I have been spending a lot of time counting down to milestones- when the baby reaches full term at 37 weeks (today!) for example and how many days left till my predicted due date. Like I’ve mentioned previously, I want to maintain the lifestyle aspect of my blog from fashion to the family, so this is something I’m really trying to focus on doing. I still want those without children to come to my site to read a post about what Cadbury is bringing out this year for Christmas as well as something like this- Weaning Tips with My Little Piccolo and Waitrose. I hope that my new readers as well as long time supporters can sort of co-exist together in one harmonious bubble of awesomeness. Read on to find out what happened when a bunch of mums (and my pregnant self) took over the Kings Cross Waitrose to explore the shelves…
The amazing brand behind the morning trip is My Little Piccolo. They are an organic baby food brand who have been organising trails up and down the country over the past few months to spread the word about best weaning tips. Together with Alice Fotheringham, an infant nutrition specialist and nutritional chef, they have reached out to all sorts of mums and had a big impact on the groups from the tours. I’m here to share a few things I learned myself which I’d love to pass on to any mums going through weaning, or just as food for thought for the future!
Frozen fruit is not cheating
Alice lead us through Waitrose aisle by aisle where we all had different types of questions. One popular question being about fruit and veg and how to incorporate this into a weaning baby’s diet. Frozen fruit is the perfect way to create a lovely dessert for baby and the family. Seasonal fruits such as strawberries can be bought frozen and blended up or cooked to make a compote, smoothie or crumble base. Stewed apples from frozen can settle a sickly tummy too. It’s absolutely fine to feed fruit from frozen to hungry little ones so don’t feel like you have to buy it all fresh.
Don’t be afraid of strong flavours
This is a really great tip I discovered on the tour. Alice explained to us that you shouldn’t be afraid of introducing stronger flavours such as mature cheddar (suitable from one year) or mustard in mashed potato for example. These strong tastes will help your baby to get used to trying out lots of variety, and apparently many weaning babies are fond of tinned mackerel or sardines too! Using different herbs and spices is also a better way of flavouring food instead of reaching for the salt when preparing meals for your baby.
There’s more to dips than just ketchup
A lot of us will open our fridge doors and be greeted with your standard bottle of ketchup, mayo and potentially a BBQ sauce. On our way round the shelves, we discovered that low and behold- there’s more to dips than just these three! Yogurt dips, pesto, and pea hummus are all perfect alternatives to the red sauce, here’s why:
- It gets baby used to many different flavours
- It reduces the sugar intake immediately on the plate (especially if dessert is on the menu too)
- Colour variation in dips and sauces will help teach your child that green isn’t always related to yucky veggies!
Breakfast can be deceiving
So I’m a really big cereal eater. My go to tends to be the Nestle gluten free honey nut cornflakes day to day in the mornings. For babies and toddlers however, cereal is a sure way of starting the day off with too much sugar. It was also interesting to hear that Weetabix (compared to Waitrose own brand) contains three times the amount of sugar- that’s a big difference. We were advised to simply rule out 3/4 of cereals altogether when weaning and focus on porridge.
A huge thank you has to go out to Alice, the My Little Piccolo team and Waitrose for such a great day, I can’t wait to put it into practice in the New Year!
Meanwhile for mums already on the weaning journey, the My Little Piccolo website has a wealth of exciting recipes to try at home and has info on where you can purchase the products seen above.
Saharasplash x
