My Weaning Essentials

We've now been weaning Squidge for just over 4 months and in that time we've tried out lots of different products, some of which were great, and some not-so-great.  With that in mind, I thought I'd share with you some of our most used bits and pieces that make up our weaning kit.

Steamer/Mixer

Having a steamer has really transformed how I prepare baby food - before I'd boil it, which boils out all the goodness in vegetables.  The Nutribaby from Babymoov (£99.99*) has 2 levels in the steamer, which from my experience is enough for 2 good meals for your baby (if you fill up the trays pretty well). What I'm trying to get into the habit of doing, is having his food steaming in the night while I'm cooking mine and Daddy's dinner, ready for his feeds the next day.  Once the food is steamed, I tip it into the blender, add a splash of cows milk and pulse the blend a few times (I want texture, not purée). The Nutribaby has loads of settings so you can also warm jars/pouches/bottles, whether room temperature or from the fridge, and even steralise.

Storage jars/pots

I go through almost all of these on a daily basis - each meal I'll put prepared food in different pots, like his main food in one, rice cakes in another, sticks of cucumber or another veg in another etc, so that each feed I could go through 3/4.  All the ones pictured are from Babymoov - the ones on the left (£13.99*) are their silicone ones which collapse when you want to store them (they're collapsed in this picture) - the pop out really easily and the lids click on better than any other tupperware I have (you don't have to squish the lids down).  The tubs on the right (£6.99*) are better (in my opinion) for when you're at home as at least with mine, the lids don't really stay on - so they're fine if you're putting them in the fridge, or don't need lids on them and there's no risk of them being upside down :)

An assortment of spoons

Everyone has their own preference, this is why we have 2 different sets of spoons - the short ones are weaning spoons from Tommee Tippee (£7.99) (the ones designed so babies can feed themselves), the spoon part is shallow and wide (the hubby prefers feeding Squidge with these). The other ones are from Nuby and are my favourite (£3.99) - apart from being lovely colours, they have a really nice deep scoop on them - they fit in his mouth really well and they have rubber handles, so are easy to grip.  The only problem with the Nuby ones is that because the handles are so long, they never stay put in the bowl, they usually end up tipping it over, so something to be aware of.

Feeding bowls

We have 3 bowls for Squidge all together.  The one that's a plate with separate compartments is from OXO*, this is great for offering them finger food or BLW - the plate also has a rubber grip on the bottom to stop is sliding around, and the coloured ring around the edge can clip off too. The other two bowls we have is the orange one from Tommee Tippee (£8.95) we actually, we have 2 of these but there's only 1 in circulation - we also have a Winnie the Pooh one (pale blue, my personal favourite but currently discontinued, so it's appearing in Poundland).  If I give Squidge pouches at home, I tend to squeeze them into one of these bowls so I can give it a good mix.

Free-flow sippee cup

This one we were given by our health visitor at a weaning party they threw (this sounds SO much more exciting than it was, lol).  With the cups that are spill proof, you have to suck really hard to get any water out, and if you're teaching your baby to drink water out of a sippy cup (£2.50), they really won't have the motivation or understanding for it, whereas with a free-flow one they only have to tip it and they'll get water from it.  You can move on to a spill proof one once they get the hang of it and certainly when they're older - but we've had the most success with free-flow ones (in fact, the orange plain Tommee Tippee one is the best we've found, but it's nearly impossible to get the lid off!).

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The Weaning Diaries #1

Squidge in his Babymoov light wood high chair

When Squidge was 17 weeks old, we very slowly and tentatively started weaning him.  It's not a decision we took lightly, but we felt he was ready.  He was bored and frustrated with his bottles, leaving lots, and really interested in what we were eating (not to the degree he is now!).  We only fed him baby rice for the first 3 weeks, and it was literally just a couple spoonfuls a day.  Then, when he was 5 months old he was being weighed at the HV and she said to progress his weaning onto flavours, purees etc, so off we went :)

He's fed a mixture of food I've cooked, and pouches/jars - either Ella's Kitchen or HiPP Organic - I'm quite choosy over the pouches I buy for him and I make sure they're one fruit-based ones, so that they're low in sugar (I always check).  I made the mistake of buying him a vegetable pouch from Ella's Kitchen - and under neath it said 'with Apple' - but on checking, it was over 50% apple, so very sweet and high in sugar.

