Weaning, your stories and recipies

Try these quick and tasty meal ideas, tried and tested by mums just like you.

COURGETTE GRATIN
Marie Dicks, mum to Nicola Dawn Williamson, nearly eight months
My daughter (right) has to follow a gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free diet, so finding food she can eat and providing variety can be an ordeal. I make all her food myself and this courgette gratin seems to be her favourite.

* Cook up one medium peeled and chopped potato and one sliced courgette as normal.

* Puree both.

* Make a cheese sauce with a knob of dairy-free spread, a tablespoon of cornflour, 125ml of milk and 25g dairy-free cheese.

* Put ingredients in a saucepan and simmer (stirring) till sauce thickens.

* Add the potato and courgette and serve.

APPLE & PEAR PUREE
Emma Garratt, mum to Chloe, two and James 10 months
A simple idea is apple and pear puree for when they first start weaning.

* Get a pear and an apple, peel both, slice and add to a pan with a tablespoon of water.

* Gently heat until the fruit is tender and then blend.

AVOCADO & BANANA
Sandra Good, mum to Bailey Wilkins, 20 weeks

Bailey (left) loves avocado mixed with banana. It’s great if you're out and about.

* Buy both in a shop and just mash them together in a pot with a fork.
Or try this tasty sweet potato and broccoli puree.

* Steam one sweet potato for 12 minutes and one large broccoli floret for seven minutes. Blend together.

LENTIL CASSEROLE
Sarah Hart, mum to Elizabeth, two years
A really good, iron-rich and wholesome recipe I used to make Elizabeth was a lentil casserole.

* Onion, celery, potato, carrots and lentils boiled down with half a pint of water and then blended together when ready.
It's delicious and great because it was such a good source of iron when Elizabeth wasn't ready to move on to meat. And because it was meat-free you could take it out in a snack pot and warm it up later in the day.

BANANA & CUSTARD
Katie Sampford, mum to Ellie, 23 months:
Ellie’s favourite was banana and custard, all blended together. We also tried other fruits, such as cooked apples or blended strawberries. Her favourite nowadays is grapes.


VEGETABLE & FRUIT PUREES
Suzanne Nunn, nine weeks pregnant and mum to Jayson, 22 months:
I wanted to start Jayson on veg first to get him used to the savoury tastes before the sweet fruit tastes but he wasn’t very keen on veg alone. So I mixed fruit and veg purees together to make the savoury purees a bit sweeter and he loved it. Within another few weeks was happy to eat mixed veg purees followed by fruit for pudding. 
 
The purees I made were: carrot and apple, courgette and pear, pumpkin and pear, potato and tomato.

FAVOURITE PUREES
Emma Stelfox, mum to Joel, five months
Joel's favourites are apple, pear & banana, carrot & broccoli and avocado & banana.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH & PEAR PUREE
Kate Fever, mum to Gemma, 12 months
Although it might sound a bit strange, butternut squash and pear was always a favourite when weaning Gemma. When she got used to chewing lumps, diced chicken with apricot was another recipe top of her list.