News
Weaning Advice from Latch to Ladle May 03 2021, 0 Comments
It's weaning week from the 3rd-9th May so the perfect time to take a look at when to start and how to progress through this fun stage!
I asked the lovely Raphaella Rookes from Cheltenham based Weaning specialist at Latch to Ladle to put together the essential advice for you. Raphaella is a Specialist Paediatric Dietician and a mum to Monty who has recently had his own fun weaning.
When to start weaning?
The National advice is to start weaning at 6 months and not before 17 weeks. You may be advised by your GP or Health Visitor to start before 6 months if your little one has reflux or a higher risk of an allergic reaction. Signs to look out for that baby is ready to be weaned?
- Is your baby able to hold their neck and head up unsupported for at least ten minutes?
- Does your baby show good hand-eye-mouth coordination? Are they bringing toys up to their mouth and chewing on them?
- Has your baby lost their tongue thrust? (Not all babies have a prominent tongue thrust but if they do, we need to wait for that to stop before progressing with weaning.
- If you can answer yes to the three above points then you are good to go!
What meals to serve & when?
Check out the meal plans at latchtoladle.com where tailored meal plans are there to suit you and your little one.The general advice when progressing with weaning is as follows:
- Weeks 1 & 2: Introduce bitter vegetables once a day – combination of puree and finger foods (lunchtime tends to be best)
- Weeks 3 & 4: Progress to two meals per day (breakfast and lunch) and start to introduce combinations of flavours with 2-3 ingredients per meal e.g. tuna pasta with sweetcorn, carrot porridge, potato and swede mash
- Weeks 5 onwards: Build up to three meals per day with lots of combinations of flavours. Use herbs to flavour food and introduce allergens right from the get go! Check out latchtoladle.com for lots more advice on introducing allergens and meal ideas
Started weaning?
Once you’ve started weaning, you’ll realise just how much fun it can be! Although equally frustrating at times! A good technique from early on is to offer meals in different environments to add to the mealtime experience for little ones. This may be picnics, eating outside and now things are opening up more may be food on the go too! So, what are good foods to take out and about?
- Bread sticks, soft fruit, puffs and dry cereal, soft vegetable sticks, cooked pasta shells, avocado slices, pinwheels (always a Mum fave!), hard boiled egg slices, cheese cubes, chickpeas, rice cakes with nut butter and lots more besides! A great way of taking these foods out and about? Use Nom nom Kids pouches – they are a firm favourite in our house!
How can you make weaning run more smoothly?
When it comes to weaning, like lots of things when babies are developing, there are good and bad days. Weaning is a learning process and some days your little one will gobble up their scrambled egg on toast and other days they’ll throw it all on the floor. Where possible, try and eat together as a family as little ones learn so much from you from how you eat, to using cutlery, to pacing at mealtimes too.
Try and avoid distractions at mealtimes like tablets and TVs and limit mealtimes where possible to 10-15 minutes maximum – they’ll soon get bored after that! The main thing is to try and be positive and praise good eating behaviours and ignore the negative ones where you can…! Take lots of photos along your weaning journey as it really does fly by!
For your one stop shop on weaning and feeding advice, visit latchtoladle.com where Raphaella, Specialist Paediatric Dietitian, can provide bespoke advice to suit you and your family’s needs.
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Check out our range of reusable food pouches and snack bags to help you with taking foods out and about with you. Perfect for weaning and well beyond, these handy bags help you save waste and feed your little ones whilst out. All products are possible to wash in the dishwasher or by hand.
Waste Free Weaning May 01 2021, 0 Comments
As Featured on WeaningWeek.co.uk we put together our top 10 tips to help you save waste whilst weaning and beyond.
- Make your own
The most obvious way to save waste (and money) is to make your own food for your baby, whether you choose to puree, mash, serve simply as finger food or make up elaborate recipes. The packaging waste saved by making your own foods is quite dramatic and you can also choose to store it in a portion size specific to your baby and their stage in weaning leaving less leftovers to waste.
Read more...
Top Tips for Cooking With Kids February 17 2021, 0 Comments
Home Made Fruit Pots February 03 2021, 0 Comments
This delicious fruity compote is packed full of nutrition and perfect for a squeezy snack or dessert. The flavours are based on one of our favourite fruit pots recreated for our pouches.
