Weaning is the one thing about parenting that I always worried about, I am not a healthy eater, I am terrified of new foods and different textures. I am also scared of any foods that ripen or go off such as fruits and cream cheese. Basically, I'm a freak and I have been so nervous about passing on my weird habits to my child. I want Rory to have a better relationship with food than I have.
We began spoon fed/puree weaning because we felt that way he would be able to try lots of flavours without having to deal with the choking hazard and the different textures straight away. I decided to make my own purees to both save money and give him the purest ingredients, we started with buying spoons, bowls and puree storage pots for using in the fridge and for freezing. We thankfully already had a NutriBullet to use for blending!
I have found that most fruits and veg just need boiling till soft then blending with a little water until the required consistency and pretty much everything can be frozen. We try to give a veg puree in the evening and a fruit for breakfast because we found that if we gave too much fruit in the evening, the sugar rush kept him up at night!
Winners so far have been blueberry, carrot, apple and sweet potato (separately not together!)
I think purees have their upsides in that baby actually eats the food instead of throwing it on the carpet, it is less clean up and and easier as you only need to defrost a pre made meal rather than find three nutritious meals to make from scratch each day. We can't just eat the same meal because as I said, I am a terrible eater!
We have tried some thicker foods and finger foods as well, edging towards the baby led side of things. He likes really small pasta with a homemade veggie sauce as you see him to trying to snatch the bowl in the photo above!
And he has tried carrot sticks, broccoli florets, toast, pitta and various baby snacks such as rice cakes and puffs which have mostly been a hit except the wet and slimy things. Such as strawberries!
Watching him turn up his nose at strawberries but gobble up toast happily makes me so anxious. How does he know that strawberries are healthy and toast isn't so much? Why will he eat an Ellas Kitchen Puff but only pick at a carrot?
So, basically we have been doing a bit of both spoon and baby led. Spoon feeding does have its downside which is where the finger foods come in. With just puree alone they don't get to explore the food and make their own choices about what goes in their mouths. I've found that when I do give him solids, he is very apprehensive about it, he often doesn't put it anywhere near his mouth which can be really frustrating when you have spent ages cooking it but I think a little bit of perseverance with baby led will hopefully improve this and change apprehensiveness to curiosity!
Ultimately, I don't know what is the best route or what will benefit baby most because every baby is different and will want to do things differently. I'm really trying to remember this and stress a little less!
Are you currently weaning? Hows it going?
Or have you in the past and have some tips for the rest of us?
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