New Mummy blog: Weaning my baby from soft to solid foods

Weaning is a mammoth milestone along the journey of baby’s first year, and is one that I was strangely reluctant to reach with Honor.

Perhaps it was the thought of the beginning of the end of her being totally reliant on me. Throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding, what I ate was inextricably linked with what she ate. Now, for the first time, this would not be the case – although at least I could still call the shots about what she was eating until she was old enough to start refusing her greens and asking for sweet treats.

Or so I thought. But once again, I was caught by surprise by our six-month-old knowing her own mind already. For although Honor had been a milk guzzler her whole short life, never one to turn down a feed and always asking for more, it turned out she wasn’t so fussed when it came to food.

We waited until she was a full six months old, and in theory good and ready to start solids – the health visitor had given us the go-ahead at 17 weeks. She was showing all the signs of being ready; mainly staring intently whenever she saw us eating, her eyes following the fork from plate to mouth and back again, whilst her own mouth gaped open like a little bird waiting for a worm.

But when the big day came, with much fanfare and the camcorder at the ready to catch the moment, she just looked at us like we were mad for trying to spoon baby rice into her mouth. Actually, I can’t blame her – that gloopy, bland stuff isn’t what I would choose either for my first mouthfuls of proper food.

We had a little more success with some of the old baby favourites – pureed sweet potato, mashed banana. But mostly, Honor could take it or leave it at meal times. So, armed with the Annabel Karmel baby food bible, we got to work to try and turn things around.

It turns out we needn’t have worried. She might have been a slow starter, but it wasn’t long before our little delicate flower was romping up the weight chart and chowing down on everything that came her way. Thanks to Annabel, it was mostly things like plaice with spinach and cheese, braised beef with sweet potato, and baby Bolognese: our baby was officially the best fed person in the house.

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Then came the worry that we might be feeding her too much. The health visitor reassured me that babies don’t overeat, being much better than adults at stopping when they’re full. But she’s never seen Honor with yoghurt.

There were other troubles too – like the time she wolfed down a bowl of scrambled eggs with cheese, only to come out in a rash all over her face five minutes later. Luckily we were following the rule of only introducing new foods at lunchtime, rather than in the evening, so if there is a reaction it doesn’t go unnoticed after bedtime. And even more luckily, it was a mild reaction that subsided as quickly as it came, with no intervention needed. I still panicked, of course.

Mishaps aside, we’ve now well and truly reached the milestone of solids, but I’m still naively trying to retain my grip on being the one who chooses what Honor eats. First there are her grandparents, who are in cahoots with her, I’m sure. For while I’m trying to keep chocolate a secret from her as long as possible, it seems it’s their prerogative to introduce it, along with crème brulee, lemon drizzle cake, and anything else with 1000-plus calories they can. And I have to play the mean old mummy card and ask them to stop.

And then there’s Honor herself, who is becoming increasingly strong willed in her demands of what she does want on her plate, and what she has no interest in eating whatsoever. And she can’t even speak yet. The former is greeted with a lot of leg kicking, head nodding, hand clapping and smiling, while the latter is met with a mouth clamped shut or, worse, if you do manage to get a spoonful past her, she will spray it back out all over you. Table manners are not yet her strong point – that will be a whole new challenge to tackle.