The weaning story

FINALLY!

Gonna share a little on how I introduce solid food for my girl and some concerns which I had. Hope to shed some light for mummies who are fretting what, when and how to start off with. (: Cos I used to be in that shoe, and it's really frustrating cos it's such a huge step forward for your precious lil' one, and you don't wanna do the 'wrong' thing! ((:



1) When to start introducing solid food for my baby?

Personally, I don't consider weaning before 6 months of age. No particular reason, but I feel that breastmilk is sufficient for my girl before 6 months old, and also since it's widely recommended to breastfeed exclusively for the first 6 months of your baby's life.

Signs whereby your baby might be ready for solids
- Waking up during his sleep every so often
- Able to sit upright and keep his/her neck straight unsupported

First meal should be introduced at midday, which is lunchtime, say around 1PM. After the first month of weaning, breakfast could start. And then it's 3 meals per day at 7-8th month, if everything goes smoothly.

2) What are the first foods that does best for my baby?

Ahh! This question is the killer for me when I wanna wean my girl, totally killed millions of my braincells. I don't wanna turn her off with wrong food, and I wanna feed the best food which more nutrients for her. So I really researched loads of this. Here are the food which worked best for my girl.

- Japanese pumpkin
- Japanese sweet potatoes
- Avocado
- Banana
- Healthy Times Barley Cereal

For cereals, there are endless of choices, but I'm somewhat more inclined to organic ones. Did some research and settles for the Healthy Times one. What I did is to express breastmilk manually (with hands) and then scoop necessary cereal into the bowl to the needed consistency.

From 7th month onwards, if your baby is taking solid food well, can start to gradually introduce other food. Like red spinach, round spinach, baby sweet potato leaf, parsnip, brown rice, peas, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, xiao bai cai, tofu, yogurt, etc. The list goes on and on. And it's during the 7th month where I started introducing porridge for my girl on her daily menu.

I started meat for Kayla with fishes, namely threadfin fillet. She takes them gladly and enjoy them, just need to triple check for bones. Snappers are also great for baby, so is cod fillet. For pork and chicken, I use them for cooking porridge, but not letting her have them till 9 months.

Fruit wise, apples and pears are great to start off with. Green and red apples are both good. Then I tried with apricot, peach, banana, etc. Citrus fruits, like oranges, should hold off till baby's after 1 year old.

Basically, after 1 year old, there's alot of food which is 'safe'. Like, mushroom, egg whites, nuts, berries, honey and peanut butter.


3) How to prepare baby's food? What equipments needed?

For me, I hunt for a crockery pot, aka slow cooker, for myself to cook the porridge. I got one from Gain City at $26, a Takahi slow cooker, 0.8litres if I remember correctly. It is easy to use as I just put boiling water and add rice to it. Leave it to cook for around 2+ hours and it's done! Easy cos I don't have time to stay at the stove to look after the fire.

Just half an hour before mealtime, I would go ahead and steam/boil/cook those ingredients and add to the porridge. And meal's done! It's very important to not overcook ingredients, else all the nutrients would be gone and there's no point in preparing a meal without goodness in it. But, uncooked food is a taboo for babies' tender tummy. So watch the food and ensure all's well, including the temperature, before serving.

For my kitchen list, includes the following.

- 2 chopping boards (one for meat and another for veggies and fruits)
- Peeler
- Knife
- Metal round bowl
- Braun hand-held blender
- U-like blender
- Thermos foogo food jar (for storing food to bring out for mealtimes)

Simple and nice, there you can have your homecooked food with love. (:

A simple guide for cooking baby food, best is to steam it, followed by boiling. Cos when you steam it, the nutrients are not that easy to be lost. To store your groceries, the second best is to have them frozen (instead of them lying around in your fridge). Of course the best is to be fresh from market!


4) How to know when is it enough for my baby? What if my baby refuse to eat?

For me, I take cues from my girl. Say if she starts refusing the spoon, spits out the food, looks away repeatedly when I say 'ahhh', etc, I will stop feeding. My view is that our babies are human, they have appetite too. But make it clear that it's meal time, i.e. put your lil' one in the high-chair to feed. Rather than having a baby crawling all around the house and us 'chasing' them to feed. I personally feel that it's a very bad habit, meal time is meal time.

My girl used to refuse to eat once. I tried putting a slice of apple into the crockery pot after an hour of cooking and it worked. Sometimes just need to play around with the ingredients to make the food more appealing. The apple I added in the porridge added a sweet tinge in the plain porridge and thus more explorable to her. Recently at 9+ months old, I added tiny weeny bit of Marmite for my girl, and she likes it too.

Babies do not need any flavorings like salt and sugar. First few stages of weaning is to let them explore and get introduced to solid foods. So salt and other artificial flavorings are a huge big taboo. Don't spoil your babies tummy. A good start of weaning goes a long, long way!


Some suggestions.

1) Keep a calendar jotting down what food is introduced, to take note of possible allergy.
2) Avoid gluten before 9 months old for possible gluten intolerance.
3) No salt, sugar, oil is ever needed in baby food.
4) Recommend wholegrain food for babies below 9 months old.
5) Iron fortified food recommended for below 9 months old babies.
6) No chinese herbs, like red dates/gor kee.

After Kayla turns 1 year old, I'm more 'relaxed' in the choice of food for her. Weaning is a very interactive and fun process, so really have fun making food for your baby!


Personal brand preference for baby food
- Shokaku Premium Rice
- Rafferty Garden
- Happy Baby Food
- Yoplait Baby
- Healthy Times
- Heinz


Two VERY useful websites

* Wholesome Baby Food
This link brings you to the sitemap. There are zillion more stuffs to check out. Take your time to read through and absorb what's needed. ((:

* Little Gastronomy
This blog is by Brenda, a true blue Singaporean. Her blog is packed with information and they are very useful. She has a breakfast menu planner which is terrifically wonderful for mummies when their babies hit 9 months old.


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Most importantly, enjoy weaning your dearest baby, and keep a positive mindset about everything. Every thing will work out just right. ((:

If you would like to ask me anything and everything, just email me at sherlynliang@gmail.com

I'd be most glad to be able to help in any way.


xoxo