WEANING TIPS

All parents want to provide their baby with the best possible start in life for them to grow up healthy and happy. You can do this by introducing your baby to fresh, all-natural foods from day 1 of weaning. This will create the foundation for your child to make healthy food choices as they get older.

What does weaning involve?
Weaning normally begins with you introducing solid foods into your baby's diet alongside their usual milk feeds. As your baby grows you can gradually introduce your baby to minced or mashed foods and foods that need to be chewed.

How will I know when my baby is ready for weaning?
It is important that you don't rush into weaning. Babies are individuals and develop at different rates. Somewhere around 6 months your baby may show signs that he is ready to try solid food. These signs may include:

• Being unsatisfied after a full milk feed and demanding more frequent milk feeds
• Showing interest in your food, watching you eat and reaching out to grab foods from you.
• After a period of sleeping through the night your baby begins waking in the night with hunger

If you are unsure or concerned about when your baby is ready to begin weaning you should talk to your doctor or health visitor.

Tips for successful weaning

• Make weaning a social experience from the beginning
• Choose a time of day when baby is awake and alert but relaxed. A baby that's hungry and desperate for milk won't take kindly to being offered other foods, so give him half his usual milk feed first. Then, when he's calm, but not yet completely full, try offering a taste of solids
• Use a plastic spoon as it feels better for your baby. If baby is reluctant to start with spoon-feeding, you can try using a clean finger instead.
• Don't be surprised if baby doesn't seem to know what to do with the food and it comes back out of their mouth. He won't know how to swallow food at this stage, but will learn with practice.
• Start with a bland food, such as baby rice, and make it almost as liquid as milk. As baby becomes more interested, mix in other puréed foods for flavour.
• Give your baby one taste at a time, that way you will know better which they prefer and can detect any adverse reactions. Try some of the following: cooked & puréed carrot, sweet potato, swede, butternut squash, potato, pear, apple or a ripe banana
• Stick with the same two or three foods for a few days before moving on.
• Always make sure foods are not too hot
• Don't force food on your baby, let baby tell you how much they want. It is quite normal for him to consume four or five teaspoonfuls on one occasion and very little the next.

Next steps

As baby becomes used to the tastes of different foods, you can gradually increase the amount you give your baby and introduce the food more often and earlier in a feed. Your baby will also need a drink during and after their food. This can be milk (breast or formula), boiled and cooled water or possibly diluted fruit juice and can be given from a bottle or a baby cup with a spout and two handles.
From 6 to 9 months, whilst your baby will need to eat more often than you do, he will gradually come to eat the same variety and textures of foods that you eat. Baby’s diet should consist of foods from all four main food groups – dairy products such as cheese, yoghurt, fromage frais and milk; starchy foods like bread, cereals, rice, pasta, potatoes; a variety of fruit & vegetables like apples, pears, oranges, bananas, grapes, tomatoes, cauliflower, cabbage etc.; protein foods such as red meat, chicken, eggs, liver, tofu, pulses e.g. peas, beans, lentils etc.

When preparing foods for your baby you should also avoid adding salt and sugar as babies can't cope with excess salt in food or sugar and do not need it.

All food must be stored, handled and prepared hygienically to prevent germs and infection:

• Always wash your hands before preparing food
• Wash all the equipment you use, e.g. bowls, spoons etc. in very hot water, and sterilise them
• Don’t keep half-eaten food; the spoon that you use to feed your baby will carry saliva from her mouth into the food and this will begin to affect the food and it will go off more quickly
• Store unused baby food in the fridge in a covered container, but don’t keep it longer than 24 hours
• Cook or reheat food thoroughly until piping hot and then cool it before giving it to your baby
• Make sure frozen foods are completely thawed and then heated right through.

Foods to avoid

Take care to avoid the following foods:

• Salt – babies kidneys cannot cope with it. Up to 6 months babies should have less than 1g of salt a day. From 7 months to a year they should have a maximum of 1g a day. Be aware of salty foods such as cheese, bacon & sausages and limit them.
• Sugar – it can encourage a sweet tooth and lead to tooth decay. Things can be sweetened with mashed banana, breast or formula milk.
• Honey - Don't give honey to your baby until he is a year old. Occasionally, honey can contain a type of bacteria that can produce toxins in a baby's intestines. This can cause serious illness (infant botulism)

Other foods to avoid up to six months: certain foods can cause an allergic reaction in some babies, so best not to give your baby any of these foods before he is six months.

• Wheat based foods / foods containing gluten, including bread, rusks, breakfast cereals.
• Nuts & seeds – including peanut butter and other nut spreads
• Citrus fruits and fruit juice such as orange, lemon and lime.
• Eggs and egg products such as custard
• Cow's milk
• Fish & shellfish