What age did you or are you planning to wean your baby & was it puree or finger food?

[champagneandroses]

Trying to get an opinion on this

[flowerybeanbag]

6 months. Finger food. Started with pieces of sweet potato and pear, then gradually more different vegetables, bread, pasta, and most things we eat.

[CharliesMum08]

6 months, mashed foods (with small lumps) and finger foods though found that DS. prefers some foods (such as mashed potato and carrots) i pureed more than mash and he doesn't seem too keen on the texture of the mash. offered finger foods from the first day to get him used to it although he's only really begun aving the finger foods in the past week and half (he is 7 months)

[TwoWashTutter]

really really ahd planned to wait til 26 weeks,but:

ds1: 22 weeks
ds2: 20 weeks

a mixture of mush and finger foods

[solo]

Ds was 15ish weeks and it was puree.
6 months pureed foods with Dd.
Times changed.

[cmotdibbler]

6 months, finger food/BLW

[EyeballsintheSky]

6 months exactly which was three weeks ago. A mixture of things, some purees but not too many. She has toast, bits of fruit and veg and anything that can be held easily. But she also has Weetabix, fromage frais etc which I spoon feed her, I just can't contemplate the mess with self feeding those!

Last night she had pasta stars (NOT AK!) and lashings of mega strong Irish cheddar and she adored it, the first real enthusiasm I've seen from her! We will move on to big pasta very soon but, to be honest, the stars were in the house anyway because I love them with cheese (kind of like cheesy pasta mush, yum!). I add Marmite to mine though which I assume is not good for babies due to the salt?

Since the beginning I've given her a mixture of textures though and she doesn't have any problem with transitions from smooth to lumpy and back again if necessary.

Oh, and she loves ice cream . We gave her a suck of Magnum (minus choc) on holiday last week and she was like a woman possessed. Would have eaten the whole thing if I'd let her. Think it might have been the cold on her poor gums though

[shinyshoes]

6 months purree.

She manages to bite off too many big chunks and theres too much choking going on for my liking

[EyeballsintheSky]

Oh God, I apologise for my waffly post! I meant to say;

6 months, mixture

[unaccomplishedfattylegalmummy]

With dd1 she was 5 months and I pureed food. With dd2 I did baby led weaning and she was 8 months and straight onto finger foods. Both are extremely fusy eaters and will refuse point blank to eat something they don't like the look of.

[MrsBadger]

6m

finger food to start with so she could go at her own pace

then introduced mush later when she went to nursery because she wanted to be spooned at like the others

[biglips]

4 months....with pureed food.....and no problems at all.....DD was a very hungry baby

[champagneandroses]

the reason i'm asking is the guidelines changed between having my two kids from 17wks to 26wks. i weaned dd at 16weeks and she was fine ds though wasnt interested till this week 19weeks, i upped his milk feeds first but he was still hungry so ive added in a feed of 2 tablespoons of pure apple which im going to keep up till 26 weeks and then start adding homemade lumpy food and finger food. Hes still having 4-5 8oz bottles a day so hes getting all his nutrition from them.

[VictorianSqualor]

First child I weaned at 6 months adjusted so only 4 months, stupid fecking HV with her crap advice
DS1- 6 months a mixture of finger foods and purees (had never heard of BLW!)
DS2 we will be doing BLW starting with food plat at 26 weeks.

[champagneandroses]

ive been frowned upon by some people for my decision to try him with food a bit early not health proffessionals, my HV said I could try him at 17 weeks if he was hungry!!

lol eyeballinthesky at the baby having a bit of magnum a girl after my own heart, i love magnums!

[MrsBadger]

have you read any of the research / recommendations though champagne&roses?

If not then they are frowning with good reason.
If you have and are aware of the risks then fair enough.

[elkiedee]

At 6 months, a mixture. Much too lazy to puree my own and ds had 4 teeth already, used to give him posh organic babyfood (Ella's Kitchen and Plum Baby) but I mostly only spoonfed at home or got my dad or dp to do that stuff, and would carry some cheese and a banana everywhere and slice off gouda for DS. He's still a cheese fiend and likes lots of fruit and some vegetables, and chips, and lots of other food. He's more enthusiastic about food he can control though.

[VictorianSqualor]

Champagneandroses

The research behind weaning shows that when born baby's stomachs are permeable, to allow them to absorb the milk easier to digest. Only milk should be entering the stomach when it is permeable to avoid possible allergies or stomach/digestion problems in later life.

Somewhere between 17-26 weeks the stomach becomes unpermeable, and 'seals' which is when the baby is physically internally ready for solids. Unfortunately we can't tell which baby is ready at 17 weeks, and which is ready at 26! That's why they say to wait.

It has been suggested though, that once your baby can sit unaided, grab food, put it in their mouth, chew and swallow that they are likely to be ready internally, until then nature wouldn't allow us to be developmentally ready and we would fail at some point in the process so if you are determined to take the risk and feed before 26 weeks it is best to allow your DC to try and feed themselves rather than spoonfeed them purees.

[ruddynorah]

6 months blw.

[champagneandroses]

yes i have read up a lot on the subject and know the possible risks. my HV and doctor both agreed he could have a small amount of pureed 100% fruit so I'm happy with my decision. The anatomy of babies hasnt changed in the four years between them saying 17weeks was ok to 26 weeks. I believe they changed the guidelines to stop really early weaners i.e 12 wks etc which really is too early.

I can fully see how babies arent ready for lumps until after 6 months and remember dd wasnt ready for lumps till around 7 months and then finger food at 9 months.

It'd be interesting to see a study on how many weaned after 26weeks babies developed allergies anyway.

The people that have frowned on me are general busy bodies whose main gripe is i've not chosen exclusive blw the same as them.

[ruddynorah]

the anatomy hasn't changed, knowledge has though.

fwiw i wouldn't regard a GP nor an HV as being weaning experts. i would not ask their opinion on feeding a baby at all. who knows when the last time they read up on anything was?

[MrsBadger]

The anatomy hasn't changed in the 200yrs since they stopped putting babies in corsets either.

bad analogy IMO

[flowerybeanbag]

Anatomy hasn't changed since before they invented food processors and ice cube trays either.

[Divvy]

I have a chronic gagger here, so only on finger and lumpy food at 16 months!

We did it at her pace.

[VictorianSqualor]

Champagneandroses, if you have read up and know the risks then you'll also know that just because one child wasn't made ill (which will show in adulthood anyway, so you can't say for sure yet) then you'll know that you cannot possibly be sure which child will be ready at 17 weeks and which will not.

Nor can your GP or health visitor.

[lizziemun]

dd1 5mths (as per guidelines then), but wished i waited as i now think she wasn't ready for food.

dd2 4.5mth (wanted to wait to 6mths) But she would not drink milk (would take a hour of us both crying/getting stressed to get her to 4oz's). She took to food like i had been staving.