The NHS guidelines recommend that weaning does not start before a baby is 6 months old, this is because a baby’s digestive system is developing until this age and babies find some foods particularly difficult to digest such as wheat based products, eggs, fish and some cheeses.
It is best to start with offering a small amount of pureed vegetables, fruit or cereal mixed with milk in the middle of a feed. Don’t mix flavours to begin with because you may find that your baby likes one vegetable or fruit but not another, he or she may also have a slight reaction to one food and if it is mixed it will be difficult to work out which one it is!
To save you time and prevent waste, cook a batch of vegetables or fruit such as eating apples or pears (no added sugars or salt remember!) and freeze them in teaspoon sized servings in an ice cube tray. Once frozen tip them into a freezer bag, label and use within a couple of weeks. When you need them you can take one or two blocks and defrost them. If your baby does not seem to like the idea of taking solids, mix a little of the normal formula or breast milk in with the food and try again.
There are some very good books on the market for weaning so do check a good book selling website or your local bookstore for weaning recipes.
They say 6 months now but when I had my daughter it was 3 months which changed to 4 months while I was already trying to weanher then 6 months by the time she was already on solids. All I can say is when you feel your child is ready (within reason) they probably are best tip I had was to make your own from veg, blend it and freeze it in an ice cube trayand defrost one ice cube at a time it was a really good guage for me then when she got a bit hungrier i defrosted 2 ice cubes the 3 then 4 then started to make her proper meals the annabel Karmel book is fab!! (think i spelt that right) good luck xx
The NHS guidelines recommend that weaning does not start before a baby is 6 months old, this is because a baby’s digestive system is developing until this age and babies find some foods particularly difficult to digest such as wheat based products, eggs, fish and some cheeses.
It is best to start with offering a small amount of pureed vegetables, fruit or cereal mixed with milk in the middle of a feed. Don’t mix flavours to begin with because you may find that your baby likes one vegetable or fruit but not another, he or she may also have a slight reaction to one food and if it is mixed it will be difficult to work out which one it is!
To save you time and prevent waste, cook a batch of vegetables or fruit such as eating apples or pears (no added sugars or salt remember!) and freeze them in teaspoon sized servings in an ice cube tray. Once frozen tip them into a freezer bag, label and use within a couple of weeks. When you need them you can take one or two blocks and defrost them. If your baby does not seem to like the idea of taking solids, mix a little of the normal formula or breast milk in with the food and try again.
There are some very good books on the market for weaning so do check a good book selling website or your local bookstore for weaning recipes.
Hiya, my lo is only 14 weeks so a while for me to wean yet but my Health Visitor gave me info about weaning and said Annabel Karmel (i think) books are good - she has recipes and stuff. My mum's borrowed one from a friend at work so I'm going to start reading it and get some food made up and frozen! xx
Thanks, I think I have heard of her, I'll go and have a wee look on Amazon.
All babies have an inbuilt safety system that stops them eating too much of any food that tastes new. BBear this in mind. Start with bland milky flavours (like mashed potatoes and milk or rice and milk and (once the change in texture is accepted) add a tiny bit of family food. Milk should remain an important part of baby's died- at first you are just introducing solids- so just a hello! Don't try lots of different things. Just do it one flavour at a time. Some babies are much more sensitive to this "safe" mechanism than others. If your baby is tolerant you can introduce new foods every few days. If intolerant you need to go VERY slowly. Just add a half teaspoon of new to the accepted old. Then half a teaspoon more. This way you should avoid problems.
Dorothy Einon
Hiya, my lo is only 14 weeks so a while for me to wean yet but my Health Visitor gave me info about weaning and said Annabel Karmel (i think) books are good - she has recipes and stuff. My mum's borrowed one from a friend at work so I'm going to start reading it and get some food made up and frozen! xx
I am going to be starting weaning at some point soon. Has anyone got any tips or pieces of advice? Or can anyone recommend a good weaning book? Thanks x
I tried to introduce tastes that we were eating too from early on, like giving LO a puree of the same veg we were having etc, it made it really easy to get her onto family meals and she's eaten the same as us (albeit more mashed up!) since about 8 months and is not at all fussy. I just cook a variety of meals from good healthy ingredients, using organic fruit/veg/meat and I don't think you can go far wrong!
Thanks. We had a postnatal class on it the other day and Health Visitor said much the same thing. Guess I just wanted to hear other peoples experiences. It is a little girl I have by the way, she is only 18 weeks at the moment. I am going to wait until I think she needs it. I have some baby rice already though, my friend gave me it for Christmas, she made me up a baby box of things I would need, (she had a baby last August), it was full of really useful things.
wow thats a great idea for a gift lol when u start making up purees use an ice cube tray and freeze it as a defrosted ice cube of purees apple or sonethihng is about the right amount and means u can freeze plenty of feeds and have a variety for ur daughter in the freezer ready xx
hi i first tried my son on baby rice just a little bit to get used to the texture at first i mixed it with some of his milk and then slowly moved on to pureed sweet potato puree carrot puree etc just try a variety of things pureed nothing too complicated at first as ur little one will need to get used to diff tastes and textures and they arnt used to anything but bland taste of milk. mothercare do a range of books and some even say what to start with and when to progress onto other things but generally just follow ur instinct and ur son will let u know what he likes and dislikes. anything he doesnt seem to like try again a few days after as it may just take some time to get used to tastes. oh and remember when u start using ur own meals mashed up to use less salt xxx
Thanks. We had a postnatal class on it the other day and Health Visitor said much the same thing. Guess I just wanted to hear other peoples experiences. It is a little girl I have by the way, she is only 18 weeks at the moment. I am going to wait until I think she needs it. I have some baby rice already though, my friend gave me it for Christmas, she made me up a baby box of things I would need, (she had a baby last August), it was full of really useful things.
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