Weaning Diaries // Week 6

Top 100 Baby Purées - Amazon - £6.50

“Will the baby be Vegetarian like you, or will she eat meat?”

I can’t count on both hands how many times I was asked this question while I was pregnant, and when Florence was born thinking about it. It was a question that was up there with “will you be bottle feeding or breast feeding.” The answer is no. Chris and I will be feeding Florence meat, fish, and dairy products. Neither of us are from vegetarian families. It is only my Father and I who have chose to be vegetarians, and neither of us were born vegetarians, it was a decision that we made later on in life.

I am not one of those vegetarians who is scared of meat, or won’t have anything to do with it. I handle meat, I cook it for other people, and I am okay with that. I didn’t turn Vegetarian until I was around 11 years old. I decided to stop eating meat for ethical reasons, ones that were not encouraged by other people. Everyone supported my decision and helped me to transition.

Deciding whether or not to be a Vegetarian is a lifestyle, and one that should be respected. Just like people who choose to eat meat should be respected for their choice. If Florence decides she wants to lead a Vegetarian lifestyle then Chris and I will support her choice, regardless of her age. Food is such an important part of life and I believe that Florence should make her own choices. 

I only buy organic, free range animal product that have been responsibly sourced. 

Here is Florence’s food diary for week 6 - 

Week 6	Breakfast – 9.00am	Lunch – 1.00pm	Dinner – 4.00pm	Bedtime – 7.00pm
Monday	Bottle Ready Brek with Raspberry Purée	Bottle Vegetables with Cheese Sauce	Bottle	Bottle
Tuesday	Bottle Blackberry Purée on Toast	Bottle Potato, Broccoli, and Tomato Purée Banana Rice Cake	Bottle	Bottle
Wednesday	Bottle Yoghurt with Apricot and Peach Purée	Bottle Easy One-Pot Chicken	Bottle	Bottle
Thursday	Bottle Weetabix with Strawberry Purée	Bottle Parsnip, Carrot, and Courgette Purée Apple Rice Cake	Bottle	Bottle
Friday	Bottle Ready Brek with Blueberry and Banana  Purée	Bottle Fillet of Fish with Cheese Sauce and Vegetables	Bottle	Bottle
Saturday	Bottle Yoghurt with Blueberry  Purée	Bottle Ella’s Kitchen Cauliflower Cheese	Bottle	Bottle
Sunday	Weetabix with Cow & Gate Apple, Strawberry and Banana Pouch	Bottle Ella’s Kitchen Macaroni Cheese	Bottle	Bottle

  The recipes for Florence's lunches on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday were from a couple of Annabel Karmel books. I think I have six of her books now and I love them all. Sometimes I struggle with food ideas but her books are very inspiring! If you don't have any of her books to hand she has posted a few recipes online that are equally as great.

This week was also a first for cheese too. Florence really enjoyed Monday's Vegetables with Cheese Sauce and couldn't get enough of it! The recipes calls for a couple of vegetables that Florence usually turns her nose up to so I do admit that the cheese sauce is a good mask.

The Easy One-Pot Chicken smelt amazing when I was cooking it, and my Mother and Chris both loved the taste. Florence, on the other hand, wasn't so sure. She tried it but did spit a lot back out. I am hoping it's because chicken has a different texture and is more stringy to what she is used to. I will definitely keep trying her with chicken, perhaps introducing some different flavours with it. Apparently I can take up to 10 times of trying a new flavour before a child will accept it, so I'll try not to feel too defeated that she didn't enjoy it the first time around.

I was worried that she wouldn't like the Cod meal either as the smell was very strong and lingered in the kitchen for days after I made it! But actually, Florence really really enjoyed it and would have certainly ate more if there was extra in her bowl. 

On Thursday and Friday I done what I said I would never do and gave Florence shop bought pouches. This was because we were going away for the week and the drive was very long meaning that all of her batch cooked food would have defrosted by the time we arrived. I'll come onto the pouches in Week 7...

Oh, and on an ending note we have changed Florence's water cup now. As some of you may know from previous posts we were having a little trouble getting Florence to drink any water. We tried it in her normal Dr Brown's bottle, a Doidy cup, and the Miracle 360 Trainer Cup but none of them were doing the trick! I done a little research and the cheap and cheerful Tommee Tippee First Cup was highly recommended . It's a free flow cup and the handles make it really easy for Florence to drink from, and for £1.50 from Waitrose you can't go wrong!

