Weaning Q&A With Lucy Upton - Part 3

Welcome to week three of our mini Q&A clinic with Specialist Paediatric Dietitian Lucy Children. Lucy regularly consults in the public and private sectors and has extensive experience supporting families through weaning in her specialist feeding clinics. Over the coming weeks, she’ll answer some of the most common questions parents ask as they begin weaning, along with a few surprising ones! 

If you missed the first two weeks,  you can catch up here:

Week 1: Give Weaning Woes the F.I.N.G.E.R

Week 2: POO, P fruits & more!

This week it’s the big one - baby food pouches, yay or nay?

If you’ve used baby food pouches (I certainly have!), you’re far from alone. This is a verylarge market in the UK, worth hundreds of millions of pounds annually, so it’s no surprise that they’re everywhere in supermarkets, airports, change bags and pushchair baskets.

It’s also entirely reasonable to assume that anything marketed for babies must be safe, appropriate and nutritionally balanced. That’s the promise the packaging implies, and one reason so many of us trust these products. But—as with most things in feeding—context matters.

As I detail in my newest book,The Ultimate Guide to Children's Nutrition, used alongside a balanced, varied weaning diet, pouches can absolutely have a place. Problems tend to arise when they become the default or when babies miss out on texture progression, allergen exposure, or balanced nutrition.

How to Use Baby Food Pouches Wisely

1. Prioritise whole foods first - combine pouches with home-cooked foods, such as a sauce with pasta, or fruit stirred through a yoghurt pouch with a sprinkle of oats or seeds. 

2. Check the ingredients - Many pouches lean heavily on sweeter fruits; protein, iron‑rich or fat‑containing ingredients may be present in much smaller amounts than homemade options.

3. Be wary of halo marketing claims - claims such as ‘natural sugars’ may sound like a great selling point, but the reality is that their free sugar content is likely to be much higher than is recommended for your child’s intake, when used in excess. 

4. Texture and taste differences (or not!) - Uniform purées alone won’t give babies practice with lumps, mash, finger foods and mixed textures. Offer variety daily.

5. Prioritise spoons over sucking - Repeated sucking from pouches— especially of sweeter foods — can bathe emerging teeth in sugars and may not offer the same oral‑motor practice as spoon or finger self‑feeding. Squeeze into a bowl or onto a preloaded spoon that your baby can try.

6. Minimal allergen exposure - Many UK pouches contain few common allergens. Plan separate safe introductions of peanut, egg, milk (in food), wheat, soy, sesame, fish, etc.

7. Cost - convenience items can rack up in cost quickly! Banana puree pouches can be as much as £1 in price, whereas a whole banana costs about 10p. Remember, a higher price point doesn’t always indicate higher quality! 

When should my baby have three meals a day?

A topic so often swathed in misinformation - you’ll see plenty of advice online insisting that your baby must be eating three meals a day by a certain age. The reality? There’s no magic number.

Most babies naturally reach three meals between 7 and 10 months, but every baby is different. Weaning is a learning experience, and each individual baby will get there when they’re ready. Try not to feel pressured—it’s a journey, not a race.

Why is my baby suddenly refusing food?

‘My baby used to eat everything and now they’re refusing things left, right and centre.’ Sound familiar? 

Don’t panic—this is very common and often linked to:

• Growth spurts
  

• Developmental leaps
  

• Teething
  

• Illness
  
  

Ask yourself:

• Is my baby well? Illness can temporarily reduce appetite.
  

• Are they teething? This often affects feeding.
  

• Has the mealtime environment changed? Stress or pressure can put babies off.
  

• Could constipation be the culprit? If your baby is passing hard or pellet-like stools, address this first. For tips on how to help, see last week’s blog here. 

My baby only eats beige foods. How can I offer variety?

Firstly, beige foods are given a bad rap, but in actual fact, children and babies need PLENTY of beige foods in their diet. Beige foods are often carbohydrates, a vital source of energy for growth and brain development.

Familiar, predictable foods (like pasta or toast) are comforting, especially during sensory learning. But variety matters, and exposure is key. Here’s how to encourage it:

• Pair beige favourites with new foods, such as toast with different toppings, pasta with a dipping sauce, or rice balls with avocado.
  

• Keep exposing them to new flavours and textures without pressure, encouraging a wide variety of different foods. 

Can my baby have cow’s milk from 6 months?

The short answer: yes! But there’s one big caveat: Never as a drink until 12 months+. Your baby should still rely on breast or formula milk during this time. That being said, you absolutely can (and should, where possible) include cow’s milk in their diet from 6 months. It’s an allergen, so essential to incorporate it into their diet sooner rather than later.

That could be milk with cereal, scrambled eggs, for baking in things like BLW-friendly muffins, etc. 

For more from Lucy, check out her latest book ‘The Ultimate Guide to Children's Nutrition: How to nurture happy, healthy eaters in the first five years’.