How to Prepare for Weaning: A Guide
Weaning doesn’t have to be a daunting or confusing time for the parents and baby; it can be a great new shared experience and make feeding your baby even more exciting when you can explore new food flavours and find out what your growing child really enjoys.
Why is Weaning Important?
Weaning is a lot more than simply ensuring nutrition for your baby. While weaning’s primary focus is to take your baby away from breastmilk dependency and be introduced to solid foods, there are also a host of other reasons why weaning is so important for your growing child.
These include:
- Social skills. Eating and mealtimes are traditionally a very social experience. Your baby can’t be involved in such a social interaction when breastfeeding. Instead, weaning and eating solid foods allows your baby to sit at a table and eat with others. This can also assist your baby with watching others eat and seeing how they interact with food.
- Encouraging movement of your baby’s mouth. Eating solid food and sitting with a plate and utensils can help your baby practice jaw, tongue, and lip movements, as well as experimenting more with mouth interaction, like putting food into their mouth. This can help with their development.
- Opportunity for loved ones to be more involved. The benefits of weaning can also extend to others. Your family and friends can be more involved with mealtimes and sit with the baby while eating, making it a shared experience. If your baby has brothers and sisters, or even a family dog, this can be an opportunity for everyone to spend more time together and for your baby to get used to others during mealtimes.
How to Best Prepare for Weaning Your Baby
Here are just a few ways you can be organized when it comes to weaning:
Buy Anything That Will Make the Process Easier
Having the right equipment is going to make weaning a lot easier (and a lot less messy). You should think about:
- A dependable high chair
- All utensils, like spoons, bowls, and jars
- A secure weaning tray
- Ready-made baby food
Have Your Baby Sit With You at Mealtimes
Even if you haven’t started weaning yet, it’s a good idea to allow your baby to watch others eat in detail ahead of time. This will help your baby to develop more of an interest in food, rather than trying to wean them when they haven’t watched anybody else eat before.
Invest in a Food Processor
It isn’t a requirement, but it might make everything a lot easier for you. A food processor will allow you to easily mash and combine different fruits and vegetables to make food for your baby. This can save time and effort on manual preparation and mashing.
Plan the First Day and Time
Your first weaning experience shouldn’t be spontaneous; to prepare both you and your baby, it’s a good idea to know in advance when your last proper breastfeed will be before you begin on solid foods, and find a time of the day when your baby is most relaxed to try for the first time.
Preparation will always be key in weaning, but it’s also a good idea to go with the flow and be open to trying new things, and changing those that don’t work.