Do you really NOT do purees when introducing solids?

[spidermama]

On some other posts people were saying don't bother doing purees, go straight to finger foods. My 4th child is 6 months old now and I've started putting a few things in front of him.

Previously I've pureed food for the first couple of months because I thought they couldn't handle anything with lumps.

Yesterday I gave him a slice of apple and he choked and had to be patted on the back etc until the apple was retrieved.

Does anyone really start with finger foods? If so, what do you suggest?

spidermama, have CAT you.

I've said this before on this kind of thread, but purees worked for us, in the beginning at least. Ds is now nearly 9mo and is much more into finger foods now, but in the beginning (i.e. 6mo), he didn't really have the fine motor skills for it. He is more of a gross motor skill kid (so far). We did mostly him holding the spoon and licking the puree off it.

One thing that goes down well atm is purees spread thickly on a ricecake so ds can hold and eat it himself. The purees are now just a convenient way of using things like butternut squash - I wouldn't bother cooking a whole one on a regular basis, but it's different if you've got older kids too probably.

Otherwise we do slices of raw fruit, sticks of steamed carrot, courgette, broccoli florets etc.

Oxymoron - will look out for CAT thanks. Hasn't come yet and not sure how long these things take (being a bit of a luddite).

CarolinaMoon - Great idea to put purees on ricecake. Will deffo try that when the time comes.

DS is 10 months and definitely didn't show any interest in lumpy food/finger food until 9 months. He's only just started to 'chew' his food.