Pregnancy and Baby Advice Thread: From Conception to Birth, and Beyond!

[PrincessPeach]

Hi lovely ladies x

Weaning mummys I need your help!

I feel like I'm stuck in a rut with what to feed Amelia. She started on baby rice and porridge at 1 meal a day from 15 weeks. About a month later (because she was still so young) I started trying the purees at that 1 meal. A little while later, I upped the food to x2 meals a day...so she'd have baby cereal/porridge for breakfast and puréed veg/fruit for lunch. Now she has that, plus 1 little fromage frais yoghurt at 4pm (and has 4 bottles a day). I've kept it like that for now because I was worried about upping it before 6 months...

Now she's 6 months old tomorrow (eeek!!) and I'm not sure what to do?!

I have no ideas on what to give for breakfast, lunch etc and I need to "up" the 4pm (dinner) feed - yoghurt will then just be pudding. Can she eat a bit of fish & meat now? Do I need to give snacks?! I'm also scared about lumps...how do I start with lumps?!

I literally feel like I've gone back to the beginning and I have no idea what to feed her! Any help, suggestions and advice VERY welcome!! lol xxx

 

[Susiew2001]

Hi lovely ladies x Weaning mummys I need your help! I feel like I'm stuck in a rut with what to feed Amelia. She started on baby rice and porridge at 1 meal a day from 15 weeks. About a month later (because she was still so young) I started trying the purees at that 1 meal. A little while later, I upped the food to x2 meals a day...so she'd have baby cereal/porridge for breakfast and puréed veg/fruit for lunch. Now she has that, plus 1 little fromage frais yoghurt at 4pm (and has 4 bottles a day). I've kept it like that for now because I was worried about upping it before 6 months... Now she's 6 months old tomorrow (eeek!!) and I'm not sure what to do?! I have no ideas on what to give for breakfast, lunch etc and I need to "up" the 4pm (dinner) feed - yoghurt will then just be pudding. Can she eat a bit of fish & meat now? Do I need to give snacks?! I'm also scared about lumps...how do I start with lumps?! I literally feel like I've gone back to the beginning and I have no idea what to feed her! Any help, suggestions and advice VERY welcome!! lol xxx

Yes she can have meat and fish and lentils now. Protein basically! Her kidneys will be able to handle it now. With lumps You can mash with a fork and get progressively less mashed if that makes sense.
I just give her whatever we have generally. Cottage pie, spag Bol, lasagne, roast dinner etc can all be made baby friendly! Even chilli con carne but with not very much chilli (she loves the beans!) baked potato with baked beans and cheese is a good one. As is fish pie.
Basically they can eat most things as long as you don't add salt/gravy granules. I'm sure I've got a list somewhere....will have a look.
My own experience would be to introduce protein at lunch time and keep to fruit and veg etc for tea as it's harder to digest and I think it gave her tummy ache in the evening. She was fine once she got used to it.
She can have a weetabix now as well and 'proper' porridge is a good one for introducing lumps.
Abigail was really keen on her food and doing it herself though so we did quite a combination of baby led weaning where I let her get on with it but also I helped as well and it worked for us and she now mostly does it herself with the exception of yoghurt as that's just a recipe for disaster and a deep cleaning session of the kitchen.
Peas were popular for her to pick up, then moved onto blueberries as they are soft and then I just found I added other things as I went along, like cubes of soft banana that then became sticks and now it's a whole banana! I think she was about 7months when she could pick little things up properly......Cheerios are good as well as they are sticky so easier to pick up with a soggy finger...
Just a thought about fromage frais and clearly it's entirely up to you but I was advised by my hv to try and avoid too much of the kids yoghurts as they contain a lot of sugar and can affect their teeth etc and to try and use full fat plain yoghurt instead. So she has plain greek yoghurt instead and loves it. I hadn't thought about it until she mentioned it. Just a thought anyway.
Hope all that helps....will see if I can find that list, it's got things about shellfish etc on but can't remember the years xx

 

[pjallen1982]

Exactly what Susie just said. We have a mix of veg and fruit purées although not that puréed because I often do it by hand, and then some food that we eat. So for example I'm currently doing mince, veg and mash potato and I'll just mash some down further for Oliver. I give him fruit to eat- blueberries, strawberries halved, grapes and banana being his favourites. The melt in the mouth crisps are good, think there are carrot puffs, sweet corn rings, tomato rings.. Good for when out.

