How To Prepare Food For My 6 Month Old Baby

Being a first-time mom sometimes makes you feel overwhelming. You want to do it right and you fear making mistakes because you are raising a baby with life but there's no manual for all of this. In this article, I would like to share some tips on how I prepare my baby's food and read on for checking if your baby shows signs of readiness before you start weaning. I hope this will serve as a guide to prep you first-time moms out there. So, sit back and relax.

Most moms, they consider BLW or Baby Led Weaning as early as 6 months. Baby Led Weaning is an approach to the introduction of solid food. This means, veering away from spoonfeeding purees or mashed food and vegetables and babies could eat their food using their hands. In my case, I started a mix of BLW and feeding purees for my baby girl because she started as early as 4 months old. 

If you are thinking about when is the right time to start weaning your baby, observe for signs of readiness. 

Here are some developmental signs of readiness you can observe from your baby before you start weaning:

1. Baby has head control.

2. Baby could sit up straight

3. Baby is showing much interest in the food you eating and keeps on staring at it.

4. Baby reaches for toys and objects around and puts them in the mouth

5. Baby shows chewing movements with her mouth and salivates.

When my LO turned 4 months, she already showed the signs I mentioned above. At first, I was still hesitant to do exclusive baby-led weaning. 

How I prepare my baby's solid food when my daughter turned 4 months old:

To start with, I have 2 round, 170 ML canisters I use as containers and keep inside the fridge. 1 container is where I place a pureed fruit or veggie and the other container will store the finger foods like sliced carrots. How: Slice the carrot in half and then lengthwise (1 -inch in size)/bitesize apples/cucumbers/oranges/mangoes/squash etc. Make a wedged carrot soft enough and thinly sliced to make it easier for your baby to chew.

You may want to watch videos and do a quick research about first aid on baby gagging or choking. (But don't panic, be confident that your baby will be able to get it just ensure that you are carefully watching your LO while eating). Babies are bound to melt their food in their mouths using their saliva, so don't worry.

1. I boil fruits and veggies in a saucepan with water for 5 to 10 minutes. If the veggies and fruits are soft enough as it goes with the fork, that's the time I switch off the pan and I set aside for cooling--room temperature.

2. After cooling, I place the fruits/veggies inside the blender. I puree the fruit vegetable or fruit and store it in the canister in the fridge. You can store fruit/veggies for an average of 2-3 days. I'm using a rechargeable blender I bought from Shoppee just for P150 pesos! Here's a video showing how I got excited receiving the blender from Shoppee.

3. The other batch of fruit/veggies I just boiled will be finger food (1-inch in size cut thinly), which will be placed in the other canister. 

Since my LO was just 4 months at the time, I tried feeding her pureed carrots for the first time and she liked it. 

Also, at the time, I also mash the potatoes using a spoon and serve them as it is. Again for the carrots, I cut them into bite-size pieces. 

You may want to avoid feeding eggs for your baby to prevent allergic reactions, not before LO is 6 months old. 

The basic rule is no sugar and salt before LO turns 12 months. This will save your baby from developing gestational diabetes or kidney illness at a very young age. For the drinking water, it is preferred to use distilled water when preparing her formula milk (if LO is not breastfed, like in my case). 

I also give my LO oatmeal and bananas in the morning, every other day. She can't eat oatmeal without fruit in it, it should always be combined with something sweet. 

When LO turned 9 months, I offered her broccoli and cauliflower. I just steam the cauliflower/broccoli in a saucepan with water for 7 minutes and she loves it!

At 4 months, I give her solid food 2 times a day. When she turned 6 months, the feeding time of solid food increased from 2 to 3 times a day. Now that she's 12 months old, I also offer snacks in between, and most f the time, her snack includes Nutripuffs, Marie biscuit, or Baby Mum Mum biscuit or cornflakes cereals. My LO has a very huge appetite. 

At 10 months, I offered her pasta with tomatoes, and she consumed just everything.

Right now, she's eating almost about everything that we eat, except, it's still less, less, less, sugar and salt. 

I will share a video when I first introduced her to the BLW approach: https://youtu.be/wOpYjV5ZTI4

I hope you find this helpful, especially for first-time moms out there. Let me know your insights and comment below.