I had done my research on weaning and have weaned two babies previously, but Finn is that bit smaller and slower than his brothers and I wanted to wait until I believed he was ready before we started. The six month marker came and went and whilst he was starting to sit unaided, my instincts told me he wasn't quite ready. As the month progressed, he grew stronger, his coordination improved and he started showing a real interest in what we ate.
Just before he turned 7 months I decided we were both ready for the next little adventure and we started on the solid food. I decided that the best thing for Finn was to offer both puree and finger foods from the very beginning. As we had left it a little later than most I wanted to make sure he was getting some nutrients, but I wanted to promote the skills of self-feeding, so we have been offering him sticks of vegetables alongside the spoon feeds.
SMA® Nutrition has some great advice on their SMA Mums website about weaning and celebrity mum Sheree Murphy is working with them to create some lovely recipes for every step of weaning. As we prepare to start mixing flavours, we have been challenged to try Finn with this savoury puree. We are making sure he has had each ingredient on its own first and I am looking forward to trying him with something new.
Not all babies will like every food but that is part of the fun of weaning. The smiles as they find their favourite, the brilliant faces when they first try something sour, the mess when they really aren't keen and decide it is more fun to blow raspberries on the spoon rather than eat it and the stress of trying to stop your other children being helpful and sharing their chocolate buttons with the baby!
My top tips for weaning are:
-Pick a simple high chair. You will learn in the long run that they are much easier to clean and you aren't there every night picking baked beans out of every crevice
-Try a food several times before giving up on it. Baby may not be so keen the first time, but everything is new to them and they may turn out to love it the next day.
-If you don't have an easy clean floor, then open up a bin bag and put it under the high chair. It should catch most of the mess that gets thrown around and you can just tip it in the bin at the end of the day.
-Try offering solid food alongside puree to help your baby with their fine motor skills. It is great for them to try different textures and makes it easy out and about to give them something from your plate to join in.
-Have fun and relax. Weaning is fun. Your baby may eat only the tiniest amount or demolish a whole meal. Food is for fun until they are one and as long as they are still getting plenty of milk alongside their food then you can take it at their pace.
All of SMA Nutrition’s weaning recipe videos can be viewed here along with tips and advice on the weaning journey.
This post is in collaboration with SMA Nutrition.
Nawhhh! Well done Finn! Edie is still a bit ambivalent towards food - unless it's chips, she is obsessed with chips! She is getting better and better but doesn't like me feeding her and prefers finger food :) x
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