Help advice needed on Weaning

[Mum2be]

Baby boy is coming up to 3 months now and I have no idea how to wean or when I should start !!!!! Advice please good products and recipes will be nice too , and if anyone has and books for sale on this I'd love to buy

Thanks

Hollie

[nabz]

hi Hollie

Iv just started weaning my baby girl (will be 5m on sat), just started her on baby rice first making it quite watery. she gobbles all of it up with no problem so i know shes ready lol! I dont think il start any real purees untill shes 5 and a half months but will increase the baby rice

I bought some tomme tippe weaning stuff from mothercare they sell a first starter kit which i found sooo useful. the spoon is made out of a soft flexible material and my baby loves chewing on it and easily swallow whats on it.

i new she was ready as she was trying to eat off our plates and steal our spoons! her sleeping pattern also changed and it indicated to me that milk wasnt enough as she was waking up several times in the night with her little belly rumbling! look for signs from your baby boy and hel tell you when hes ready for solids!

but tbh if you can stick to just milk atm i would weaning is such a hassel lol! so much more washing up and have to pack food in my bag now :P was much simpler just breastfeeding alone lol!

nabz x

[Cheryl_M]

Hi there

Welcome to the world of weaning! I have a 7 month old who has been eating solids for just over a month and seems to be going well. Like Nabz said, you will know when the time is right. Suddenly they have a "what do you think you're doing?" when you're eating your food which obviously means they are curious and want some!

The tips I can give you is, always make sure they have their milk first, that was a mistake I made in the beginning. baby rice is best to start off with then you can gradually add fruit purees to them. I highly recommend the River Cottage baby and toddler cookbook as it gradually builds up into kids eating what adults eat. Lots of good advice in the foreword also.

Good luck!

[Pickle]

Wait as long as you can, a 3 month old doesn't need anything other than milk, and as the others have said life is much easier before weaning!

My baby is almost 6 months and still just breastfed, although we now include her at mealtimes by sitting her in a highchair and popping little bits from our plates in front of her. She is only just starting to show interest now and will sometimes pick food up and lick it, but hasn't actually eaten yet.

I waited until around 6 months with my older two children too.

You don't really need any special kit, although if planning to spoon feed a couple of shallow plastic weaning spoons are useful.

[Pickle]

And personally I would skip the baby rice stage completely, it tastes foul and provides nothing. It's like wallpaper paste! With my puree fed babies I started with banana, butternut squash etc.

[Jo'sEnglish]

At 3 months enjoy not having to think about weaning yet :) 6 months is the current guideline.

Seriously though, I wouldn't worry about rushing out and buying anything yet. I would just start doing some reading and thinking about what you want to do. Highly recommend the Baby Led Weaning book. Even if you don't go down that route it is very interesting in tellig you about how you know they are ready, etc. Someone once recommended another book that gave an overview of the pros and cons of both baby-led weaning and traditional spoon feeding weaning which I thought looked good but I don't remember the name...?

Meanwhile, make the most of only having to think about milk!

[mika1336]

you wont need much to start weaning baby,I started weaning mine at 4 months old, started with pureed apple as a snack,and then started adding thing after a few days knowing that there was no allergic reaction to the food. its good to start with simple stuff like apple or banana as they are less allergic. once baby is used to some ingredients you can mixed the and give together. I can recommend getting a hand blender as its quick to blend things and some plastic spoons, with the guidelines i wouldn't be listening to them much as when i started weaning my daughter the HV was saying that it's too early and to start at 6 months, with my son it all changed and they HV was saying that it was good that I started at 4 months. it changes constantly.

[Vixster250]

Hi

The Anna karmel book provides simple good recipes and sections them by month order.

I started with mashed banana and basic fruits into breast or formular milk. You can make loads of different purees - it's all about experimenting and introducing them to different tastes.

I also used ellas kitchen pouches to help me find out what he liked and disliked!

Some of the baby clubs online will send out a weaning guide. I think cow and gate do one. Also your doctor/baby club can refer you to a free weaning workshop and this covers the basiscs.

As others have said - 3 months is too young but my little one showed interest from around 17 weeks and at first we started with letting him lick and taste certain foods.

Then built up to purees and now he has 3 meals a day.

He is 7 months and we are just moving on to more complex meals which include meat etc!

It is a messy but fun stage of their development - but do wait until they are ready!

Oh.... And buy a good splash mat - it can get messy ha ha

Also found the nuby nibbler net great!! It let's you put different foods in a net and they can suck through it - meaning I don't worry about him choking on bits of food.

[Mum2be]

Thanks for all your replys it's very nice to know I don't have to start anytime soon he is quite happy with his milk although a greedy little boy I think I will start collecting bits along the way so it doesn't creep up an slap me in the face when I'm not ready , maybe in this time I should learn to cook butternut squash I hate it but I no its a great dish for the little ones

Thanks everyone

Maybe will be avoiding the wallpaper rice !

Hollie

[etta166]

I second the recommedation of the Baby Led Weaning book. You really only need a high chair (and a splash mat) if you do BLW. Provided the meal you eat are low in salt and have plenty of choice of all the major food groups then you also won't need to cook separately for your baby, which makes life much easier. And you can avoid having to puree and all that goes with it...

Your baby will then learn to love the same foods as you do, so family meal times are easier in the future too.