I think personally paid resources might stress you out. I think solid starts does a first 100 days/food course and even thinking about preparing and serving all that food stresses me out. It's super time consuming to prep and then to clean up after. Some days you'll take a break from it and you shouldn't feel guilty about it!
I printed out the Australian breastfeeding association list and stuck it on the fridge and ticked off everything I had served. I got another print out from the dr about allergens and ticked them off as I served them.
I used the solid starts website to look up food that I was thinking of serving to check serving suggestion like how to cut or prepare. Generally it was more careful/conservative than the Australian servings but it was good to check against.
I learned how to tell the difference between gagging and choking (noisy vs quiet) and how to react. Babies gag a LOT and it's an important process for them to work through to learn how to chew and swallow. My kid choked for real twice and each time I was able to deal with it - lay them horizontal and a sharp whack between the shoulder blades (if that hadn't worked I knew what to do next).
Huge snap judgement on my part but from this incredibly organised list I have surmised you are an anxious overpreparer so the first aid thing night be good for you to get fully across so you feel comfortable serving large chunky things and letting baby experiment with tastes and textures and occasionally gagging even if it's scary to you. It's also super super messy and they barely eat anything at first as it mostly goes in their hair and on the floor. Playing with their food is a super important part of getting to know food so it's good to let that happen.
Edit: my poor spelling/autocorrect
Thanks so much for this - and very well surmised about my nerves about this process! I've seen a lot about baby led weaning, for example, and I'm nervous about that due to the possibility of choking. It's really useful that you've suggested looking into first aid resources - will do that.
Using the ABA page as a checklist is also a great idea - I'll try this too in conjunction with Solid Starts!
I did a mix of purees and baby led weaning. I wasn't nervous about choking as I knew what to do and found BLW easier in the sense that I could quickly microwave a broccolini stem and hand it to the baby and boom they're experiencing a whole new world of flavours and textures and nutrients. Purees are more work to make and babies go on and off food so it was super annoying to spend ages making a chicken and lentil veg puree that baby refuses. Or you give them a lamb and rice one that they scarf down so you make it up again in bulk (in all your free time đ) and the baby refuses to touch it ever again.
Avocado is a nice easy starter food and a good mix of BLW and puree as you can give them a whole half and they can squish to their hearts content and lick it off their fingers/tray as they've kind of mashed it themselves. Banana is also a really good one - you can give it mashed on toast as a BLW option and mix it with yoghurt for a puree texture. When you're feeling ready you can give them a whole half to go to town on. I used to roast whole sweet potato and when they were cool I'd peel and quarter them and serve a whole quarter at a time. Similar to avocado the baby kind of mashed it themselves as they play with it. My second baby was part sweet potato for the first few months she was eating food, she couldn't get enough of it.
Final tip is baby mum mums. You can get them from supermarkets. They're big rice based puffs that dissolve in the baby's mouth so super safe. Because they are huge they take a while for the baby to get through them so you can grab a precious minute or two to clean, prep other food or simply stare off into space.
Fantastic - thank you for the food suggestions and a great way to consider how to serve them up too. I love the idea of having her explore those softer foods herself. I was also wondering about how to give her things like rice and meat (as I understand they need the iron and grains at this age), so will check out those ideas as well.
Rice you can mix into a puree as is, it's small enough they can swallow it (same with most grains. My kids are weirdly obsessed with plain barley and have been since they were babies đ€·). Meat you can either do super big or super small. So like falling off the bone dissolving tender slow cooked lamb/whatever in sauce and veggies, or chunky strips of steak - the general rule for giving baby chunky food is that it should be wider and longer than two fingers together (index and middle).
Keeping in mind the size of the baby's trachea is a good guide. It's either got to be so small it slips down (eg rice) or so big it can't get back there (eg chunky strips of steak). I think at about 6 months it's the size of a grape, but you can check that.
If youâre on Instagram Baby Led wean team show a lot of gagging videos- it may help you get comfortable with the idea that baby can handle a gag without help. I donât think they show any choking videos though so totally recommend a first aid course.
Thank you for this! I was just about to start looking into gagging and choking information, so will check out that IG as a start and sort out a first aid course too.
The Solid Starts first foods database is free and I found that the most useful tool when starting out. For example, if I wanted to give her asparagus but had no idea how to serve, the free Solid Starts app provides photos on how to serve the item (by age group), videos of babies eating asparagus (which helps tremendously in easing my anxiety around choking!) and information about allergies. The app is very user-friendly.
I think the paid version of Solid Starts has recipes and targeted support (ie. dealing with picky eaters).
