Vegan nutrition in other circumstances and for the little ones

Carmen Hercegfi on baby-led weaning - Part 2 of the interview to read:

Verena: Dear Carmen, you gave birth to your second son, little Yannik, in February 2015 - lively and healthy. With your son, you are trying out a different approach to the "average mum". You are feeding your Yannik using the baby-led weaning method. What exactly is that?

Carmen Hercegfi: Baby-led weaning is actually a very modern term for something that has actually been around for as long as we humans have existed. I don't think our ancestors had blenders and complementary feeding schedules. The term was coined by a British midwife, Gill Rapley.

Baby-led weaning means that the baby weans itself from the breast. The baby is left to wean itself from the breast and get used to complementary foods at its own pace. One thing is to pay close attention to the child's signs and not say that the baby is now four, five or six months old and you could start with this or that porridge.

Take a close look: can the baby sit up on its own? Is the baby really showing enough interest? There are signs that you should look out for. As a rule, it really only starts at six months. For some children even later. And the breast remains the main source of nourishment at the beginning.

Children come directly to the family table and not at one year when you make the transition from porridge to the family table. The children come directly to the table at every meal and then get finger food.

That works quite well. But for the first one or two months, there's not so much coming in because they're still very preoccupied with how to touch it, how to get it in. Then everything comes out first, just like with porridge.

Gill Rapley's book explains it really well. It's also great for mums who are often so stressed: Everything comes out again, my God, why doesn't it keep it in? Why doesn't it learn? Why is he pushing the spoon out? These are actually protective functions. Children could choke and choke on it. And that's the exploration in the mouth first and then it comes out. It's not about eating yet.

If you do this baby-led weaning, then you know that and deal with it in a very relaxed way. The book by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett is really nice. It also has a few photos in it. You can see a bit of what it looks like when the children are sitting at the family table.

"I also have a good wholemeal rye bread that he eats. I'll put nut butter on it for him."

Verena: How does Yannik take to the complementary food? What does he like, what doesn't he like at all? Is that already crystallising in him?

Carmen Hercegfi: He finds everything exciting. Of course he loves what he can eat well. Peaches and nectarines are great. They don't fall apart and are held together really well by the skin and he can suck them off really well. Plums, on the other hand, are far too firm. They fall out of his hand and he can't get them off.

I also have a good wholemeal rye bread that he eats. I put nut butter on it for him. Cashew butter, he also eats sesame butter, although it's not sweet at all. Lightly steamed broccoli, if it's steamed too much it falls apart too quickly.

I also give him cucumber and carrots, even if they are not steamed. But that's more for the flavour, he doesn't get anything yet. He can suck the cucumber, courgettes from the oven.

Lots of things from the oven with a little good olive oil and herbs - no salt! It's really important to avoid salt in the first year of life because the kidneys can't cope with it yet.

"Babies need a month or two before significant amounts reach the stomach. Otherwise you continue breastfeeding..."

Verena: What does a typical daily meal plan look like for you?

Carmen Hercegfi: In the morning I usually have lots of fruit and so that he has something to really fill him up, he gets a loaf of bread. He just sucks it off. Sometimes, when I make porridge, he also gets a porridge. Then I have millet flakes and pour boiling water over them. And then I squeeze in a banana or a spoonful of nut butter and then I take a DHA-enriched linseed oil.

That's very important. I have one at the moment that has lemon oil in it. I stir it in when the porridge has cooled down a bit. Then he sometimes gets the spoon. I just think to myself, I eat porridge sometimes too, so he has to have it sometimes.

At lunchtime, I try steamed things or something from the oven, including fruit, and then make sure I have a filling side dish. These are potatoes or sweet potatoes. If I only eat a salad myself, he gets avocado, for example, which is great. I also love mango on a salad, for example. He really likes that.

Mango seeds are really cool, by the way. He has African roots and in Africa children get mango seeds and suck them off. That's totally great.

And then, of course, if I haven't made anything else, he gets wholemeal spelt pasta. The spiralised noodles are great. If necessary, he also gets half a slice of bread with something on it so that he's full.

Verena: Critics say that babies just suck on it, they don't eat it properly and then they don't get full and don't get everything they need.

Carmen Hercegfi: It really is the case that babies need one or two months before significant quantities reach their stomachs. Otherwise you continue to breastfeed and there are also children who are fully breastfed for nine or ten months and are doing great, but who refuse any porridge before that. The mum is so stressed because the paediatricians say: "But that's not possible, it has to eat porridge already." Then they're just not ready yet and they're breastfed for longer.

At the moment, I'm still breastfeeding ten times at night (laughs). Just now again, I've already had two in between. And I'm still breastfeeding several times during the day. I don't know how much he drinks then either, but I always let him feed when he wants to. That means I don't have to worry. And he also gets nutrients from sucking.

As I said, the first month or two, you just have to know that. It just takes that long for the child to learn to explore the food, to get it small with the palate before teeth are there and until he can swallow it.

Ultimately, you can tell how much has gone in by the contents of the nappy. It went away relatively quickly from the breast milk stool, which is so liquid-yellow. I started a lot with banana, you can already see the banana coming through (laughs). And after two or three weeks it was solid. That's about how long it took. And if he eats less well now, then it will become a bit more fluid again.

I'm not worried at the moment. I can see that it's working better and better, day by day. And in an emergency, I always have a look at the book and read all the testimonials. There are baby-led weaning groups on Facebook. And there's even a vegan/vegetarian baby-led weaning group.