Pureeing marathon!

I recently posted here about how I thought Pippa was potentially ready to start on solids.  I know the current DoH advice is to wait until 6 months before starting ("unless other wise advised by your doctor") and that was indeed my aim.  They say that baby's digestive systems aren't developed enough before 6 months to process many food types and this can make them susceptible to various allergies, sensitivities and digestion issues. However, on the flip side, by 6 months many of a baby's nutrients and especially iron stores have reduced significantly.  Formula milk is often fortified with iron and other vitamins etc. so these babies do get to replenish their stores earlier, however breast milk contains no iron, so anaemia is a big factor to watch out for when planning the step to weaning for a breast fed baby.  

  

A lot of people want to start weaning to hopefully help their babies to sleep better.  We are lucky that Pip has always slept really well so getting her onto solids for this reason was not an issue.  Whilst I have been really excited for her first tastes and to be able to see her trying new things, a part of me has also been dreading the day when I had to start....  

While Pippa is still exclusively breast feeding she is still my little baby and she is still wholly dependent on me. I know it's selfish but I can't help but feel like my little baby is making a massive leap forwards in independence once she is on solid foods. Thankfully she still needs to have significant amounts of milk each day until she's 1 so I can keep going for a while yet!  (But don't worry, I am not going to become one of those long-term breast feeders.  That's just odd.  There'll be no "Bitty" in our house.  Ugh! Each to their own though I suppose, don't want to offend anyone!)   

So.........Pippa has now had 3 days of eating baby rice mixed with milk at 11am!! Wahoo!!!

It is now time to introduce fruit and veg in so I am having a pureeing marathon day. 

Gone are the days of being able to take nothing with me for mealtimes except a muslin and myself!