Annabel Karmel’s Top Tips: Weaning Made Simple

Leading baby & children’s cookery author and food expert Annabel Karmel shares her top weaning tips to help get you and your baby off to a flying foodie start!

1. Is my baby ready to wean?  

Every baby will develop at their own pace, but the World Health Organisation advise starting at ‘around six months.’ Knowing the signs to look out for will certainly help you to decide if your baby is ready to start weaning.  

Ask yourself these key questions: 

• Can they sit easily in a highchair and hold their head in a stable position?  
• Has their tongue-thrust reflex disappeared? Put simply, is your baby able to swallow food? Those that aren’t yet ready will push their food back out. 
• Have they developed sufficient hand-to-eye coordination? Your baby needs to be able to coordinate food and direct it into their mouth all by themselves. 
  

2. Milk is still very much on the menu! 

When you start to introduce solid food, it’s about introducing a variety of new tastes and textures rather than volume of foods that contribute nutrients and calories (not just yet anyway!) So, it’s important to remember that around 500-700ml of breast milk or formula milk will still be needed each day up until their first birthday. 

3. Baby-led weaning or spoon-fed? You don’t have to choose 

While lots of parents have success with spoon-led or baby-led weaning alone, many families like to combine the two. Giving purées when your baby is ready for first foods (particularly if slightly earlier than six months), with the introduction of finger foods and family meals from around six months is a fantastic option. This is also advocated by the likes of the Department of Health and Social Care. Instead of committing to a certain feeding method, it’s always best to remain flexible. If you follow your intuition and your baby's developmental signs you can’t go far wrong! 

4. First tastes 

Variety is key so offer your baby a wide variety of single first foods so that they can identify the foods they are eating. 

Remember that babies are born with a sweet tooth as they are exposed to breast or formula milk first, which contains naturally sweet tasting lactose. Still offer those sweet root veg such as carrot and butternut squash and fruit as first foods but you will also need to ensure you are offering the bitter tasting vegetables during those early days too. Think broccoli, courgette, spinach and cauliflower! 

5. Portion size guide 

Did you know a baby’s stomach is approximately 10 x smaller than an adult’s at three months and by one year, around 4 x smaller? So, don’t put too much pressure on yourself when introducing your baby to their first ever taste of solids as they will only have very small amounts at first. 

That may only be 2 – 3 teaspoons’ worth. In finger food terms, a small portion can be anything from 2 - 4 small batons of food. By the end of the first week, most babies will be eating 2 or 3 small portions a day. As a guide, your baby should generally be eating 3 small portions a day by the end of week two. 

However, all babies develop at different rates so follow your baby’s lead – some might take more, and some less but both situations are completely fine! 

6. Keep trying! 

Did you know that it can take up to 15 attempts for your baby to accept certain foods or tastes, so be sure to give them plenty of chances to try again! It’s likely that your baby will pull funny faces and refuse certain foods on their first attempt.  

Remember – those more bitter tasting veggies such as broccoli and spinach are a world apart from what they are familiar with, so it will take a little perseverance to get them accepting these flavours. 

If your baby is showing signs of disliking a particular food, that’s ok. Leave it there and try again the next day or the day after.  

7. Don’t delay in introducing critical nutrients 

If you are starting to wean at six months, it’s important to introduce foods containing critical nutrients, like protein, iron and omega 3 essential fatty acids fairly quickly. Offer fruit and veg for the first couple of weeks and then start introducing protein-rich foods like red meat, eggs and lentils and oily fish such as salmon. 

Iron-rich foods should be offered to your baby twice a day, or if your baby is vegetarian then at every mealtime (around three times a day). Did you know that vitamin C helps with iron absorption? So try to pair iron containing foods with a vitamin C rich food such as strawberries, mango, orange segments, red peppers, tomatoes, broccoli or leafy greens.  

It’s important that Omega 3 essential fatty acids from oily fish like salmon should be offered twice a week. 

8. Fantastic finger foods  

From six months you can introduce soft finger foods to your baby – these are great for encouraging their independence, introducing texture and practicing that hand to eye coordination. They will need to be able to close their hand around the food so it’s best to start with pieces that are big enough for your baby to hold in their fist with some sticking out. Fairly long pieces (roughly 5–6cm) stand a better chance of being picked up. Try avocado wedges, banana ‘lollipops’, mango slices, steamed carrot batons and broccoli florets for starters!

9. Progressing through textures 

It’s important to gradually introduce new textures from the very start of weaning as research shows that those who wait until their baby is over 10 months are more likely to develop an aversion to certain textured foods or become fussy in the future.  

Finger foods are obviously a great way to get baby trying new textures. You can also gradually change the texture of purees by blending these slightly less, and then once they have got used to this, try mashing whilst ensuring the food is still fairly chunk-free. This gradual increase in texture will encourage your baby to adopt a more lateral tongue movement, which is another key learning step in mastering the art of eating. You can then start to let them explore the likes of rice, couscous, bulgur wheat and mini baby pasta shapes. 

10. Introducing allergenic foods  

The Department of Health and Social Care recommend that potential allergenic foods such as eggs or peanuts can be introduced from six months of age. In fact, for those babies who don’t have parents or siblings with allergies, or who don’t have early-onset eczema, start introducing allergenic foods in the same way you would with any other food. Giving these foods can help to desensitise babies. It is really important not to delay offering allergenic foods beyond 12 months of age as research suggests this may increase the likelihood of developing an allergy in the future (there is a critical window in being able to accept potential allergenic foods between four months to 12 months). If you are worried about allergies see your doctor to arrange a referral to a paediatric allergy specialist doctor.  

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Packed with expert weaning support, including Annabel’s #1 listen-along guide, it’s a kitchen essential for happy, healthy mealtimes. Get your 1^st month FREE with code ONEFINEBABY!