On weaning

Some Mums have been asking me to blog about weaning and how I go about it.

Well, to be honest, I learnt a lot from my friend Jennifer and that is what I do to date, with a few changes on the way. I also got a lot of advice from our paediatrician. So what I am sharing is not caste in stone.

When my babies turn 6months, I introduce Baby rice. Which I have faithfully bought at Kirinyaga mills located around globe. Kirinyaga Mills is an extension of Kenyatta National Hospital and they offer all ranges of floor for special persons. Whole and great!

When you get there, you need to indicate the age of your baby on a piece of paper and they offer you what you need accordingly. This days, I hear  you can get baby rice from super market as well.

So I start with baby rice, which I make into some porridge and feed the baby for the first two weeks, as a breakfast feed.

Most likely, the baby does not react at all, because baby rice is the safest flour as far as allergies are concerned.

After two weeks,  I introduce a fruit, most likely a pawpaw, which I tend to feed at 4pm, as an afternoon snack. The issue is, you need to introduce one food after another so that you can pick up allergies and reactions if any.  Issues of constipation are also good to note. I have had some people say papwpaw brings about constipation. You can try a banana as well and all the other fruits.

This trend goes on as long as I think my baby is feeding satisfactory.

When my baby turns 7 months and beyond.

My feeding is as follows

7:30 am – Porridge ( I get flour for 7 a month from Kirinyaga mills)

10:00am – Milk

12:00noon- Introduce some foods i.e., potato and butter nut mashed, matoke and butter nut, sweet potatoes, arrow roots, peas, some greens

4pm – A fruit

6:30pm – A small feed of some food, I also introduce cerelac, I like to have my kids learn how to feed on this and weetabix incase I get travelling.

I also introduce water once the baby starts feeding on solids. 

Quick tips

I tend to make a bigger hole on one of the bottle teats to assist in feeding the porridge. Honestly, I bite with my teeth, to make a good hole. I prefer this than having to feed the baby with a spoon, sometimes I have used this on ceralac too.

Avoid sieving the foods, unless you can blend, just mash with a fork, this will help your baby learn to eat solid foods faster. Further more, when you sieve, you leave all the good fibre on the sieve which can also lead to constipation. 

NB: BALANCED DIET! That's the bottom line!

Have a great Wednesday.