Florence's Six Month Update

Weight

I went to our Children’s Health Clinic this morning and Florence now weighs a whopping 15lb 6oz!

Daily Routine

Florence’s naps are definitely getting shorter. She used to nap for 1/1.5 hours three times a day, and now I’m lucky if she naps for 30 minutes at a time. This means another shift to our daily routine so I can make sure she has a nap just before her baby class so she isn’t over tired. She is also waking up much earlier in the morning, the earliest being 5am which was very painful!

6.30am – Wakes up and comes into bed with us.
8.30am – Morning bottle
8.45am – 9.30am – Playtime
9.30am - Breakfast
10.00 -  10.45am – Morning nap
10.45am – Get dressed
11.00am – Leave for Baby Class
11.30am – 12.30pm – Baby Class
12.30pm – Lunch Bottle
1.00pm – Lunch Purée
1.00pm – 2.00pm - Playtime
2.00.pm – 2.30pm – Afternoon Nap
2.30pm – 4.00pm – Playtime
4.00pm – Afternoon bottle
4.00pm - 5.00pm – Playtime
5.00pm – 5.30pm – Last Nap
6.30pm – Bath
6.45pm – Night time bottle
7.00pm – Bed

Eating

Florence still has 6 x 5oz bottles over a 24 hour period.

She now has breakfast after her morning bottle, along with lunch after her midday bottle. We are still offering her water but she just doesn’t seem interested. We have tried her with a Doidy Cup and now the Miracle 360 Trainer Cup which I think is a little big for her. If anyone has some tips and advice on how to encourage a better water intake then please leave a comment!

Clothes

Florence is still wearing mostly 0-3 clothes. She is starting to wear more 3-6 “clothes.”  I can’t believe that she is six months old and wearing such dinky clothes. She definitely takes after me on the size front, I still wear children’s clothes and I’m almost 22!

Florence wears Size 3 nappies.

Development

Rolling – For a couple of months Florence has been trying her hardest to roll from her back onto her front. She finally started to be able to do so earlier this week and hasn’t stopped since! She rolls in her sleep, when you’re changing her nappy, when you’re getting her dressed, you name it. She is such a little pickle!

Weaning Diaries // Week 5

Florence has eaten so much this week, and she is really enjoying her breakfast now. I found that the single fruit purées were really difficult to feed her because they were very watery, and most of it would just drip out of her mouth because she couldn’t push it back. Since mixing the purées with yoghurt, Ready Brek, and Weetabix she is able to enjoy more fruit flavours, I’ve never seen her eat so much! 

If you follow me in Instagram you would have seen that Florence tried her first piece of finger food this week! On Wednesday morning we gave her a slice of buttered toast. I wasn’t sure whether she would take to it but she really surprised us and done so well with it. She is yet to cut a tooth so she mostly just sucked on the toast, but she did try to chew and was able to swallow parts too. A lot of it ended up on the floor but that’s absolutely fine, it was her first experience and our Dog loved it!

She’s also doing well with her Munchkin Mesh Feeder. If she doesn’t have fruit with her breakfast then we always try to offer her some fruit in her feeder at lunch time. 

Here is Florence’s food diary for week 5 -  

Week 5	Breakfast – 9.00am	Lunch – 1.00pm	Dinner – 4.00pm	Bedtime – 7.00pm
Monday	Bottle Ready Brek	Bottle Potato, Courgette, and Pea Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Tuesday	Bottle Yoghurt with Strawberry Purée	Bottle Potato, Carrot, and Parsnip Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Wednesday	Bottle Toast with unsalted butter	Bottle Tomato and Carrot Purée Strawberries in Mesh Feeder	Bottle	Bottle
Thursday	Bottle Weetabix with Banana Purée	Bottle Swede, Carrot, and Pea Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Friday	Bottle Ready Brek	Bottle Butternut Squash and Tomato  Purée Clementine in Mesh Feeder	Bottle	Bottle
Saturday	Bottle Yoghurt with Blueberry  Purée	Bottle Carrot and Cauliflower  Purée	Bottle	Bottle
Sunday	Bottle Weetabix Apricot in Mesh Feeder	Bottle Sweet Potato and Pea  Purée	Bottle	Bottle

We are going to start to introduce Florence to cheese, chicken, and fish next week!