Fox cub led weaning week 2 - 6 months

I am amazed every day at how well he is doing with his feeding. He really enjoys playing with the foods and has managed to eat some bits. We have dropped a milk feed to one night feed and 5 feeds in the day. We have always had a lot of milk feeds so here is a rough schedule of how our day goes: 

12-2ish milk feed

5.30 get up and breakfast

6.30 milk feed

9.30 milk feed

11.30 lunch 

12.30 milk feed

3.30 milk feed

5.00 tea

6.30 milk feed and bed (this is all rough as I have always fed on demand so every day is slightly different)

Here is a run down of the foods we ate last week on the second week of our baby led weaning adventure (our first week was pretty much the same foods).

Monday

Breakfast: mango - he loves this but only sucks the juice out!

Lunch: toast and cheese bites - he chewed a bit but mostly played with it. The cheese breaks off really easily. 

Tuesday:

Breakfast:mango and porridge - he wasn't bothered about breakfast, he just wanted a milk feed

Lunch: mashed potato with milk butter and soft cheese - he loved this! We started with a pre loaded spoon but he just wanted to get his hands in there!

Tea: broccoli and asparagus spears, mange tout and toast.

Wednesday 

Breakfast - avocado and peach slices - I expected him to hate avocado but he loved it.

Lunch: eggy bread

Tea: home made mini Turkey burgers with cucumber and home made fries - this was his first taste of meat and it went down really well (the recipe is a hairy dieters one).

Thursday:

Breakfast: toast with cream cheese

Lunch: omlette with peppers and tomato cut into strips

Dinner: meatballs in sauce with pasta - he didn't seem bothered by food at all today so didn't eat much. 

Friday

Breakfast: yoghurt and apple purée

Lunch: homemade hummus on toast

Tea: fish fingers and cheesy mash - today he was much more interested

Saturday:

Breakfast: Toast and butter

Lunch: We went out for chiquitos so he had some chicken strips, peppers and sweet potato fries. Most of it went on the floor but he liked the experience

Tea: rice cake and cream cheese 

Sunday

Breakfast: melon and yoghurt 

Lunch: pizza twists, cheese, cucumber and tomato slices - surprisingly the tomato was the biggest hit

Tea: garlic and lime chicken with steamed carrot and sweet potato. 

So it was a mixed week, some days he took real joy in eating and others showed hardly any interest. His hand eye coordination is coming on really well now though. I'm also really enjoying watching him learn about different foods. 

Our First Foods

There's so much food out there and you want your little munchkin to love it all but where do you start? 

As I mentioned before we first started on purees and we're giving a different food every day. It wasn't until we had some digestive issues with fruit that I really started to think about what when and how I should be feeding Master Fox. 

Babies can be intolerant, allergic or just not used to some foods. Remember that until now all their bodies have had to digest is milk so it's not surprising to think you need to allow them time to adjust to processing new foods. It's therefore a good idea to start introducing new foods to their diet slowly, and in the morning if possible so you have time to notice any reactions to foods. The nhs website on food allergies in children can be found here http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/food-allergies-in-children.aspx. A general rule of thumb is to introduce a new food every 3 days so you can be clear what caused any issues, though this can be slow going. If you decide to give new foods quicker I would advise being especially vigilant with dairy, eggs and gluton and we certainly are leaving a few days between the introduction of these. 

So what did we start with? Root vegetables. They are a really great place to start as they are less likely to cause any reactions and are slightly sweeter vegetables for babies tastebuds.It's often   advised to start with veggies so babies don't get used to the sweet taste of fruit. This is certainly what we did and although I have no idea of its factual background it's not a bad principle. 

Remember that at around 6 months babies can't yet get at food from within their palms or grab small foods with a pincer grip so it's best to serve foods in chip shape segments. 

Root vegetables

The following root veg can be either steamed or boiled (though steaming will retain more nutrients). Alternatively, and this is our much preferred method, you can cut them into chips and roast them in the oven with a little olive oil for 45-50 minutes on around 150 degrees. 

Carrot

Sweet potato - this is our most favourite and we all love eating sweet potato fries. Try sprinkling any you make for yourself with smoked paprika.

Butternut squash 

Parsnip

Turnip

Honestly I've not heard of a lot of babies actually liking carrot and Master Fox was exactly the same when we offered as a purée. However since giving him steamed carrot chips he is quiet happy to chomp away on them. Maybe it just took him some time to get used to the flavour. 

