It’s almost time to wean your baby! Yikes, you’re thinking? Don’t worry, weaning your baby doesn’t have to be a stressful experience and we’ve put together a checklist of baby weaning essentials to help you on your way.
Baby Weaning Essentials
A high chair
You need somewhere safe to sit your weaning baby. From brilliant bargains (hello, IKEA) to aesthetically pleasing options that grow with them (we love you, Stokke Tripp Trapp), one of the first things you’ll need is a highchair to pop your little one in. Another nice-to-have (or arguably an essential if you have carpet) is a wipeable splash mat. It’s about to get MESSY.
If you don’t have room for a big highchair then a Bumbo with tray can be a great option. We also love these portable travel highchairs (that you can use at home too) like the My Little Coco Everything Chair or one that screws on to your dining table!
Bibs
To try and keep the worst of the mess at bay when starting to wean your baby, we’d recommend a silicone or wipeable ‘catch all’ bib combined with a washable long sleeve bib – thank us later.
Baby tableware
Small baby bowls, plates and soft tip spoons made from a durable plastic or silicone that are also dishwasher friendly are absolute weaning essentials. Bamboo options are also great from a durability, aesthetic and safety point of view, they just have to be hand washed.
Beakers and cups
For the first 6 months, your baby has only needed milk. When you decide to wean your baby, it’s also time to start introducing drinking water into their diet too. It’s a good idea to use this opportunity to teach them to drink from a straw or open cup, but don’t worry if they don’t get the hang of it for a while!
We love these silicone open cups, or these tempered glass ones. The munchkin 360 cups are a popular choice and our favourite weaning essentials are the Baby b.box sippy cups, which are great for teaching them to drink from a straw and can be used for milk too.
Reusable wipes
To avoid using packets and packets of wipes (the planet, and your wallet, will thank you), reusable wipes are top weaning essentials, or put all those newborn muslins to good use and chop them into squares.
Steamer
Steaming is the best cooking method for locking in those nutrients and maximising flavour. If you’re saving on space (or budget) pop a sieve over a bowl of boiling water with a lid on top! Alternatively, you can buy a steamer pan, microwave steamer or a baby food prep machine.
Blender
You’ll need some form of blender to whizz baby’s first foods into a nice smooth consistency to wean your baby. You can use a Nutri-Bullet or similar, a hand stick blender (cheaper and saves on space – great for bulk cooking too) or a baby food prep machine which does it all for you!
Freezer trays and bags
Having a stash of baby food in your freezer is not only practical for those busy days, it’s essential for avoiding waste too. It’s hard to make only ONE portion of puree, so you need to save the rest.
We love these NUK Food Cube Trays which are the perfect portion size and pop out really easily. For reusable freezer, fridge and snack bags, try Stashers.
Motherhood Edit Hack: once your cubes are frozen, pop them out into a labelled freezer bag so you can reuse your tray and save space in your freezer!
Storage pots
Leftovers are going to become your best friend when you start to wean your baby. Getting a range of different sizes is a game changer to take you seamlessly from fridge or freezer to out and about and back again.
These Munchkin bowls are great as they come with lids! These Snap and Go Pods will take you from purees through to toddler snacks in the park.
Baby cookbooks and weaning books
Recipe books teaching you how to wean your baby are NOT weaning essentials, but you may find them helpful. We’d recommend How to Wean Your Baby by Charlotte Stirling-Reed, What Mummy Makes by Rebecca Wilson and the FREE Weaning Guide from Ella’s Kitchen.
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