Weaning Core Concepts
Weaning your baby is possibly one of the most contentious and conflicted areas of parenting and one that you are likely to hear a huge amount of conflicting information about.
Let’s look at 5 core concepts that will help you make sense of weaning:
- Babies wean at different ages according to when they are ready and need solids. Do not offer your baby solids before 4 months of age but do try to have started the process by 6 months of age. Watch her cue’s for readiness – interest in what you are eating, holding her head up well and not being satisfied with milk alone.
- While you wean, continue to breastfeed and make sure that your baby’s milk feeds remain the priority until 6 months of age. If her appetite wanes as she starts solids, offer a milk feed ahead of solid meals so that she is hungry for the milk.
- Start with vegetables and within a week of starting veggies, you can add in a teaspoon of healthy fats, like mashed avo or olive oil. The mix of complex carbs and fats more closely resembles breastmilk than pure carbs like rice cereal.
- Aim to feed your baby home cooked food, which is more textured and wholesome than jarred baby food and avoid any processed carbohydrates (processed cereal) and fruit juice.
- You control when your baby eats, where she eats and what she eats. Let her control how much – little one’s tummies are very small, and she is likely to not eat huge amounts and some meals she may eat less than others. Do not get into a battle, trying to ‘make’ her eat more.
Your weaning journey need not be fraught. Follow sensible science (read Weaning Sense, Quivertree) and listen to your gut feel.
Megan Faure (OTR) www.megfaure.com
Meg is an Occupational Therapist with a special interest in babies and toddlers - specifically irritable infants; sleep problems, emotional engagement difficulties and fussy feeding. Meg is the co-author of Baby Sense and the Sense-series books. Her clinical practise is in Cape Town and she consults and speaks internationally too.