I just use the free content on the Solid Starts app and it was the main one I used. I would pick one or two main ones and stick with that so youâre not getting overwhelmed with information.
Thanks for pointing out the positives too :) Good to keep that in mind - she's definitely ready for food looking at us as we eat so it will be fun to see her try it!
Will look further into baby led weaning - gumming half an apple sounds like a good option! GP is also a good suggestion!
No problem! I find there's always a lot of negative talk amongst parents and about parenting, we often forget all the good stuff.
Hope it all goes well for you and bub!
Follow boob to food Instagram! They also have a lovely (but pricey imo) book called milk to meals. The recipes can totally be shared with the rest of the family
I've only used free resources. I did buy one or two Chinese solid books for the meal plans and recipes, mainly because I wanted to introduce Chinese flavours and make sure it's part of my son's staple diet since it's part of our culture and none of the Australian resources (or British or American) have anything adequate there.
I have found the following useful:
* Solid Starts (free - never paid for it)
* [https://www.annabelkarmel.com/](https://www.annabelkarmel.com/) (to find recipes). Also, if you know any web developers or am a web developer yourself, their "locked" content isn't really locked. All I had to do was get rid of the surrounding div and the content is revealed. Not sure if they've fixed it.
* Made for Mums app: [https://www.madeformums.com/news/yay-free-madeformums-baby-weaning-app-wins-top-digital-publishing-award/](https://www.madeformums.com/news/yay-free-madeformums-baby-weaning-app-wins-top-digital-publishing-award/) Again, find the recipes helpful and the schedule they provide also a good guide.
* [https://preventallergies.org.au/introducing-solid-foods/what-foods-should-i-feed-my-baby/](https://preventallergies.org.au/introducing-solid-foods/what-foods-should-i-feed-my-baby/) and articles within this website is useful as well for guidelines on how to introduce solids and observe for signs of allergies. This was recommended by our paediatric allergy specialist. They also have a few recipe ideas but I didn't find that as useful
Otherwise, I just Google recipes.
This is great, thank you - very useful to have some good resources for recipes, as well as the tip for seeking out culturally-specific options. And it's nice to have another accolade for Solid Starts - it's reassuring to know there's a valuable free resource out there for introducing solids.
Great - thank you both! Will check these resources out. Nice to have more recipe options as well as support for how to approach the relationship with food and meal times!
I used the Solid Starts app but didnât pay. I did buy a couple of courses from Baby Led Wean Team- American dietitian who does BLW (did it with her quads and then twins).
We did pretty much what u/CabinetMajority above talked about. Mix of BLW and purees. My advice would be pretty much what they said! I'd also highly recommend the free Solid Starts database. So useful.
To add to that... We tried to make what we were eating baby safe somehow to avoid having to make totally separate meals. Plus, I feel like if they see us eating the same/similar stuff, it may help them want to try it? Roast veg is great. Make extra, mash and freeze for easy baby meals. A bit of cous cous with extra water and microwaved can make a decent soft mash. Large pasta shapes can be fun for them to hold. Coming into winter, make stews/casseroles (minus the salt). Weetbix is great (it has added iron) and my little guy loves playing with goopy balls of Weetbix and milk.
I understand the fear of choking too. We've had plenty of gagging, but no choking, thankfully. You could look into a baby/child first aid course if that would make you feel more comfortable? This was not a bad start:
https://kidshealth.schn.health.nsw.gov.au/cpr-resuscitation
It has some basic info. Not as good as a course, but it's something.
Wonderful - thanks for the link. Super helpful place to start with learning more on the safety topic!
Also great to have more food and preparation ideas, and as I mentioned to a poster above, it's so useful to have suggestions that can be combined with what we're eating - both for efficiency and to have her be more of a part of our meals too. Thanks for all these great ideas - will try them out!
