10 Things You Discover When Weaning

Weaning can open up a whole new world for your baby – new tastes, smells and textures. It can also be a weird and wonderful learning curve for you. Here are 10 things that you may not know before you wean your baby:

1. Banana stains clothes Black. One may have assumed the colour, if any, would be yellow, but no…Black. And does it come off? Never. 
2. Common sense may desert you. When faced with the prospect of pureeing a pallet of carrots during nap time, you may take leave of your senses and panic. Even pureeing the simplest veg can put many new parents into a flat spin – how long should it be steamed for? What size chunks should I cut it into? How many freezable pots will I need? How smooth should I blend it? And don’t even get me started  on “Vegetable Medleys”!
3. Annabel Karmel should be knighted. Or be given a sainthood. Or something. When point number 2 afflicts you, St Annabel OBE guides even the most novice cook through. Her books even tell you how to make a Carrot Puree – chop up some carrots, cook them, puree them. Genius! Just what my fuddled brain needed.
4. Pureeing takes time. Lots of it. Friends of mine spent each Friday evening doing huge batches of homemade puree, filling their kitchen table with pots filled with various shades of sludge. Social life, what social life? Sterilising pots, steaming, cleaning, chopping – set aside a block of time when you can puree in peace.
5. You get used to the gagging. Babies have this unnerving talent for choking. During the early stages of weaning, this can happen with startling regularity. The first times are terrifying, but soon become part of the process. As long as they don’t turn blue, and the choking stops quite quickly, try not to have a panic attack each meal time!
6. Babies are fussy customers. Having only had milk for several months, I thought my daughter would relish the new tastes becoming available to her during weaning. Alas, many of the foods I had spent hours preparing were not to her tastes at all. In fact many babies look like you are trying to poison them! Persevere though. Experts suggest that children need to try a new taste 30 times to accept it. That’s a whole lot of carrot!
7. Your freezer is never big enough. If you’re making batches of purees, they need to be divided into portion sizes and then frozen until needed. Our freezer audibly groaned each time our steamer was prepared as it meant another session of wrestling tiny plastic pots into its recesses. It will go in – it’s just like a jigsaw – each pot has to fit in in the right spot.
8. Your dining space will never be the same. From the huge highchair jostling for space, to the dried on puree that got flung across the room 3 days ago. Just accept it as an extra element to your interior design.
9. Weetabix turn into cement. If you don’t manage to remove this stuff before it hardens, you never will. Seriously, rock hard! Also, vegetables and fruits used to be used as fabric dyes for a reason. All bibs and clothes of weaning babies feature orange, red,  and black spots, never to be removed.
10. Photo Opportunities abound. From the first taste of proper food, to falling asleep in the highchair, to sweet face covered in yoghurt. Make sure to keep the camera handy – it’s a lovely stage in your baby growing up.

1. 

   Amanda G. says:

   September 15, 2009 at 12:11 am

   Weaning…
   It’s so fun and exciting before they can bite off chunks of teething biscuits and choke on them…seriously, my husband did the finger sweep and everything (IT HAPPENS SO FAST).
   My son in 9 months old now, so we’re really trying actual solid foods…little, teeny, tiny (see teething biscuit incident) pieces of fruit and bread…or pretty much anything we’re eating, and he is LOVING it.
   Now, if he could only master picking it up himself…
2. 

   280 Days says:

   September 15, 2009 at 1:16 pm

   The choking thing is scary isn’t it! No matter how small the chunks are that you give them, they still manage to scare us to death by gagging horribly.

   That’s really great your son is enjoying the new tastes your giving him. Before long he’ll be mastering a fork and knife and you’ll wonder where the time has gone!
3. 

   BeccaJane says:

   September 23, 2009 at 1:05 pm

   I just came across your blog, I love it! I love finding new blogs to read!!
4. 

   280 Days says:

   September 28, 2009 at 7:25 pm

   Thanks BeccaJane! I love finding new blogs too. Hope you continue to enjoy reading this one.