Early Weaning and First Tastes

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Early Weaning and First Tastes

· Weaning

Deciding when to wean your baby is something that is a completely individual decision and although NHS guidelines advise weaning from 6 months, we tend to advise taking a holistic overview of when your baby may be ready / need to start weaning. The World Health Organisation suggests weaning from 4-6 months. In our experience most babies will wean around 5 months old but some definitely benefit from weaning earlier than that, whilst others aren’t ready until 6 months.

Signs your baby is getting ready to wean:
Baby can hold their head up and support their neck well in seated position. Baby seems interested in food and may be bringing their hands and objects to their mouths. A suddenly very contented baby is now unsettled during the day or over night. Perhaps they are suddenly refusing their milk or waking more frequently at night to feed. These can all be signs that baby is ready for food. 👶 Our approach at Baby Matters is to offer a mixture of spoon feeding and baby led weaning. If you wean pre 6 months you would only do purees and wait till closer to 7 months if you want to follow baby led weaning. The main thing is do what works for you.

How to get started?
Be prepared! You’ll need: A high chair, a pot and steamer, a hand blender to purée your veg, two bowls, two spoons, a jacket bib, and a starter cup. Over the years we have supported families during weaning we definitely have some favourites. You don’t need a fancy baby cooker (unless you want it), a pot steamer does the job just as well! However, we do love the www.nuk.co.uk starter cup, the Tripp Trapp high chair https://stokke.like2buy.curalate.com/ and ideally you want to choose a longer, flatter spoon for beginning weaning like these from www.nuby-uk.com.

Plan in advance for the best time to start introducing food. We recommend starting at breakfast or lunch time in case baby is a bit windy after their meal and you have time to let their tummy’s settle before bedtime. A weekend might be the best time so mummy and daddy can be there to experience this together. First Tastes.

From the very beginning we suggest you skip baby rice completely and go straight to offering vegetables and work through these before introducing fruits. Introducing fruit too early can encourage a sweet tooth and also fussy eating down the line. Start by choosing 3 vegetables, we like sweet potato, sweet corn and peas to start. Offer each veg individually at 3 consecutive meals before moving onto the next veg on your list. Start with a table spoon of veg and when your baby starts to finish that food you know it’s time to increase their portion size. You cannot over feed a baby, let them eat and enjoy their food. Remember early weaning is not about volume, this is about getting them used to a new sensory experience. Make it fun and don't worry if they don’t seem overly interested to begin with. The key thing to remember is once you start - keep going! It can take about 7-10 days for a baby to begin opening their mouth in anticipation of food and also to learn how to properly work with eating from a spoon. This is a huge new skill for baby - give them time to adjust. Lastly for the clean up, we absolutely love the www.cheekywipes.com cloths. So quick and easy to use and wash. Great for the environment and very cost efficient!

If you have any question or would like a consultation email us at babymattersbooking@gmail.com or phone 07919 511 934.