Weaning, when & how? and things i cook & use!

As Ava was approaching the 6 month mark i was getting myself prepared for starting her on solids. We had just moved into our own house which was perfect timing and i went out and bought a steamer as i knew i wanted to do all home made food and not use jars. Even though i don't eat many vegetables myself i still wanted to cook the best for Ava. I hadn't cooked proper meals in my whole life as id lived with my parents, so i had to learn from scratch. Obviously i knew how to use a microwave etc but cooking meat etc was all new for me. 

So i went out and bought a few cooking books which have helped me so much and i still use them today. The books are by Annabel Karmel and id recommend them to anyone who's going to start weaning. I started off using the Top 100 baby purees and Baby and toddler meal planner as meals start from 6 months old in those ones. The baby and toddler meal planner was brilliant as it had a guide on day to day, week by week on what to feed your baby and how many meals a day to feed them.


I didn't do baby led weaning (baby feeding themselves) I just started making fruit and vegetable purees which where recipes in the books. Ava loved them! They where easy and practical, i could freeze them and use them whenever needed. 

Little Angels freezer pots i used for the beginning stages.

On the first day of weaning i just crushed a rusk up or mixed baby rice with some formula milk, it was so exciting seeing her have food of a spoon for the first time. I then moved onto steaming vegetables and fruit and created purees using a hand blender which was super cheap from Argos. 

























After about 6 weeks of weaning i started making her purees more lumpy and have a thicker texture to them. This was classed as second stage weaning. This went on for another 6 weeks, then once Ava was 9 months we moved onto the next stage of weaning, cooking meals with pasta and not much blending involved except Ava really struggled with eating big lumps of food and kept vomiting. So i carried on blending certain meals she couldn't handle, that carried on to what i thought was the right time and around 10 months she was fine and could eat pretty much everything except chicken.

Even though the health visitor said no more blending, if my child isn't going to eat and be sick all the time i know blending is the best option for her. 

 





















Other than chicken she would eat everything from Spagetti Bolognese to Salmon and broccoli with pasta which she loved! definitely one of Avas favourites and i still make the salmon dish today but with normal pasta and not animal shaped pasta.

Ava was eating a lot bigger portions by this time so we moved onto storage containers like these which are from Little Angels again, Also i used some breast milk storage containers i had from Philips Avent by they where more expensive. We also got some plastic ones from Asda which are just normal storage containers (no brand).

From the age of 1 Ava could eat pretty much everything i made her except she still struggled with chicken, but other than that she would eat cottage pie, lasagna, sausage and pasta, fish pie, jacket potato, omelette etc but i still get a lot of the recipes from the Annabel Karmel books so i know they're healthy and perfect for us all to eat. She would also eat a yogurt for afters. So her appetite was really good.

Cottage pie

Chicken & leek pies in ramekins

Mince with rice and peas, peppers and chopped tomatoes!

Pasta with spiced sausage and tomatoes!

She could also eat snacks and pieces of food by hand too which came in really useful for snack time especially whilst on the move. These are some of the snacks which we have. She loves the Raspberry and apple oat bars the most! 

Shes now 19 months old and eats everything! and i mean everything, even chicken! She eats little sandwiches with chopped cucumber and tomatoes and loves them! shes become a brilliant eater which is completely different to what she was like at 9-10 months old when she was sick all the time.

As i still use recipes from the books i know they're suitable for freezing too so i can still freeze them when I've made portions which are too large and they come in handy for days i don't do any cooking. This is what my freezer section looks like for Ava's meals.

Also below is some of the items i use, from big bowls to small bowls to her cups i use. The bowls are from IKEA and cups are either Tommie Tippie or little angels or a supermarket brand. I found the expensive ones with silicone teats not very good as she couldn't drink from them.