Weaning Eddie...

I firstly apologise for me taking over a month to put on a new post but things have been hectic in the Grandfield/Ward household to say the least. But this new post is about how I am getting on weaning Eddie. It was really confusing for me to choose when was the best time to start weaning Eddie. He has always been a hungry (greedy) baby so my family, particularly mine & Steve's grandparents were quite insistent on trying Eddie on baby rice. I was quite adamant I wanted to wait until he was 6months old. But it’s hard when you can clearly see your baby is hungry even after having a bottle of milk every couple of hours. After asking the health visitors, they all say the same thing, “Wait till he's 6 months old”. Fine...I will wait! 

You can normally tell your baby is ready for solids when they take an interest in what you’re eating and putting in your mouth and may even reach out to touch it and do the same which is what Eddie use to do. So when Eddie was 5 & half months Steve and I together tried him on a bit of baby rice. At first we made it really runny & it was an awful disgusting mess and left Eddie with crusty milk/rice all over his hands, neck, hair & obviously his face. Just when I thought I’d had gotten it all off him, I’d still find bits of crustiness on parts of his body the next day thinking how the hell it got there! 

After trial and error with the consistency of the rice we finally nailed it and well Eddie demolished it and then some. So sort of felt guilty I waited so long to give him some solid food. So for Christmas my mum got me this book Weaning by Annabel Karmel (click on her name for more info on it) great gift, But actually it did turn out to be a god send! For starters I don’t eat well at all and I barely cook so the thought of making food for Eddie...healthy nutritious food was so daunting & to me and quite frankly off putting. But the poor lad needs his grub so I read this book from back to front and well now the girl that won't eat veg and can’t cook is now well into making nice meals for Eddie as well as myself. It’s pretty basic.

I got myself a hand blender but any blender would do and at the beginning of the week after doing a food shop would de skin and chop up a range of fruit and veg & steam them. Boiling is also fine but it also can lose some of their main goodness so steaming is more beneficial. Then would puree them with the handblender. I have started him on sweet tasting carrots, sweet potato, apples, banana, mango, avocado, broccoli & Stevens Nan’s stew. I would make up a big batch and then freeze them in their little individual pots. I’d choose what ones to give Eddie the night before and leave them to thaw in the fridge over night. At first id give him carrots, or apples, or banana on their own but now I’ll give him say mango & apple in the morning, sweet potato & broccoli for lunch then apple or any fruit for afters then give him stew for dinner. But these meals don’t replace the milk; Eddie still needs and wants his milk as well as his food so that is how I know he is ready for solids as well.  

Tips for weaning

• Strap them in, they will turn their head almost 360 degrees just to not get that spoon in their mouths...whilst he is still too small for a high chair I use Eddie’s car seat
• Talk to them, make funny faces & silly noises...here comes the choo choo train actually works things like that anything to distract them and keep them relaxed as eating is meant to be a happy experience
• As soon as things get stressful and their crying just don’t force them to eat because they won’t and it will just distress them. Give in with their bottle
• Try & give water in a sippy cup with their food instead of milk just to get them use to not always having the comfort of their milk
• Variety is key, lots of different kinds of fruit & veg to start off with so they get use to new tastes & won’t become a fussy eater
• Have patience and persevere some days they will happily eat anything you give them & other days it’s just so stressful and they refuse to have anything other than their bottle of milk, just go with it!