We have officially started the weaning process a couple of weekends ago. Tobias isn’t quite the recommended six months old yet but to be honest we did well to last this long! He’s been watching Gavin and I eat and drooling at our food for so long I thought it was best to take the leap.

After watching several you tube videos of which high chair to go with I eventually went with the ickle bubba 360 in white with a purple cushion. It’s so easy to use and Tobias always seems comfortable and happy when he’s put in it.

From the beginning I started with three “meals” a day. Giving him baby porridge in a morning and then at lunch and tea giving him baby rice.  I made a big batch of all the different foods I would be trying before we started weaning and then froze lots of little portions.  It’s proven to be worth it as I find it so easy in a morning to get out each of the ice cubes I want to use for that day.

I then introduced purées at lunch time trying his first tastes of fruit and vegetables. On the third week I exchanged his tea for another purée and this is the stage we are at now.

I loosely follow the cow and gate five step program together with other recipes from the Ella’s kitchen book that you can get free at Boots. After building myself up for a stressful time introducing solid foods I am pleased to say that it has been fantastic watching his facial expressions at each of the new textures and tastes.

Step 1 – First spoonfuls
This consists of giving your baby different tastes such as baby rice, fruits and vegetables. The list includes apple, banana, broccoli, carrot, pear, cauliflower, parsnip, pea and sweet potato.

So far Tobias has tried; pea, potato, cabbage, banana, broccoli, cauliflower, apple, pear, carrot, green beans, mango, parsnip, squash, strawberry, swede, avocado, sweet potato, aubergine, courgette and plum.

Unfortunately he went off foods on the second week of trying. He gritted his gums together and wouldn’t eat off a spoon so unfortunately I aren’t able to comment on what he liked and didn’t like. Because of this I’m revisiting the flavours but mixed in with others to hopefully coax him to try these new flavours.

The program does support you and reassure you that trying the foods again after a few days will help baby to get used to them.  So I’ve not ruled out the ones that he doesn’t like.

I hide the pot of food from him whilst feeding because it proves to be too much of a distraction.  After he’s finished I give him the spoon and bowl to practice with, which he loves.

Step 2 – Introducing breakfast
Which we did from the beginning and incorporating this into Tobias’ daily routine, helps him know what’s coming. Usually after his morning milk when we wake up he is ready to eat an hour later which he loves and wolfs down!

Step 3 is Introducing variety
I’m trying to give Tobias plenty of different flavours that are suitable.  Trying lot’s of different colours and flavours which are proving to be exciting! The plan recommends trying peach, spinach and tomato so we’ll be buying those soon.

Step 4 to try Introducing meat, fish and other sources of protein
I am going to wait until Tobias is over the six month mark before trying to introduce these. There are some fab recipes such as beef with tomato and fish with pea, so I can’t wait to get creative!

Finally, step 5 is Establishing 3 meals a day
I already give three meals a day, however it’s not religious and sometimes he ends up with hand held snacks as one of the courses.

So that’s where we are at so far. I’ll be recording our progress and may give updates in the future. Just for my records I wanted to log our routine currently:

8am – wake up and breast feed
8.30am – get up and get dressed for the day
9am – baby porridge
10am – nap time
11am – breast feed
11.30am – play
12.30pm – nap time
1.30pm – lunchtime puree
2pm – play
3pm – breast feed
4pm – nap time
6pm – tea time puree
6.30pm – play
7pm – start bed time routine
7.30pm – bottle of formula
8pm – sleep

He usually sleeps through until 1am for a feed and again at 5am. I can’t wait for him to start dropping these wake up calls!

Much love
Rebecca