Weaning Diaries // Week 1 & 2

Florence enjoying some Broccoli Purée!

I spent a lot of time questioning whether Florence was ready to start weaning. She was showing all the typical “ready” signs such as;

• Her birth weight had doubled. 
• Curious about what Chris and I eat. 
• Sitting well when supported and enjoyed sitting in her Highchair. 
• Making chewing motions.
• Showed good hand-eye coordination.
• Brought everything to her mouth. 
• Started taking an extra bottle.
• Woke more during the night when she previously slept 8/9 hour stretches.

I’m sure that many of the “ready” signs are natural to their development, especially as she seemed to be experiencing the sleep regressing and a growth spurt, but it’s what all of the books and websites suggest so we decided to give weaning a try! 

Florence had her first mouthful of Baby Rice when she was 20 weeks, almost five months old. She initially showed interest in the Baby Rice so we tried the same again on the Tuesday lunch time. This time was different. She didn’t swallow much of the rice and kept pushing it out with her tongue. Although I understand that babies are born with the tongue-thrust reflex, meaning they’ll push anything that is placed on their tongue out of their mouth, I didn’t feel that Florence was ready so we stopped offering her the Rice with the intention to try again the following week.

The following Monday we offered Florence some Baby Rice again. This time she was different. This time she was more enthusiastic about eating and pushed the rice to the back of her mouth and swallowed it. We tried again the following lunch time and she showed the same enthusiasm. I was then confident and happy to try her on some homemade purées.

To start off with, we introduced Florence to a new vegetable every two days. We offered her a single vegetable purée as we wanted her to experience each flavour on its own before we start to combine flavours. It is also worth knowing what vegetables she enjoys eating and the ones that she is less enthusiastic about so that we can continue to try.

Here is Florence’s meal planner for her first week of weaning-

Week 1	Breakfast – 9.00am	Lunch – 1.00pm	Dinner – 4.00pm	Bedtime – 7.00pm
Monday	Bottle	Bottle Baby Rice	Bottle	Bottle
Tuesday	Bottle	Bottle Baby Rice	Bottle	Bottle
Wednesday	Bottle	Bottle Carrot Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Thursday	Bottle	Bottle Carrot Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Friday	Bottle	Bottle Parsnip Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Saturday	Bottle	Bottle Parsnip Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Sunday	Bottle	Bottle Sweet Potato Purée	Bottle	Bottle

At the start of the week Florence only had a few spoonfuls of purée, but by the end of week 1 she was easily eating a whole cube of purée and would have happily had more. Therefore, Chris and I were confident that Florence was taking to weaning and didn’t feel the need to offer her the same vegetable for two days anymore.

During week 2, Florence tried a new vegetable every day. Here is her meal planner for her second week of weaning -

Week 2	Breakfast – 9.00am	Lunch – 1.00pm	Dinner 4.00pm	Bedtime 7.00pm
Monday	Bottle	Bottle Sweet Potato Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Tuesday	Bottle	Bottle Swede Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Wednesday	Bottle	Bottle Pea Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Thursday	Bottle	Bottle Butternut Squash Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Friday	Bottle	Bottle Potato Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Saturday	Bottle	Bottle Broccoli Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Sunday	Bottle	Bottle Cauliflower Purée	Bottle	Bottle

This week we are going to combine different vegetables to make delicious purées. We are also going to start introducing Florence to fruit purées with her breakfast bottle.

Are there any vegetables that we have missed out?

What was your baby’s favorite?