Weaning

Salam!

I thought I will share a few tips about weaning inshAllah.

My eldest was weaned at 4 months, reason being she had quite severe indigestion which caused her to always vomit and be in a state of hunger. Having older siblings helped me a lot in deciding how to wean my children. My eldest sister already had 2 kids, who I adore but were a nightmare when it came to food. They would only eat puree up till almost the age of 3 and refused to eat any solids. I also knew people whose kids refused to eat anything that weren’t sweet. And by the time, I had my eldest, my sister’s kids who were about 6/8 were still very fussy eaters, and could not eat anything that was spicy.

I thought I didn’t want to deal with any of those issues. So, I devised a plan:

1.       I only fed them proper puree for a week, and the second week, I would give them food that was not properly mashed and still have bits in ( obviously not too big)

2.       They were not introduce to any sweet food for the first month

3.       By the second week, I also started mixing meat in their food

4.       Their very first meal consisted of carrot and coriander soup with a hint of pepper (spice).

5.       As the weeks go  by, the solids bits in their food grew bigger, until they were eating proper solid food ( obviously I used to overcook a lot of things, just to help them digest)

6.       They would only be served any sweet food as desert following their main meal.

7.       I did tone down the chilli and gradually increased it, but they would eat it the same food as me just in a more liquid form until they graduated onto the solid form.

8.       By the time my kids were about 8 months old, I would not spoon feed them, and would sit right next to them enjoying my meal with them, they would hold their spoons and eat by themselves and would not leave the highchair until they have actually eaten a certain amount. (Let me tell you it does get messy, but it gets better eventually, but what it does do is make your child independent, so you don’t have to keep spoon feeding them for the next few years.

All those worked fab for both my kids, although my 2^nd was weaned at almost 6 months. And within a year, my children were both eating the same type of food as me and on their own!