The Wonderful World of Weaning

There's been a constant buzz of activity in our tiny kitchen during the last few weeks - pans being stirred, hand blender being whizzed and food containers being filled up with different dishes for a growing baby to feed on. Cooking for your little one can be rather challenging, finding time to do it whilst looking after a mobile baby is not easy, but it can be cheap and rewarding. 

Official Department of Health guidelines recommend starting weaning at around six months old but at around 19 weeks Isaac was showing the classic signs of being ready to take solid food. We took the advice of my mother-in-law, a health visitor, and started him on a mix of baby rice or porridge from the box with a mixed variety of vegetables and fruits bought from the local green grocers and pureed using the hand blender (a Christmas present). 

Our child started off very greedy wanting to try everything and constantly asking for more but after three weeks and after going on two meals a day, he started getting fussy and irritable at meal times. I have read it was normal and just persisted, trying to make each meal time as fun as possible by putting him on his high chair and having meals with him. After a week and with more variety of food choices mixed together he started to open his mouth again and gobble everything like there is no tomorrow. 

Preparing his meals is not at all easy but I have allotted a day to cook them which falls on Thursdays when the library is closed, there are no play dates or swimming classes to go to and food shopping is done in the morning. Picking recipes from baby cook books borrowed from the library (Annabel Karmel and Gina Ford are a good start) and getting a free copy of Cow and Gate 5 Step Weaning Plan pack (which comes with free vouchers) made the job a bit less daunting. And with plenty of space in the freezer to help keep the food for longer, there is no reason why homemade baby cooking is not possible. Occasionally though when we are out and about, we do use ready made emergency packs that are as good and as healthy (albeit more expensive if resorted to every day). 

At six months we have already established three meals a day which includes fish and meat, complimented by breastfeeding four times a day and a bottle feed at night to keep him fuller for longer. The meal planners from the books also helped in creating a mixed and varied diet, a free Heinz meal planner can also be found online. I'm hoping that by helping Isaac develop a taste for healthy food now we will be making meal times a lot easier in the years to come.