Weaning Your Baby

Weaning can be a daunting task especially for a first time and busy mum. It may prove quite difficult for the baby to adapt to solid food because for the first four to six months of his life, he has been getting food continuously from one source — the breast.

There are a number of ways of introducing your baby to solid foods:

o Allow plenty of time for feeding. This is because the baby takes time learning to move the solid food from the front of his tongue to the back. Let the feeding time be when both you and your baby are relaxed.
o Do not force the baby to feed when he starts showing signs of being full.
o Offer a wide variety of food to determine the child’s food preferences.
o Mix the solid food with the child’s formula or breast milk as opposed to withdrawing the milk abruptly, o Avoid adding sugar, salt or honey to the baby’s food. Let the baby discover the true taste of each meal.

Below are recipes to get you started

Sweet potatoes have a sweetness that babies love. They are excellent sources of vitamin A, C, B6, Manganese, Potassium, Iron and Dietary Fibre.

Luscious and Creamy Sweet Potato
o I large red-skinned sweet potato (for a creamier texture)
o I piece of water melon
o 60ml yoghurt

Procedure
o Wash the potato and boil it until it feels soft.
o Peel and mash it with a fork on a dean empty bowl.
o Slice the melon and blend together with the sweet potato until they are a creamy mixture.
o Add the natural and unsweetened yoghurt and continue blending for 30 seconds.

Serve immediately while fresh.

Fruits are a good source of vitamins. They can help protect the baby against diseases especially after stoppage of breast milk. The recipe below is a combination of three fruits that work well with the young ones.

Fruity Cocktail – 2 servings
o 5 ripe bananas
o 5 small avocados
o I small pawpaw
o Milk/Cerelac for varying the thickness

Procedure
o Wash the fruits thoroughly and peel them
o Place them in dean separate bowls
o De-seed both the pawpaw and the avocado
o Slice the fruits into one large bowl and mix them using a fork or a blender.
o Sieve the thick fibre
o Add breast /formula milk to thin or cerelac to thicken.

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