Weaning!

This morning I have my little one a smoothie bowl, got some coconut yoghurt, frozen exotic fruit that I defrosted night before and some oats and blended it, she loved it! I also struggle with coming up with ideas so I ask chatGPT to create meal plans for me 😂 x

I follow a few Instagram accounts that post great ideas and recipes. My.healthy_baby is one, real_foodbabies is another, and baby_led_weaning_cookbook is another 😊

Some favourites for my LO. Sardines mashed into scrambled egg, buttery crumpet sticks, pea and spinach puree, chicken and roast sweet potato puree, mashed banana, mashed avocado

I have an older son I still make snacks for, so I've been trying to do baby led weaning to save having to make double of everything...! Favourites are:
- broccoli cheese scones
- sweetcorn and spinach muffins
- scrambled eggs and toast fingers
- broccoli pesto pasta

Everything except the eggs is also freezer-friendly which is a godsend when running out the door.

When you hear your baby “chocking”. That’s a good sign as that’s what he’s meant to do!
If it’s silent that’s when you need to worry. They’re built to know when to spit and cough the food back up so don’t worry.

We’ve done foods like avocado with mackerel or cottage cheese.
Orzo has been a good favourite so far with chopped tomato and tuna.
Then lots of fruits, vegs and resting the allergens

This time round I’m trying to just have fun with it and doing lots of textures and flavours!

We like to have some puréed carrot and potatoes one spoonful of flour and egg yoke mix it together, fry it on a pan i usally make little sticks, melts like butter but sturdy enough for them to hold less chocking from my experience xx

This is what I've made in the first 2 weeks:

Purees
Butternut squash and banana
Sweet potato, butternut squash and pear
Carrot
Potato and avocado
Broccoli and potato
Pear, parsnip and apple
Apple and blueberry
Banana and blueberry
Banana and mango
Kiwi, spinach and apple

Orzo
Broccoli and pea
Broccoli, avocado and soft cheese

Pancakes/slices/tots
Raspberry & pear Wheetabix slices
Pear and oat pancakes
Banana and blueberry pancakes
Apple and blueberry oat pancakes
Sweetcorn and broccoli fritters
Carrot cake pancakes
Sweet potato and carrot veggie tots

Other
Mashed black beans
Chunky tomato soup
Sweet potato and red lentil soup with coconut milk
Raspberry chia “jam” on toast

So far, we've introduced cow's milk, wheat and we've completed day 1 of egg. So, the list is due to grow

I make scrambled eggs. Beat one egg in a bowl and add almost half the volume of the egg of freshly boiled water and beat again. (You can use cold - it just takes longer to cook). Cook gently in a little oil or unsalted butter until cooked through. It will stay really soft. While it cools I very very finely chop some cherry tomatoes and dill (if I feel lazy I cut the cherry tomatoes in half - squeeze the seeds onto the eggs and eat the rest myself!)
My little one loves it. Remember to offer lots of water to aid digestion.
Any left over I eat myself on toast, it’s nice enough that I often make double so we can share!
Don’t worry about the gagging too much. They need to learn how to safely move food bits around their mouth and the gag reflex is super sensitive at this age to keep them safe.

When theyre so little its best to focus on protein and vegetables than fruit as the sugar content is quite high for under 1s. We started on homemade whipped meat stock(bone broth), various vegetables blended - carrot, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, avocado, beetroot, sweet potato, lentils.

I give her little bits every day like a chicken wing/ lamb chop / carrot anything to hold basically she loves it