Weaning Noah

Noahs weaning journey so far

Just a little insight in to starting Noah with food and his current eating routine!Books I read and the things we use!

Like everything else with becoming a parent weaning felt extremely daunting, and I couldn't get my head round it! I couldn’t think when I would give him food and when I would give him milk! I was used to feeding on demand and didn't think I would be able to routine to three meals a day but like everything else – it just clicked! There are also so many items on the market to buy how do we know which ones are essential? Everyone was asking the question – are you doing normal weaning or baby led weaning? Baby led what? Sounds odd! How can a baby lead his food!? I needed help! I went home and ordered two books:

1.‘Baby-led Weaning’ by Gill Rapley & Tracey Murkett

2.‘Weaning’ by  Annabel Karmel

I would definitely recommend reading both of these if you are feeling a bit clueless like I was! They helped me come to the decision of doing a bit of both! Great meal planners for people who love it in black and white (like me)! I wanted him to learn to feed himself and explore with food but also wanted him to try the taste of purees and comfortably knowing he had eaten enough at a particular meal time!

Here is a little info on both:

Baby-led weaning (BLW) is a method of adding complementary foods to a baby's diet of breast milk or formula. A method of food progression, BLW facilitates the development of age appropriate oral motor control while maintain eating as a positive, interactive experience. Baby-led weaning allows babies to control their solid food consumption by "self-feeding" from the very beginning of their experiences with food.

Weaning - Accustoming a baby to food other than its usual diet of breast or formula by introducing smooth purees (stage 1) suggested 4-6m. Then gradually increasing the lumps suggested 7m+ usually starting with single vegetables, baby rice and yoghurts.

I think baby led weaning sounded great, or the idea of it, But I had huge fears of him choking or not being able to know how much he has actually eaten. So I wanted to start right at the basics of stage 1 smooth vegetable and fruit purees. We started him on baby rice at 5.5 months old to get used to the texture and to our delight he loved it and couldn’t get enough! I always wanted to make him his own food but didn’t know where to start.

I bought the Beaba ‘Baby cook’ which defrosted, steamed, pureed and heated up vegetables! (easy, right?) 

We followed the Annabel Karmel book for these and thought it was great! A few weeks in to weaning Noah, trying first tastes it was going so well we started gradually introducing more and larger portions. I also started giving him things to pick and explore with. 

By 7 months old he was on 3 meals a day. I had started doing some BLW with him as he handled it so well – and with 4 teeth he just wanted to chew! I also said I wanted to make lots of purees but was lacking imagination so have found Ellas kitchens pouches fantastic. We are also getting in to making extra at dinner time of we have and transfer into little pots some examples:

Sweet potato and potato mash, sausages (home made, just sausage meat and pepper) and peas

Pasta, bolegnese, cheese and garlic bread

Butternut squash mash, salmon and peas

This boy LOVES peas!!

A typical day for Noah food wise is:

Wake: 7oz

Breakfast: Porridge

11am: 7oz

Lunch: Ellas kitchen Pouch with a yoghurt

Dinner: Pitta bread, chicken, tomato, strawberries (whatever we have in the fridge)!

Bedtime: 7oz

Its really about understanding what your baby wants and you soon do! You know what is right for your baby and do what you feel comfortable, just because someone thinks what your giving your baby is right/wrong that is your choice. Noah is particularly hungry in comparison to other babies and naturally dropped his milk feeds and just like that all my worries were out the window! But every baby is different: some refuse spoons, some only like sweet things - they're smarter than they look! hehe!

A few examples of blw food we give him:

Pitta bread (strips), Organix snacks, cubes of cheese, rice cakes, oat cakes with Philadelphia or hummus, sliced fruit and vegetables.  These will keep him entertained for ages! Majority of it ends up on the floor and on his clothes – but that’s all part of the fun. We tend to do this at dinner time so it keeps him busy in the last hour (witching hour) and its easy to plonk him in the bath when hes covered head to toe in food!!

We use:

Vital Baby spoons and bowl - they are easy for him to hold and the bowl can be suctioned to the high chair or table, a Dr Browns Sippy cup, it has a soft teat that he drinks easily from without throwing it over himself! A long sleeved bib for saving clothes, a splash mat to catch the spills and a Joie Highchair.

I would love any tips or stories of weaning your babies as Its all so unknown!!

Love,

My high flying Mummy and Me x