Any advice for a mum at the end of her tether? I seem to spend every spare moment of the day (and I don’t have many) cooking for my eight month old, Laura, who spits everything back at me. Then, when I open a jar of puréed baby food, she eats it as fast as I can feed her. Does it do her any harm to have the odd jar of baby food so I can keep my sanity? How frustrating for you! Do take heart from the fact that you are doing exactly the right thing in persevering with the food you’re offering, and make sure any leftovers go…

My daughter, now aged 7.5 months, started to sleep through the night after the 10pm feed when she was four months old. Following the health visitor’s advice, I started to wean her when she was five months old, and everything continued to go well with her sleeping and feeding until a month ago when she caught a really bad cold. Although she has now recovered from her cold, she is refusing most of her solids, and is waking several times in the night, often taking up to two hours to settle. My lack of sleep over the last few weeks has meant that my milk supply has decreased dramatically. I…

I have found some organic vegetable stock cubes which are low-salt. In the nutrition information on the package it says they contain ‘trace sodium’. Are these safe to use, as I don’t always have time to make home-made stock. My baby is almost 8 months. Most mums certainly don’t find the time to make their own stock (though I take my hat off to those who do). Well done for recognizing that stock cubes are usually high in salt and checking the nutrition information on the pack. ‘Trace’ means that they contain very little sodium (the chemical part of ‘salt’ that we’re concerned about in terms of health) and are…

Can I use tinned fruit (in natural juices of course) and tinned vegetables for my 7 month old daughter? Absolutely – tinned fruit and vegetables are great store-cupboard staples, always there in an emergency. As you are aware, look for fruit tinned in natural juices, also vegetables tinned without added salt if possible. And if the product does contain added salt, be sure to rinse the vegetables and discard the liquid as some salt will be dissolved in it. Many people are concerned that tinned foods are not as nutritious as fresh ones, however this is not necessarily the case. A 1997 study by the Department of Food Science and…