My Weaning Journey

With thanks to the team from Nuby

  Weaning is challenging! There is a plethora of information out there and every weaning experience is different – no one size fits all for getting your baby started on solids. We live in a world where highly processed foods, additives and artificial flavourings are becoming the norm, so what we feed our children needs to be centred around promoting their health and well-being, without compromising on flavour and taste. A broad and varied diet coupled with exposure to a range of flavours from the early years will encourage life-long enjoyment of real food. Food isn’t just fuel – it should be fun and thought of as a way of bringing families together!  Let’s be realistic, your little one isn’t going to like all the food you serve, it could be the flavour, texture, look, smell or they are just having an off day (like most adults do!).  As a team of mums, we thought we would share our weaning experiences with you.

Weaning experience 1

“My little boy always pulled the funniest faces whenever he tasted houmous. I think it must have been quite a strong flavour for him but he would still eat it, he loved licking it off his fingers but I could never tell if he was enjoying it or not!” –  Michelle Allen Marketing Manager – Nuby

Nuby’s top tip:

Concentrate on offering variety, wholesome and nourishing food that meets their nutritional requirements and allows them to explore different tastes and textures. Being consistent and persistent is key, some children need over 15 exposures to a food before even trying it- make it FUN! Let them investigate and play with their food. You can try using a silly name for food too. “Little trees” sounds far more exciting than “broccoli” or “magic sprinkles” instead of “chia seeds”. Changing how you describe food can work wonders.  Michelle adds,  “My little boy who is now 3 still calls broccoli little tree’s as that is what I used to say it was when he was weaning!”

Weaning experience 2

“I did spend a while preparing roasted peppers & courgette and he wouldn’t try them at all, just ejected them from his mouth in an instant – not sure if it was the texture or flavour but I tried multiple times and he wasn’t a fan at all. Typically the food I took the most time preparing ended up being a big no from Theo! “

Nuby’s top tip:

Whether you take a traditional purée approach or skip the purées and dive straight into soft finger food to promote self- feeding, baby and toddler food shouldn’t be bland. Experimenting with aromatic spices can help expand their palettes and cultivate adventurous eaters. Introducing bold flavours early on is important, receptiveness to new tastes narrows as children get older – so go big with flavour. Roasting vegetables with simple spices and adding them to pasta or curries can make a huge difference. You may even find they enjoy food they wouldn’t usually eat!  

Go bananas

There is no top tip for this – its the one thing we all wish we knew before we started weaning! “He couldn’t get enough of banana, although they were the easiest food to give to him they always seemed to cause the most mess! I would find mashed banana stuck to his clothes, the highchair and his bib and they always turned brown super fast once mashed up too.”   Whichever approach you take, the Nuby dippy self-feeding spoons are a fab tool to get your little ones on the path to independent feeding as they are dual-ended. One end has a textured dipper to make practising self-feeding easier and the other a spoon for a little help from parents.   Nuby strives to make family life easier and more enjoyable by creating quality products that are accessible. With a wide range of weaning products, from prep and storage, to tableware and cutlery, Nuby is a brand that can be trusted for weaning hungry little mouths.  Nuby offer weaning products through retailers nationwide and on their website Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/nubyuk/ Twitter – @NubyUK   Disclaimer: The views and advice given in this article are those of the guest writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Weaning Week or any other organisations represented on this platform You can read more top tips for weaning here.