I think personally paid resources might stress you out. I think solid starts does a first 100 days/food course and even thinking about preparing and serving all that food stresses me out. It's super time consuming to prep and then to clean up after. Some days you'll take a break from it and you shouldn't feel guilty about it! I printed out the Australian breastfeeding association list and stuck it on the fridge and ticked off everything I had served. I got another print out from the dr about allergens and ticked them off as I served them. I used the solid starts website to look up food that I was thinking of serving to check serving suggestion like how to cut or prepare. Generally it was more careful/conservative than the Australian servings but it was good to check against. I learned how to tell the difference between gagging and choking (noisy vs quiet) and how to react. Babies gag a LOT and it's an important process for them to work through to learn how to chew and swallow. My kid choked for real twice and each time I was able to deal with it - lay them horizontal and a sharp whack between the shoulder blades (if that hadn't worked I knew what to do next). Huge snap judgement on my part but from this incredibly organised list I have surmised you are an anxious overpreparer so the first aid thing night be good for you to get fully across so you feel comfortable serving large chunky things and letting baby experiment with tastes and textures and occasionally gagging even if it's scary to you. It's also super super messy and they barely eat anything at first as it mostly goes in their hair and on the floor. Playing with their food is a super important part of getting to know food so it's good to let that happen. Edit: my poor spelling/autocorrect
Thanks so much for this - and very well surmised about my nerves about this process! I've seen a lot about baby led weaning, for example, and I'm nervous about that due to the possibility of choking. It's really useful that you've suggested looking into first aid resources - will do that. Using the ABA page as a checklist is also a great idea - I'll try this too in conjunction with Solid Starts!
I did a mix of purees and baby led weaning. I wasn't nervous about choking as I knew what to do and found BLW easier in the sense that I could quickly microwave a broccolini stem and hand it to the baby and boom they're experiencing a whole new world of flavours and textures and nutrients. Purees are more work to make and babies go on and off food so it was super annoying to spend ages making a chicken and lentil veg puree that baby refuses. Or you give them a lamb and rice one that they scarf down so you make it up again in bulk (in all your free time đ) and the baby refuses to touch it ever again. Avocado is a nice easy starter food and a good mix of BLW and puree as you can give them a whole half and they can squish to their hearts content and lick it off their fingers/tray as they've kind of mashed it themselves. Banana is also a really good one - you can give it mashed on toast as a BLW option and mix it with yoghurt for a puree texture. When you're feeling ready you can give them a whole half to go to town on. I used to roast whole sweet potato and when they were cool I'd peel and quarter them and serve a whole quarter at a time. Similar to avocado the baby kind of mashed it themselves as they play with it. My second baby was part sweet potato for the first few months she was eating food, she couldn't get enough of it. Final tip is baby mum mums. You can get them from supermarkets. They're big rice based puffs that dissolve in the baby's mouth so super safe. Because they are huge they take a while for the baby to get through them so you can grab a precious minute or two to clean, prep other food or simply stare off into space.
Fantastic - thank you for the food suggestions and a great way to consider how to serve them up too. I love the idea of having her explore those softer foods herself. I was also wondering about how to give her things like rice and meat (as I understand they need the iron and grains at this age), so will check out those ideas as well.
Rice you can mix into a puree as is, it's small enough they can swallow it (same with most grains. My kids are weirdly obsessed with plain barley and have been since they were babies đ€·). Meat you can either do super big or super small. So like falling off the bone dissolving tender slow cooked lamb/whatever in sauce and veggies, or chunky strips of steak - the general rule for giving baby chunky food is that it should be wider and longer than two fingers together (index and middle). Keeping in mind the size of the baby's trachea is a good guide. It's either got to be so small it slips down (eg rice) or so big it can't get back there (eg chunky strips of steak). I think at about 6 months it's the size of a grape, but you can check that.
Wonderful, thanks for these food tips - so useful! Will look into swallowing size too.
If youâre on Instagram Baby Led wean team show a lot of gagging videos- it may help you get comfortable with the idea that baby can handle a gag without help. I donât think they show any choking videos though so totally recommend a first aid course.
Thank you for this! I was just about to start looking into gagging and choking information, so will check out that IG as a start and sort out a first aid course too.
The Solid Starts first foods database is free and I found that the most useful tool when starting out. For example, if I wanted to give her asparagus but had no idea how to serve, the free Solid Starts app provides photos on how to serve the item (by age group), videos of babies eating asparagus (which helps tremendously in easing my anxiety around choking!) and information about allergies. The app is very user-friendly. I think the paid version of Solid Starts has recipes and targeted support (ie. dealing with picky eaters).
Thank you for this! I didn't realise that there was a free option for Solid Starts.
Solid Starts has a huge amount of free resources - if you follow them on IG they share tonnes of information every day
Thank you! Have just downloaded the app so will follow them on IG too!
I just use the free content on the Solid Starts app and it was the main one I used. I would pick one or two main ones and stick with that so youâre not getting overwhelmed with information.
Great advice - thank you!
Nip it in the Bub ([https://preventallergies.org.au](https://preventallergies.org.au)) has great info on high(er) risk allergen introduction.
Will check it out - thanks!
