Saturday 26 March 2016

The moment we tried..... Weaning first tastes - plus HiPP Organic giveaway.

At 8 months old it has been a few months since we started weaning Jelly Bean, having started the journey into the world of food with him a little before the recommended 6 months following advice from our health visitor;.

The journey into the wonderful world of weaning and food has been a fun and memorable one.

Jelly Bean has taken to food brilliantly and embraces the wide range of foods that we introduce him to. We believe that it is very important that we introduce him to an expansive range of foods early in his weaning journey and provide a varied, healthy diet as it affects dietary intake when older. We also hope that by giving him a varied diet he will enjoy a world of varied foods from a young age and not be a fussy eater when older.

Whilst all children are different I believe introducing Bug to a varied diet and a wide range of foods at a young age when we weaned him about 4 and a half years ago is partly responsible for the fact that he is not a fussy eater, eats a varied and healthy diet, is an adventurous eater who happily tries new foods and has a experienced palate. We hope by introducing Jelly Bean to a similar weaning experience that he will follow his brother's love of all foods.

To give Jelly Bean a varied diet and taste of a range of foods we have been mindful not to just stick to foods we know he loves but also continue to offer new tastes and textures. Thankfully Jelly Bean is still more than happy to try new foods and has yet to reject any new tastes, but as I know there may come a time when he is wary of or declines new food I plan on offering such foods to him as many as 10 times as it can take that many times before little ones accept new foods. Hopefully a mixture of persevering with new foods and providing him with a varied and adventurous diet will mean he grows up with a love of all foods.

After he mastered purees and reached 6 months we started to mix using HiPP Organic jars and pouches with finger foods which is working very well for us. He loves feeding himself and I love seeing the glee in his eyes as he does so, but equally he also still loves devouring yummy purees and lumpy foods from the range of HiPP Organic jars and pouches. As well as giving him a broad range of textures from the beginning of Jelly Bean's weaning journey we have also made sure to provide him with both sweet and savoury foods equally.


As well as trying to make sure he loves savoury tastes as much as - if not more than – sweet foods, we are also mindful not to give him foods that are processed or have extra sugars included. Thankfully we are reassured that the HiPP Organic pouches and jars we fed him are as healthy as possible as the organic fruits & vegetables used in them are grown on dedicated organic farms, where they are left to ripen naturally and harvested at their plumpest & sweetest before being gently steam cooked to preserve the nutrients and flavours without the need for extra sugars or processing. They also carefully control the amount of sugar in all their baby foods especially as it is important that savoury foods do not contain hidden sugars from fruit.


During Jelly Bean's weaning journey he has tried lots of different foods and along with lots of fun mess (love that part of weaning) we have seen lots of different faces and reactions to new tastes.

So far I cannot say that he has a preference to sweet or savoury, being equally fond of both. However he does love certain foods more than others with his favourites so far being HiPP Organic Banana & Rice Pudding, HiPP Organic Cheesy Spinach & Potato Bake, Cucumber, Ham sandwiches, and Apples.

What I have found interesting to watch is see Jelly Bean try finger foods of tastes he has enjoyed as pureed food. He loves bananas in the HiPP Organic jars but his reaction when he tasted a slice of fresh banana was amusing.

The moment we tried.....fresh banana.

Likewise he found it weird the first time he tried fresh blueberries after having enjoyed the taste previously in HiPP Organic purees, but has warmed to eating them fresh with lots of other fresh fruit.

The moment we tried.....fresh blueberries.

A new flavour Jelly Bean has recently tried is HiPP Organic Cocoa & Vanilla Dessert, and whilst I think his face says it all about what he thought of it I can say he loves it and it has now become a firm favourite.

The moment we tried......HiPP Organic Cocoa & Vanilla Dessert.

Another new taste that has been a hit with Jelly Bean is the HiPP Organic Cherry, Apple and Banana Breakfast pouch with cherry being a new taste sensation for him.

The moment we tried.....HiPP Organic Cherry, Apple and Banana Breakfast.

What I love most about weaning, especially the stage we are at where he loves all foods and is enjoying feeding himself is the joy in his face at self feeding and the fun mess he makes when doing so.

The moment we tried......mashed potato.

The moment we tried....bolognese and pasta shapes 
- what a proud boy feeding himself!

Take a look at the video below to see a few of the moments he first tried new foods in action -


We are loving weaning Jelly Bean and look forward to the rest of his weaning journey with excitement.

WIN
Are you weaning or about to wean your little one? Why not enter the giveaway below for the chance to win a HiPP Organic Sweet & Savoury bundle to help your little one through their weaning journey.


For extra points we would love it if you shared with us a picture capturing the moment your little one tried a new flavour to celebrate HiPP's 'The moment we tried....' campaign celebrating little ones trying new foods. To get the bonus points share the picture on twitter, tagging myself @rootsandwings1 and HiPP Organic @HiPPorganic using the hashtag #themomentwetried

a Rafflecopter giveaway

13 comments:

  1. Eva has only had a few new tastes but seemed very impressed with prunes!! :)

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  2. at the moment its sweet potato

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  3. I really loved the weaning stage with my three kids such a fun messy adventure!

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  4. He certainly seems to be enjoying his food - such a lovely phase
    Of discovery isn't it :) the Hipp organic range were really great when I weaned my son and it sound like they do an even wider selection now

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  5. With my first I made all my own baby food from scratch (why do people say that? From scratch? All I did was steam fruit and veg and then puree it. Hardly Masterchef). With my second I just didn't have time so we reached for the jars. I was pleasantly surprised by the list of ingredients. I thought it was all chemical but they are actually really good! Makes me kick myself for spending so much time making my own!

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  6. Love weaning. Loads of mess but it's all worth it. We are baby led weaning at the moment too. Favourite food at the moment is melon, she demolishes it, followed closely by corn on the cob.

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  7. Weaning is fun! We did BLW with our baby so not sure what these are like, but they look good from your post and review.

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  8. I used to love weaning with the boys but Edie has been soooo hard and impossible to enjoy because she literally wants chips and chocolate - two things I'm reluctant for her to have but that she wants thanks to seeing her older brothers get them ha! H x

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  9. We haven't used purees this time but I do love the mushy faces! We didn't start until much later with Finn (7/8 months) as he just wasn't ready but all my boys love their food now

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  10. Ah I love all the firsts! It's great that he's taking so well to a wide variety of foods xx

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  11. What a cutie!! I loved the weaning stage despite its messiness! x

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  12. They have both loved butternut, we'll be weaning baby 3 in a few weeks, I'm sure butternut will go down a hit again.

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  13. Banana and strawberries mashed xx

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