Short Gut baby weaning: a second attempt

From the minute weaning was mentioned months ago I was keen to get going. Turns out it wasn’t as straight forward as dishing up some purée… You can read our first attempt at weaning here.

The first food Clara ever tried was an Ella’s Kitchen purée pouch – organic carrot, broccoli, and sweet potato. Clara LOVED it and ate 10 baby spoons of it in the first sitting. She ate the same again next day. Her inputs were GREAT! Her outputs… well they sort of stopped. She’d eaten so much she wouldn’t take much milk. Any sense of reason left my mind and I was insistent I’d get some milk down her. Oops – she threw up. Sorry Clara!

Clara throwing up always haunts me, a reminder of those December days when I’d only sleep 90 minutes a night in fear she’d throw up again and I’d miss it. For that reason, I got scared of trying to wean Clara. We ground to a halt.

I gave it a week, and then we tried again. This time I started with just good old fashioned mash banana. A chunk of banana mashed in a bowl with a fork like the good old days. It worked a treat! She loved it! And no repercussions!

After another week I introduced Cow &Gate baby porridge to start our morning routine. I mix two heaped tablespoons of baby porridge with three table spoons of cooled boiled water. Clara wasn’t too impressed with it on its own, but she’d eat it. So I swirled in her banana and wha-la! Banana and porridge all eaten! She now eats 3″ of banana with her porridge for breakfast every day.

We’ve been experimenting more with lunch and dinners, introducing vegetables first so Clara doesn’t develop her mummy’s sweet tooth!

So far Clara has tried:

• Carrot
• Broccoli
• Red Pepper
• Watermelon
• Cucumber
• Carrot & Parsnip puffs
• Banana
• Strawberries
• Peas
• Sweet potatoes
• Avocado
• A jar of Apple & Mango purée (she’s not a fan!)
• A jar of Blueberry and Apple purée (she says it’s alright!)
• And a little bite of toast!

At first I wasn’t sure how much she should be having. Particularly because at first Clara would take less milk once she’d eaten solids. It makes sense, her tummy is full, but I still worried she wasn’t drinking enough as that’s all we used to measure her on. Now, likely because she’s grown and adjusted, she’s taking more milk than ever along with her solids. I listen to Clara, offer her milk, then solids – she has a preference at different times and she’ll be sure to let me know.

I think the best advice I was ever given was to follow Clara’s lead. If she doesn’t want it, don’t push it, stop. Just try again later. It can take up to ten tries of the same food for babies to get used to a new flavour or texture.

The second best piece of advice was to not try and tidy up as we go. Let eating be fun, not clean. If she spits it out, dribbles, or sticks her hand in it, let it go. Just carry on.

After all, learning to love food young will set her up for life.