Beginning Weaning
First of all, how on earth do I have a baby who is big enough to even think about eating real food!? To me, that is crazy… fourth time around, my baby is growing all too quickly.
A http://thisenchantedpixie.org/2015/05/25/beginning-weaningnyway, from about 15 weeks, Mr Vega has been hugely interested in food… surrounded by 5 other people eating in front of him all the time, I guess that’s normal! He’d sit on my knee and watch every single forkful from plate to my mouth. A little disconcerting ;) He’s also gotten good at reaching out and grabbing food from my hand. The first thing he actually tasted was banana. Aged 17 weeks he pulled my banana to his mouth and had a good old lick… he must have liked the taste as he cried when I ate the rest. Bad Mama!
I know there is a lot of differing opinions on when to wean baby. 4 months or wait till 6… purées or Baby Led Weaning. With our eldest, the recommended age then was 4 months, and we weaned her on homemade purées, introducing finger foods at 6 months. Second time around we did the same, with the third they’d decided babies should wait till 6 months. To be honest, she wasn’t as interested as her sisters were in eating anyway, and we mainly did BLW with her. She’s definitely my fussiest eater though..
I think you should be led by your baby, rather than current guidelines, obviously waiting till they’re at least 17 weeks. If baby is interested then it’s the right time to start. In my experience, if the baby doesn’t want it, they will let you know.
Knowing Vega was ready, I decided to make up lots of yummy foods ready for him. I’ve always made my own baby food – it’s really easy, cheap and must be so much nicer to have tasty, fresh foods made with love. We only used jarred food once, when Kiki was a baby and we had to stay in a hotel for a weekend, with no fridge/freezer I couldn’t take my own – she barely ate all weekend, and after tasting a spoonful of a jar of baby food I couldn’t blame her – the taste didn’t compare at all to homemade food. I find it easiest to cook a big batch of baby food up at once, then freeze it down in ice-cube trays. It means I can have a months worth of food on hand, and it saves so much time.
These first few weeks of weaning are more about getting the idea of eating solids, and different tastes than how much they eat. An icecube or two of food is plenty – sometimes he just wants a couple of licks and that’s fine. He still gets all the breast milk he needs/wants everyday, food right now is just an extra.
I know a lot of books/sites recommend starting babies with baby rice, as it’s bland and mixed with their usual milk not too different a taste. I prefer to start my babies with flavoursome vegetables. As baby is learning about different tastes, to me it makes sense to introduce lots of flavours straight away. In my freezer right now I have sweet pototo, butternut squash, potato, carrot, brocoli, roasted beetroot, parsnip, plum, apple, pear, apple and pear rice and apricot rice.
In the first week or two, I just offered purees at lunchtime, I’d defrost and warm through one ice-cube and let him have a few tastes. As he sits in his highchair with us at lunch and dinner, I tend to do him purees twice a day now. Usually veg at one meal and fruit at the other. He likes to have a spoon of his own to hold while I’m feeding him!
His favourite right now seems to be the apricot rice {I’d have to agree on that one!} and butternut squash. It’s such a fun adventure watching him taste different foods. I really really love making food for my babies, nothing beats seeing them enjoy delicious homemade food. I’ll be sharing some recipes next week for what I’ve been feeding Vega.
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