll be PMing you asking what the hell I should be doing!

 

[Mrs_Jay]

http://www.annabelkarmel.com/features/b ... irst-foods These say from 6 months, but the book i have at home by her actually say from 4-5 months. Like you said because of the new guidelines everything seems to have to say 6 months now. But prehaps it could give you a few ideas . i found her top 1000 purees book really useful.

 

[LucyBee]

I would really recommend Gina Ford's Guide to Weaning.
You don't have to subscribe to Gina Ford at all but she is great in terms of telling you what foods to introduce and when.
Lx

 

[muppetmummy]

I started weaning James around 4 months. He had pureed carrot, parsnip and apple to start with (individually!).
Most of it got spat at me. I hated weaning, it was hard work and very messy for very little reward. It's so annoying having your hard work spat at you!

I don't think Logan is gonna last till 6 months either. He's on 7oz of formula 7 or 8 times a day!

 

[maria1976]

Hey

Just stay on simple stuff to begin with like carrot, brocolli, parsnip, sweet potato, butternut squash, swede as seperates then try a mixture of different things like

butternut squash and brocolli
carrot and courgette
carrot parsnip and swede
potato courgette and pea
sweet potato and parsnip

sweets like

apple, pear, banana, avocado, mango, melon

then a mixture

apple, banana and peach
peach and baby rice

hope this helps

i bought the topsy fogg and janice fisher book of organic baby purees its bloody excellent!!! om me if you want more recipes

good luck xx

 

[daftscotslass]

I like the Annabel Karmel books. I've had a look at them in the library and they look really good - I even got some of the trays for freezing on ebay because they were a bargain.

We're edging towards the 4 month mark and the HV keeps talking about weaning in a couple of weeks and saying it might help her reflux (which it doesn't always do). She's content on 6 bottles a day (sometimes only 5) and still gaining weight. She does show an interest in our food but then she's always interested in us in general! I definitely don't think she'll be ready any time before 5 months, anyway. Will see how things go over the next few weeks.

 

[lauramumof2]

I hated weaning, it was hard work and very messy for very little reward. It's so annoying having your hard work spat at you!

refreshingly honest. I like it


I found weaning okay but then I used the jars. I was never confident about what to make and they liked the jars. I quite liked them too. I used to have a jar of the hipp stuff when I was pg with Joe as it didnt make me feel sick like everything else.

 

[shadow]

Thanks everyone, all of those suggestions are great. I'm starting to feel a little more confident in myself now.

My hand held blender has never had so much use!!

 

[Gem & Leland]

and i think the guide is new food every 4 days , tbh im just blundering through this weaning stuff , not even read a book and just going by my boy !

 

[Zodiac]

Hee hee hee - mine loves his food, he likes just about everything I've given him so far.... except brocoli he gives me a "I'm not impressed" face when I do.

I've made up a load of fresh fruit & veg purees & frozen them in ice cubes, then just take out what I need the night before.

Just stick to 1 food purees first, but once your LO is used to it you can move on to mixing them up. It's really easy to do with the ice cubes too. I give my LO 3 x cubes for each meal of a variety of mixtures. I'm hiding 1 cube of the brocoli amonst 2 cubes of something else, to make sure he eats it

He loves his pots of fromage frais too. And also liked his mashed rusk with milk this morning too.

 

[Sage]

annoyingly my son took to jars a lot more than home-made food to start with obviously preferring the blander taste of jars. with my cooking i had to give him tastes waaay before he'd except a meal. sweet potato was the best i added a little bit of milk and butter to make it soft. generally i either gave him something on its own or blended no more than 2 foods together to start with. Your baba's still v young so id stick to single tastes such as carrot, sweet potato, parsnip, cauliflower (i added a tiny bit of grated cheese then puréed it seemed to prefer it) basically any fruit, veg that hasnt got a skin puréed and see how it goes from there!

 

[Gruntie2]

i started porscia on baby rice.. she hated it so then moved to once a day on cow and gate fruit flavored baby porridge... now she enjoys... brocolli, carrot, cauliflower and sweet potato with cheese sauce, sweet potato,carrot and swede, pears and apples with cinammon and i have just started her on yogurt.. she loves it all.. i suggest getting a baby recipe book off amazon.. they have some good ideas in and usually seperate them out by babys age

 

[Angelblue]

I so feel for you! Weaning is a nightmare but is funny when watching him try to feed himself lol.

Jared is 6 months and on 3 meals a day, usually something like this ;
Today
breakfast - oatibix made with 3oz formula
lunch - homemade broc,cauli,carrot,potato with lentils and butter, yoghurt
tea - same as lunch

finger foods - toast fingers with butter and sugar free jam, marmite rice cakes, baby organix tomato wheel things and carrot things that look like wotsits! he has had cheese veg, and fish pie (tuna,slamon mash and beans pureed)

he has never liked his milk much and now only has about 17oz a day!

xx

 

[gemmap27]

I have recently started alex with solids. He started with baby rice, then I started to give him some baby porridge - heinz packet mix made with some of his baby milk - this was good because to begin with he only ate a tiny amount and the packet lasts agesyou can make as much as you need. I also tried him with the peach yoghurt mix and a few other cereal type packets. Then I tried him one afternoon with the packet mix broccoli cauliflower cheese sauce mix, once he started to like the savoury taste I started blending my own veg, made some cheese sauce and froze it in ice cube trays.

Now he has porridge in the morning,sometimes at lunchtime a fromage frais pot, and late afternoon some veg with either cheese sauce or gravy. He has his bottles in between and is still drinking about 4-5, 7oz bottles of milk during the day.