Starting Nursery or Pre-school August 28 2020, 0 Comments
12 tips for starting nursery or Pre-school to make the transition stress free.
Eco-Able July 28 2020, 0 Comments
It's almost the end of Plastic Free July! This years month of reflection and action has been somewhat overshadowed in my household (and quite probably yours) by the pandemic situation. The lovely Dani at Eco-Able has managed to make it all a little bit easier for us though
Adventures with The Out Pack July 18 2020, 0 Comments
The Out Pack is a brand new product to encourage us all to get out and about with the kids to explore our wonderful countryside.
Picky meals with Pickplates July 16 2020, 0 Comments
What kid can resist a picky meal with lots of variety? Mine certainly love this way of eating as long as nothing touches!) so I was really excited to see these new divided plates from the lovely Ciara Attwell of @myfussyeater
Park Essentials for Lockdown July 06 2020, 0 Comments
What will you be packing in your bag to keep the kids safe at the park?
National Picnic Week 2020 June 23 2020, 0 Comments
We're looking at making picnics waste free - a collaboration with Cheeky Wipes and a joint giveaway going live on Friday 26th
Lockdown Maths Help May 13 2020, 0 Comments
If you are home with a little one from Early Years to Key Stage 1 this colourful Rainbow can help them really nail their number Bonds.
Get a downloadable image to practice for yourself!
Simple Smoothie Making March 25 2020, 0 Comments
Some people say a smoothies must contain banana but I disagree. I like my smoothies to be colourful and creamy textured, bursting with flavour and nutrients. I find that using ingredients of similar colours I can get a much more vibrant smoothie that makes even the pickiest child desperate to try it. 
Wonderland Pop Up Cheltenham February 28 2020, 0 Comments
Read all about the Wonderland Pop up we will be part of at Jackeroo Boutique, Bath Road, Cheltenham GL53 7NB from 2nd-28th March.
Sockatoos February 12 2020, 0 Comments
My Second blog in a series of introductions to businesses that I think you'll all love to know about. Sockatoos is run by another one of my fellow Cheltenham Mumboss club members based in The Cotswolds so I really wanted to feature her straight away!
Sockatoos are basically lovely soft trousers with built in Socks that can never get lost!! I can think of so many occasions that these would have been handy, We used to lose socks everywhere!....Baby carrying, soft play, in the pushchair.
Busy Little Bears January 21 2020, 0 Comments
This is the first blog in a series of introductions to businesses that I think you'll all love to know about. First up is Busy Little Bears run by one of my fellow Cheltenham Mumboss club members and another local cotswolds business.
Family Favourite smoothies November 11 2019, 0 Comments
These are some of our favourite smoothies to help add a few extra nutrients into our day. These are really tasty and suitable for 9 months to 109.
Feel free to add little extras like Chia seeds, Flax or Hemp seeds to add extra protein and Omega 3's. There's always room to add a little spinach and avocado too even if the ingredients don't list them.
The fun of smoothies is that you can add all sorts so use these as a guide and see what you can develop yourself.....
Smoothie Week November 09 2019, 0 Comments
This week is Smoothie week at Nom Nom HQ!
It's easy to get stuck in a smoothie rut, churning out the same smoothies so let's get some delicious inspiration from the amazing women that I follow on Social Media.
Plastic Free July swaps July 30 2019, 0 Comments
So that's it. Plastic Free July ends for another year....but the changes I have made won't be coming to an end. This month has really made me think and made me take steps to making some permanent changes.
Here's a list of all the changes we have made as a family and where we failed too. These changes may seem minuscule to some and just about achievable to others. It's a journey for all of us. This is what I have managed to do in those last couple of weeks of school and the first couple of weeks of the holidays. Not always the ideal time for making changes but when is?!
Cleaning Products
I must admit that I planned to make some cleaning products myself after watching Hugh's war on Waste but this just hasn't happened. What I have done is purchase some of these pods of concentrated cleaning liquids that go straight into your old cleaning bottles. You top up with water and so far it's as good as my old cleaning solutions.
I've been getting refills of my washing detergent from my local natural food store and we've given up using Softener. Our Hand wash is also being refilled at the local Loose Food store.
Reusable Wipes
I am loving my wipes from Cheeky Wipes and Bonnie Pop Makes. We have been using them for hands and faces, wiping surfaces and general spills around the house. I always have a couple of dry ones in a snack bag ready to wet and use.
