Wednesday Weaning- weekly update #3

Image: Vital Baby

It's been a bit of a hectic week, as you can probably tell with the lack of posting! Weaning wise, it's been OK. We had a couple of milestones and new tastes.

Firstly, D had his first meal out- we had lunch in a local cafe for my birthday. I took a Plum sachet and a fromage frais, both of which D took really enthusiastically. I was a bit worried at first, as normally the sachet would be mixed with baby rice. After a few grimaces, D happily took all of the food- leading to a peaceful lunch for the grown ups!

We also took D to his grandparents' for tea on Sunday. I was recently sent a Vital Baby weaning set (£3.99), which I was looking forward to trying. I put some baby food from a jar (a new experience for us!) into the bowl. The food was secure and I really like the spoon holder! I was able to microwave the food briefly and it was really handy for keeping everything tidy. This is something that I can see becoming part of our regular kit when out and about.

Taste-wise, we've been trying D with new flavours- I've been using jars mostly this week, as I've wanted to try more flavours. D has tried the dubiously named 'Grandpa's Sunday Lunch' and a parsnip and potato puree, which has been VERY popular. He seems to be a fan of sweeter vegetables- spinach is not a popular flavour and sweet tastes such as fruit are a bit hit and miss.

My next step is to try making my own food. I've bought a couple of books about baby food and so it's a matter of building confidence in both myself and D. I'll let you know how we get on!

Wednesday weaning- week 1

I've started to wean D. It's a bit weird, really, as he is still pretty young (we started at 17 weeks, which is the younger end of the scale.) The thing is, he's huge. When he was last weighed, at 15 weeks, he weighed 16lbs 3. The health visitor jovially remarked that the average one-year-old weighs around 20lbs. D is on the 91st percentile for weight and the 95th for length. He's big. He's also hungry.

At first, we just upped his milk to the recommended levels, figuring it was a growth spurt. But his high chair brought him into a whole new world of staring at food. He would stare at our meals. He would watch strangers in cafes eat their soup. He would even look at the cat as she was eating. This was a boy who was interested in food.

Oh hi. I'd really like to eat your food right now. Kthnxbai.

I started researching. The thing is, although you can feed from 17 weeks if it's recommended by a health professional- and in our case, it is- all the advice is geared up for babies from six months old. So it's a bit of a minefield, really. Thankfully, I have a health visitor who doesn't seem to mind if I ring her to ask what I'm sure are daft questions.

Anyway, I decided to start D last Wednesday. We'd been told that baby rice was a bit depressing on its own, so to consider adding something to it to make it more palatable. In Boots the other day, they were randomly giving out sachets of Plum purees. So D's first meal was a rather grim looking mixture:

You're jealous, right? It's a mix of baby rice (about a teaspoon), a squirt of sweet potato and squash puree (YUM) and some of his formula. And as gross as it seemed- he loved it. He gobbled it up and, at one point when I wasn't apparently feeding him quickly enough, used his limited motor skills to grab the spoon and shove it in his mouth. He's four months old. I'd say this is a kid who's going to enjoy food.

The health visitor has said because of his size, we're probably going to want to give him regular meals pretty quickly. I've tried with porridge, but on its own, it's a bit of a no-no. I don't blame D, it looks like glue. So I'm going to try a bit of puree to entice him. 

So, for now, I guess we're going to experiment with mixtures. I'm being encouraged to give him what we're eating (as long as it doesn't have salt/sugar in it.) 

Any tips/advice on weaning? I'll be posting an update next week- maybe someone else who is weaning early will find it useful!

Adventures in baby wearing... part 1

I would like to start this post by saying that, although I live in a fashionable seaside town which has its fair share of crazy parenting ideas, I remain resolutely Northern and sceptical about a lot of them. These things are fine for other people, but not really for me. I thought baby wearing was perhaps one of these.

Until last Sunday.

I was at a friend's house (who, incidentally, gave us our antenatal workshop- google Lazy Daisy Lewes if you're interested) when she offered me the use of her Moby wrap. Had you told me eight weeks ago that I would be considering this, I would have scoffed. However, after weeks of colic and getting utterly fed up with a slightly unpredictable, heavy buggy and hating the baby carrier we originally bought, I was all for it.

So, what is a Moby wrap? It's basically a long strip of material. How hard could this be, I thought. All I had to do was wrap it and pop D in it, yes? And yes, the actual putting it on wasn't hard- I used the 'gathered' method, which is demonstrated in this video:

As D is HUGE and has very strong legs, I went for the 'Hug Hold', which is like level 2 in baby wearing. I can honestly say that, even someone as cackhanded as me can do this wrap thing fairly easily; although I was nervous before starting, I found it really easy.

The baby, on the other hand, hated it. He cried and covered me with snot. After he was handed to his dad and gone to bed, I had a rather large Baileys to steady my nerves... What I will say, though, is that I felt completely secure with him in the wrap and it's much sturdier than it looks.

I'll be documenting my progress with baby wearing over the next few weeks and letting you know how I get on. I'm still nervy about taking D out with it, but we'll see how that goes!

You can buy your own Moby wrap here. Any tips are welcome!