Our Weaning Journey!



Okay, so bottle feeding for us was not easy to say the least! Rosie was tube fed for the first 11 days of her life, and having to transition from that was hard, and it just carried on being a nightmare from then on! Lots of problems arose, such as not finding a bottle she could drink from easily, to trapped wind. Wind was such a huge issue it seemed to take over our lives for months!

However, before we knew it, Rosie started taking the bottle perfectly well and would be popping out burps no problem whilst crawling along the living room floor. Its crazy how one day without even realising you look back and its all changed suddenly!
Great, we've aced the bottle. Now it was time for WEANING! To be honest, I never ever really thought about weaning whilst I was pregnant or in them early stages, I was so focused on that newborn stage it never really occurred to me that before long she would actually need proper food!


We began weaning at four months. Gov guidelines are 6 months so please take that into account. Do what is right for you and your little one! However like I said, the bottle was always a struggle and so I felt she was more than ready to try some solids. I brought half of Tesco's 4m+ range, and of course, because we are all not perfect, without realising the first solid I gave her was some 6m+ banana yoghurt! However the two spoonful's she had seemed to go down nicely. Sometimes baby brain just gets you!!


Stage one (4-6m +)

First time in her highchair! She looked so small!


From then on, for about a month or so she would mainly have rusks mixed with milk, baby rice and baby porridge. Quantities increased of what she would take but of course most of her nutrients were still coming from her formula. By 6 months she was having some baby porridge with her morning bottle and half a jar to a jar of baby dinner by tea time followed by some fruit for afters. The porridge was her fave and it is so cute to see them get so excited by food! Although then the messy stuff really begins!



Stage Two (7m+)
Happy egg face in a happy egg chair!
At seven months we introduced lumps, at first she struggled with them but eventually she got used to it! I found that certain baby food brands would make their baby food a lot lumpier than others. So I would try to buy a nice mixture of different brands at first and see which your baby tends to prefer! For instance Hipp organic seemed a lot more mushy and runny, whereas some C&G jars seemed to have quite hard lumps of potato in! We also introduced a Sippy cup, which was somewhat okay but its took us until now really to find one that she liked (and wouldn't spill everywhere!) Which actually turned out to be a Poundland one, when I had been spending near on £5-7 on them! Rosie has always stuck to water, someone told me once don't introduce juice if they take the water because they then know no different! Nothing wrong with juice though if they don't like water, it gets them hydrated!

Around 6-7 months we also introduced finger foods! I was quite scared about this, I would be reading in magazines and online about how to your 6 month old can eat some toast. I just saw how tiny she was and thought no way I would be so scared she would choke! However, we gradually introduced more finger food and she absolutely loved it!! There was a few gagging moments which scare you, but they soon get used to it! Again go with your instincts and only give them what they are ready to have. There is plenty out there online about no-no foods and when certain things are allowed to be introduced. Since she seemed to love the finger food so much, we gradually began a mix of spoon and BLW. Its worked so well for us to mix the both!! I was quite sceptical of BLW to say the least, and that is something that as I have grown as a Mum my mind has opened up too! We don't know it all at first and that's okay!

At this point she was having around 500-600ml of milk a day too which is the recommended amount. I did find it quite hard during this stage to make sure she got the balance of milk and food and that one of them didn't fill her up too much that she would want the other!!


Stage 3 (10m+)


Err Mum, spoon but no food?
By ten months, personally I found the weaning to be a lot easier. She was down to three bottles a day (A small bottle of milk with her lunch and morning/evening) She was also getting quite the pro at feeding herself various things. I found the best way for me was to give her breakfast - which was by now wheatbix, and I think on my next baby I would switch to 'adult cereal' a lot sooner and not use the expensive baby porridge for too long as its just basically the same thing! Then for lunch, I would like to give her a lunch she could feed herself! Crumpets, cheese, fruit that kind of thing. Then for dinner she would still happily be fed a baby meal with a spoon! I loved this as I knew she was getting all she needed but also had a lot of experience with feeding herself.

Stage 4 (12m+)




Yay! we made it to the last stage! One million baby wipes and countless stained clothes later we have made it to stage 4! At 12 months we dropped the lunch bottle and she is now just having a bottle either side of the day. Breakfast is cereal usually, which she does let us give her. Lunch is still finger food and the only thing that's really changed is that fact she screams now when we try and spoon feed her dinner! So dinner has developed now into more 'grown up' dinners which she can feed herself and we are currently in the process of teaching her how to use cutlery!

I think one of the best pieces of advice I can give about weaning looking back is to not over-think too much. Sometimes it can always seem like there is someone doing one better, feeding their child beautiful organic creations. Its only food, and I think a lot of it is just down to common sense. We do let Rosie have treats, she loves nothing more than devouring a milky bar, however she doesn't have one every day and I know she gets all her good nutrients too.

When we first started weaning and I would read certain things on it, or see things on TV about how we shouldn't give our babies the 'ready made' jars/pouches of food, and I would get mum guilt for using them. More power to you if you have the time and energy each day to cook from scratch each meal, everyone's circumstances are different and if that's what you wanna do then lovely, however in my reality it was just not going to work! I felt like she was getting her nutrients perfectly, some of the meals contained about 34930 different vegetables! Eventually she out grew them and now she has transitioned perfectly well to 'normal' food and adores eating a home made roast.
Like everything in parenting, trust your gut about what they are ready for and what they like, and eventually it will all fall into place!




Top Things to Remember:


  • Things will get extremely messy, even more so if you are doing BLW. I used to stress watching all the mess being created but in time you get used to it (somewhat)
THE MESS!!
  • Don't compare! Other babies might happily eat vegetables all day long whilst your baby throws their cauliflower on the floor whilst throwing you a disgusted look like youre the worst mother in the world. Just keep trying and eventually you will find things they love! Also do NOT feel bad for giving your baby ready made meals if that's what works for you!! 
Rosie loved the C&G Meals! 

  • Bibs are your best friend. Rosie tried to started to yank them off your neck so I got some of the ones that gone on around their head. Perfect! I am also a big fan of the ones with arms, however she would start to just chew the big plastic ones with a crumb catcher at the bottom! Who knew there was so much that goes into bibs!?
  • Safe to say I found it quite stressful going out to eat with Rosie when she began weaning. So much mess, and this time not in your home! And I'd have visions of her throwing her fish finger at a strangers head or screaming when it all finished. I just learnt to do a quick tidy up before you leave and stay calm (and have plenty of goodies/toys on hand)
Eating out in IKEA! (If you're nervous about eating out with your LO try having lunch at IKEA the first time! (Its very baby friendly)

  • A lot of clubs and websites (see my post on clubs to join) send out free information/coupons/freebies when it comes to weaning time! Ella's kitchen sent out a lovely weaning chart, and cow and gate sent a whole cookbook and money off coupons!
  • Go with the flow! At the end of the day its food and its meant to be enjoyed, so try not to put too much pressure on yourself or your baby if you can help it! Don't feel guilty for letting them have the occasional treats or if they didn't eat a lot one day, it will all balance itself out!
Treat time! Nothing like that first Ice Cream!!






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