Solid Food for Babies - Our Messy Weaning Story
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| Bib - Zara Home baby. Cup - Tommee Tippee. Bowl & Spoon (similar) - Weaning set |
It can also be a little daunting. At the point when you're considering solids, you've hopefully gotten into a routine with formula or breastfeeding, night time sleep is maybe a bit longer and you are generally feeling like you can decipher between your baby's cries and moods. So, actually introducing a new routine - solid foods, can feel a little like going back to the drawing board, even if it is a welcome change.
I personally put it off for as long as I could - everyday was possibly the day we were going to get started, haha. As you may have seen in the previous post, we were given the nod to start before six months by a Paediatrician because baby Coco may have a cows milk protein (or other) allergy/intolerance. It is hard to say if I would have waited till 6 months if we hadn't had the Doctor's prompt. I like to think I might have waited, but, even as of now, we are really only doing a gentle ease in and in my (non expert, only a Momma of one little cheeky girl) opinion, that is OK. Finally, last Wednesday, we got started on solids!
What to start with - our options
I really wasn't sure what to pick for Cocos first food. Most people start with baby rice cereal or just skip that step and go straight to pureed fruit and vegetables. Another group of Mums, choose to go with baby led weaning which involves giving baby pieces of 'real' food instead of pureeing food specially for them. I love the sound of baby led weaning, but starting before six months meant that that might be pretty tricky for us.
My plan is to offer a mix of all three. We started with brown baby rice cereal, then I am hoping to move on to pureed vegetables and fruit (in that order). By six months I also want to bring in baby led weaning. From then on, I am thinking to offer her a mix of pureed and real food pieces, based on how things are going at that stage, off course.
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| Blending in 1/4 cups seems to work for getting the grains very fine |
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| Day One - lumpy mess and too large quantity |
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| Day Two - the resulting liquid-y cereal with added milk |
Homemade Brown rice cereal recipe
I chose organic brown rice to start (instead of a baby white rice cereal pack) because of its high fibre content. It is also not as heavily processed and starchy as white rice. A quick look at the nutritional content of white versus brown rice in the tables below, shows the difference. This article influenced my thinking, but I also looked on my experience with white bread versus brown bread, the difference it makes in my diet is incredible - I feel much less bloated with brown. And finally, this option just seemed like the right one for us, at this time.
So I picked up the wholegrain rice from the supermarket rice aisle and made it into a cereal for Coco.
Ingredients:
Wholegrain organic rice - 1 teaspoon
Boiled water - 1/4 cup
Milk (formula or expressed) - 10ml
I blended most of the bag of rice in a blender. After blending only what I needed on the first day, on day two, I figured the fastest and easiest way around this was to blend the full bag of rice all at once. I did this and then poured it out into a bowl (it still had bits of whole rice in it). I then blended 1/4 cups from the bowl at a time, to get the rice completely fine. You may not need to do that if your blender is quite powerful, but I wanted to really err on the side of caution and make sure there were no rice bits left in the grounded batch (after attending a baby first aid course the night before). I put the ground rice powder into an air-tight container. I boiled water in the kettle and I also bumped out 50ml of milk.
I got my small non-stick pot ready and a wooden ladle. I used a teaspoon of the ground brown rice and a quarter cup of the boiled water on high heat till it bubbled. While it was bubbling, I stirred to prevent lumps forming. After it bubbled for a few minutes, and was now a thicker constituency, I turned the heat down and continued stirring as it simmered. I then took it off the hot ring, so it wouldn't get any thicker, and added 10ml of milk and stirred. This brought the cereal from its thick form to a more liquid state. I waited a few minutes for it to cool and then poured it into Cocos bowl.
