WHEN TO START BABY WEANING?
When your baby is between 4 and 6 months, you can start with small bites, where your little one can start discovering new flavours and textures. We'll tell you how to start on this page.
SHOULD YOU START WITH SPOONFEEDING OR SMALL BITES?
You can start with giving small pieces of food your child can put in their mouth, instead of pureed food. But it 's safer to start with mashed small bites on a spoon which you can make less refined.
HOW TO START WEANING
Solid food will feel strange at first, start slowly and simply with one small teaspoon with a pureed single food. When you baby is 6 months old try including finger foods.
BABY WEANING TIPS
- Establish whether your baby is ready or not - these are the 3 signs you should be looking for
- Introduce solid food slowly at first -
- Start with veggies. It’s best to start with one vegetable at a time, so that your baby’s precious palate gradually learns to distinguish between individual tastes.
- Ensure a variety of food so your baby grows up accepting a wide range of flavours and different foods
- Avoid overly sweet or salted foods. It’s important that the flavours are not masked with salt or sweetened to make the savoury flavours more acceptable.
- Know when they've had enough. Babies are generally aware when they’ve had enough and are good at indicating it, so if they start turning their head away or fuss when you offer more food, or even clamp their mouth shut, these are cues for you to respond to.
- Remember your babies’ appetites will vary a lot from day to day and for the first year your baby will be getting the majority of the nutrients and calories they need from breast milk or formula, so don’t worry if they aren’t taking in as much of the solids as you would like them to. It may take 10-15 tries for your baby to get used to new tastes, so keep trying!