Weaning

I’d say beginning and that baby porridge got no real nutritional value and water is 6 months also x

Do some research, the nhs website is a great place to start. From 6 months and there is no nutritional value in baby rice, you’re better off blending some regular oats and mixing in formula or breastmilk to make porridge (from 6 months) Solid starts app is great if you want to do baby led weaning x

You can use cows milk if you’re heating it up in cooking too! Definitely look at solid starts and even recipes online.. batch cooking/blending is soooo much cheaper and you know what’s in it 🥰

Look at the book how to feed your baby by Charlotte Stirling Reed

It’s around 6 months and depends if your baby is ready. The most important factors being that they can sit well (hold their trunk and head up whilst in a highchair - no slumping) and also the tongue thrusting reflex (if you put something in their mouth and the tongue instantly pushes it back out then they aren’t ready) They should also be able to bring food up to their mouths. Also baby rice has no nutritional value and is pointless giving to baby. You can do ‘traditional weaning’ ie purees or you can do ‘baby led weaning’ which is basically where you give baby solid food from the start. The solid starts app is great for showing you how to cut and prepare food safely for baby led weaning.

Once they are around 6 months and showing the other signs of readiness. So just before they turn 6 months or shortly after. There's no point using baby rice, it's much better to use solid food from the start so that baby can feed themselves. You might have noticed at the moment they're bringing hands to mouth and putting everything in their mouth, so they will be able to put food in there too. The solid starts app gives great advice how to prepare foods that you already have in the house, no need to buy lots of pouches or products. You can offer sips of water with meals once you start weaning, but milk should still be their main drink and source of nutrition for a while.

You can start around 6 months depending on what your babies pediatrician says, and how your baby seems to respond to solid foods. Sometimes it takes longer to be able to give them solids because they just aren't ready. You can try it at 6 months and just see what happens, as long as your pediatrician gives you the ok to do so

6 calendar months (so April) or 2 weeks either side if showing all the signs of readiness (sitting up in the chair, no tongue thrust relex, showing an interest in food). The things that are labelled 4mo+ are labelled is purely for profit and they're allowed to because of outdated advice, not the benefit of the baby's digestive system. At 6mo baby can have normal porridge oats, there's no need for baby porridge (if you want it slightly finer then blitz dry oats in a blender but my LG loves it how it comes) The only thing they can't have at 6mo is honey and added salt/sugar. Artificial sweeteners aren't recommended, unpasteurised dairy needs to be heated until bubbling. You can do blw, where baby feeds themselves finger foods and you give baby what you eat mostly, or traditional weaning which is using purees and working your way up to chunkier textures.

What I've found is that the higher up in age on the packet, the chunkier it is. So my daughter is 9.5mo and has the 12mo pots because she likes the chunks. We do a mix of BLW and spoon feeding. Solid Starts is an excellent free app for seeing how best to prepare food for their age. My best advice is try not to overthink it xx

@Rach they may also contain honey or higher levels of salt/sugar so just something to check for. If you do blw then the ages aren't really relevant as they're for traditional weaning, just need to be mindful of ingredients. We've been giving baby the 12mo+ gingerbread/fruity bars etc since 7/8months as we've done blw from 6mo :)

I know it wasn’t your question but I’ve also heard from a health visitor that there’s no point buying baby porridges. Regular porridge as more nutritional value plus it’s like 80p for a full bag. X

I’d say if dr gives the okay. Mine gave it at 4 months. If she never did I wouldn’t have started. But I did start with water at 2 months without her go ahead tho (contradicting) lol. Sometimes not all babies are ready at 6 months

Whenever you want to you can start at whatever month you like x

6 months for water, if you use it any sooner the water flushes all the sodium out of their system which can trigger a diluted sodium level resulting in seizure’s or even worse! They don’t need water full stop unless advised for constipation and even then it’s only an oz at a time!x

@Jody giving food at 4 months would have been safer than given your baby water at 2… it’s so dangerous for their sodium levels x

@Beth thanks for that. But it’s my child at the end the day and she is absolutely fine. She loves water and she’s growing perfectly healthy and well and very smart. A little teaspoon didn’t kill her and it’s very normal for her age in my country.

@Jody I’m not judging you for it I’m just saying! Most people don’t know that giving baby water diluted their sodium levels x

@Beth I’m aware of both sides of giving babies water before 6 months

@Jody I didn’t say you didn’t…? I said most people don’t 😂 jump of your horse I’m just explaining

@Beth and I’m just telling u I’m aware. I didn’t ask what u know in the first place so I don’t know why u telling me all of that. I said thanks for letting me know and told u it was my decision idk why u kept going.

@Beth and by telling me that , u just assumed I didn’t know either so I don’t get ur point

Gave my boy water at 8 weeks for constipation x

@Jody well as a first time mum I didn’t know… it was literally a bit of friendly advice which is what this app is about, I used it for constipation as advised by the doctor and he was the one who told me, if you can’t handle a little comment maybe remove yourself from the app😂

@Beth girl what are u talking about? U acting like I asked u if it was safe or not. I was just stating what I did with my child. Yes this app is about advice but I didn’t ask u for one. Would be different if I actually asked for ur advice. And how I can’t handle a little comment? Like I stated before, I said thank you and told u my daughter is fine. But u kept going like I asked u for more info on why babies shouldn’t get water. Don’t give ur child water then. I’ll do what I want with mine. Goodbye.