Weaning

My lg is 6 months next week and I am dreading weaning so much🤢 I’ve tried her on a few pouches and today was the first day she actually ate the half pouch I gave her. I’ve said I’ll keep her on pouches for a while but then I feel so guilty at the same time. It’s the thought of choking I cannot stand it 😭

My LB is 6 months on 15/01 and I’m dreading it too. I really don’t know if I could do the baby lead weaning as I’m petrified of him choking etc. I’m also a little confused about how to start it, I know they say ‘food before one is just for fun’ and only a few tablespoons per day as milk needs to be their primary source of nutrients but when do you increase the food and then do you offer less milk? Lol I think I just need to do some more research to educate myself and then maybe I’ll feel better about it all 🫣

Honestly same I feel like I’m just winging it at the moment, there’s little to no help when it comes to weaning and all the advice is to just follow your baby’s lead🤦🏼‍♀️ we started offering a few different 4m+ pouches to my lg as her reflux is quite bad and she was showing signs of being ready and today was the first day she actually enjoyed it! The times before she was just getting used to the flavour and texture so wasn’t really that interested. At lunchtime, about 30-40 mins before her bottle is due I’ll offer her some of a pouch and 9/10 times she will still finish her full bottle🤩 Just start slow and go at your own pace🩷

I am, and he's my second baby 🙃 (my eldest choked on mashed veg) we've started with things like porridge, pouches of the veg, rusks, bananas and will gradually increase. I can't remember how or when to increase to 2 then 3 meals though. 🤔

Speak to your hv! In my area they offer a baby weaning course. Milk should still be their main intake so you just offer a couple of spoon fulls around 1hr after their bottle and then increase it if they are wanting more in a few weeks. You aren’t feeding to fill them up yet, it’s just tastes and textures. Any finger food should be soft so they don’t need to chew etc

Also terrified as we have no idea how to do it. We will be seeing a pediatrician (private practice) and ask them, as we asked the HV and their advice was definitely incorrect! They said to give the baby whatever we are eating. I might not know what to do, but I do know you're supposed to start with veggies and that there shouldn't be spices etc. So yeah, horrible advice!

I've ordered the Ella's kitchen book 2nd hand online and it's been really useful to give recipes, starting plans and general information. Also using the NCT online articles. I'm super excited and will start in a couple of weeks.

I can’t recommend the ‘How to Wean Your Baby’ book by Charlotte Stirling Reed enough. This is my second baby that I’m BLW and it is brilliant for telling you exactly what to give, size, when and includes things like allergens. We had no problems. That said, I did everything by the book, nothing pre made for the first bit, greens first to develop that area of their palette which is so important to their diet and establishes a good relationship with this food group. Everything home made, I love to cook anyway from mayonnaise etc so avoided anything processed and ultimately…. At 3… although great at trying things…. Still prefers shop bought fish fingers etc so you can win!!! Do things at your own pace, if you are most relaxed with the pre made pouches then maybe just stick to that till your babies are older?

We've been on purees since he was 18 weeks and it was soo daunting but he's enjoying it so much! We don't do BLW yet as he only turned 5 months a few days ago but he's getting used to different tastes & textures. I make my own purees so I know what's in it & can alter the texture too. I gave him some Organix wands to nibble on yesterday and I was really worried but he enjoyed them too!