I’ve dedicated my career to really helping parents to find weaning less overwhelming and helping parents enjoy it even. It’s actually such a short period of time, and if you feel confident, it can be a really fun, explorational part of the journey of raising kiddies. Charlotte Stirling-Reed’s online weaning course

There are some foods that pose more of a risk of choking than others, but ultimately to do all you can to prevent choking, you want to: I learnt so much being a first-time Mum and our weaning journey couldn’t have gone better. We also used Charlotte’s weaning book alongside the course and completed the 30-day plan. Our little one will eat/try anything. All the Mums at my baby groups ask me how we did it because they have to add fruit/something sweet to every meal to get their little one to eat it. But our little one loves it all, it’s been so reassuring as a Mum. Our little one did have an adverse reaction to quinoa as part of the 30-day plan, but with the course and book allergen guidance we knew it was a delayed reaction and what the next steps were… This is the method I generally recommend and it’s referred to as 'Veg Led Weaning'. Veg Led Weaning simply means focusing on vegetables at the start of their weaning journey, and being sure to offer plenty of veggies (along with other foods) as your little one moves on to a more complex diet. Whole nuts – these are a choking risk and shouldn’t be offered to babies – offer nuts as nut butter or finely ground or chopped.

How To Feed Your Toddler

Always remember that all babies will progress through weaning at different paces. The most important thing is to have fun, take the pressure off and focus on offering a variety of foods to your baby throughout their weaning journey! I know all too well that weaning can be a really overwhelming time. It comes at a time when you feel like you’re getting to grips with parenting, new sleep routines and, of course, your new lifestyle with a baby, and then bam! Suddenly you must think about weaning your baby too and offering them totally new foods. You also want to offer soft foods, including finger foods that are manageable to baby at the start of weaning, and gradually move on through those textures to more complex and harder foods as your baby develops their eating skills. Watching, observing and being led by your baby is key. Try to look out for these occurring at the same time as each other and not just as a one-off. Generally, this is likely to happen at around 6 months of age. What foods should I start weaning with?

In this beautiful, full-colour book, expert nutritionist Charlotte Stirling-Reed reveals her renowned method that has helped thousands of parents wean their babies confidently. It does sound scary but can be very common, and your baby will do this less as they build up the skills needed to eat. It’s also important to know that gagging is very normal during weaning, too, some babies gag lots and others not so much, but gagging is very different from choking. When baby is gagging they will likely go a bit red, lean forwards and make a horrible noise as they try to remove the food. It’s hard not to react, but you want to leave baby to deal with this themselves, as gagging is there to help your baby remove foods they can’t quite deal with effectively. I’ve just developed my very first online weaning c ourse, which talks parents through everything they need to know about weaning their baby with visual tools and guidance and is complete with FAQs, regular live Q&A sessions, course booklets and multiple factsheets as well as a recipe book to take you step-by-step through recipes for every stage of weaning your baby.Every baby is totally different and there's no "perfect" timeline for progressing through weaning. By around nine months (and it may be a lot earlier than this too), most babies will be on three meals – but don’t worry if your baby isn’t quite there yet. Food refusal is a normal part of feeding kids and even during weaning, babies will likely have days when they want plenty and other days when they aren’t interested. So much will affect their appetites, including the weather, illness, teething, distractions, growth – you name it.

It's important to know that babies aren’t expected to simply gobble foods up at the start of the weaning journey. Add the asparagus and lemon wedges to the tray, then lay the salmon fillets (skin side up, don’t forget to remove the skin at the end of cooking for children and babies) over the veg, return to the oven for another 10 mins, until the salmon is almost cooked No, you can offer your baby a vegetarian or vegan diet, but you do have to be a little more careful to ensure that you’re balancing your baby’s meals, including plenty of iron-rich foods such as lentils, beans, pulses, nut butters and be aware that they may need additional supplements depending on what their diet looks like and the balance of foods you’re offering. For example, if babies aren’t eating fish, they may need an omega-3 supplement, and if babies aren’t having any dairy foods, then iodine may also be important to offer in fortified foods or as a supplement. It’s always a good idea to get advice on weaning a vegan baby.Sugar and Salt – whilst sugar and salt can be present in some of the foods we offer to babies, it's best to avoid adding them to their foods where possible. When it comes to choking, many parents get very nervous about this when weaning their babies. Choking is a real concern, and it’s totally understandable. Firstly, it’s important to know that as your baby develops skills around eating, self-feeding and using the muscles in their mouth to eat foods, they will be more efficient at eating, and this will reduce the risk of choking. Stokke is hosting a free weaning webinar – How to Wean Your Baby Mini Masterclass: A step by step guide to weaning with Charlotte Stirling-Reed, Nutritionist and Author, on Zoom, 28th April at 8pm. Register for FREE here. RELATED: The genius baby weaning sets celebrities swear by When should you introduce more meals to your baby? From your baby's perspective, there’s a lot going on when you start them on solid foods – new tastes, textures, smells as well as the behavioural and coordination aspects that come with learning how to eat. So allowing time and thinking of these first veggies as simply ‘tiny tastes’ can help.