weaning and finger food

[claremoss]

Hi,
I have just started weaning my 6 MO. Do I have to give her finger food as well as puree'd? She was gagging on a piece of avocado today and I just feel it might be too early, but lots of websites/books etc say you can give FF straight away?

If it's not working for her I would just stick with the puréed stuff until she gets the hang of it.

Avocado is pretty slippy (in the fingers and in the mouth) why don't you try her with something that's maybe a bit easier for her to manage, e.g. toast fingers or a chunky cucumber stick (with the skin on one side to help her hold it) that might give you a better idea of whether she needs to wait a little while or whether she just needs to start off on finger foods that might be a bit easier for her to manage?

I found the most successful early finger foods for dd2 were buttery toast fingers which she could suck on, and I used to give her a fairly large chunk of banana with a circle of peel remaining like a little belt around the middle of it, to help her hold it. Those little net bags with plastic handles which are designed for baby weaning are good for giving tastes of fruit like mango and melon, which they can't grip yet. But don't put banana in it, as it is a nightmare to wash out! She liked sucking on the inside of a cucumber stick too, the watery inner part, although when she got a bit stronger and could bite bits off she then started gagging on it. Now at 15mo I still have to give her cucumber pieces with the skin cut off. I fed dd2 purees but she liked to have some finger foods to play with and chomp on at the same time. She is now a good eater so our approach worked well for her, although it took her till 7mo to start to get the hang of it and become keen to really eat the food.

There is nothing wrong with gagging. Most babies do it and it doesn't mean they are choking. A baby's gag reflex is further forward than an older child or adults.
Just offer sensible sized fingers of food, keeping skin on things and sometimes lightly steaming them makes the more manageable.