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Introducing Solid Food
As a first time mum it can be so confusing introducing solid food to baby. Different people telling you different things and giving different advice on how to raise your child or how they did it.
My biggest advice is pick one person and stick to their advice, otherwise you just get confused and frustrated and become unsure of yourself and what you should be doing. Everyone likes to introduce solid food to babies in different ways and some like to do Baby Led Weaning. I seek advice from my mum and my Doctor to help guide me along the way.
I was advised that we should start to introduce solid food at 6 months old, starting with fruit, vegetables and carbohydrates. Once our little one hit 9 months old, within reason we could introduce most other foods except cow’s milk which could be introduced at 12 months.
I also introduced Weet-Bix for her breakfast adding in yoghurt for a bit of flavour. If you need breakfast on the run or in the car - Weetbix in a 200ml Sinchies works perfectly. Just pop the Weet-bix into the pouch add some milk and let it sit until it's soft. Voila!
What solids did we introduce first?
6 months old
At 6 months the adventure of food was about to begin. What should the first solid food be that I feed my baby? Still feeling very confused by conflicting advice from everyone. I really was not sure where to start or how to go about the introduction of food to my baby. This is when I decided to take my mum’s advice and the medical advice of my doctor.Start simple
Everything I offered in the first month was single foods only. It's a good idea to trial new foods at lunchtime so if your child has a reaction to them you'll know. I boiled up vegetables and used my blender to puree them along with a bit of the left over cooking water. It's recommended to make the puree's a bit runnier in the early weeks of food introduction. I would batch cook a heap of vegetables, so each time we needed food it was on hand. I set the pureed vegetables in the freezer in silicone ice cube trays (which i got from Kmart) and when frozen popped them out into some sandwich bags. Starting with ice cube tray sized and eventually storing in larger portion sizes straight into some Sinchies. The ice cubes fits perfectly into the Sinchies 140ml pouches - You can start with 1 cube to begin with and then increase as your little one wants more. Sweet potato was the first thing we tried. Success!! All vegetables I pureed up she seemed to like. I was one happy mum as I have heard some people talk about how their kids hate vegetables (I am sure things may change as she gets older but we are off to a good start!). However fruit she was not as fond of. I persisted as the weeks went by and she got used to the new flavours and will pretty much give everything a go now.
As the weeks pass by get creative
Once I knew that my daughter was ok with the individual flavours I started to combine flavours together. One cube of apple and once cube of pear for example. This makes things a bit more interesting for her. There are some great baby food combo lists here - just scroll until you see them. Continuing to trial fruits with her she began to take a liking to them. Combining fruits were the key as it took the zing out of some fruits that may be a bit sour, making them easier for her little taste buds to handle.7 months old
At 7 months we also introduced things like cous cous and pasta blending/mashing them up so they were a paste rather than whole foods. I purchased some Sinchies products at the baby expo in Sydney, these reusable pouches have made travelling with food SO much easier and allows me to take my own food with us.8 months old
At 8 months we introduced custard and yogurt (here is a great non-dairy custard recipe and egg custard recipe). I just use the same yogurt I eat and either serve from a bowl with a spoon OR use my Sinchies pouch. Filling all your Sinchies at once with yoghurt is a breeze, using their 1L pouch. Simply pour your yoghurt into a 1L pouch, squeeze it into the smaller pouches and you have squeezy yoghurts all week so you can just grab and go. Not to mention the enormous savings compared to buying individual squeezey yoghurts.
I also introduced Weet-Bix for her breakfast adding in yoghurt for a bit of flavour. If you need breakfast on the run or in the car - Weetbix in a 200ml Sinchies works perfectly. Just pop the Weet-bix into the pouch add some milk and let it sit until it's soft. Voila!
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