BabyWhispererForums.com
EAT => Feeding Solid Food => Topic started by: kiz8888 on March 10, 2011, 08:25:57 am
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Hi there,
My little boy is 6months and 2wks old and I guess we started weaning when he turned 6 months old. We initially tried to do blw as that's what I did with my first little boy (now 2.5yrs old) and it was great, but with my 2nd ds, he just could get anything to his mouth. He's been taking less and less formula and I was at the end of my tether for a few days so I decided to go down the 'traditional' weaning route...however, so far I've only once boiled up a carrot and mashed it, and he wouldn't put any of it in his mouth. I don't know if that's because, previous to this I've just been giving him jars, and Ella's Kitchen pouches as I was a bit in denial of having to wean this way and really didn't want to have to start pureeing things.
He seems to be getting on okay with the jars so far, but what i'm wondering is, is this the wrong thing to do? I just don't know if I can do the pureeing thing...i'm still hoping that by giving him finger foods with every meal, he'll suddenly start getting the hang of blw and I won't have to give him the soft stuff anymore.
Has anyone else weaned by only giving jars.....should I give in and just start pureeing things? This is all so new to me, I don't have a clue what i'm doing.
Thanks in advance
Kirsten x
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I gave a lot in the early days and all it did was constipate her. She soon got bored of them as well as I was only prepared to use organic preservative free ones.
So I started to puree - but nice meals not a single veg etc as she had no interest in those.
She has really taken to BLW since about 8 mths though.
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Thanks...can I ask what kind of things you made as purees? I'm wondering if he wouldn't touch the carrot as he's kind of used to the mix of flavours in the jars iykwim?
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I only did single purees for a short while with DD1 and then like Liz moved onto meals as well as finger foods.
I had a couple of annabel karnal recipe books and used those.
I am going to start weaning DD2 soon and I'm going to do similar. What I'm thinking is a few weeks of single foods just to make sure shes no reactions to anything then move onto meals. Am going to make enough for us to eat as a family and enough to freeze several portions for the baby.
I remember the recipes for stew and chicken casserole were lovely so hoping to find more.
HTH x
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Mine is loving the Annabel Karmel recipes too, and it's easy to adapt them to include different flavours.
Once we got past the first 3 weeks or so of just giving a single thing for a few days, I spent a weekend steaming, pureeing and freezing loads of fruit and veg - that first time I did carrot, sweet potato, butternut squash, apple, pear, peach and plum. That way I had plenty of options and was never stuck for something to feed her, and it was a good three weeks before I needed to top it up! At that stage I added courgette (which she detests), broccoli, cauliflower, potato, and a few other things, and that did us for another few weeks.
At that stage I started doing meaty dishes, so now I do a stew-type thing for her every second weekend or so and freeze that; at the moment we've portions of chicken, lamb, beef and fish dishes as well as various vegetables and fruit, so we can keep things varied.
It's not so bad, really, if you do it in batches and freeze. I don't have much option here as we tried a couple of Ella's Kitchen pouches at one stage (I was in despair about her texture problems and though commercial food might work better for her than homemade). She didn't like them at all and I found them absolutely vile, so we're sticking with homemade!
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Thanks for your replies. I'm on the Annabel Karmel website now having a look. Is it worthwhile getting her book then do you think? I think i'm going to have to start pureeing stuff myself as it's going to cost me too much money to buy the jars all the time, plus i'd rather he was getting homemade food as opposed to shop bought.
Thanks
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Here is another helpful website for making baby food: www.wholesomebabyfood.com
TBH I don't think you need to spend money on a book. You can find all the info and recipes you need online. :)
Also, don't feel bad if you don't do much pureeing and still want to do BLW. Some babies take a bit longer to get the hang of it, but they're really not missing out if they don't eat much the first few months. My DS2 hardly ate anything, puree or finger food wise, until 8+mos.
You could do a little homemade stuff and a little jarred stuff. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing deal. ;)
I personally preferred to make our baby food, but if you are in a fix and need something you can keep a few jars of organic baby food handy. You probably won't need to do purees for too long.
