The Netmums Podcast - Weaning Without Worry: Advice from Charlotte Stirling-Reed

Episode Date: September 3, 2024

Weaning can be one of the most daunting milestones for new parents. The transition from milk to solid foods is filled with questions, uncertainties, and often, stress. But what if we told you it doesn't have to be that way? Discover the secrets to stress-free weaning with Charlotte Stirling-Reed, Sunday Times best-selling author of "How to Wean Your Baby". Charlotte brings a refreshing perspective to weaning, encouraging parents to view it as a journey of learning and experimentation rather than a rigid process with right and wrong steps. With expert advice and practical tips, Charlotte reassures you that your weaning journey doesn't need to be stressful – it can be a wonderful time of discovery for both you and your little one. Grab your free pack of Aldi Mamia Newborn Nappies from Netmums here. The Milestone Moments podcast is brought to you by Aldi Mamia and produced by Decibelle Creative.

Welcome to Milestone Moments, a Netmum's podcast mini-series brought to you by Aldi Mamiya. I'm Alison Perry. And I'm Wendy Gollich. Aldi Mamiya is an excellent range of great value and award-winning baby and toddler products. Aldi Mamiya products include weaning essentials like stage one fruit and veg purees and biscotti fingers. They also have all the products you need for your newborn like extra sensitive baby wipes and newborn nappies. And they have brilliant buys to help you with your baby's bedtime. Mamiya Bedtime Bath has the most amazing soothing aroma. Plus with Netmums and Aldi new parents can get a

pack of newborn nappies to try absolutely free. So log on to netmums.com and let your friends know about this brilliant offer with Netmums and Aldi. In this series we'll be talking about a key milestone in early parenthood and chatting to an expert guest. Today we are talking about weaning. Our guest is Charlotte Sterling-Reed, Sunday Times best-selling author of How to Wean Your Baby. She talks about family food and weaning on her brilliant Instagram account at SRN Nutrition to more than 300,000 people. I love Charlotte's advice. It is so helpful. When I was weaning my twins, I was like stalking her Instagram account like on a daily basis. But before we say hi to Charlotte. It's not the usual person you think you're going

to be stalking, if I'm honest. You know, when you're a new mum, honestly, it takes all sorts. I want you wendy to sum up your own weaning experience in one word for me stressful that sounds about right how about you um i'd probably say messy especially with two little mouths to feed yeah it was it was pretty messy that sounds the word that I would have predicted for weaning Charlotte a massive welcome to milestone moments oh thank you so much for having me on I'm loving hearing all of this because it's right up my street now like me a lot of people see weaning as a stressful milestone yeah but it doesn't have to be like that, does it? No, absolutely not. I try and

encourage parents to think about it in a slightly different way and try and realise this is a journey, it's an experiment, it's learning rather than something you're going to get wrong or right. And I think that is the problem. A lot of parents going in and they think they don't know what to do. They think they're getting it wrong. they think everyone else is getting it right and not them but my aim is to say to them this is a learning experience for you and your baby so take it as so and try and relax into it because the more you relax the more your baby will enjoy the experience too that's such good advice um so since wendy and i are well past the weaning stage, our kids are older now. She's saying thank you. Wendy is just like, yes.

Thank you. We're going to now share the one thing that we wish we'd known about weaning back when we were in the thick of it. Wendy, what do you wish you'd known? Well, I think what I wish I'd known is a little bit of what you've just said, Charlotte. I wish I'd known it was okay to take it slow. I assumed that at six months, my baby suddenly needed to eat all the food. And this would solve her sleep issues, her reflux issues. And no, she lived on milk until she was about 18 months old. She didn't eat anything. Some babies take Twix, some babies like to play with their food. She just didn't want to do any

of that. And so that's why it was so stressful. Charlotte, is that something that you hear a lot from parents? Absolutely. I think that we have this idea of how weaning should be. And then we have this whole comparison thing where we compare how it's actually going. And that doesn't feel right. And guess who we blame? Ourselves. And we think, I'm messing it up. I don't know what I'm doing. You know, I need to start again. I can't tell you the number of times parents come to me and say, it's really not gone to plan. Shall I start again? But actually, there isn't a plan. There is no plan. It is experimentation. And, you know, in my book, I have tried to write a plan to help parents to feel a little bit more secure. But

