Baby-led-weaning (Baby Food Hints/Tips)

Member Name: zerub

Product:	Baby Food Hints/Tips
Date:	26/10/08 (23 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's easy, and the baby learns to eat

Disadvantages: It's messy

Babies get most of their nutrition from milk until they are 1, so the food that you give them before then is about them learning to eat. Exploring new tastes and textures. Learning to put it in their mouths, learning to bite off the right amount, chew it, move it around inside theirs mouths, swallow it. Learning how different things feel in their hands.

"Food is for fun until they are one".

So the first top tip is, don't worry about the quantities that they eat - just make sure they have as much milk as they want. They need to start getting some nutrients from food at about 6 months, but not in any great quantities.

Let's face it, milk has twice the calories of an equivalent amount of apple puree. The second top tip is - don't wean your baby early because you think they are hungry or because you think solid food will help them sleep more. They will get less calories when you wean them, because they will eat low-calorie mush, feel temporarily full, and reject the high-calorie milk.

Now, the feeding. Wait until they are six months or later. Sit them up in a high-chair at the table with you as you eat your meal. Make sure that the meals that you cook for your family are baby-friendly (which basically means watch the salt content - keep it minimal). Then put some bits of your meal on your baby's plate or tray for your baby to play with and eventually eat.

Top tip number 3 - only make purees if you like making purees! Otherwise they are an unnecessary faff - your baby can feed himself.

Here are some of things that my baby can feed himself at 7 months old - any fruit or vegetable that can be cut into a vague chip shape, and satsuma segments with the end cut open, and broccoli, sweet pepper, green beans, mashed potato (he scoops it up), pasta, egg noodles, sausages, chunks of chicken, beef etc, the insides of fishfingers, mince sauces if stuck in pasta twirls, cheese, sliced cold meat, toast (with cheese spread, jam, peanut butter, melted cheese, butter), breadsticks, rice cakes, hot cross bun.

Summary: Never make a puree again