:)
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If it makes you feel any better....all my DD had was jars! We did the baby cereals first and then off to jars. She had all her veggies and fruits from a jar as I was working and NOT one to cook and puree and freeze, etc. I'd like to try to do some myself this time around b/c the jars that I could get hold of here didn't contain much variety, but not for any other reason. DD moved along wonderfully to thicker pureed foods, chunkier but soft pieces of food, pastas, those puffed dry snack things, crackers, real cooked veggies, meats, etc. and did fine. I, of course, also handed her things she was interested in or could handle off of my or DH's plate along the way.
So whatever you decide to do....IMO jarred is not "wrong"....just different.
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Thank you Martina, that website has lots of great recipes and I agree that after doing some research there's loads of recipes online so no need to buy a book.
I'm giving him stuff to hold with every meal I feed him so he's getting the hang of holding things. He munched into a slice of melon yesterday with gusto...it was great to watch and kind of makes me a bit sad that I'm also giving him purees, if that makes sense?!
Nicole-Ava's mom...thank you for reassuring me on the jars. I think for the time being I'll continue with the jars until I get some ideas for recipes for him then I'll maybe have a bash at making my own stuff for him.
The only problem I have is that yesterday I steamed some carrot, parsnip and sweet potato then put them in my mini blender, but they came out quite lumpy and I couldn't seem to get them any finer. I don't want to buy a mouli as I don't think i'd use it for long enough to justify the cost, so what I'm wondering is, how do most ppl puree their foods? Would using a hand blender work?
Thanks again.
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Yes, hand blenders are perfect for getting the right consistency! I'm talking about blender sticks, the ones with blades (not like a hand mixer). They're really inexpensive to buy and you can use them for lots of things. I do suggest investing in one, they do a much better job and take up less space than big blenders or food processors. :)
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Hand blenders are great, and you will use them all the time, long after you are done making baby food, however, in my experience, you can never get homemade purees as smooth as jars. For that reason, I use jars for about 80% of the food I give my 6 mo. I have made a couple of purees, but mostly, I go with jars. The good thing about making food yourself is that you can actually get creative and mix in tons of other fruits and veggies that are not commercially available. But there is nothing wrong with jars at all, esp organic and natural brands. Look at the ingredients: the fruit (or veggie) and water, that is all.
Moreover, from a cost perspective, you don't really use purees for all that long, starting at 5-6 months and tailing off as your LO starts eating more finger food around 8-9 months. There are some babies that love their purees though, but for most, once they are well into finger foods, you can all but stop the purees.
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Actually, I am going to modify my previous statement about not being able to get homemade purees thin enough. Last week I made a butternut squash and apple bake and used the regular blender to puree it, and added too much water and it came out so thin, I had to add cereal to it when I fed her. So, with the right amount of work, you can get those things pretty smooth.
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Thanks Texomamama,
I went to the supermarket today and bought some more jars, but also bought a hand blender (annoying thing is I used to have one until my mum pinched it from me!), anyway, as you say I'm sure i'll use it for more than just purees and it was relatively cheap to buy. I also bought some ice-cube tray things to store the food in so i'm going to spend some time looking at the website Martina told me about, and a few others to get some ideas then i'll start getting creative. Just hope he likes my homemade food and isn't too fond of the jars by now to adapt to it.
Thanks again.
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With my first I started her on jars and then made my own...she won't eat the homemade stuff she likes the jars stuff better :P ::)
Did the same with with my ds and he likes the jars better too.....maybe I'm just a bad cook. ::) ::)
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So whatever you decide to do....IMO jarred is not "wrong"....just different.
Ditto! ;D
My two older kids were all jars. My third is 6 months and he is 99.9% jars right now (2nd foods). My plan with him is to continue with the jars through the 2nd foods beause I just find it easier overall and much less time consuming. And then once he gets to the chunkier foods and is past the allergy-testing stage I will puree whatever we are eating (whenever possible) and add some of the 1st and 2nds jarred foods to thin it out or add to it.
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I am probably going to be doing the same thing as Kimberly above. So far, of the three things I made myself (squash, peas and carrots), they are all busts (or in the case of the squash), just OK. Of course, they are all veggies, and I might have more luck with fruits, but I just don't like doing all that work. Perhaps, I too, am a bad cook :)
I figure by the time DD2 is 9 mo, she will pretty much be done with the jars anyway.