Weaning your baby is a right laugh. Seeing them try different foods for the first time, seeing their tastes develop and of course the nuclear nappies. I have loved getting the baby onto solids.

Weaning means you need some new kit – and there’s a lot of stuff you could get, but what do you actually need?

High chair

These come in all shapes and sizes. Big, small, tray, no tray, the list goes on. One of our all time, top favourite things is actually our BabyBjorn high chair. It’s class. That poor chair has been carted from pillar to post, covered in every type of food and it continues to tolerate our baby’s persistent abuse. The high chair is a great bit of kit and best of all, it looks pretty good too. Regardless of which you get, make sure the chair is stable, strong and practical enough to fold up and take places.

Storage

Now, the classic pot is of course the staple for this. You can pick up a set of pots pretty cheap. Check the lids are decent and the pots are microwave safe. Sounds silly but you’d be surprised. If you’re feeling a bit more advanced, check out the Infantino Squeeze Station. It compressed food into pouches (like the ones you buy from the shops) and these pouches are brilliant for squeezing food out on the go. What I love most about the pouches is that there’s way less mess when you’re feeding and you can store loads of them in a fairly small space. Win. A great little addition to the kitchen.

Drinks

How many types of cups are there for babies? I’ll tell you now, it’s infinite. My goodness, there are so many it’s borderline overwhelming. We have an old school beaker – standard, but we also have a Doidycup. It’s got a slanted edge that helps the baby get used to drinking out of an open topped cup. It has its risks, I can’t lie about that. Many-a-time I’ve fallen victim to the cup tidal wave, but it’s a great way to move on from bottles and beakers.

Like I say, weaning is great, but having the right bits means less mess and more smiles – hopefully!