Waitrose lovelife organic whole grain rice
| Typical values | per 100g | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 501kj | |
| Energy | 119kcal | |
| Fat | 1.2g | |
| Of which | ||
| - Saturates | 0.3g | |
| - polyunsaturated | 0.4g | |
| Carbohydrate | 22.5g | |
| Of which | ||
| - Sugars | 0.3g | |
| Fibre | 2.3g | |
| Protein | 3.3g | |
Hipp organic baby rice
| Typical values | per 100g of dry product | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 1608kJ | |
| Energy | 379kcal | |
| Fat | 0.7g | |
| Of which | ||
| - Saturates | 0.1g | |
| Carbohydrate | 85.1g | |
| Of which | ||
| - Sugars | 0.3g | |
| Fibre | 1.4g | |
| Protein | 7.3g | |
| Salt | 0.02< g | |
| Sodium | 0.02< g | |
| Thiamin | 1.3mg | |
Coco's reaction - day one
I sat her upright on my lap, haha, I haven't even got her high chair yet and spooned in the first bit of cereal. She made a little face, but did not spit it out or reject it. I was pleased because in general, if Coco doesn't like something, she definitely lets you know! For example, she now refuses to take expressed milk from the bottle. I gave her a second and third spoon and by this time she started to cry. I knew she was tired, I had spent more time in the kitchen, then I intended. I actually just walked into the kitchen that Wednesday morning and decided this has to be the day we start, so preparation time was long. At that point she had been awake over an hour so by the time I started feeding her she was sleepy.
Coco's reaction - day two
On day two I was pumped and ready. I had laid out her little spoon and bowl and sip cup, as well as her little pink bib from Zara home kids ,so we didn't mess up her clothes or mine. I also started to feed her about an hour after she had been awake and had food, so she wasn't hungry but she wasn't super full either.
I was also more relaxed about it all - taking pictures, smiling. I fed her and she had quite a few spoons - a lot more than on day one. She also kept trying to grab the bowl and spoon (baby led here we come), so I distracted her by giving her something to hold. I gave a little bit of boiled water right after. That was just my instinct, I don't think you necessarily have to do that until they are eating a lot more solid food.
The verdict
On day four, Coco seemed to know what was coming when I brought the bowl forward to feed her. I have also discovered, along the way, that:
At the moment I feed her cereal at about 11am, after she's had a 9:30/10am milk feed. I know they say the solids should be a supplement to milk, initially, but I can't help feeling, even the little she's having is maybe a little filling nonetheless. I care for 'minding my milk' as I want to have the choice to stop breastfeeding if I choose or if Coco makes it clear she's no longer interested, not because I have supply issues. I am only give her one solid food feed a day for now though, (I plan to do that till she is over six months old), so hopefully milk supply shouldn't be a problem just yet.
- She swallows more if I put the spoon on her tongue and let her suck the cereal off the spoon, compared to pouring it into her mouth, if that makes sense.
- Another thing I noticed is that sometimes she gets bored of the spooning action. I lifted the bowl to her lips and let her suck in a little that way - that meant we had a bit go down her bib. She swallowed some, and she also stuck her tongue out and licked a little too. She seemed to enjoy doing that, so I let her and then alternated back to spoon and then back. Today was the first time she got through the entire bowl (though there was a quite fair bit of spillage)!
- I also now know that if I don't get the timing right and try to feed her when she's tired, she will have two spoons and then really complain, so timing seems to be everything.
- She has her milk right after solids, she I am quite happy about, although she does seem very full up after both cereal and milk.
At the moment I feed her cereal at about 11am, after she's had a 9:30/10am milk feed. I know they say the solids should be a supplement to milk, initially, but I can't help feeling, even the little she's having is maybe a little filling nonetheless. I care for 'minding my milk' as I want to have the choice to stop breastfeeding if I choose or if Coco makes it clear she's no longer interested, not because I have supply issues. I am only give her one solid food feed a day for now though, (I plan to do that till she is over six months old), so hopefully milk supply shouldn't be a problem just yet.
It has been quite a little journey even though we're only six days in. Probably because I was a little nervous to begin and on day one too! I could do another update in the next couple of weeks, if you would be interested to hear about how weaning is still going for us.
Happy Monday.
x
The BFB Introducing Solid Foods Series:
Part I - Signs baby is ready for solids
Part II - Why wait till 6 months
Part III - Best utensils to buy
Part IV - Options for first food & our experience (current post)
Solid Food for Babies - Our Messy Weaning Story
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