Feeding a baby will take up the majority of your day, whether they are newborn or weaned!
Emily currently consumes three meals and three bottle a day. That makes for a whole lot of shopping, preparing, cooking, washing and sterilising. Plus you have all the pressure of trying to create a varied and healthy array of culinary delights for your little one.
There are two schools of thought on weaning, parent lead and baby lead. Parent lead means that you prepare meals and will spoon feed them to your little one. Baby led means you allow the baby to feed themselves and they decide how much they do or don't eat. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. I have opted for a nice combination of both. Some of Emily's meals are spoon fed to her and some I allow her to wade into fingers at the ready.
Baby lead is by far the messier of the two options, but it's great for the baby because they get to experience lots of different textures with their fingers. Apparently it can also make for less fussy eaters later in life. Although I don't know if this theory has been proved sufficiently. I love to watch Emily feeding herself, so try as much as possible to prepare meals where this is possible, crumpets, toast, fruit, cheese, baby rice cakes, pasta shapes, roast potatoes and chunks of meat (chicken, turkey, lamb etc...) and other such finger foods. However there are times when I am making something for myself that I know she will enjoy so I mash it all up and spoon feed it to her, potato with cheese and beans, Sweet potato with some cream cheese, wetabix or porridge with banana, noodles with cheese or veggies, mashed up carrots, parsnips and broccoli. And I am yet to find a baby that could eat yoghurt without the need for a spoon but if you know of any please send pictures or videos that would be hilarious!
I think you have to find your own way and your baby will let you know when they don't like something, normally by refusing to eat it or throwing it around the room! Best advice is try it, if you like it they might. Just avoid too much sugar and salt, as they are not baby friendly.
I am extremely lucky because there isn't much that Emily won't eat, she is definitely a big foodie like her daddy :)
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