WEANING UPDATE

We have been weaning Freya for around 9 weeks now and I think it's pretty safe to say she's going to love food just as much as her mummy and daddy do! There isn't a single food so far that she won't eat (she wasn't keen on Pear to begin with but we persevered and now she loves it!) and she regularly cries or fusses when I'm not feeding her quick enough. 

First tastes...

 Freya is now eating three meals a day plus a dessert, which may sound excessive to some but she is also still drinking at least 25oz of milk per 24 hours and sips water with her meals as well. We also offer finger food snacks throughout the day or when us adults are trying to eat our dinner so we can eat in peace without grubby little hands trying to steal whatever they can off of our plates. 

Since we're pretty much fully established with a feeding routine for now, I thought I'd share Freya's meal plan with you all before it all changes again when she gets mobile. 

Breakfast

We usually have a few choices in the cupboard for breakfast, and it tends to be between a fruit pouch, a jar of porridge or a yoghurt. We are massive fans of the Ella's Kitchen range of baby food and the fruit pouches and pots of yoghurt are mostly (a good 9 times out of 1) Ella's Kitchen. Freya's absolute favourite fruit flavour is mango so we always have a stock of Mangoes, Mangoes, Mangoes by Ella's Kitchen or, more recently, a jar of Hipp Organic Yoghurt with a layer of Banana and Mango purée. 

I always allow Freya a chance to play with her food too, so she gets used to different textures. 

Lunch

Lunch is usually a 70g pure vegetable pouch, again, from Ella's Kitchen. I originally started using these when we first started weaning and we were just giving single flavours but Freya absolutely loves them so we've carried on using them. Peas, Peas, Peas is by far her favourite with either the Carrot or Sweet Potato pouch coming in at a very, very close second place. 

Peas, Peas, Peas in action.

Dinner

Dinner has always been a meat and veg type of affair. Whether it be a jar or a pouch (as you've probably gathered, I'm not a fan of making my own baby food. Shoot me) it usually tends to be chicken with vegetables or beef with vegetables. Occasionally Freya will have a vegetarian pasta dish but mostly she will have meat and veg for her dinner. At the moment we are trying to use up the last of her stage 1 baby food so we are using the Cow & Gate jars for dinner but we do already have a stock of stage 2 thicker texture pouches and jars from Ella's Kitchen and Aldi for when we run out and are able move into the next stage. 

Bread sticks are a LIFE SAVER when you're trying to eat in a restaurant!!!

Snacks 

Although Freya has no interest in feeding herself with a spoon, she can't get enough of feeding herself finger foods. I'm not a huge fan of Baby Led Weaning, but I can just about stretch myself to finger foods every now and again. We love the Organix range of snacks and our favourites are the Cherry Rice Cakes and the Carrot Sticks however, I have found both of these to be very messy so not great for on the go, unless you want a child covered in orange goo for the rest of the day! Toast is another favourite, cut into soldiers of course. 

The time Freya had a huge meltdown in Asda and I had to crack open the Rusks before paying for them....

 We also give Freya a free flowing sippy cup with 3oz of cooled boiled water with each feed but she usually only takes an oz of this at the very most. A tip that I've found invaluable when it comes to water is putting her cup in the fridge when we go to bed and then taking it out as soon as we come downstairs so her water isn't freezing but is nice and cold for her to drink. We then refill the cup with cooled water and place in the fridge after each meal so that it has time to chill before the next feeding time. 

I hope this has helped some of you who are just starting to wean your little ones. I know I really struggled to begin with when it came to deciding what to feed my baby and when so finding blog posts like this one really helped me. 

Thanks for reading, 

Grace x