Weaning – First Tastes

I took Jenson to baby clinic last Thursday and he weighed 17lbs 12 oz which I was very pleased with. I was wondering if it was time to start introducing him to food; it isn’t that he seems really hungry all the time, but he has almost doubled his birth weight now and I just want be more prepared this time around.

With Burton I breast fed him exclusively until he was about 22 weeks old. I was adamant that I would only feed him my breast milk until he reached 6 months old as per the recommended government guidelines. However, by the time he turned just over 5 months old, he started reverting back to two hourly feeds – even during the night! It was totally exhausting and I just assumed it was a growth spurt to begin with. However, after a few days of not being able to keep up with his demands I realised my milk alone was no longer enough for him. I spoke to the Health Visitor at the time and she told me to offer Burton just couple of spoonfuls of baby porridge or rice to start with, and then gradually build it up over the following days.

Well, that first food I offered him he ate the entire bowl and was onto two meals the next day, and we never looked back! Almost immediately he dropped his milk feeds to two a day and by the time he reached 9 months he weaned himself off my milk completely. I didn’t do baby led weaning with Burton , well only to the point where he kind of let me know he was ready to eat more than my milk!

What I mean is, I introduced him to weaning via purees rather than actual solid pieces of soft foods. I was scared that he might choke and having seen a friend of mine use this method of weaning, I thought at least by me feeding him I would know how much he was eating.

So with Jenson ( who is now 21 weeks ) I don’t want it to get to the two hourly feeds again (it might not of course, being a different baby but his weight is the same now as Burton’s was at the same age), as it was just so draining for me. Instead I thought it best to be more prepared and get weaning food in the house ready. So after speaking with a health visitor last week, I started to introduce Jenson to some new tastes.

On Saturday I tried him with some plain baby porridge, I think you can see from his face what he thought of it!

I only gave him about 4 spoonfuls but the bits he did keep in his mouth he swallowed.

Since then I have added fruit or vegetables to his porridge and he seems to enjoy this more and likes to help me hold the spoon. So far he has tried, and seems to like the taste of, banana, apple and carrot. Yesterday and today he has eaten quite a lot of his lunch too and got upset when I put the spoon down assuming he had eaten enough!

Of course nothing beats the taste of his highchair straps or his bib! nom nom nom :0