I tend to give Oliver Greek yogurt with fruit purée in unless out then will give a mini kids yogurt but yes the sugar content is quite high. Really bad marketing because they are for kids.

Hope all goes well. Just see what Amelia likes and go from there. I still use a mix of shop bought pouches and home made food. I know some people are against bought food but I find it convenient and useful to work out what Oliver likes and doesn't.

X

 

[Susiew2001]

Yes the pouches are good. There are loads of nice ones and I used to get the ones that were on offer. They are really good for when you're out and you can't keep home made food cold or reheat it properly. I even have a few now for standby emergencies though now she can eat most things life is a lot easier! X

 

[Danni86]

How do you know when they're ready for chewing? Could he choke on a cube of fruit like banana or would he know to chew? Really worried to go beyond lumps just now lol

We get on well making fruit and veg purées and he's had baby porridge, baby cereal & weetabix. He also likes Greek yogurt with fruit puree but think I need to get a bit more adventurous too.

 

[pjallen1982]

Yes the pouches are good. There are loads of nice ones and I used to get the ones that were on offer. They are really good for when you're out and you can't keep home made food cold or reheat it properly. I even have a few now for standby emergencies though now she can eat most things life is a lot easier! X

Asda often have the Ella's ones for 4 for £3 or something like that. Oliver had the bangers and mash one yesterday. I forgot to take food for him when we went to the pub but thankfully that pouch was in the changing bag, phew! X

 

[ksmiuk]

I've just been to Aldi and bought a coup

 

[ksmiuk]

My phone went crazy!
Bought some pouches from Aldi for in the future although I plan on making as much as possible. They are organic look the same as Ella's kitchen and cost 40-50p not sure if they taste the same but half the price! Xx

 

[pjallen1982]

My phone went crazy! Bought some pouches from Aldi for in the future although I plan on making as much as possible. They are organic look the same as Ella's kitchen and cost 40-50p not sure if they taste the same but half the price! Xx

Ooh will try make a trip to aldi then. Thanks x

 

[Susiew2001]

The aldi ones are really nice. Think it's chicken risotto and sweetcorn? Seemed v popular anyway. and their fruit ones are lots cheaper than Ella's kitchen and are the same! X

 

[Danni86]

When I was home Lidl did the Annabel Karmel pouches x

 

[Susiew2001]

Have found the list and a few other bits and bobs about introducing textures and a couple of v popular recipes with Abigail. X the chicken and apricot one was really nice, did a big pot and we had it with rice x

 

[ksmiuk]

Did you have the chicken too?sounds nice I like the idea of all having the same xx

 

[Danni86]

Thanks Susie, that's really helpful
Will start adding some lumpier bits to his purées. I gave him mashed banana the other day so hopefully he'll accept them.

 

[Susiew2001]

Did you have the chicken too?sounds nice I like the idea of all having the same xx[/QUOTE

Yup. Was really nice. I added some cherry tomatoes etc as well, just what I had left but it was nice. Had to add some salt to ours but it was nice. I really like the fish one as well but that's less easy to have as a family! X

 

[sarah_lou1981]

I got some Annabel Karmel ones and they were awful. Really watery. Even I wouldn't have touched them so I binned them! I buy jars to always have in too. Cole loves them. They helped us with him moving up to the next food as I knew what lump sizes he should be having.

 

[Dougal1983]

Since I first asked about teething, Oliver has calmed right down until today and now if there isn't a bottle or dummy in his mouth, his hands are!
We have teething toys of all shapes and sizes but he's not interested.
I don't suppose there's any way I can stop him using his hands as a teething toy??

 

[Dougal1983]

I should add that's he's actually chomping on his hands, to the point where he's got a couple of scratches on them and they are getting really dry

 

[Cai]

Since I first asked about teething, Oliver has calmed right down until today and now if there isn't a bottle or dummy in his mouth, his hands are! We have teething toys of all shapes and sizes but he's not interested. I don't suppose there's any way I can stop him using his hands as a teething toy??

When you get the answer will you let me know...Stevie still loves his hands for teething ha ha xx

 

[Susiew2001]

We found her hands got really dry esp as she is a thumb sucker. I had some nipple cream left - lansinoh. It doesn't have to be wiped off when you feed so I figured it would be ok on her hands! Other than that I don't know....I'm sure it will pass! X