Baby Weaning - Week 1

My little man will be 6 months on the first of June and now the advice is to wait to start weaning till your baby is 6 months old. But I felt that my little one was starting to get read for having solid foods. He is tall for his age, so what will work for one baby is different to what will work for another. There are different signs to look for and I felt he was ready to try.



These signs are:

1. Reaching out for your food while you're eating
   He is always trying to grab my food. One day I was eating crackers and cheese and he nearly had them clean out of my hands
2. They are able to sit and are able to hold their head up
   He isn't quite sitting, but he's not far off if he would just sit still long enough. He has strong neck muscles
3. They swallow the food and don't just push it out of their mouth with their tongue
   You can't know the answer to this one till you try them on food for the first time. I tried my baby with some baby rice earlier in the month and most of it ended up down his chin so maybe he wasn't ready at that time.

After our first attempt at solid food I didn't give him any more solid food till last week. Someone had suggested that the baby rice may be too bland in taste and to try adding other flavours to it, or try veg.

So far we have tried sweet potato which has been a huge success and a small piece of banana that I allowed him to pick up with his fingers. 

For the sweet potato I peeled, boiled and puréed it and divided it between small tubs which could go in the freezer. Each day I take one out to defrost and give it to him mid afternoon.

I've also given him some baby rice again, but this time with a small amount of mashed banana.

So far weaning has gone well and he's getting used to a spoon being offered with food. At first he was going crazy for the next spoonful of food, but now he waits patiently for the next spoonful. But I'm going to have to go shopping for more bibs!! Particularly sweet potato can make a mess.

This week we are trying parsnip.

Here are a few photos, sorry they're not great, I just took them with my phone. As you can see he's enjoying his food.

Also here's a little video of him eating, but be warned watching a baby eat isn't a pretty sight!!