How to Wean Your Baby: The step-by-step plan to help your baby love their broccoli as much as their cake

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Charlotte Stirling-Reed shared her expert weaning tips How should you introduce allergens when weaning? Iron-rich foods such as lentils, beans, pulses, tofu and meat, fish and eggs are important to start including soon after the first tastes of veggies. This is because babies need plenty of iron in their diets and this needs to come from the foods they are eating. Are there any foods you should avoid when weaning your baby? Unpasteurised dairy and certain cheeses – These are fine to offer as long as they’re thoroughly cooked. If they’re not cooked, unpasteurised cheeses, as well as mould-ripened soft cheeses (e.g. brie or camembert) and soft blue-veined cheese (e.g roquefort) can contain a bacteria called listeria. I would call it a family feeding Bible because I think it's so much more than just recipes. The recipes are so important and I love them and I'm using them a lot but my book has facts and nutrition and practical support in there as well. So it's not just recipes, it's really rounded.

I think it has almost followed my own stages in life. I was sort of in between weaning Raffy and Ada when the first book came out, so I'd done it myself and kind of got that competence and was going into it a second time. And then with How to Feed Your Toddler, I think Raffy was about three or four and then Ada was just coming up to one and so I had that toddler aspect of the slight food refusal and when all those challenges come up in the toddler years. 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. I think this is huge. And I think it's something that as a society we really struggle with. I grew up in a generation where everyone was talking about dieting and celebrities were on the front cover if they had a bit of flesh, misplaced or whatever. I think we grew up in a society which was really damaging to self-esteem, to mental health, to our relationship with food and I think it didn't help that at home, there's often quite a lot of pressure. When it comes to weaning, I’ve found in my work that CONFIDENCE is one of the most KEY things you need as a parent/or carer starting your baby on their journey onto solid foods. Add the frozen peas then drizzle the lemony cream cheese mixture all over (make sure all the peas are covered in liquid so they cook properly!)

How to wean your baby

The Baby Show is taking place from 3-5 March at ExCeL London. The Baby Show is the UK’s leading pregnancy and parenting event and will play host to the UK’s leading baby and parenting experts and guest speakers. There are more foods that you CAN offer your baby than foods you CAN’T, so try to focus on that first and foremost. However, it’s useful to know what shouldn’t be offered.

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. In her new book, you'll find 70 delicious and balanced recipes, each with clear baby and toddler adaptations along with Charlotte's expert advice. We especially love Charlotte's guides on how to reduce food waste at home and alternative/substitute ingredients. M&B talks to Charlotte Stirling-Reed The other thing I would say is bulk buying things like pasta and rice and making sure we visit the aisle in the supermarket which has got a lot more different foods from different cultures. Sometimes you can get a lot of cheaper options like big bags of lentils and big bags of rice and couscous from there as well. So definitely do that. I’m a huge fan of the “best of both” approach to weaning, where parents/carers offer baby some finger foods ala “Baby Led Weaning”, but also where parents also offer baby foods off of a spoon.

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 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 is really tough. And at the moment, you know, you're going to find that very little is going to help because it's really, really, really challenging times. But definitely what I would say is batch cooking actually does save you a lot of money. Especially if you're bringing food home, you're prepping it, getting it ready, freezing it. So for example, if you bought some potatoes from the supermarket they're about to go off, get them home, slice them up, lay them on a tray and pop them in the freezer. And that means that they actually are going to last for a much longer time. And when you're batch cooking, you tend to be able to throw lots of things in and you then have got food that was going to go to waste all bundled into a big batch cook bowl and then you freeze it again and it means that you don't have to go to supermarket as many times to buy food. Whilst MOST foods are fine to offer your little one when they start weaning, there are a few foods to be aware of, and that are best avoided for babies under one. Genuinely this is something I’ve dreamed of from the very start of my career and now, voila! It’s here. Whole grapes – offer grapes thinly sliced or remove the skin to make them a little easier for little ones to manage.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: Small amounts of dairy (huge amounts aren’t needed as babies under 12 months generally still have plenty of milk). After the first 30 days, there is also a whole section on “What Next”. Which often parents really need after they’ve taken the first steps on the weaning journey. This helps you to have the knowledge and confidence to continue to feed your baby way into their first year. Including how to balance meals, what to do about textures, what happens when fussy eating starts and, again, much, much more. 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. Once your baby has had the allergen without a reaction, aim to include it regularly (1-2x per week) in the diet