and let your baby feed herself from the moment solid food first touches her lips? As with everything, there are no right or wrong answers. I’m just here to try to arm you with options for making your own informed choices about what will work best for you, your baby and indeed the rest of your family.
When I started this project, I reflected on all those things I had wanted to know as a parent when I embarked on weaning for the first time: when to start, for example, and how to know if my baby was ready. I wanted to know how to prepare myself for the daunting task ahead, what equipment to buy and how to move from one stage to the next. I wanted simple, easy-to-follow recipes, made with economical ingredients that pack a nutritional punch. I certainly didn’t want to waste money on expensive weaning gadgets, or spend lots of time in the kitchen on fiddly recipes that left me with a ton of washing-up. To top it all, I wanted to know exactly what challenges I might face and how to manage them.
So, in this book, I hope to provide you with all this information, and more. In my experience, the weaning process can be tricky to master and varies for every baby – there will be changes to your routine and potentially some frustrating moments. But even when there’s more food on the floor than in your baby’s tummy, one thing I can guarantee if you follow the recipes in this book is that you’ll be catering to her nutritional needs at each stage of the weaning process. Each recipe has been developed to ensure that your little one gets the correct balance of nutrients every step of the way. Minimum fuss, maximum benefit is my motto. And I hope this will allow you to have a bit of fun with food, to make mealtimes appealing for your little one – without losing your sanity in the process!
For my part, I absolutely loved the experience of taking all of mine through the various weaning stages. I can remember each of their faces when that first spoonful of baby rice touched their lips. So best of luck, fellow feeders! And try not to stress. Remember the mantra that every baby is unique and your baby will get there in the end. How many adults do you know who are still living on a diet of puréed fruit?!
Come on – we can do this!
THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD NUTRITION FROM THE WORD GO
As parents, I think we have a responsibility to give our children the best possible dietary start in life. Right from the very first spoonful of purée, it’s never too early to instil healthy eating habits. Indeed, the more key nutrients your baby consumes, the better equipped he’ll be for all the growth spurts to come. Our diet affects our immune system, our metabolism and our cognitive function, and it has a measurable effect on our physical development. What we eat has a direct impact on energy levels, sleep, hair, skin and oral health – and that’s just for starters. It doesn’t take long before the quality of our diet, at whatever age, begins to show in our well-being. It’s amazing, really, how something we are completely in control of, in terms of the choices we make, can affect us so tangibly.
Encouraging your child to have a positive relationship with food extends beyond what he’s eating, though. Helping him to develop a healthy attitude towards mealtimes is essential for when he’s older, and there are a few simple things you can do to encourage this when weaning, such as not using food as a bribe (tempting though this may be!). You’ll find more about this here.
MOVING FROM MILK TO SOLIDS
In the first few months of your baby’s life, what to feed him has never been an issue. Whether breast or formula, milk has been his sole form of nourishment, providing him with complete nutrition. And, according to NHS guidelines, milk should remain your baby’s sole source of nutrition until six months of age. He simply isn’t ready physiologically to take in solid food before four months, in fact, and while you might offer simple purées alongside his usual milk from four months, there is no advantage in doing so. After six months, whether in the form of purées or mashed meals or finger foods, your baby can start to take in nutrients from solid food. For the first few months of weaning, milk is still king when it comes to nutrition, however, as he will only really be exploring and playing with food; it won’t be sustaining him yet. Then, as he consumes more than he drops, and the more balanced his diet of solid foods becomes, food will gradually over time become more dominant and milk less so. But when it comes to taking that first step from milk to solids, where do you begin?
WHERE TO START?
The world of solids can be a minefield, especially with so much conflicting advice out there.
‘Babies and children need fats’ – but not too many of the bad ones.
‘Sugar is the route of all evil’ – but it’s in everything!
‘Carbs are great for energy’ – but too many of the wrong ones make you sluggish.
Where do you even start without signing up for a degree in nutrition? That’s how it can seem to a new parent. In reality, it’s not so complicated, however. It’s all about tapping into the basics of what you already know about eating healthily to help you make the right food choices for your baby. If someone offers you an apple or a chocolate biscuit and asks you to pick the healthy option, it’s a no-brainer. But if they offered you two bowls of mashed potato, which looked identical but contained different ingredients, which would you choose? You would have no idea unless you’d cooked it yourself and knew what was in it – and that’s the bottom line. When it comes to eating healthily, a homemade dish gives you the control to make the right choices for your baby. ‘But that’s obvious!’ I hear you cry. ‘And I just don’t have time to start mashing potato, when the kids are hollering for their dinner!’ In today’s busy world, is it any wonder that we are drawn to the convenience of pre-packed supermarket mashed potato? And no one can blame us for that. But when you make your own, you know it’s not packed full of salt and additives – you have complete control. That said, not all supermarket convenience foods need to be avoided. I’m all for things like frozen vegetables and pre-chopped onions or other pre-prepared veggies if they make home cooking that little bit speedier when time is short.
If you strip everything back and think about what we take from food, it’s easy to understand why we need a balanced diet. Different food groups contain different nutrients, so we need to eat a good cross-section in order to obtain all the necessary goodness to perform at our best.
FOOD GROUPS AND GETTING THE BALANCE RIGHT
Fruits and Vegetables
(e.g. apples, bananas, oranges, carrots and tomatoes) Fruits and vegetables contain vitamins and minerals that keep our bodies healthy and help us fight illness.
Starchy carbohydrates
(e.g. bread, rice, potatoes and pasta) These give us energy.
Protein
(e.g. meat, fish, eggs, nuts, legumes and tofu) Protein helps our bodies to grow and repair.
Dairy
(e.g. milk, cheese, yoghurt and alternatives) Dairy contains calcium and vitamin D, which help to keep our bones and teeth healthy and strong.
Fats and sugary foods
