I'm probably a bit anxious about blw with dd2

[onepieceoflollipop]

Dd1 (4 years) was weaned onto purees at age 5 months and ate fantastically well although wouldn't feed herself AT ALL until after a year. It took her a long time to agree to pick up her own foods!

This time I am doing things completely differently with dd2. She is 26 weeks next week. The last couple of days we have given her various finger foods - pear,(very ripe) cooked potato, banana and cooked apple (not all at once) - just so she can play with it and get the idea. I serve all of it in chip shapes as Aitch suggests. However I wonder if I am making it too soggy/soft (because I am still thinking "puree" and cooking it until just before it is ready to be mushed up) So, mini lolly holds it (sometimes) and moves it towards her mouth (occasionally) but a lot of it falls apart and then she drops it.

I am so keen to carry on with this but need some encouragement. Should the food be a little firmer? Will it take her a while (if so how long - weeks/months?) to really get the idea and start feeding herself? She can sit up quite well and reaches out for things.
My whole mind set is to think "Oh but dd1 was having a big bowl of baby rice etc etc by this stage" so I need to change this I know. I strongly believe that this is the right way forward and have read some fantastic advice from some of you but just asking for some encouragement really.

Off to cook some broccoli so won't be back here until after tea/bath/bed...

[ruddynorah]

it's ok if it crumbles a bit, it'll still be stuck on her hands and she'll lick it off. in the early days they often don't eat much simply because they don't have the fine motor skills to be able to because they don't NEED to eat much.

fwiw, i served food up in the texture i ate it. so carrots were as firm as i'd have them, not ready to mash. same for potato. she'd have a roast potato or half a jacket potato or whatever and just do her best with whatever form i presented it in.

the chip shaped thing is really just to give you the idea of shaping things into a way that's easy for chubby fists to pick up. obviously a disc shape slice of carrot is more difficult to pick up for little hands than a fairly chunky chip shaped one. but a big fat broccoli floret will do just fine. for ages they will just pick a thing up, take a bite, then drop it. they don't figure out how to move it around much for a while.

sit back, relax, and enjoy it!

[AitchTwoOh]

the chip shape is also good because at six months they're still too wee to pass food usefully from hand to hand, to move it up in their fists when they've eaten the top bit etc, so they have to release their grip completely to get something else.
i think i made carrots fairly smushy in the beginning but as i recall dd really preferred things like cucumber so the decision was out of my hands, so to speak.

[onepieceoflollipop]

Broccoli florets went well - used as drumsticks on the tray! I think I also need to get over watching her so intently - so far the rest of us almost stare at her and go "ooh" if she looks like putting food near her mouth. Still, it's very early days yet (in fact officially only practising until next week ) so I am sure it will settle down soon.

Thanks for the replies.

[AitchTwoOh]

yeah, if you can do try not to stare, it must be helluva creepy...