Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

1 2

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Weaning

Scared to start weaning

47 replies

Kessernags · 31/08/2006 15:00

I have a six month old baby girl who is currently breast fed exclusively. She is definitely ready to start being weaned but I dont really know where to start. I live abroad and cant get baby rice here (Monaco/France). They start babies here on "food food" if you get what I mean. I want to make my own purees and have an Annable Karmel book but it talks a lot about baby rice to start with. Does anyone have any advice or reassurance? Am I just being a wuss and should just get on with it?

OP posts:

Report

TooTicky · 31/08/2006 15:03

Squash and sweet potato are great and make beautifully smooth purees. Experiment and enjoy...you'll end up eating most of it at first anyway. All mine graduated very quickly to garlicky lentils which they adored...
Baby rice isn't actually necessary, just useful for thickening if something ends up too runny. Good luck!

lemonaid · 31/08/2006 15:04

You could try baby led weaning (starting them on "food food" and letting them feed themselves rather than putting anything in their mouths) which is definitely what I'll do next time, but it sounds as though you're not keen on that.

There is no reason at all you need to use baby rice, though (it looks and tastes like wallpaper paste anyway). If you want to do conventional UK-style puree-based weaning then just jump right in with the fruits and vegetables. Carrot, parsnip and sweet potato are good ones to start with (although I was at what sweet potato did to DS's poo...).

Mum2FunkyDude · 31/08/2006 15:04

You might want to look at this Baby led weaning is another way of introducing your baby to solids by side stepping the puree stage. Baby rice is usually offered first as it is gluten free. HTH

TooTicky · 31/08/2006 15:05

It's much more sensible to start on food food, all this special stuff for babies and children just leads to fussiness later.

Twiglett · 31/08/2006 15:05

ignore baby rice

just start with veg pureed

at 6 months you can progress really quickly

its a learning curve .. once you've been doing it for a week you'll wonder why you were bothered .. like many things in life the anticipation is the worst

Kessernags · 31/08/2006 15:06

Thanks Tooticky. Did you make your own food as well? Can I just freeze my purees in an ordinary sterilised icecube tray? If so do I need to cover them before I put them in the freezer or do they just go in as they are? A fried of mine bought a "Bebea Babycook", is something like that absolutely necessary?

OP posts:

melpomene · 31/08/2006 15:07

You don't need to buy specially manufactured baby rice. Both my dds were weaned onto normal rice (e.g. pudding rice), very well cooked and then pureed with breastmilk.

You can then move onto the fruit and vegetable purees.

LIZS · 31/08/2006 15:07

Didn't bother with baby rice for dd as we had similar problem getting it in Switzerland . Just went straight onto pureed fruit and veg, whatever was in season.

Mum2FunkyDude · 31/08/2006 15:08

Yes, leave ice cubes open to freeze and then take them out and seal in a ziplock bag. Keeps up to 2 months in freezer.

lemonaid · 31/08/2006 15:10

Kessernags I just froze purees in regular ice cube tray (didn't sterilise it, even I don't think even official guidelines say you need to sterilise anything other than milk bottles/teats/etc. once they are over 6 months), open, and then "decanted" cubes into labelled bags in freezer once they were frozen solid.

lemonaid · 31/08/2006 15:10

Don't need specialist cooking thingy, just steam vegetables and then puree (or you can boil, but steaming is better).

Mumpbump · 31/08/2006 15:11

The thing about baby rice (BR) is that it has a bland flavour so you can mix it with stuff to dilute the more strongly flavoured foods. Also it helps babies to sleep better as it is more filling than veggies and I did read somewhere that babies weaned on BR as well as veggies do better - guess BR is a bit more nutritious being carbohydrate, rather than just fibre. What about using potatoes instead or puree-ing proper rice with veggies? Do they not have any kind of cereal for babies or a ready-brek equivalent in France?

TooTicky · 31/08/2006 15:12

You don't need any special equipment. I didn't even sterilise anything after baby 1 (I have 4 now and they're all healthy!)
Thich soups are great as you can make enough for everybody, take out a couple of baby portions (one for today, one for tomorrow) and season the rest for grown up palates.

TooTicky · 31/08/2006 15:14

And no, you don't need to cover the cubes in the freezer.

Kessernags · 31/08/2006 15:14

Great advice ladies. Thank you so much. When making your purees how do you know when they are the rigt consistency? Plus what ia Baby lead weaning? I have never heard of it. Does anyone have a good website that i could look at about this? I thought everyone started on purees!

OP posts:

Olihan · 31/08/2006 15:14

My ds would not touch baby rice!! I tried for days and he'd just spit it out. Then I tried sweet potato and he loved it. As soon as he ate some he twigged what he had to do and that was it, no stresses at all.

Just a quick thought, my friend had real problems getting her bf baby to take food off a spoon because she just wasn't used to having something hard and plastic stuck in her mouth!! It might be worth letting your baby play/chew on a sterilised spoon before you try putting food on it.

lemonaid · 31/08/2006 15:17

Try babyledweaning.com

lemonaid · 31/08/2006 15:19

Or this site is really good.

Kessernags · 31/08/2006 15:19

Everyone keeps suggesting things like sweet potatoe and parsnips but we cant get them here 9unfortunately) which is very annoying. Is it best to start on somthing sweeter? i was going to start with apple but should i be starting with a vegetable?

OP posts:

Kessernags · 31/08/2006 15:21

Thanks Lemonaid, I will take a look.

OP posts:

Kessernags · 31/08/2006 15:23

Thanks Mumpbump, I will see if I can find some baby cereal. I have never looked and I am not sure wheather I can get Ready Brek or not. It doesnt have salt in it does it?

OP posts:

Olihan · 31/08/2006 15:26

Pear is always a good bet because it's one of the things they can't be allergic to (I think). Carrots are another good one - just be prepared for the nappies afterwards. There's a certain idea that babies prefer sweet foods so you start them with veg so that they don't reject it but tbh it made no difference to my dcs. I used to give fruit for 'breakfast' and veg for 'tea' and they both eat veg quite happily.

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Email address

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

lemonaid · 31/08/2006 15:28

You will see some advice that you should introduce vegetables before fruit but IMO I think that's over-finicky. Apple should be fine, also pear is good. You can get carrots in France, presumably ? Also broccoli, green beans, spinach, banana (no need to cook that, just mash it, and in fact even a non-BLW baby will have a pretty good go at a whole banana), apricot, nectarine, blueberry. I have known some babies have a bad reaction to potato so if you are worried then hold off on that for a few months. You can give them most things, really, but hold off on egg, gluten and citrus for a bit, also in theory strawberries and kiwi as they can be quite allergenic (although DS was eating strawberries at 7 months so I am a Bad Example) .

Kessernags · 31/08/2006 15:28

Thanks Olihan! Should I be bying organic fruit and veg to make my purees? Would that be best?

OP posts:

lemonaid · 31/08/2006 15:30

Post-blueberry poo is another alarming one, by the way

Flip

1 2

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.