One thing’s for sure – when you embark on the weaning journey with your baby, it’s going to be a messy one. But you can put a few things in place to minimise the fall-out. Some people find a dog works best (always hungry and capable of hoovering up discarded material at high speed) or a Tidy Tot Bib and tray kit, that stops food falling on the floor or in the bit between baby and the highchair. Setting the chaos aside, it’s important to encourage your child to try all sorts of different tastes at this critical stage of their development, and encouraging them to do this with gusto and vigour will all help to set up their taste buds for life. So why not make it fun by turning simple weaning foods into edible paints? It’s easy to do and will encourage your child to explore all of their senses whilst trying out new foods. To ensure the edible paints are entirely safe for your child’s consumption, why not make them yourself? All you need are a few pieces of fruit and some veggies. You can use anything you like but a vegetable that will cook down to a puree works best such as a carrot or sweet potato for orange paint, broccoli for green paint and strawberries for red paints. Wash and peel the vegetables (and husk the strawberries) and cut into small pieces.  Steam until cooked thoroughly and soft and then place in a blender to create a puree. Leave until cooled and then add some sterilised water to dilute to a paint-style consistency. Give them several pieces of sturdy paper, lay it out in front of them with their vegetable pallet and let their creative juices start to flow.  You never know, you might turn your child into a broccoli fan for life, and have a work of art into the bargain, too!