Welcome to this month’s blog where we are looking at the (often messy!) subject of weaning. I want to focus on finding ways to keep your baby happy as you navigate this new adventure in parenthood, but mostly I want to write this so that you can enjoy a stress-free transition from milk feeding (bottle or breast), to eating meals with the whole family.
So, when do we start?
Gathering around the table to share a meal with friends and family can be one of the best joys in life! Passing around baskets of fresh bread, topping up glasses, dishing out pasta and sharing desserts is a great way of making memories, connecting and coming together.. But eating is something we need to do every day, not just on the fun days, and our attitude towards this life giving habit starts when we are just 6 months old.
At around six months, babies experience a change in the structure of their mouths; their jaws broaden, teeth start coming through (if they haven’t already), their tongues flatten, and the roof of their mouths ‘lifts’ enabling them to have room to form words. Their tummies also change as they start to sit up independently, and, mindfully, their curiosity about the world around them gets stronger. This can be a good time to start introducing them to solid food, and to start getting your kitchen mop ready for some very regular work!
The War Of Independence.
Along with a variety of nutrient rich foods, you are also handing your baby their first dose of independence, so watch those boundaries start to be tested! For the first time, Bubs can choose to refuse a meal, throw it up the wall, or pick out some bits and leave the rest. It is a time when they are learning what they like and what they don’t, and it’s a very important time for us as parents to remember to keep re-introducing foods to them, even if they didn’t like the taste the first time around. There are some days I don’t like the taste of cheese omlettes, but on other days it's the only thing I want to eat! Because they can’t tell you, you just have to play it by ear and keep trying. As you introduce foods, do it naturally but with encouragement. They’ll soon let you know either way what they think about it all, so you won’t be guessing for long, which leads us on to the next item on the menu…
Monkey sees, Monkey does.
Bubs will follow your lead with food as they look to you for guidance, and this is a key factor in keeping the weaning process as easy and stress free as possible. If you show your own personal preferences for foods in your facial manners, or your tone of voice, Bubs will pick that up and mimic. If you don’t like carrots and hand them batons of the vegetable with a slight hesitation, Bub’s will hesitate and look for reassurance and maybe not find it. Carrots will then become a war wielding spear, and you may never win it. As you introduce foods, do it naturally but with encouragement.
Evoke the senses.
Eating is so much more than taking food into our bodies. It’s a whole body experience involving each of our senses. Apart from the social aspect of sharing food together, Bubs experiences new textures, smells, shapes, sounds (crunch vs smooth for example).
The discoveries don’t end there; just think about the complexity of layering different tastes that they are experiencing, and they must be blown way by the vast layers of taste, texture, mouth and hand feel, as well as sounds, smells and colours! Of course they will pucker their lips with the tartness of some foods, and lick textures off their fingers with glee! It’s a joyful experience of so many things for them, and it’s our job to give them the space and time to process it all as they go through their expeditions in the new frontier of being human
Eating as a clan.
All of our eating patterns are different . According to my family, I have never been a fan of breakfast and it used to drive my Mum up the wall when I would go off to school on an empty stomach, but I just never felt hungry until later on.
Although children have their own natural flow, it’s vital that we stick to a plan, which allows us to only have to provide one meal at a time (you really don’t have to provide individual menus for each family member), and stick together as a family. Eating together regularly during the week has been shown to increase the whole family bond, but most interestingly of all it has been concluded that the bonds of the parents improve when eating together, and they enjoy the experience of greater mental health, over those parents who eat individually in a more fractured manner.
As Bubs grows up, it is well documented that if a family has eaten together on a regular basis throughout the child’s life, eating disorders in teenagers become much less evident. Food is normalised around the kitchen table, and the intake of homemade, whole food based nutrients help to regulate appetite, aid mental and emotional wellness through family cohesion, and kids are able to see what healthy eating looks like.
All this from one carrot stick battle… who knew!
They’ll sort it out in the end.
The point here is that your baby will have their own eating rhythm throughout the day. Many parents worry about this, but as Dr Carlos Gonzalez points out in his book “My Child Won’t Eat”, as well as Chris Van Tulleken in “Ultra-Processed People”, many studies show that when an array of nutrient dense food is put in front of children under five, they will all choose the right foods for the nutrients that they need. You know how annoying it is when they go through a banana phase for a couple of weeks, and then they don’t touch a single one and you have too many bananas in the house? Well, maybe, just maybe, they were low on potassium for a bit and they reached for the easiest source until their inner-stores were filled. As long as you are providing healthy, nutritious food each time you eat, they will be just fine. And also, that’s where I can come in!
How can your doula help?
Even with all the best Google searches in the world, it can be really hard to know where to start. Nothing beats having someone beside you as you work your way through the weaning phase, which is why I am delighted to be able to offer some support at this phase in the first year..
Whether it’s part of our regular weekly sessions together, or if you have chosen to book me for my four hour weaning service, I can help pack your fridge and freezer with nutrient dense goodies that you can snack on during the day, and eat together at meal times. All the food is family friendly, and I am able to guide you through the process of helping Bubs find their way in the daunting realm of solid foods!
Many Doulas have experience with how to help you through the weaning process, and it’s one of the big reasons why support through the first year after birth is so important. It’s exciting to see your child grow in their confidence, and it's such a gift to give them a love of food; both making it and eating it!
That’s not all…
Weaning is a huge topic, and we have not even scratched the surface here , so I am sure we will return to it in the near future. But as you start to get your head, and your kitchen, around the idea of the youngest member of your family being able to one day raid your pantry, I hope this has offered you a good starting block.
As always, you can find me on all the socials for daily tips, reminders, and much needed encouragement, and I look forward to sharing with you again next month as we head into the Winter Season.
Once your Doula, always your Doula,
With my love, Sam xx
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