Mummy's homemade puree - cauliflour, potato, cod and garlic with a little cow's milk

Obviously I prefer him to eat food I've cooked as I know exactly what's gone into it, and he really likes it (yay), but it's not always possible.  If we've had a suitable meal in the evening (not something spicy etc) then I'll put a little pot of it to one side, and blend it up for him to have for lunch the next day - he really loves the quorn biryani I cook and my cauliflower puree with cows milk :)  It's so cute seeing him try something for the first time, and seeing whether he likes it or not - if he doesn't like it, he immediately gags, pushes it out with his tongue and blows raspberries - if he likes it, he pretty much swallows it, and immediately opens his mouth for the next mouthful. The Babymoov silicone collapsable pots (£13.99) are amazing - the collapse really well, and the lids click on really easily - perfect for travelling, but personally we use them for all sorts, including as a bowl for our own breakfast (overnight oats) :)

We also give him finger food to hold and explore, like cucumber, carrot, celery, spring onions, cooked broccoli spears, wholemeal toast, pineapple etc.

Lunch steaming away in the Nutribaby

If I do cook him food, I steam it for him (I have the Babymoov Nutribaby), it's pretty easy to use and also has a blender attached so you can puree the food you've just steamed - or you could use the steamer to warm up a jar :)  It has two tiers so you could put meat or fish on one, and veg on the other, you just need to dice things up so they're pretty small and don't take too long to cook.  A typical meal that I cook for him takes about 20 mins :)

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Fisher Price Thomas & Friends Tray Play Booster Seat

Gosh that's a mouthful of a title!  Sorry that I was a little quiet on here last week, thought I'd have myself a week off :)  Well, now I'm back and I have lots of posts to share with you! The first of which is about this lovely little high chair booster seat.

Now that we're in full swing with Squidge's weaning, a portable high chair like this is a must.  Space is pretty critical in our house, so we really liked the idea of a space saver like this.  It's still a little on the small side for him, so we have a rolled up blanket behind him, however he's now stopped falling to the side and can hold himself up really nicely (after these pics were taken).

The seat is great - it'll fit him for a long time.  Only after looking at this picture did I realise we had the table on all wrong! We've been doing it right since, but basically you just clip it into one of those red pegs sticking out depending on how big or little your baby is.  The seat gets strapped on - one strap goes behind the char and the other undeath.  The baby gets strapped in with a T trap too.

It has a Thomas the Tank Engine clip on toy that fits onto the table really well.  It doesn't need batteries or anything - the baby/child is able to move the train around the track - although Squidge's favourite thing to do is to lean down and chew the train and the yellow bar :)

The Thomas the Tank Engine higchair unit (and table) is wipeable which is fantastic.  Gosh does he make a mess! (I'm loving the bee that few into shot when I was taking this picture too - he was massive!).

Squidge loves his high chair (he is loving weaning)

This is how it secures at the back.  You can make it looser or tighter so it fits to your chair.

Plenty of room for food and a beaker.

We actually went back home to Pembrokeshire this past weekend to visit family and we took this with us.  It folded up well into the boot and clipped onto my step-dad's dining chair well.  We also got it out when we went to a cafe yesterday - their high chair was enormous, far too big for him and didn't have a bar that goes between the legs and he kept sliding out - so we got this out instead which was much easier.  The only thing was that we forgot the Thomas the Tank Engine toy that clips in - and he wasn't being fed, so he got a little bored!

The RRP is £34.99 which is feel is good value for money. It's well made, easy to use, it comes ready made, plus it's nice and colourful.  Here's some 'customer action shots' for you :)

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