actually, I also try and say, it's never going to go exactly how you expect it to. And babies and children are all different. And just as they reach different milestones for other things at different ages, it's exactly the same with weaning. So reassurance to yourself is the name of the game when it comes to weaning. It really is. Okay, over to you, Alison. What do you wish you'd known about weaning twins? I mean, this is a little bit after that initial early weaning stage, but I wish that I'd moved my little ones on to us all having one family meal sooner. For ages, we were like preparing a baby or toddler meal for my twins. We were doing a kid's dinner for my eldest. And then finally, after they'd all gone to bed, we'd sit down and have a grown up dinner. And I just wish that we'd all just eaten spaghetti bolognese or stir fry or

whatever from when the babies were little. Is that a good idea, Charlotte, to eat as a family as early as possible? Hugely. And I think that one of the problems is, is that we do feel, I think it's sometimes that, listen, that slight fear of what should I feed them? Am I getting it right? Can they accept this texture? And so we have all these things going in our head and actually what becomes easier is just going back and I'll just do you something separate and I'll do something separate for someone else and I'll do something separate for us. And at the end of it, it's exhausting because you've cooked three, four different meals every single day. So I'm a massive advocate of trying to think about what do you want for dinner? Let's adapt that for your

baby. Let's adapt that for your toddler. And in all of my books, you know, sometimes people write to me and say, can I give these to my baby? And I say, yes, you know, they can have the same kinds of foods as we can. There are some things you need to be careful with avoid you might need to adapt the textures to make sure it is much more readily easy for your little one to eat but other than that trying to focus on those foods that you eat as a family is a great idea and actually is really beneficial for them to see you eating and see you enjoying food because they learn a huge amount about eating from that in itself. I remember a real turning point for me with my eldest. We went to a summer picnic and one of my best friends, sorry, I can't speak. One of my best friends is a speech and language

therapist. And Chloe was about 12, 13 months old. She just gave her a chicken leg. And up until that point, I'd been trying to get Chloe to eat with a spoon and oh, it was just hideous. She just sat there on this chicken leg having the best time. And I would have just been like, no, it's got bones. It's got, it's just no, no, no.

And actually from that point on, I was like, oh, well, here, I'll have a bit of that, have a bit of that. Once I stopped being so terrified, she got better at eating. Honestly, sometimes I know one of the things I talk about quite a lot is the confidence, because the whole reason why I wrote my first book about weaning is just simply because if you can give parents confidence in those first weeks or maybe even months of weaning, they are so much freer to go, do you know what? I've got this. I know what I'm doing. I know they can have all

these foods. I know that this variety are all great to include in their diet. I'm just going to roll with it now. And do you know what? I'm going to feed myself at the same time because I've been neglecting myself and just feeding my baby. So I'm going to feed me and baby can have some of that meal with me. And it's the confidence and, you know, for both of you, these exact things, they all roll into one. It builds on confidence. It stops you worrying about the comparisons about other people. It stops you cooking multiple meals. And it takes away some of that fear of, oh, can I, can't I give to them? So honestly, you guys have spoken about completely different things, but it is all intertwined in this idea of feeling confident and kind of going with baby's flow a little bit during that time but yeah I love it I love hearing

your experiences and it's exactly why I do what I do because I want to help parents exactly like you find it enjoyable which a lot of parents obviously don't. And you've talked to so many parents about their weaning journeys what would you say is your most asked question about weaning from parents like what's the biggest issue that parents are facing well other than like allergies and choking which is always really nervous I honestly would say the biggest thing in my inbox is help my baby has not taken to weaning I don't know what to do or help weaning is not going to plan exactly like we started talking about. That is the absolutely every day I can go to my inbox and someone will be saying to me, you know, it's just not working out. But what I would say to those parents is what is working out because it's so variable and every

child is going to have their own pace at this just like they do with walking or talking or potty training and everything else. So try and go go at their pace enjoy the process and eat with them those are the three key things that I would say in that scenario um and yeah you will get there it's just sometimes some babies take a little bit more time and that's fine thank you Charlotte why were you not around 13 years ago when I was fighting with pureed Weetabix and having a horrible time. Thank you so much for coming to chat with us at Netmums and Milestone Moments. It's been lovely to meet you. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm very, very honoured and it was lovely to be here. So thank you. Don't forget, you can get all your baby and toddler essentials at great

prices with Aldi Mamiya. And head to netmums.com now to claim your free pack of Aldi Mamiya newborn nappies.