I’ll start by saying that i’m no expert! I’m a first time mum to our boy, Evander and we’re now a month into our weaning journey. Having spent many a night feed googling hints and tips for weaning, my mum suggested I start a blog on what worked and what didn’t incase it’s useful to anyone…or the very least share some photos of the funny facial expressions as he tries something new!

I felt I didnt get too much information on weaning from health care providers. Our last health visitor appointment was when he was 3 or 4 months old and I was told that the next time they’d be out to see us was at 8 months and we’ll have hopefully be well into solids at that point. I was given a booklet with a web address written on it but didnt feel like it had all the information i wanted and very few recipes so I went hunting online.

I was keen to do a mix of baby led and purees. I like the idea of baby led and see the benefits but thought having some purees and ready made meals and snacks would be easier some evenings and especially when we’re out and about. I also knew that Evander wouldn’t actually be eating much with baby led at the start so wanted a mix of plenty of exposure to different tastes along with different textures and of course the practice of bringing food to his mouth.

For his first tastes I was keen to stick to more bitter vegetables. I read that breastmilk and formula milk is both quite sweet so it’s good to introduce bitter tastes early on so they don’t think that everything is sweet and reject anything that’s not.

First meal

Evander turned 6 months a week before Christmas but I decided that, as we’d be spending Christmas day with both our parents, they might like to be there for his first ‘meal’.
I steamed some brocolli and blended with some expressed breastmilk (i read that this can be a good way if making food more familiar for baby’s first few meals). It also made the texture a bit more smooth.
I think my in-laws thought I was being a bit cruel offering brocolli as his first ever taste of food, especially when the rest of us were tucking into Christmas dinner, but as a veggie lover, I was keen for him to get exposure to plenty of veggies from the get go!

With the mix of puree and baby led in mind, i’ve been trying to offer bigger pieces of whatever he is having pureed. So I also kept aside a few bigger stems of brocolli that he could gum/play around with.

The verdict? Lots of comical faces and lots of mess but he did have an reasonable amount for his first ever experience of food!