I admit I didn’t look forward to weaning like the other mums
I know. For some reason I had visions of my baby keeping his mouth firmly
closed and refusing to eat. Turns out, I need not have worried because Carter
has loved food from his very first mouthful of baby rice. Also, weaning meant I
had a valid excuse to buy baby stuff we actually needed. The below are my top
five must haves for successful weaning.
If you are going to try spoon feeding (rather than baby led
weaning) a Beaba Babycook can be a massive help. It is certainly my ultimate
weaning product. Not only do I have a kitchen gadget that is getting actually
used every day (unlike my Nutribullet and KitchenAid) but with its extra-large
capacity 1100ml bowl I can see myself using it beyond the weaning stage.
Despite its bigger bowl it is compact in size and sits neatly on the counter
top. A lot of mums I know made do with a hand blender or Nutribullet but I
tried (I really did!) and failed. The Nutribullet was great for my smoothies
but I found when it comes to blending small portions of baby food it just
blasted it around and the puree wasn’t very smooth unlike the Beaba Babycook.
In addition to steaming and blending it also defrosts and reheats, handy for
when you are having a lazy day and want to take something out of the freezer.
You will find that a lot of the recipes make more than one
portion so storing the excess in a handy freezer tray is perfect. Once frozen
solid I would pop out the cubes into a freezer bag to save space and enable the
tray to be used for another batch of purees. Then on lazy days you can pick and
mix to create different combinations for different tastes for your little one.
These shallow soft tipped spoons are nice and gentle on baby’s
gums and the clever thing about them is that the spoon tip turns white when the
food is too hot.
I was keen to introduce a cup as soon as possible as opposed
to using a bottle. Luckily for me Carter loves water and when he sees his funny
slanted Doidy cup he gets all excited and tries to grab it himself. The cup is
slanted so the baby can see the contents easily. There are a whole host of
other benefits to using the cup including preventing tooth decay and speech
problems.
There is mixed opinions on when to start weaning. The
general rule is not before four months as the kidneys and gut will not be ready
so four to six months is ideal. However I read in some books that the baby
should be able to sit up unaided before you start weaning but I ignored this
and fed him in his Mamas and Papas Baby Snug and it went swimmingly. I’m glad I
did not wait until he could sit up unaided as he didn't start doing so until about 9 months so it would have been a long wait!
