THE WEANING DIARIES - WEEK 2

So, I've had a bit of a blogging break and now I'm back! Things weren't particularly busier than usual, but I found I just didn't have enough time to fit everything in. Freya has been a lot more clingy the last week or so and we're trying to get rid of our current sofa and dining table (which actually lives in our living room. The joys of having a tiny house, eh?) so our new ones can be delivered this week and it all just got a bit much. Sorry about that. Anyway, back to weaning!

We had to cut out all food a few weeks back due to Freya deciding that actually, she didn't need her milk anymore, and a bowl of porridge for breakfast and spaghetti bolognaise for dinner was more than enough. She'd cut her milk intake right down to maybe 8oz a day for a good few days before we cut the solids out. It only took her a day or two to bring her milk intake back up to normal and then we began to slowly reintroduce foods, but in much smaller quantities. We went way back to basics and started with just porridge for breakfast. One spoonful of porridge mixed with three spoonfuls of milk, as per the instructions. She absolutely loves her food, does Freya. She eats like she's been doing it her whole life, and still has never gagged or pushed her food out of her mouth using her tongue (well, except for anything Apple flavoured...Apple is not the one apparently!). I usually have to sneak fruit into her by mixing some fruit purée with her porridge.

After a few days of porridge going down well and Freya still drinking the same amount of milk, we started to introduce an evening meal. I'm the first to admit I'm a fan of pre-made baby food. Be it a jar or a pouch, I'm all over it if it saves me some time and mess. We use the Cow & Gate jars of baby food for her evening meals, and she'll have half a jar one day and the other half the day after. Her favourites at the moment seem to be anything orange. Spaghetti Bolognaise, Lamb HotPot, Grandpa's Roast Dinner. It's like she knows that having orange stains all over her clothes makes my life ten times harder.

We give Freya lunch maybe two or three times a week right now. I'm cautious of overwhelming her with food again so I'm trying to introduce this slowly. We tend to use the Ella's Kitchen vegetable pouches for lunch, thickened up with some baby porridge powder because Freya isn't keen on the super smooth consistency, probably because I have never given her super smooth porridge so she's always been accustomed to lumps. So far she seems pretty chilled out when it comes to veg. There hasn't been any she doesn't like (from a pouch anyway, my homemade pureed broccoli and cauliflower didn't go down too well). Peas, Peas, Peas is her ultimate favourite Ella's pouch. With Sweet Potatoes being a close second, and Carrots trailing in third. I made a Sweet Potato and Carrot purée a few weeks back and she devoured it in about half the time it usually takes her to eat.

Finger food is something we were always open to the idea of but never really did, until the last few weeks. Freya has begun getting visibly upset watching someone eat when she has nothing, so we have started giving her small pieces of whatever we are eating to A) let her explore with her hands and learn how to chew and (mainly) B) so we can eat in peace! She loves picking food up and feeding it to herself and if it means I get to eat my food without having to constantly settle her or feed her a spoonful of something, I'm all for it. I'm not sure on whether we'll go for full baby-led weaning or sick with a mixture of purée and finger foods, we'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks for reading,

Grace.

* I'm aware that if you just read our weaning diaries it looks like we jumped from first tastes to three meals a day super quickly, but in reality Freya started weaning at 19 weeks and she is now 23 weeks so we've taken our time and introduce three meals a day slowly over four weeks :-)