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"How can children develop any sense of taste if they start off with foods that don't have any! The second six months of life is the only window of opportunity to develop your baby's taste buds. If you mss this precious time, your child may join the rank of picky eaters simply because of a lack of exposure to interesting delicious food."
Comments Annabel Karmel Below are some recipes and food combinations that I have tried out on my own baby to much success! As I never went down the full puree route with my daughter, even at 4.5 months (21 weeks), I have categorised the recipes into ages rather than stages (click on the required age to follow the link). My view was that by never pureeing the food to a smooth consistency, I would eliminate the common problem of fusiness developing between stage 1 and 2 when baby decides he has an aversion to lumps and allows this 'lump aversion' to create a new dislike of foods previously eaten with relish. Instead of pureeing, I used the Little Diner mini masher to mash her food to a soft pulp (for bulk cooking you may wish to use a larger bowl with the mini masher as the one provided is more geared for single quantities when eating out). I have found this approach has worked well as there is not one food so far that she will not eat and she has never had any problems with the odd lump or with choking. However, please note that this is only my own personal experience and if you are in any doubt as to whether or not to feed your baby lumps, please seek professional advice from your health visitor. In all my recipes remember: Quantities given should make up enough for 3-5 BabyCubes food cubes. The time you cook for will depend on the fruit or vegetable, the cooking method used and the size of the chunks. As your baby gets more used to lumps you will find cooking times are greatly reduced. The object is just to obtain a soft consistency for mashing/ pureeing. Once food is fully prepared, spoon the mixture into BabyCubes food cubes up to the desired level - you can choose from 30mls up to 70mls but I have always filled the cubes as it allows you to freeze more without taking up extra space in the freezer. In the beginning when baby's appetite does not allow for 70mls to be consumed in one sitting, you can split the cube between 2 meals but remember that previously frozen food should be consumed within 24 hours of defrosting. Label the food cubes (or tray) using non-permanent marker pen (or permanent marker on a strip of sellotape works well!) and place in the freezer. When you wish to use a cube, remove from the freezer and defrost. I usually defrost overnight in the fridge and then heat in the microwave when required but you could equally take the cube out of the freezer a short while before use and defrost in the microwave (remember with microwaving to open the lid beforehand and to stir well to eliminate 'hot spots' which could burn baby's mouth. The Little Diner heat-sensing spoon is great for this as it turns white when food is too hot. The spoons are also available separately in a pack of 3). With their own snap down lids, I have found the BabyCubes food cubes invaluable for freezing batches of individual food types which can then be defrosted overnight in the fridge and mixed and matched for lunch and tea the following day. I find this gives much greater flexibility, particularly in the early stages, for creating numerous food combinations and ensuring your baby doesn’t get bored eating the same things each day. Their other benefit over traditional ice cube trays is that at the beginning when baby is only eating small quantities of one type of food, you can feed him/ her directly from the cube which saves on washing up. For more tips on weaning, click here.
4-6 months
If you have any delicious recipes that you would like to share, please fill out our comments form or email us at info@keentowean.co.uk (including the age your baby was when you fed this) and we will endevour to include them on our pages. (Please note it will not always be possible to include all recipes.)
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Any advice or information disclosed within these pages is given as a mother and not as an authority. For full professional help on weaning or any other aspect of childcare, please seek the advice of your health visitor.
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