Is my 6 month old ready for solids ?

[Alexia26]

Hi

My DD is 6 months old and is exclusively BF. Recently she has been watching us intensely whilst we eat and drink and then becomes seemingly frustrated. Yesterday whilst I was eating a pear she was staring at it ,mouth wide open and then started to whinge and lean forward towards it. The reason I haven't introduced solids yet (I intend to go the BLW route) is because I've been told by our paediatrician and have read in countless articles that she should be sitting unassisted and have lost the tongue thrust reflex, the reflex has pretty much gone now but although she can sit upright she will topple over if not supported . My husband made feel really guilty as if I was denying her the food for the hell of it! . Am I doing the right thing to wait?

Yeah, those parents are just being a bit crap, if that's the case. I wouldn't consider that to be representative of BLW at all. Just like if those same parents were to blend that unsuitable food into a puree and spoonfeed it to their babies, that wouldn't be representative of all spoonfeeders. Literally no one I have met that does BLW would do that.

When I was contemplating weaning, I hadn't got any fixed ideas about what to do and how to approach it. So I did some research and found out about baby led weaning. I read the book and the approach made sense to me - especially as a follow on to ebf, plus I had seen some articles about BLW perhaps meaning less chance of childhood obesity and improved fine motor skills. I liked the idea of my baby learning to eat to their appetite and learn when they are full. I like cooking and planning good food, so I was happy to do that for my baby.

I was quite prepared to do some spoonfeeding if my baby hadn't taken well to self feeding, but fortunately my baby was very keen and picked it up very quickly.

So that was my thought process for choosing to do BLW. The focus was on choosing the best option for my baby, just like pretty much all other half decent parents.

Alexia, hope weaning is going well. Have you found the baby led weaning website yet? It's very handy for recipe ideas etc. I also found the River Cottage Baby & Toddler cookbook to be very useful. The recipes are lovely and have notes about how to adapt for spoonfeeding, BLW and for different ages of babies. There is a long section at the beginning about weaning in general, and about nutrition. I found it very helpful.

I think doing some reading would be very wise for the OP who seems unsure of suitable foods/approaches. I genuinely think that a bit of both is the perfect compromise, so that you can be sure that your baby is getting enough of the right foods whilst developing the motor skills. I don't think there's any compromise on good, home cooked food, mashed or not!
Culture, can I ask how old your child/ren is/are now?

Sorry Culture, another question! Do you purée/mash anything? If not, how does your baby cope with meat?

My "baby" is now nearly 3 I never pureed anything at all.

As for meat, well that wasn't an issue for us as we are vegetarian. I appreciate that this won't be the case for most people though. From observing friends, things like chicken and fish were easy enough to pick up and eat. Red meat seemed ok given as mince, homemade burgers etc. or slow cooked in a stew till tender. I'm not an expert though!

I never puréed anything either, and my boy managed just fine with meat :)

We started prett much exclusively with fruits and vegetables at 6 months anyway, then added cheese and egg, so probably sly didn't even give meat until closer to 7/8 months. Roast chicken is good as a first experiment with meat, as is mince (in something like a bolognaise, for example). I also gave a small amount of ham occasionally (being cautious, because of the salt).

I have to say that Highlow's experience of BLW has been pretty much the opposite to mine - a lot of the puree devotees that I know did it that way because they didn't want to deal with the perceived mess/chaos that happens with BLW so found it easier and less messy to purée and/or spoonfeed. I think for some parents it's also about control - I knew two mothers who found it very hard to sit back and leave their babies to do the choosing and feeding. One of them just couldn't stand not being able to measure and control what went in. BLW is a bit of a leap of faith, I have to say, with some kids, but it's certaibly worked brilliantly for mine, after an initial sometimes rocky start.

I honestly think having a relaxed approach to weaning and being open to trying some BLW but also some purees/ traditional baby food is the best approach.

I used to like feeding dd something I had made for her, it was fun and lovely to see how much she enjoyed it. However I also always made sure she had the opportunity to feed herself and had lots of different tastes and textures to try. Also not sure where things like yogurt fit into BLW as surely a 6mo couldn't feed herself this? My dd used to love some natural yogurt with blitzed up blueberries or similar.

A bit of both is fine op

Yoghurt I used to do on loaded spoons handed to him, and then very quickly my ds was able to dip a spoon himself. Full fat Greek yoghurt worked best for that.

If you can bear the mess, they can scoop yogurt or similar up with their hands. I appreciate this may horrify some people.

I used to give g fruit dippers for yoghurt - things like mango, melon or pear worked well. I also wasn't anove letting him scoop yoghurt sometimes, or dip his fingers in. As Culture suggests! He was using loaded spoons very quickly and could easily feed himself yoghurt with a spoon independently by around 12 months.

Basically, I approached anything remotely liquid (gravy, cheese sauce, hummous etc) as an exercise in dipping!

Hi everyone , hope you all had a good Easter.
Firstly Egg I find it quite odd that you came to the conclusion that my choice to go the BLW route is due to the crap time I had during DD's birth. I mean honestly don't over think these things!
I chose BLW as to me it seems more natural ,more interesting and infinitely more fun than just spooning soup in her mouth.
Secondly I have no wish to starve my child her welfare is my absolute priority and I can assure you that I would not vary at all from our paediatricians advice if WHO were declaring that babies should have nothing but vegetable broth once a day from
6-8 months. Also our paediatricians suggestion was exactly that, a suggestion due to the slightly over cautious medieval mentality of the small town in which we live. I did also state as Culture pointed out that if my DD's weight began to drop I would begin to introduce purées, she is weighed monthly.

Highlow if you read carefully I never said fish wasn't suitable for babies, in reply to Bellyrubs warning about fish high in mercury content ,I said that I was already aware that that fish wasn't suitable. Not fish in general.
Also Highlow just to clarify I am a SAHM with a passion for food and cooking, I'd have literally all day to purée to my hearts content , the fact that I personally have chosen BLW is not due to convenience! I could insinuate the same the same for people who spoon feed to avoid the mess, but instead I just put it down to choice.

Anyway it's all going really well so far since I gave her some cheese which she really loved and swallowed then after that it was as if she realised what she was supposed to do with the food and hasn't looked back. I have offered her pasta ,omelette and greek yoghurt and have made her pea and basil pancakes today which she ate quite a lot of. Now it seems like she has gotten into the swing of nibbling and swallowing things and today after lunch was happily nibbling on a banana with me whilst I was eating it. She likes mostly all the vegetables and fruit i've given her to try too. It's truly wonderful to be able to eat with her and see her having fun and enjoying it! Will be giving her meat tomorrow and mango too but the only thing she dislikes so far is cucumber, heaven knows why lol.