not sure ebf five and a half month will be ready for food in 2 weeks....

[ilovemydogandMrObama]

She's exclusively b/f and not sure that she will be ready. She isn't really sitting up, and is showing zero interest in food.

If I decide to EBF her past 6 months, will this be a problem?

6 mo is the average time, some are ready before and some after. You could always try her on a bit of sweet potato or a stick of banana if blw and see what she does with it!

Theres no problem AFAIK with EBF for a little bit longer. I would do BLW in your situation - no formal introduction to food, just have her with you at meals. If she can sit in a highchair with support you could just put some well cooked veg on her tray to play with while you eat your meal, no pressure to try it, just for it to become familiar to play with, experiment with.

My son took til past 9m to really become interested in anything other than indiscriminate flinging of food. Its fine. He's nearly 14 months now and happily eats meals. (still with flinging though )

It shouldn't be a problem. Babies begin to need some nutrients in addition to breast milk (iron and zinc I think) sometime between 6 and 8 months.

Have a look at the baby-led weaning book which goes into detail about when a baby is ready and how to introduce complementary foods. It's a good read even if you decide to use puree.

All babies are different, mine grabed a sandwhich at 5 1/2 months and shoved it in his mouth! He was also sitting up well at 5 months. Others dont seem to be ready for a while longer.

Neither of mine were the slightest bit interested in food till they were 7/8 months.

Now they are 3 and 6 and don't stop eating :o

Don't worry, no one fires a starting pistol and then you have to wean.

I think that you really have to be led by her, and if she's not sitting up well then I don't think I'd be inclined to give her solids either.

I agree that BLW would be a good plan, then she leads, no pressure on you, she might have a suck on something, she might not. And most importantly when busy bodies ask you if you have weaned her you can sound confident in your plan and not have to have them fussing over you what they think is best [hwink]

good luck.

Stick some food in front of her at six months and see what happens. Do it regularly and she will eat in her own time. My son wasn't in the slightly interested until eight months when he started eating huge amounts over night. If you look at parenting books from the 1960s or earlier they didn't start weaning until 7-9months.

thank you all! Am feeling so much more reassured, and love the comment: 'no one fires a starting pistol...'

Here was a huge . called my H/V. Yes, the one who suggested I should improve the quality of breast milk by consuming double cream , and she said to give it until six and a half months, and if still not ready, may be an idea to come in and get some vitamins to give her, but other than that, to let her determine readiness.

Great idea about sitting her in front of food at 6 months.

Quite a few BLW babies don't start eating till 9 or 10 months. We did BLW and it was great - allows you to go at exactly the right pace.

hahahaha at eating double cream to improve breast milk quality .

My DD is 5.5 months and ebf and I don't think she'll be ready for solids at 6mo either. She's crap at sitting and isn't grabbing much for stuff and still seems to have a tongue thrust reflex. I'm going to wait til she can sit semi supported in the high chair (have an ikea one) and then have her at the table and give her some bits to play with eat and see what happens. DS didn't manage to feed himself much at all til more like 8 mo iirc. Going to keep ebfing til then too. She's had a tummy upset this last week so in no hurry to introduce anything other than bm atm anyway.
ROFL at double cream comment.

I'd wait until she can sit and then bung some food in front of her as she sits at the table with you and see what happens.

Incidentally, the sitting thing can change very quickly. My DD literally couldn't sit for a second one day, and the next could sit for 30 seconds or so. Within a week she could sit for ages.

If you are ebf after 6 months your baby won't be getting enough iron and other vitamins (esp vit d) so you will need to visit your gp to talk about vit supplements as far as I understand it