Thursday 17 April 2014

Combined weaning

I have had the title of this post in my draft folder since November, but inspired by something I overheard today, decided to finish it. We decided to begin weaning the Mini Grumpy Egyptian when she was five and a half months old as she was showing an interest in food and seemed hungry. It was quite hard working out whether she was interested in food or interested in food in that it was new and she found it interesting rather than wanting to eat it. Her first meal was some puréed sweet potato and boy did she inhale it!

This lovely image is taken from the My Little Lunchbox Blog with thanks. It isn't mine!


We chose to go for a mixture of baby led and traditional weaning so would feed with a spoon, but offer soft foods for her to try and eat by herself. We did this because it was the way the Grumpy Egyptian and I were both weaned and we don't have any trouble eating, just the opposite in fact! I know some mum's think that spoon feeding is the same as force feeding, but I've never spooned food into the Mini Grumpy Egyptian's mouth if she's crying or forced her to eat something she doesn't want. By choosing a selection of age/teeth appropriate finger foods at each meal as well as something warm for dinner or a yoghurt at breakfast, she is trying a whole host of flavours.

We started off with two small meals a day - breakfast and dinner - with breastfeeding as needed and her top up bottle of formula mid-afternoon. We tried some pouches, which she was keen on to start, but very soon got bored of singular/plain flavours and would spit it out. We moved into more advanced flavours and I found curry paste pots for children (found in the baby food aisle) were fantastic. I could remove some of the meat and vegetables that I was making our curry with and in a separate pan mix it with the curry paste, some tomatoes and yoghurt and we have enough to freeze for five meals. I also used pouches to make a quick meal with pasta if we were eating something that was inappropriate (too spicy, etc) for her to have.

Around six and a half months in and we introduced a small lunch as well before increasing portion sizes. I was worried that the mini one would overeat, but we found that she quickly found what was a comfortable amount for her to eat and would refuse anymore when full. Five months on and we are yet to find anything this little girl won't eat! She appears to have her mother's sweet tooth but will happily tuck into trees (broccoli), watermelon, pepper slices and is rather partial to a little cauliflower cheese. I give her lots of finger foods at every meal, but am still spoon feeding her yoghurt/wet foods because I'm not sure she's ready to spoon feed herself. When cooking I add no salt to our food and use the Heinz stock cubes that I get from the baby food aisle so if it's suitable for the mini one then she can have some of what we're eating. She likes Moroccan meatball Tagine, tomato pasta, homemade sweet and normal potato wedges as well as gnawing on a bit of steak when it's around.

She doesn't eat pork for religious reasons, but that hasn't seemed a problem so far. When out and about she likes egg and cress or peanut butter sandwiches. Cheese always makes an appearance at lunchtime and I have a container of rice crackers, breadsticks and mini kids flapjacks that never leave the nappy changing bag.

I do worry she doesn't get enough variety, but reading above makes me realise perhaps she does! A frantic Google search one day led me to Kayla and her gorgeous blog My Lovely Little Lunchbox (I'm so jealous, I won't lie) where she writes about the delicious food she makes her little one so I've managed to get some great tips from there. When did you start giving your little ones their own spoon/cutlery? It is her birthday next month so I am pinning away on Pinterest for a couple of cheap but cheerful birthday food ideas.

The Egyptian Mummy

18 comments:

  1. This is very similar to how I weaned my three :) Mine had spoons/forks from as soon as they were sat in the highchair :)

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  2. Good post, did find weaning hard with my daughter as she has hydro .x

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  3. I've always weaned in this way too and agree that a mixture - of spoons and allowing them to pick up what they want has always worked. There is definitely a misconception that spoon feeding means forcing them to eat but that couldn't be further from the truth with mine!!

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  4. We did a bit of both and still do at 1. Spoon some stuff and she eats anything finger food ish herself x

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  5. She sounds quite adventurous and you appear to be doing a great job with the weaning!

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  6. I weaned my older two this way but my younger two had such severe reflux they needed either super smooth purees by spoon or self feeding for safety as much as anything. That's my version of babbled weaning - doing what YOUR baby needs :) Sounds as though you did a fab job!

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  7. We're currently doing a combination of both with my 9 month old, he refuses lumpy/textured purees so we give him smooth purees with a variety of finger foods and it seems to be working well so far! xxx

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  8. My little one loved purees when he was tiny, now he is 2 he is a little more fussy but adores salad, veg and fruit.

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  9. It sounds like quite an adventure for you both :) x

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  10. Will check out the blog you suggested as I worry mine don't get enough variety either and always open to new ideas

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  11. I've never heard of spoon feeding being thought of as force feeding, how odd! We spoon fed purees and gave finger foods when they were old enough. When they were old enough for the high chair we gave them the cutlery so they could make a start on learning how to use it :)

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  12. I took a very similar approach, my now two year old calls them trees too! I find he seems to have days where he eats like a horse and days where he isn't hungry at all- but over the week it balances out!

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  13. I have never thought of spoon feeding as force feeding, I spoon fed mine but also let them get their hands in. I now find that one of my twins will ask for a fork even when having a sandwich lol but when he has broccoli or carrots he gets his hands in. But I don't mind as long as they eat. It is easier now as they eat what we have but I do often get stuck for lunch ideas x

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  14. I am weaning like this too but hubby moans as Seb makes so much mess lol

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  15. I love the whole weaning adventure. I spoon fed Emmy mainly but Harry is solely BLWeaned

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  16. She sounds like an amazing little eater!

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  17. Who needs pork when you have a chicken? :-)

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