Baby Weaning suggestions.....

[Im a BusyBee]

My grandson is just over 5 months and so far has only had packet and jars of baby food, he's having breakfast and evening dinner at the moment. I discovered in sainsburys yesterday, by talking to another shopper in the baby food aisle, that he can have petit filais (spelling?) is there any other 'normal' food he can have at this age? Also i do want to cook up a load of veg and blend it and freeze to save my daughter money what would work well and what should i avoid putting in it? ow do i make the gravy part as i know he should not have anything containing salt? thanks for your ideas.

[Im a BusyBee]

yes thank you, i found them yesterday but it got me wondering if there are other things he could also be having as we have been sticking to the baby foods thinking at his age we have to be carful what he has.

[annie0000]

Porridge made with his milk and add in some pureed fruit - e.g. apple, pear even tinned fruit (in fruit juice not syrup) is perfectly fine and you could give him peaches etc - weetabix done the same way mixed with warm milk and fruit is good too.

Mashed banana is good and portable as you can just take one out with you and give it a god mash before feeding - make sure it is nice and ripe though.

Blend up any kinds of veg - mine used to like potato and corguette with a bit of cheese melted in - or some fish too.

Carrots are good - mix them with plain baby rice.

You can blend up virtually any normal food as long as it is not too highly seasoned and as you say doesn't have too much salt in it.

And I think you are talking about fromage frais - just make sure the ones you buy are not too sugary and they are ideal.

What kind of things did you used to give your daughter?

[annie0000]

we used to freeze pureed fruit in ice cube trays and just add a cube to hot porridge and it cooled it down and flavoured it at the same time. My two are 11 and 10 now and still love a bowl of porridge but now they have a blob of jam instead of fruit cubes!

[ojread2]

http://www.babycentre...solids/meal-planners/
Try this for some excellent ideas

He doesn't need gravy at this age.
Petit filous has a huge amount of sugar in it and should be avoided, try Asda's Little Stars
Baby rice is necessary, use Ready Brek instead if you want to use a thickener - more filling for a start
He can have (almost) what ever his mum eats, just avoid using salt in the cooking and mash it up

[ojread2]

Baby Rice ISN'T necessary that should say, sorry

[madmaggot]

I rarely fed commercially prepared food to my babies. Just don't add salt to your own meals and use a blender to smooth it. If you like salt you can add it after you've taken your baby's share out.
You can mash 1/2 a banana as Annie said, mine really liked that.
I also used to give them a bit off a crusty loaf with just a tiny smear of marmite and butter to chew, you must be sure not to leave him for a second though in case he chews a big bit off. This encourages a taste for savoury things rather than sweet.
Babies are just little people you know; they just need a varied diet of fairly smooth food, you don't need to pay through the nose for commercially prepared stuff.

[Jemisa]

There is a book called...
Baby and Toddler Meal Planner. by Annabel Karmel's
Everything in there & fully illustrated, , how to make, what to make,all ingrediants which are best, money saving idea's. A must for mums & G/mothers that care.
My daughter treated hers like a bible. Its on Amazon.

jem

[woofgang]

with very great respect, what do folk think that mums did before commercially prepared baby food?

[cathfromsaron]

we used only bought sugar free natural yog and then sweetened with mushy peaches etc! petit filous was v sweet!

ditto annie, we filled up an cube tray with portions of mushy fruit/veg and froze them for speed!

and a crusty french bread is ideal when they are teething!

poridge is great too!

[Ratty2E]

We never used jars of baby food partly because we couldn't afford them and because the child needs to be used to eating what you normally eat. I usually made an extra dinner like roasts, spag bol etc. pureed it then froze it in portions. You can sure they are getting good fresh veg etc and monitor the salt and sugar content as you are making it yourself. Puddings were usually custard with some sort of puree fruit i.e. apple, prunes, peaches etc. As they get older you can adjust the portion size and texture. It's a good idea to let them have food they can handle and 'play' with i.e. chunks of banana. It makes food more fun and they become more inquisitive to try more things. One thing to remember is just because things like petit filous are marketed at kids it doesn't mean they will be good for them.

[atalanta]

By the time my eldest was 5 months old he was eating shepherd's pie, spaghetti bolognese, fish pie, mince and rice, apple crumble, ice cream - all grown-up stuff, except he didn't have many teeth, so we didn't give him roast meat. He'd certainly have tried to eat that, too, since he was staggeringly greedy. Did him no harm whatsoever.

[Im a BusyBee]

thanks for your answers and i totally agree that he should eat our food hence the question. When i make such things as spag bol or cottage pie etc (which i do regularly, always cook from scratch everyday) i add garlic ,chilly etc not to make it over powering but to make it flavoursome - im not sure he should be having that?

[annie0000]

don't make it too spicy - adults can always add tabasco or something to spice theirs up, but garlic is fine - mine love loyd grossmans tomato and basic sauce or the sacla stir through tomato and marcapone and even as babies would scoff it with small pasta - they used to stink of garlic - they also liked chewing on garlic bread! The proportion of salt they will get from a home made cottage pie - even with the gravy etc will be tiny in comparison to what they will get in some baby foods so I wouldn't worry too much - just don't add salt when you are boiling potatoes/pasta etc

[Kristal53]

garlic and chili may upset his stomach. butternut squash is a good vegetable as is sweet potato - babies like sweet things cos breastmilk is very sweet. my four children never had bought baby food -it tastes like cr*p lol! If you're making spag bol just take out the mince and onions before adding salt and spices and blend with cooked macaroni -fresh herbs are fine and full of vitamins. I would avoid gravy as it contains flour and salt.

[jd_here]

How about a succulent rare rib of beef, washed down with a good glass of Rioja?

[jd_here]

Second thoughts, perhaps another couple of months yet!

[Anngel123]

My children used to love mince peas onion and potato. Fry the onions gently in a little olive oil Just cook it all together with a little water. Then whizz up in the liquidiser. It may taste bland to your tastebuds but they used to love it!
Cheap too. A good quality mince preferable grassfed from a butcher.