Early Eaters Club

🧇 Which waffle iron do I actually need?
Why does mine tear in half?
Is the coating safe?
How small do I cut it for a 7 month old?

So I wrote it all down. The Waffle Guide is 15 pages covering everything I know: five waffle irons tested and reviewed, a full troubleshooting table for the tears, the sticking and the soggy middles, safe sizing by age, and recipes that actually hold together (in addition to the ones a few posts back!).

It has been lovely watching everyone dig into it this week, so thank you if you have already grabbed a copy.

If you have been asking me any of these questions, this one is for you.

Link in bio if you want it. ♥️

What is your biggest waffle iron struggle right now? 👇

🧊 Time to defrost some reputations.

The freezer aisle gets treated like the naughty corner of the supermarket, while the «fresh» spinach sits in transit for up to a week losing as much as half its vitamin C before it ever meets your trolley. Frozen veg is typically frozen within hours of harvest. Hours. 🫛

A large share of «fresh» fish was frozen at sea and defrosted for display, so you may be paying a premium for a defrost you could have done yourself. And one UK study found households using more frozen food cut their food waste by nearly half, which matters when roughly a third of all food produced globally ends up wasted.

For weaning families the maths gets even better. Batch-cook once, freeze in cubes, and a balanced baby dinner costs pennies and takes four minutes.

The full myth-busting is on the slides, including the one rule with no exceptions: never refreeze what has thawed. 💛

So, professionally speaking: stock the freezer, hold your head high.

Which frozen food is carrying your family through the week? 👇

🌱 Zinc is iron’s less famous cousin, and it matters for growth, immunity and taste perception. The daily reference for 6 to 12 months is 3 mg.

A day that gets there: an egg yolk at breakfast (0.35 mg), a tahini swirl through lunch, beef or lamb mince at dinner, and a sprinkle of ground pumpkin seeds over yoghurt (about 0.9 mg a tablespoon). Done without anyone noticing.

Vegetarian and vegan babies need a little more, so lean on the seeds, tahini and eggs generously.

And as always, a guide, not a tracker. 💛

Are seeds part of your baby’s week yet? 👇

☀️ The sunshine vitamin, and the one food struggles to cover on its own.

The 6 to 12 month reference is 200 IU a day.

Food does help: 100 g of salmon carries around 526 IU, two egg yolks about 74, sardines around 192 per 100 g.
A salmon dinner once or twice a week plus regular eggs goes a long way.

In many countries, including most of Europe, daily vitamin D drops are standard guidance for babies regardless of diet.

Food builds the habit, drops close the gap, especially through winter. 💛

Is your little one on drops? 👇

🥩 Iron is the one to actually think about from six months. Baby’s stores from pregnancy start running low right as solids begin, and the daily reference is 11 mg, more than an adult man’s.

What a day that gets there can look like: porridge with a spoon of tahini at breakfast, half a cup of lentils mashed into lunch (3 mg), beef mince stirred through dinner, an egg yolk somewhere in between, and vitamin C fruit alongside to boost absorption. Breastmilk or formula keeps contributing too.

Nobody needs to weigh anything.

Offer iron-rich foods most days and let the week average out. 💛

Which iron food does your baby actually eat? 👇

Kinda chic to care what ends up on the family table. 💁‍♀️

Not perfect, not precious, just intentional. The ghee, the wholemeal buns, the local honey and tempeh in the shopping bag, the label check in the kids aisle before it goes in the trolley. 🧺

Phones in another room, small floury hands stirring the bowl, basil on the windowsill that actually gets picked, and a walk after dinner instead of another episode. 🌿

None of it is about perfection. It is about small choices, made often, in front of small people who are always watching. That is the whole trend. 💛

Which one is most you, and which one are you stealing? 👇

🧇 I said I would never own a waffle iron. I wish I got one sooner!

Savoury waffles are one of the easiest ways to get veg, protein and wholegrains into a small person who is convinced they do not like veg, protein or wholegrains. The shape stays familiar and fun, so a wary eater feels safe, and the good stuff goes right in.

I swap the plain white flour for wholemeal, spelt, oats or chickpea, for fibre and slow-burn energy. Swipe for six favourites: chicken, potato, pumpkin, oat and cheese, courgette, and cheese and curd.

Make a big batch in one go and freeze them flat with a sheet of baking paper between each. They keep for up to 3 months, and you cook them straight from frozen, no defrosting, just a few minutes in the toaster, oven or air fryer until piping hot and crisp.

A month of breakfasts sorted in one afternoon. ❄️

Cut into fingers they are lovely for baby-led weaning too, just go easy on the salt for the littlest ones.

Which flavour is your little one trying first? 👇

🌍 A peanut puff, a sea bream, a stone for strong teeth.

Every culture starts solids differently, and some of them rewrote the science.

Israeli babies snacking on Bamba led researchers to the LEAP trial, which cut peanut allergy by around 80 per cent and flipped world guidance from avoid to introduce early.

Japanese babies meet umami before sweetness.
French babies get one vegetable at a time, taste education from spoonful one.

I have added my honest take on each, what I would keep and what I would tweak. No culture is doing it wrong. But the evidence does point one way on timing (around six months, with readiness signs) and on building those first bowls on veg, protein and iron rather than fast starch.

Swipe through, borrow what fits your table, and tell me: which country’s approach would you happily steal? 👇