Cotton Handkerchiefs
This hasn't taken off as well as I hoped. We all get hay fever so our tissue usage can be pretty high during the summer months. I bought some cotton handkerchiefs but after the initial novelty the kids kept leaving them lying around the house and no one knew who's was who's. We have decided to use them in bed only as we also have close friends who are immunocompromised and we can't risk to pass on our germs from a snotty handkerchief.
Sanitary Products
I am testing out some of the period pants from Cheeky Wipes. I did wear them running one day and they did the job of a Tena Lady pretty well but I'm waiting to test them out properly.
As far as toilet rolls go, we haven't made any changes as yet.
Food Packaging
I have been buying lots of my store cupboard staples from the local Food Loose store in Cheltenham:
Salt, Pepper, baking Powder, cocoa powder, corn kernels, oats, pasta, rice, cous cous, raisins, nuts, seeds, lentils etc are all being purchased in my own jars and reusable bags.
We have switched to a milk delivery service in glass bottles which I am loving from our local Cotteswold Dairy.
I discovered that my local farmshop Primrose Vale has a new freezer section with various foods without packaging. There are plastic bags provided for taking the foods away but I will go again with my own tubs and reusable bags. Their mini potato Gratins were yummy!
I have stopped buying one of our regular items because it comes in black plastic. We don't buy much in the form of ready made meals anyway but it's still really hard to get anywhere close to #zerowaste. This is definitely work in progress for us.
Skin and Hair
We are now using soaps in the bathroom although the children are still using Childs Farm products as they have sensitive skin. As they get older we will encourage them to use soaps as well.
We all use Bamboo toothbrushes but we haven't yet swapped out toothpaste or deodorants so we definitely have more work to do here.
I am currently alternating between an old bottle of shampoo, some re-filled shampoo and a shampoo soap bar.
Takeaways & eating out
My children are 6 and 8 now and they still love the odd happy meal. We usually only get one if we happen to be travelling over tea time. They have both recently volunteered to refuse the toy, unless it's a book or something else that isn't plastic.
They have chosen to refuse straws for a good while now as we take out our reusable silicon straws. It's great to see that hardly anywhere has plastic straws now anyway.
On a Friday night my husband and I generally have a Chinese takeaway. We have recently swapped to a more eco-concious restaurant that use a lot less plastic packaging and even give you your order in old boxes.
Snacks
With the help of my reusable snack bags and food pouches we do pretty good at saving a lot of waste when it comes to snacks but 1 change I have made this month is making my own pop corn. The kids love it and have begged to take some camping next week so they can pop it on the camp fire.
Take your own bags, Cups & containers
We have all been taking our own bags to shops for quite some time. I have only accepted a bag when I've absolutely needed to even if it means carrying a big pile of shopping rather awkwardly home. It's also been over 6 months since I accepted or purchased a hot drink in a disposable cup. My local shops know that I will buy the odd bread roll or croissant and take it to the till in one of our reusable sandwich bags.
I would love to hear how you have done and what changes you have made during Plastic Free July. If you didn't take part how about seeing how little single use plastic you can use in this last day of July. Just being mindful of it helps you think about how you can reduce your own consumption.
Thank you for reading!
Suzanne x
PS. I have extended the plastic Free July offer of 15% off until midnight on the 2nd August to help those of you that were waiting for pay day! Usecode REUSE15 at checkout here
Making Changes July 30 2019, 0 Comments
Tomorrow marks the end of Plastic Free July. A whole month where individuals and organisations have been attempting to reduce their plastic consumption. Overshadowing this somewhat is the fact that yesterday was Earth Overshoot day for 2019
www.overshootday.org describes this day as:
"Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year"
Or as Greta Thunberg described it yesterday:
"we have globally used up the worlds annual resources. The rest of the year we are stealing from future generations and poorer parts of the world"
Each year this date is moving earlier. For 2019 it was 29th July....so this year it's 3 days earlier than last year. If you happen to look at your own country (UK for me) it's an even scarier situation that surely can't continue without a massive crisis.
This is not necessarily about plastic of course although it certainly adds to the issues. It's about how we manufacture, how we make energy, how we live and the overall population of people, animals and fauna. Plastic is just a drop in the ocean (pardon the pun) as far as all this goes but it's still a massive issue in it's own right.
