What food did you first wean your baby on?

[weaninghelp]

Going to start weaning DS soon. Advice seems so conflicting. I want to start with giving vegetables. Some books seem to say give bitter veg like broccoli first to avoid a sweet tooth. Others recommend mixing it with other sweet veg/fruit. But then others say that defeats the point. I'm getting more confused the more I read.
I do want to do a mix of purée and blw but would like to start with purée.
Any advice and what did you first feed your DC?
Did also think of first giving him baby porridge as it contains vitamins and might get him use to swallowing? Is this a good/bad idea?
TIA

DD1 was puréed carrot. DD2 helped herself to a piece of my toasted cheese sandwich in Marks cafe! After that she pretty much went straight to finger food.

We didnt bother with baby porrisge, readybrek is just as good and much cheaper, even cheaper if you go with supermarkets own brand!!

We started on naturally sweeter vegetables, so sweet potato, carrot, parsnip etc, but DS is still only 18 months so we'll see how that goes long-term!

We did any puréed veg and fruit, a wide variety is important to get them used to trying new things. I think we started with butternut, sweet potato, mixing apple with parsnip, you can mix the more bitter veg with sweet. Annabel Karmel recipes are great.

I didn't have a plan. I think DS1 had carrot and broccoli first, DS2 had parsnip. Both pureed and some chunks to hold.

Did that for a week or two then added some porridge at breakfast time, and built up from there. There's not one "right" way to do it.

I think banana was the very first food. After that sweet potato featured alot. I don't believe this sweet tooth thing - babies are naturally going to prefer it. And anything with the right consistency will help him learn to eat. Variety is key. I never had an issue with giving my kids bananas and then have them refuse to eat anything not sweet.

I will say we did all puréed first as ds was weaned at 17 weeks due to reflux issues. By 6 months he was in finger foods.

If you’ve waited until 6 months there’s really no reason to start with a purée. Just gave mine carrot sticks and little broccoli florets and watched as they waved them about then occasionally shoved a bit in their mouth. It was really lovely to see how amazed they were.

Watermelon (DD grabbed it)!
Then, (officially) baby rice, bananas, peas, broccoli, flakes of salmon, apple & pear slices. Then just lots of things.

We did BLW. DD's first foods were veggies-cooked sticks of carrot and courgette and broccoli.

We started doing BLW but DS much prefers to be spoonfed mushy food. For the first week or so, we just did veggies and then gradually introduced other allergens (wheat/dairy/eggs etc) one at a time so by the end of two weeks, he'd had a taste of most things. I definitely got quite stressed at first worrying about what to feed DS but he he has his own strong views. I tend now (he's 7 months) to put three things on his plate - one mushy (yesterday it was a baked sweet potato mashed with some creme fraiche and cheese), one fruit or veggie (sticks of watermelon which he likes to suck) and one 'crunchy' (a rice cake).

Boiled and mashed veggies. Spent many an hour preparing and freezing little cube size pieces. Followed apps and made cheese pin wheels and oath muffins. DD rejected it all until she was about 10 months. If it wasn’t pouched food, she didn’t want to know 🤪

The NHS says “ You can start weaning with single vegetables and fruits – try blended, mashed, or soft cooked sticks of parsnip, broccoli, potato, sweet potato, carrot, apple or pear”. I really don’t think you need to worry about natural sugars in fruits and certain veg. It’s the added sugar you want to avoid for the first few months. Just aim for a bit of everything so that he’s exposed to as many tastes and textures as possible.
I weaned on whatever was convenient - often making a purée out of an unsalted version of what the rest of the family was having. My DD turned 6 months old at the same time that we had a glut of butternut squash in the garden, so she ended up getting lots of that! I also love avocados, so she probably started with a slice or two of mine.

We did blw ( DC are now 9 and 11 so memories are a bit hazy). First thing I remember dc1 eating properly was brocolli , but she quickly progressed to eating everything and anything. Dd2 was slower to get the hang of food and probably has more of a sweet tooth but I couldn't tell you what her first foods were.

Sweet potato and carrot.

Waited until 6 months and gave what we were eating.

DDs first meal was salmon, noodles and broccoli. Not much got eaten but we have cute photos.

By your second, you just throw food on their high chair and hope for the best and occasionally give them some chocolate to see if they stop whinging followed by a pouch of something. My first only ate organic vegetables and special homemade meals from the Ella's Kitchen cook book! I still laugh at my first time mum self 😂

Banana, puréed Apple, sweet potato, carrots etc.