Fruits

We are just starting on fruits and the following are good fruits to begin with:

Mango

Ripe pear cored

Apple - you might need to lightly cook if very crisp

Banana

Note that berries and pineapple are known as allergy fruits so I would introduce later and watch for any reactions. 

Vegetables

Cucumber - very good straight from the fridge on those painful gums

Avocado - we are yet to try this one, I'm not convinced he is going to enjoy it! 

Asparagus

Broccoli - I'm going to try tenderstem as they have long stalks great for little hands. 

Green beans

Corn on the cob or mini corn

We have also tried toast with olive oil margerine and chunks of mild cheese. I really want to get on to introducing eggs but that will be a few days yet.  

Welcome to Fox Cub Led Weaning

Hi, firstly some introductions: My name is Helen Fox, I am a first time mummy living in the UK with my husband and our son, who will be known to you as Master Fox, who is now 6 months old.

I wanted to start this blog to document our adventures in baby led weaning. Now let me tell you a truth. When my health visitor first mentioned baby led weaning to me I admit that I glazed over and had already decided pureeing was the way for us. I mean all those brightly coloured bags of frozen puree in the freezer, giving your baby your undivided attention as you spoon feed them every meal and knowing exactly how much your baby is eating is exactly what appealed to me. I had read up on the internet about introducing purees, bought books with puree recipes in the lot and we were ready and raring to go.

We started weaning Master Fox about 2 weeks before he turned 6 months. To clarify, by 6 months I mean 6 months from the date he was born, not 24 weeks. There is no right or wrong here, I think the only thing is that 6 months is the recommended age for weaning at the moment, but its more about your baby showing signs of being ready for food than the exact date. I mean how many babies are going to hit 6 months exactly and then instantly be ready for food? Just use your common sense. You as a mother know your child best. Master Fox has however always been a small baby and a little and often eater so I was in no rush to start him off really early.

So off we went. The first week went great. We were feeding Master Fox at tea time (6pm) at the table with us. Admittedly some of the first foods he wasn't so keen on, but others he wolfed down. We tried a different food each night to see his preferences and we were all happy, until one night. It was the night we offered fruit (pear) puree for the first time. My goodness we had a horrible night. Now Master Fox has only ever slept through twice which I think was a complete fluke and we are still getting up to give him a night feed at least once. He goes to bed around 6.30-7pm and gets up anywhere from 4.30-7am normally. This night however we were up hourly with a screaming baby, not my idea of fun! So I went off to see the health visitor a couple of days later and they spoke about things like reflux and allergies and to introduce one food at a time to look out for reactions etc. Well a panicky few night later and I think we can safely say the fruit just gave him wind!

What did we do about it? Well much to the disappointment of my husband, as he wanted to be around for mealtimes, we moved to offering breakfast instead of tea to allow any new food and digestive issues a few hours to sort themselves out before bed time. But before we made this move we gave the poor boy a few days off solids to let his digestive system settle.

The first morning came for breakfast and there I was armed with a spoon of puree and what has happened? He has decided he no longer wishes to be spoon fed. He screws his mouth up in protest, stiffens his body and squeals until you take the spoon away. Well I wasn't expecting that! The result; He seems to have found his independence and wants to feed himself. This is something I expect a lot of babies do once they get to around 6 months. Their hand mouth coordination is getting good enough and they want to play and explore the world of food on their own.

So what did this mean for us? Well it meant it was time to give baby led weaning a go. What was my health visitor saying to me when I was only half listening? Time to look into this a bit more.

I have to say I am so proud of Master Fox and how he has taken to self feeding. It is taking a little bit of adjusting to for me ,but seeing how well he is able to pick food up, put it in his mouth, play with it and how much more content he is with his food now I am now completely pro baby self feeding.

He was exactly 6 months last week and we have only been on our baby led weaning adventure for a few days now so I wanted to start sharing our experiences, talk about the foods we are offering and hopefully share some recipes/food ideas with you. I have always cooked all our meals from scratch so this appeals to me and so I hope you will find some tips and ideas from these pages and it will give you the confidence to give this type of weaning a go.

I imagine most of our posts being written on my phone whilst having a sleeping baby on me so you will have to bear with me :)