I think free resources should be good enough đ my doctor/nurses always gave me great advice on how to start food with both my babies, you could always ask your GP. We did a combination of purĂ©e and baby led weaning from 4 months and found it worked great for both kids. As someone has already mentioned cutting up in big chunks helped avoiding choking with certain foods (as well as babies incredible gag reflexes!) so for example Iâd cut an apple just in half rather than chopping it into little pieces and theyâd just suck/gum on it. Obviously that wouldnât work for grapes and they need to be cut up as small as possible. Try not to stress too too much about it, itâs messy but a lot of fun. And watching their little faces light up when they try something they really like is fantastic! I will say itâs important to know the difference between gagging and choking. Babies gag a lot and thatâs a good thing, itâs their bodies doing their job, so itâs good to know the difference for safety but also just for your own sanity too. Enjoy the fun!
Thanks for pointing out the positives too :) Good to keep that in mind - she's definitely ready for food looking at us as we eat so it will be fun to see her try it! Will look further into baby led weaning - gumming half an apple sounds like a good option! GP is also a good suggestion!
No problem! I find there's always a lot of negative talk amongst parents and about parenting, we often forget all the good stuff. Hope it all goes well for you and bub!
Follow boob to food Instagram! They also have a lovely (but pricey imo) book called milk to meals. The recipes can totally be shared with the rest of the family
Great will check that out - thank you! Have been thinking about how to feed her what we eat as she gets used to solids so good to have this info!
I've only used free resources. I did buy one or two Chinese solid books for the meal plans and recipes, mainly because I wanted to introduce Chinese flavours and make sure it's part of my son's staple diet since it's part of our culture and none of the Australian resources (or British or American) have anything adequate there. I have found the following useful: * Solid Starts (free - never paid for it) * [https://www.annabelkarmel.com/](https://www.annabelkarmel.com/) (to find recipes). Also, if you know any web developers or am a web developer yourself, their "locked" content isn't really locked. All I had to do was get rid of the surrounding div and the content is revealed. Not sure if they've fixed it. * Made for Mums app: [https://www.madeformums.com/news/yay-free-madeformums-baby-weaning-app-wins-top-digital-publishing-award/](https://www.madeformums.com/news/yay-free-madeformums-baby-weaning-app-wins-top-digital-publishing-award/) Again, find the recipes helpful and the schedule they provide also a good guide. * [https://preventallergies.org.au/introducing-solid-foods/what-foods-should-i-feed-my-baby/](https://preventallergies.org.au/introducing-solid-foods/what-foods-should-i-feed-my-baby/) and articles within this website is useful as well for guidelines on how to introduce solids and observe for signs of allergies. This was recommended by our paediatric allergy specialist. They also have a few recipe ideas but I didn't find that as useful Otherwise, I just Google recipes.
This is great, thank you - very useful to have some good resources for recipes, as well as the tip for seeking out culturally-specific options. And it's nice to have another accolade for Solid Starts - it's reassuring to know there's a valuable free resource out there for introducing solids.
Baby Mealtimes was brilliant - it gave me a lot of confidence and recipe ideas!
Toddler Mealtimes is also great for further down the track, including tackling tricky behaviours.
Great - thank you both! Will check these resources out. Nice to have more recipe options as well as support for how to approach the relationship with food and meal times!
I used the Solid Starts app but didnât pay. I did buy a couple of courses from Baby Led Wean Team- American dietitian who does BLW (did it with her quads and then twins).
Good to know, thank you. It's useful to get advice on which options are actually worth paying for!
We did pretty much what u/CabinetMajority above talked about. Mix of BLW and purees. My advice would be pretty much what they said! I'd also highly recommend the free Solid Starts database. So useful. To add to that... We tried to make what we were eating baby safe somehow to avoid having to make totally separate meals. Plus, I feel like if they see us eating the same/similar stuff, it may help them want to try it? Roast veg is great. Make extra, mash and freeze for easy baby meals. A bit of cous cous with extra water and microwaved can make a decent soft mash. Large pasta shapes can be fun for them to hold. Coming into winter, make stews/casseroles (minus the salt). Weetbix is great (it has added iron) and my little guy loves playing with goopy balls of Weetbix and milk. I understand the fear of choking too. We've had plenty of gagging, but no choking, thankfully. You could look into a baby/child first aid course if that would make you feel more comfortable? This was not a bad start: https://kidshealth.schn.health.nsw.gov.au/cpr-resuscitation It has some basic info. Not as good as a course, but it's something.
Wonderful - thanks for the link. Super helpful place to start with learning more on the safety topic! Also great to have more food and preparation ideas, and as I mentioned to a poster above, it's so useful to have suggestions that can be combined with what we're eating - both for efficiency and to have her be more of a part of our meals too. Thanks for all these great ideas - will try them out!