Weaning advice for older babies who are breastfeeding

Your baby will have gained great benefit from exclusive breastfeeding. However, it is important to persist in supporting your baby’s progression on to solids even if they appear reluctant initially.

As your baby approaches the end of their first year, breast milk alone is no longer adequate to sustain their on-going growth and nutrition. For example, their iron stores are likely to become depleted. Gradual exposure to food in the form of purees and then progressing on to lumpier textures allows your child to develop the necessary chewing skills to be able to manage a varied diet. Also, it is important for children to develop their taste through consistent exposure to varied foods. This will also allow for more positive acceptance of new and unfamiliar flavours and the introduction of new foods.

If your child has delayed exposure to solid food after 10 months of age, it can be much harder and take longer for your child to accept it.

The following strategies should be encouraged to support the process of 'late weaning'.

1. Try to develop a mealtime routine to help build your child’s anticipation of being offered food. Encourage your child to be sat in their own highchair or booster seat and join in with family meals. Children are often more interested in what you are eating.
2. Try to space your child’s breast feeds to allow greater appetite and hunger. Avoid offering the breast immediately before offering food. Ideally, aim for breastfeeds in the morning, after nap time and before bed.
3. Limit the number of foods you offer at one meal. Provide a choice of foods that you will be happy to re-offer consistently. As your child becomes more familiar with both the taste and texture of a particular food, they are more likely to develop greater confidence and a motivation to touch and handle the food. Food acceptance develops from repeated exposure, helping them to become accustomed to new tastes as well as developing the necessary chewing skills. Remember that young children may appear to grimace or gag in response to a new food. This does not mean that they do not like it; rather it is their response to the new sensory experience of either the taste or texture of the food. With repeated exposure, this kind of reaction will gradually reduce.
4. Allow your child to taste a new food from your finger if they seem happy to accept this. Model tasting the food yourself, showing your enjoyment of it. Place food on their highchair tray, allowing your child to explore the food with their hands or give them a spoon to play with. Playing with food is the best way for a child to learn about the smell and texture of foods.
5. Please see separate handouts on suitable foods to try. If your child has not had the opportunity to develop their chewing, try offering bite and dissolve or bite/melt finger foods first before progressing onto soft chewable foods. Yoghurt consistency foods such as custard, yoghurts, sauces, ice-cream can also be offered at this early stage.
6. Always respect your child’s refusal behaviour and avoid forcing food. For example, stop offering it if they persistently turn away from it, cry or become upset, repeatedly throw the food. End the meal calmly but remember to re-offer the food a few days later at another meal.
7. Keep mealtimes short, limiting them to 10 to 15 minutes to start with. Remain calm and positive. Remember that young children often pick up on parents’ own anxieties which is likely to contribute to greater food refusal. Learning to eat is a gradual process and should be seen as a partnership between parent and child. As a parent your role is to decide when and what to offer at meals. But only your child will decide when or how much they will eat.
8. Remember it is very normal for children to be less interested in eating if they are tired or unwell. They are therefore more likely to respond more positively to the comfort of a breastfeed and reject food during these times. It will be important to take this into account when establishing the best time for your child’s regular meal times.
9. By the age of one, children become much more keen to feed themselves. This is a very normal stage of development and they are even more likely to want to be in control of feeding themselves if they have had less opportunity to explore food previously.
10. Introduce cup drinking alongside food or at other times across the day to help develop your child’s drinking skills. It is best to offer either a ‘free-flow’ toddler cup such as Tommee Tippee or you could even try using a small open cup, as long as your child has learnt to sit. They may even be keen to take a sip from your cup. Offer a range of different drinks, for example, water, diluted squash, and milk (neutral or flavoured). Your child may benefit from a slightly thicker consistency drink when learning to drink from an open cup. Whilst they are learning the new skill offer diluted puree, yoghurt, or fruit smoothie. Your child will benefit from playing with a new cup to begin with. You could enjoy playing with a cup in the bath or pretending to feed a teddy or dolly.
11. Your child will also benefit from messy food play away from meals. This type of play activity can be very supportive particularly if your child appears to be reluctant to touch or handle different food textures. This should be seen as a play activity where there is no expectation for your child to eat, but supports them becoming more relaxed around food. It is a bonus if they happen to lick or taste a food during the activity. Please see separate handout with different ideas.

Contact

Email the Addenbrooke's Paediatric Feeding team