Back in July (can you tell I am behind?) we went to an awesome blogging event, Lottie and I. What made it awesome was the timing. Lottie was about to go on to solids, about to start weaning and this was a weaning workshop. Held by My Little Piccolo in Mothercare. What's not to love! And it meant I could have coffee and cake with Forget Me Knit. Double win!
What's funny above is Lottie is in a Mothercare dress AND she is sitting in a Mothercare Orb buggy (which we adore). Both bought and paid for. The dress was a birth gift from my Great Aunt (Granny's Sister) - you can see it better here - and the buggy Daddy bought a couple of days before my C section (yes that day when they sold us the wrong car seat).
So back to the event itself. Piccolo's baby nutrition expert, Alice Fotheringham spoke about solids and weaning. I was blown away by the content. Everything I believe in and more. There was no hard sell of the product which actually made me love them all the more. I believe that weaning should be a mixture of finger food baby led weaning with the addition of spoon feeding. This is also what Alice reassuringly stated. It is my personal opinion and is 100% the right approach for my Lottie. She is too hungry to rely on what she manages to nibble and not drop, but ultimately that experience of picking up and chewing food is far too valuable to miss out on. It gets the jaw ready for speaking. It builds fine motor skills. It develops and strengthens hand to mouth coordination way better than any toy and it encourages them to put things in their mouth that they are actually allowed to. Put simply it is a joy.
So how do you balance giving them that finger food fun, with also loading them up with a pouch, fed by spoon? Well the answer to that one will differ for every baby's needs and each and every family's varying cultures and diets. But I can tell you what works for us. Oh and she still gets to hold something as she will not let me feed her with a spoon unless she is holding one too so meal times always begin with two clean spoons.
The first couple of weeks we were on solids Lottie only did a number 2 every 4 days, mainly because she would not drink water so only had breastmilk. Plus it was Summer and very warm. I did not at all panic and just made sure I did not overload her tummy. So in that first fortnight she did not have solids 3 times a day and didn't even have solids every day.
I very soon found a winning formula for breakfast and it is: Weetabix, plus a dash of water from the kettle, plus a dash of chilled milk to cool that water and half a pouch of Piccolo. A different fruit flavour each day. She spent a couple of weeks on half a Weetabix biscuit and very soon went up to one full biscuit. Despite there being Weetabix AND half a pouch she finishes it all and no I don't need to play aeroplanes with the spoon. When she's had enough she simply refuses to open her mouth. Yep it's as easy as that. The fibre in the Weetabix with the combo of the fruit and water means she is very regular now. Due to waking 2-3 times a night for breastmilk, she's not hungry enough for the Weetabix till she's been up 2-3 hours.
Sometimes that timing clashes with things as it did on the Eat Walk Talk food tour the other day. That's the beauty of pouches. We were in a very posh Ice Cream parlour (Swoon Gelato) and Lottie was in her highchair having brekkie :-)
Excuse the creases on her dress but we dashed out without me ironing it as it was a very early start. Funnily enough it is the same dress I mentioned above. She does have other clothes I promise LOL!
As a thank you for attending the Mothercare Piccolo event, we were given a month's supply of Piccolo and we finished the last one today. We received them in a lovely branded Piccolo cardboard box (you can see it in the IG pic at the end of this post) and it was very sad pulling out the last one yesterday, seeing the bottom of the empty box, as they have been such a huge part of our journey onto solids. So that Peach and Apple did yesterday and today's breakfasts in two halves. The colours on the packaging make my heart sing and I smile each time I reach for a new one as they are so cheery. Seriously I love them. With our samples we got a canvas Piccolo shopper tote bag too. It comes in very useful, like when we went on a food tour the other day!
I was thrilled therefore to discover that they have released new flavours and we get to try those too. They are hitting the shelves this week.
So... the original flavours were
- Apple and Apricot
- Banana Blueberry and Apple
- Cherry and Yoghurt
- Peach and Apple
- Spring Greens and
- Squash Red Pepper and Chickpea.
Lottie ADORED all of them. The only comment I would make is that she sometimes made a face with the Cheery and Yoghurt because it's a little "tart" but she still always ate it. I always lick the spoon between servings and I loved them all too. The Spring Greens are FABULOUS for teething as they're good and alkaline to counteract the nasty acidity of teething. The Squash Red Pepper and Chickpea is very wholesome and fab for the evening. I was gutted when we ran out of them and will be buying more.
The new flavours are:
- Mango Pear and Kale
- Raspberry and Apple
- Sweet Potato Beetroot Apple and Pear.
As you can see, the flavours are utterly divine.
All of those listed above are stage 1, but stage 2 will come in time as the brand develops. So these are classed as first tastes. But Lottie very easily copes with textured food as she's 8 months on 25th September and as I said, she still has a half pouch of Piccolo every morning with her Weetabix and the savoury ones could certainly be served as a sauce with potatoes or pasta.
I recently went into Boots to look at the competition and to stock up. I was VERY surprised by the market leader's flavours where the same ingredient is mentioned 3 times like "Peas Peas Peas". It might sound cool but I prefer to know at a glance what is in there like you do with our much loved My Little Piccolo. We're big fans having now tried them for a couple of months.
These are the stores that stock My Little Piccolo. I think the most straight forward place for us to get more from will be Amazon. The chickpea flavour is £7.20 for a five pack on Amazon with free delivery.
Lottie was utterly thrilled to receive our initial samples and I know she'll be over the moon too when our delivery of the new flavours arrives.
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