Introducing solids: helpful tips
For many parents, it is a special milestone: your baby is big enough to begin with his or her first solids! The newborn set can be swapped for the baby seat with a tray, so your little one can join you at the table, sitting up. How fun is that! At the same time, it is also a milestone which can go hand in hand with questions and uncertainties. To help you on your way, How About Mom and paediatric dietician Stefan Kleintjes answer a number of frequently asked questions.
Should I feed pieces of food or puréed food?
When you introduce solids, you can choose for yourself whether to offer puréed fruit, vegetable snacks, or pieces of solid food, like a piece of soft pear or a small stick of broccoli. With the first option, you feed your baby with a spoon, with the second option, you teach your baby to eat on his or her own - also referred to as baby-led weaning. For this, you can apply the Rapley method or the Kleintjes method. The essence of both these methods is that from six months you offer solids in the form of large pieces of vegetables or fruit which they cannot suck on and which they can chew on. However, make sure that the food you offer is not too hard, so steam or boil it beforehand.
First vegetables and then fruit?
Maybe you read or heard somewhere: begin by offering vegetables, otherwise, later on, your child will only want the sweet tastes of fruit and not vegetables. According to paediatric dietician Stefan Kleintjes, who for 40 years has been helping parents to teach children from 0 to 4 years to eat on their own, you can let go of this idea: the main thing is that your child can start to practise eating solids. The best thing is if you offer the same food that you are eating yourself. Not necessarily in the same form, but with the same smell and colour, for instance. All those things mean that your child will become more interested and enjoy it because he or she is able to join in socially with the rest of the family.
The most important message: relax
During the first year, breastfeeding or bottle feeding is the main source of nutrients. Practising with vegetables and fruit is therefore an 'addition'. It is not a substitute. Until your baby is a year old, breast milk or formula provides the main source of nutrients and energy, and after that year breast milk can still provide more than half. So good to know: you do not need to worry whether your child is eating enough. As long as they can be breastfed or fed with formula on an unlimited basis, they will get enough nutrients and liquids.
Jess is a huge believer in creating a simple wardrobe that truly works for your lifestyle. To rediscover or find a new style after having a baby, Jess says the best place to start is by investing in staple pieces that are comfortable, easy and suitable for multiple outfits and occasions. She recommends “going for a neutral colour palette always helps when you’re time-deprived, and also means that everything can be easily styled together”. Jess also likes keeping new baby items in a neutral palette, and her chosen pram is no different – her Bugaboo Dragonfly is a classic in desert taupe which she describes as “an easy but beautiful neutral that goes with everything.”
