Six Weaning Essentials

Just when you think you’ve got the hang of this mum thing, here’s another massive milestone that really makes you doubt if you know anything at all. At least it did and still does for me, knowing what food to giver her, how to cook it appropriately, what sizes to cut food into, how much food should she be having at each meal, is she going to choke…the worries are endless for me when it comes to weaning.

We’ve been introducing foods for the last couple of weeks and honestly I’m still winging it and I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing, I’ve started with a mix of puree and finger foods so that she gets used to having some solids and she’s taken to it really well. She loves the fruit flavoured purees and seems quite happy to give most things a try although if she’s not keen expect it to end up on the floor.

Whilst I may feel like I haven’t a clue what I’m doing in the actual food department, I feel well prepared on the equipment side of things, here are some of the items taking the stress out of weaning in our house:

High Chair – This was a huge decision in our house, choosing a high chair is a bit like choosing the cot or the pram. It’s an investment and it needs to look good in your home too. For us one of the considerations was how much use we would get from it. We chose the Oxo Tot Sprout chair because it can be used up to age 5 once converted from a high chair to a youth chair. This means that even when we have guests for dinner Amelia will still have her own seat at the table. Another thing we took very seriously was it’s looks, our dining table is part of our living room and therefore the chair needed to look good with the rest of our furniture. We love the appearance of the Oxo Tot Sprout chair and the wood matches perfectly with out dining table and chairs.

Coverall Bib – At first I thought just a plastic bib would suffice but after the first meal I realised that babies have an ability to spread food everywhere and I mean everywhere! So a quick dash to the supermarket for a bib with sleeves to protect those beautiful clothes. You might also consider a coverall for yourself, if you think I’m kidding just wait until your baby sneezes with a mouthful of puree…

Sippy Cup – I opted for a really simple non spill cup. Nothing fancy, no straws or special handles. Just a good old fashioned sippy cup and she’s been great with it. The only thing I find with sippy cups in general is that in order to get the water out you have to tip them up quite high and Amelia hasn’t gotten the hang of this yet. At least she will hold it with both hands and I help her to tip it up enough to get the water out. She seems to like the water but is always surprised by it, maybe because it is cold or perhaps she is expecting milk.

Suction Bowl – This is a lifesaver product, babies are curious little beings and it really doesn’t take them long to realise that the bowl or plate full of food can be picked up, thrown and knocked over. Sometimes they may not even do it on purpose, just their eager little hands are too excited to get hold of the food that before you know it’s all over the floor, plate and all. This suction bowl was sent to us by Bamboo Bamboo and comes with a spoon in a matching colour. Amelia loves rummaging around inside the bowl to find her food, and I love it because it can’t fall on the floor.

First Flavours – Any health professional we spoke to always recommended the same thing, start with single flavour vegetables. There are two reasons for this; if your baby has an allergic reaction to the food you won’t be guessing which ingredient is the culprit, and secondly vegetables aren’t as sweet tasting as fruit. If you start with fruit your baby will love the sweetness and could be likely to turn their nose up at vegetables. I’ve found that the Ella’s Kitchen single vegetable pouches were the best as they are a smaller size which is great for getting started. If you’re thinking of starting with puree then the pouches are great, you can just squeeze a small amount on to a spoon and they can be resealed when you’re done. The big advantage to the pouches over jars is that once your baby has put the spoon in their mouth and then you dunk it back into the jar, that jar is contaminated and ideally shouldn’t be used again. This is fine if your child is a little older and will eat the whole thing in one meal but when you’re just getting started they only have a few spoonful’s to taste so it would be a huge waste of food.

Easy Feeder – These are silicone mesh feeders that allow baby to chew and expirence flavours and textures without fear of choking. I have used ours every day for different fruits such as strawberries, mango, melon, I’ve also used it for cucumber and will use it for grapes as we all know how dangerous those can be.

So those are the six items I am relying on daily to get through our meals at the moment, I know that many people also invest in a baby food processor and once we move on more lumpy bumpy foods this is something I might consider but at the moment we are doing really well with a mix of puree and solid finger foods so I think we will keep down that road until we start to move on to more solid foods and proper meals.

I hope you found this helpful and I would like say a huge thank you to Bamboo Bamboo for sending us their suction bowl and spoon to try out.

Rachel xx