Weaning - 25 weeks. AIBU to continue?

[throwcushions]

Baby is 25 weeks and a few days old - i.e. very nearly six months. After a long time waiting I decided to start off with a bit of weaning once per day, as she is sitting unaided for a minute or so (tripod sit), has grabbed my food a couple of times and seemed to have lost the strong tongue thrust reflex. So far I've tried baby rice with EBM and a couple of veg purees. Each time she has not been very interested and has scraped her tongue along her top lip to push most of the food off (though a bit of it must have gone down as I saw it in her nappy, yum!). I'm a bit disheartened and not sure what to do.

I'm getting comments from family either that I shouldn't have waited so long to wean or that she still has the tongue thrust reflex and so is not ready. I doubt that because I can now feed her Calpol and vitamin D drops quite easily whereas before she would push it out and it was difficult to get her to swallow.

She shows no interest in finger foods on her high chair though she has grabbed the spoon and put it in her mouth a few times. I wanted to do a mix of BLW and purees and my current thinking is to continue with the veg purees and offering finger foods but skip baby rice as she didn't like it and there's no reason to get her used to it. I am quite keen to get started now because I'm going back to work soon and everyone else I know has weaned early with great success - leading me to be secretly a bit concerned that she might become a fussy eater because I waited until I saw the signs around 6 months, though I know and understand why the NHS recommends that.

On the other hand, I want food to be a positive thing and I don't want to keep giving it to her if she isn't ready as it might upset her. Has anyone been in a similar position with weaning? Is it just a case of persevering and involving her at our mealtimes as we are now or should I stop and wait some more? Or perhaps the food is too bland?! I'm pretty confused as to the best course of action. Also what time is best - I've been giving it straight after her first nap so about 1.5 hours after her first milk feed.

Baby rice is vile. I started both ours on baby porridge which they both enjoyed. There's lots of different brands and flavours so you can try a variety. Good luck x

Roger that Laurie. I was always asked ‘are you doing BLW?’ Answer was always ‘I dunno...just sort of giving her food here....’ and always met with confused faces.

I was waiting for the first person to preach the BLW gospel, well done purplelion

Really don't stress it. At 6 months or thereabouts they're old enough not to need to go through a strict weaning programme with different stages of purees and the like. Just try different things and see how you get on. Some babies take a little while to get it. Both of mine went from 'am I doing this right/is it too early/will they ever eat?' to hoovering up anything and everything within about 2-3 weeks. Some take much longer, some much less.

I don't think you need to be a purist about whether you're doing blw or not. Although if you make purées maybe you are a purist (boom-tish!!)

Sounds like you're doing fine. Bits and pieces is great. The key thing is to relax about it because stress feeds itself and is not a good start with food.

I got myself into a right state with dd1, messes of purée everywhere, clippy boxes that would hold only a teaspoon full, blah blah. It's not necessary. I reckon your relaxed/combined approach is the best.

Thanks so much all for the helpful replies. As usual I was being a bit neurotic! We had a really successful dinner with her eating a couple of teaspoons of roast sweet potato and even feeding herself a spoonful. Could actually see her eating it properly so I'm pretty relaxed that the tongue reflex has gone and that the timing was right. Will carry on as we are and offer loaded spoons if she carries on spurning finger food.

With brownie thief DS I gave him bananas and avocado - nutrient rich and squashable and beggar all preparation 😁

I think I prefer brownies (having eaten three today myself ).

I gave my DC baby porridge for breakfast for a week or so, then introduced some mashed fruit- banana or something as a snack, then introduced food at lunch, then finally evening meal. Personally I found gradual increase in daily food intake worked for us, DC1 no problems at all, DC2 a little more fussy, messy, sometimes would just spit every mouthful out DH really could not cope with this but at 5yro and 2.5yro they're both fab eaters now.