Top weaning tips

Nourishing our children

As parents, our instinct is to nourish our children, from the moment we found out we were pregnant, we were suddenly responsible for their growth and development. Weaning is no different. We want to make sure we do this right. We want to make sure they have the best foods and get the best nutrient intake to help them to grow and develop and be as healthy as possible.  

I bet you are all thinking, how is it that my baby is ready for solid foods?! Maybe it feels as though you have only just mastered milk feeds and now you have to think about this next milestone. This can certainly feel quite daunting but it really doesn’t have to be. These top tips will hopefully give you the confidence to start introducing solids when the time is right for your baby. 

Avoid reading too much

The issue is that the internet contains an abundance of information on the “best” way to wean your baby and the information is not always correct, reliable or even safe. Anyone can claim to be an “expert” in how to feed children and therefore we are constantly exposed to opinions, a lack of safe information and ambiguity. So, before you start to wean your baby, get your information from a trusted health professional who has the correct qualifications and knowledge and who is associated with a regulatory body. This will be a registered Nutritionist or a Dietician and not your mother-in-law or neighbour next door who claims to know what is best! Happy Tums run Weaning Workshops online and face-to-face.

Get prepared

Gather all of the equipment you might need before you get started. These are the things we used ourselves when we weaned our own babies:

• If you are going to go down the puree route, invest in a good blender. Something like the Nutribullet is a good investment. You can then use this for all sorts of other things such as homemade pesto. 
• Get some bibs which cover your baby as much as possible, especially their arms! We love the Bibetta ones as they wipe clean so easily. 
• Cover the area under your highchair with a mess mat which means if this is clean, anything which falls onto it, can be popped straight back onto your baby’s highchair tray or the table.  We love the glitter ones available here. 
• Choose a sippy cup which is either open or doesn’t have a valve which essentially makes it a “non-drip” cup. It is advisable that babies don’t have to suck really hard to get water out of their cup as this puts pressure on the gums, teeth and jaw. The non-drip cups make getting water out very tricky. Choose something like a Tommee Tippee sippy cup, an open cup like the Doidy cup or the Babycups, or try the Munchkin 360 range of cups. 
• Choose spoons with a soft tip and not too short a handle. 

Stock up your store cupboard

Stock up on essentials for your store cupboard. These are foods which will enable you to make a whole range of meals and snacks which are nutritious and healthy. See here for our blog on store cupboard essentials. 

Choose the right highchair

Choose a highchair which has a foot rest. It really does help your baby to sit up safely and helps them to enjoy the eating experience without trying to keep themselves from sliding around! If they are slightly wobbly still, then it is fine to prop them up with cushions or highchair inserts. Giving them a foot rest helps to keep their core muscles strong and supportive. We love a Stokke Tripp Trapp at Happy Tums. If you don’t have a highchair with a foot rest, you can always put a box under their feet to give them a surface area to rest their feet on. 

Brace for mess

Buy a few soft flannels to wipe their faces. Weaning is messy! And if you are wiping their faces constantly with wet wipes, this will start to possibly irritate their sensitive skin. So after a lovely messy meal is over, just use a soft flannel with warm water to clean those gorgeous cheeks! 

Don’t worry about portion sizes

There are no published guidelines on portion sizes anywhere and this is because all babies are different. Like adults, we don’t sit down at the same time every day and eat the same amount of food – neither will our little ones. Just like us, babies have differing energy needs, appetites, and metabolisms and all these things impact how much they eat at that meal on that day. 

Make the most of your freezer

Batch cook if you are puree feeding and store in ice-cream trays. Freeze leftovers where possible and label well! 

You can also bake things like muffins, savoury flapjacks, pancakes and porridge fingers and freeze on a tray separately. Once frozen, remove from the tray and put back into the freezer in sealed sandwich bags. You can then remove one at a time and these can form the basis of any meal or snack. 

Cut the salt

Buy very low salt stock cubes and unsalted butter. By making these two simple changes, you can really help reduce the salt content of your baby’s diet. Replace any normal stock cubes and salted butter that you currently use for these options and this is a very quick and easy swap to help keep salt levels down. 

Last but not least…

Get a dog! They save a lot of cleaning up!

But, seriously – enjoy it. Welcome the mess and do it at your baby’s pace, there is no rush and no judgement. 

About the author

Happy Tums

Happy Tums was established in 2014 by Registered Nutritionists Nicola & Theresa. Since then Happy Tums has helped thousands of parents across the UK, through workshops, public speaking and brand collaborations, to feel confident and happy about feeding their children.