Weaning Tips from Charlotte Stirling-Reed, Baby and Child Nutritionist and expert speaker at The Baby Show, which returns to Olympia London from 23rd – 25th October – www.thebabyshow.co.uk
Starting to feed your little one solids is an exciting milestone for you and your baby, but understandably it can bring its own fair share of stress and challenges for parents.
Knowing when to start the weaning journey, how much your baby should be eating each day and what foods they can and cannot eat might seem overwhelming, which is why I want to share my top tips with parents as they embark on this exciting journey.
How do you know if your baby is ready for weaning?
Although babies all develop at their own pace, most babies are likely to reach the weaning milestone at around 6months.
If your baby can sit up on their own, even if they have a little support, prop, or sitting in their highchair, this shows that they will be able to hold their core up and focus on eating and the skills needed for this, rather than focusing on balancing their trunk too much. This means your baby should be able to hold their head and neck steady which is essential for eating solid foods.
Hand-eye coordination is another sign they’re ready to start their journey onto solids. They should be able to see food, pick it up and bring it directly to their mouths themselves. This means they’re ready to self-feed, an important skill at the start of any weaning journey.
Spotting these signs happening together and at the same time is a key indicator your little one is ready for weaning.
How much should your baby be eating every day?
It’s important to say that there are no recommended portion sizes for babies under 1 year, as every baby really is so different. Your baby will be good at knowing themselves when they are hungry and when they are full. Take their lead when it comes to how much they want to eat.
At around 6months, as your baby will just be starting on solids, I usually recommend starting with one meal a day and just single flavours – veggies for the first 10 days or so. After this, you can start mixing flavours and building in more variety of foods, including allergens and iron-rich foods.
By around 8-9months, your baby may be eating 3 meals a day and having more “balanced” meals. This means there is more variety and each of the main food groups. However, don’t worry if your baby is not there yet. All babies are different and they all take to weaning at their own pace.
When we reach 10-12months of age, solid food is likely to become the main source of nutrition for your little one, alongside continuing to breastfeed if you and your baby want to. Your baby will likely be eating 3 meals a day at this stage and hopefully moving on to “family style meals” which are not mashed or pureed. They might need a little adaptation to make them suitable for your baby though. Try to include a variety of the food groups – starchy carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables, protein and iron-rich foods and dairy or fortified alternatives.
What foods should you avoid when you begin weaning?
There are more foods that you CAN offer your baby than you CAN’T, so try to focus on that first and foremost. The foods that shouldn’t be offered:
- Whole grapes
- Whole nuts
- Salt
- Sugar
- Foods that contain salt and sugar
- Rice milk
- Undercooked fish, meat and eggs (unless British Lion Stamped)
- Shark, swordfish or marlin
- Soft mould ripened or soft blue cheeses (unless cooked first)
- Honey
How do I know if my baby is gagging or choking?
This is one area of weaning that understandably worries parents the most. As your baby develops skills around eating, self-feeding and using the muscles in their mouth to eat foods, they will be more efficient at eating and this reduces the risk of choking. To help you do all you can to prevent choking you should:
- Always sit with baby when they are eating.
- Make sure baby is sitting upright when eating.
AND
- Encourage self-feeding early on.
You also want to offer soft foods, including finger foods that are manageable to your baby at the start of weaning and gradually move on through those textures that are more complex and harder foods as your baby develops their eating skills. Watching, observing and being led by your baby is key.
It’s also important to know that gagging is very normal during weaning too. Some babies gag lots and others not so much, but gagging is very different to choking. When a baby is gagging they will likely go a bit red, lean forwards and make a horrible noise as they try to remove the food. It’s hard not to react but you want to leave baby to deal with this themselves, as gagging is there to help your baby remove foods they can’t quite deal with effectively.
It does sound scary but can be very common and your baby will do this less as they build up the skills needed to eat.
Be the role model
Weaning can be messy. It’s an exploration of food and it’s not uncommon for your baby to put food in their mouth and then spit it out again. They are learning how to eat something that is new to them and it’s not something they naturally know how to do. Spitting their food out is one way of experimenting and figuring out what to do with their mouth. Keep practicing and be the role model. Let them watch you take bites and chew and they’ll soon be copying.
