Annabel Karmel helps WEAN your baby

The UK's authority on child nutrition Annabel Karmel speaks to us about weaning your little one. It can be a daunting experience for many parents but Annabel offers some advice which could make the process happier all round.

Food writer and Mum's favourite Annabel Karmel spoke to us recently about weaning your little one. It can be a daunting experience for many parents but here Annabel offers some advice which could make the process happier all round.

How important is the weaning process?

Really important because babies grow so rapidly during the first year of their life and their organs like their brain are developing. They need certain nutrients - they need essential fatty acids, it's very important for brain and visual development. If you're going to bring your baby up on jars of baby food it's really hard to find a jar which has salmon, which has essential fatty acids. You can really only get them if you cook yourself.

Is it time consuming to cook yourself?

To be honest it really doesn't take very long and what you do is you cook more than you need and you just freeze it in trays. So you could cook one day a week and have enough for your baby for the entire week.

Many Mums say they find the weaning process daunting. What advice would you offer?

It's very confusing. First of all, When do you start to wean? The new regulations are six months but you go to the supermarket and look at jars of baby food and it says suitable from four months. I think I agree that if you can wait until six months that's probably the best but some babies just aren't satisfied with milk alone and therefore you could introduce very simple purees like potato, carrot, sweet potato, pumpkin, butternut squash. Babies need calories to grow so good fats like cheese, avocado or meat are foods that babies should be having more of earlier on.

Do we need to be aware of food allergies?

If there's no history of allergy in your family I think the chances of your child developing a food allergy are quite small and if you think your child is allergic to a food you shouldn't just take that food out of your child's diet without getting proper medical advice because you may be doing them more harm than good.

When should we move from purees to more textured foods?

The muscles they use for chewing are the same muscles they use for their speech development and also if you continue to give very smooth purees for to long they get very lazy. I would start introducing texture from seven or eight months. One very good way is to take the child's favourite vegetable puree and put tiny pasta shapes in it.

When would you expect a toddler to sit and enjoy a family meal?

From 18 months to 2 years you could be all eating the same food. Choose food that's child friendly. It's got to look reasonably attractive.

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