Tomorrow I will be reviewing the changes that I have made through plastic Free July. By taking part in this month I have become more aware of my own plastic usage and more considered about when I use it, why I use and how I use it. I will definitely be keeping up with my swaps and hopefully continuing to make more.
If you would like to know more about Earth Overshoot day and learn more about how it's calculated go take a look at https://www.overshootday.org/about/ You can find the charts above in much more detail.
Why not try to see what your own personal overshoot day is using this calculator http://www.footprintcalculator.org/
Summer Photo Challenge July 27 2019, 0 Comments
I love seeing what you are all getting up to over the summer whilst fuelled with snacks from our pouches and bags so I'm launching our first ever Summer Photo Challenge.
I love seeing what you are all getting up to over the summer whilst fuelled with snacks from our pouches and bags so I'm launching our first ever Summer Photo Challenge.
I would love to see the places that our pouches end up or the snacks you take out with you to keep those little ones going. Just take a photo featuring one or more of your Nom Nom Kids products in action, being eaten from, packed up ready to go or posing on location and share them with me on Instagram or Facebook.
I have no idea what my criteria is actually going to be for picking a winner in this challenge but I can tell you that it will NOT be based on how beautiful a child is, your photography equipment or holiday budget. I'm more interested in your snack selection, a happy smile and a day enjoyed! I won't lie, it would be amazing to see my pouches being used all over the world in exotic locations but equally lovely to see them being enjoyed just around the corner in the local park or the back garden!
PRIZE
There will be a prize of £50 PayPal Credit to spend anywhere you like for the lucky winner.
HOW TO ENTER
Post a photo with the hashtag #mynomnomsnacks If you have a private account tag me so I can see the post.
Post your entry onto the Nom Nom KIds Facebook page or tag the page in your own post.
REPOSTING PHOTO'S
I would love to repost some of your images whilst the challenge is running. IF your photos have NO children's faces in them I may repost without asking for permission although I will tag you in the repost.
If the photos have any children’s’ faces in them I will ALWAYS ask for permission before reposting or sharing anywhere on social media. This will not stop you from being selected as a winner although I would love to be able to share the winning photo at the end of the summer so if you would prefer your children’s’ faces to be kept hidden take photos from behind, from above or crop out their faces before submitting the photos.
CLOSING DATE
The challenge will run until the end of August and a winner picked within 2 days.
T's&C's:
- Competition ends midnight Saturday 31st August
- Worldwide entry
- Winners will be picked from all submitted entries within days of the competition end date.
- By participating in this promotion you agree to a complete release of Facebook & Instagram from any claims.
- This prize draw is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by or associated with, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
- Promoter: Nom Nom Kids
Want to know more about our products? check them out HERE
Plastic Free July - Wet Wipes July 12 2019, 0 Comments
It's Plastic Free July and i'm looking at all the things that I have been swapping in order to be less wasteful as a family. Today I'm looking at wet wipes.
It's been a while since Hugh's war on Waste hi-lighted the problem of wet wipes containing plastic. They discovered how wipe manufacturers are avoiding the subject and just how big a problem it is for our national sewerage systems.
As a family we were using the occasional toilet wipe as a last wipe for bottoms and for taking out wet wipes for mucky hands. When the kids were younger and in nappies we used them so much more and although I never flushed them down the toilet they were still going straight to land fill.
After watching the programme last month we have eliminated wipes from our bathroom completely. When we need to take out wet wipes we now use the brilliant Cheeky Wipes or these funky baby wipes from local maker Bonnie Pop Makes.
If you want to use them for bottoms too you can buy a kit from Cheeky Wipes that has a clean and dirty box to use or again you could cut down on the bulk box and use a reusable bag. I take them out damp in a sandwich bag and for us this works really well.
If I'm not sure whether i will need to use them I take them out dry and just squirt a bit of water onto the,m from one of our water bottles. we've always got water with us!
The Green monster fits around 4 or 5 of the Cheeky wipes which measure 15cm squared which is actually a much better size than a flannel.
Our smaller snack bags fit 2 inside so those are a great option for just taking a couple out with you!
Have you switched to a reusable alternative to wet wipes since watching the programme?
Watch War on Waste: Series 3, Episode 2 here:
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