Weaning query: purée or mash?

[Fizzl]

About to start weaning today now my baby is 6months. Probably should have looked into this more but going with the winging it approach and hoping for the best! I have a general idea of what I'm doing and going to do a mix of finger foods and purées. Question about purée though, is it ok just to mash the veg with a fork? Not sure I want the faff of blitzing everything if I can just mush it with a fork? I'm going to start with veg and batch cook and freeze some today and it's only just occurred to me. Logically I'm thinking mashed up will be fine if she's going to be given some finger foods as well?

As she’s 6 months there’s technically no need to mash or purée anything. I didn’t. DD just had what we were having as it was (baby led weaning).

Purée is French for mash.

Depends on your baby. My first would only accept the runniest most pureed purées at first, more like a juice or a soup. Fork masking would not have been enough. My second was happy with textures and finger foods from day one.

How many teeth does LO have? My HV said if they've got a couple of teeth, fine to mash with a fork.

@ISaidDontLickTheBin

How many teeth does LO have? My HV said if they've got a couple of teeth, fine to mash with a fork.

You can do BLW with babies with no teeth……..

I wouldn't think teeth would make much difference, since the front teeth come through first and they make no difference to chewing.
Mashing is fine for a 6 month old.

Thanks everyone kind of confirms what I thought! Our plan is to give her bits from whatever we're eating once we've got these initial few weeks out the way. She doesn't have any teeth yet but like others have said I didn't think that would matter as baby led weening can be started at this age too?

I would just try and see! My first would have been fine with this. My second was funny with textures and blw didn't work at all for her, it had to be super soft purées but her teeth were very late and she has a tiny mouth - she still struggles with some textures now at 2 and a half!

Mine is now 7 months old has no teeth but from the outset has definitely preferred a lumpier approach to purees so I quickly gave up blending anything for her.

I used the jars and pouches for the different ages. Didn’t want to do blw.

Just watch the salt content if giving her whatever you’re having

We just added more foods with quite 'mashy' textures for a while as a family to save time, things like thick lentil soup, cottage pie and risotto. DS could manage those foods quite well, he wasn't a fan of purée.

Thanks everyone, some useful tips/advice! Does look like it's a bit of trial and error though to see what they like/works. But at least I know it's ok to try her with lumpier foods!

@BalladOfBarryAndFreda thank you, it's a good point and something I had already thought about but I'll make sure I'm mindful of this. We don't tend to add salt to our cooking but we do like gravy and add stock which I know is high in salt so I'll make sure to avoid this in her portions.

My eldest didn't have teeth until 13 months. She ate normal food from 6 months. First dinner was a roast. No mashing at all.