Still not ready for weaning at 6 months??

[karryk]

Hello

I have a 6 month old daughter and we started weaning her onto solids this week (she's 27 weeks now). Day one I tried pureed potato and she took a tiny bit then spat it out and cried. Day two it was broccoli and she cried once the spoon touched her lips. Today was carrot which is sweeter but she cried as soon as she saw the spoon and refused to try even a tiny bit.

I've tried to offer when she's not too hungry or full. Appreciate it's only day 3 so I'm not panicking (yet) but does anyone else have a similar story? My friends' babies seem to have taken to food straight away

We even tried feeding in the living room today and on my lap so as to make it comfy but she's not interested. Are some babies just not ready until they're older than the suggested guidelines? She's drinking milk as usual. She can sit up quite well although not great at grabbing and holding things yet as doesn't use her thumbs much.

Any words of wisdom very welcome! X

Neither of mine ever let me feed them purées, off a spoon or by any other method! I gave up after a week as it was just frustrating for us both and gave them finger foods. Both were entirely feeding themselves with a fork by a year old.

Just to counter a PP's experience - I didn't give my DD any sweet food for the first month and she took to it fine (she does devour fruit now though 😂).

My youngest wasn't remotely interested in purees, so we weaned with finger foods.

Remember, at six months their calories/nutrition comes from milk, and actual food is just a process.

They don't really eat much in the early days of BLW, but it's the process of picking food up and getting it near their mouth.

Steamed sticks of carrot and parsnip are good to begin with I found. They didn't eat much but they enjoyed playing with it and would have a bit of a taste. If you want to do purees (I did both, so not actually BLW but we had some medical issues to contend with) getting some little Ella's Kitchen stage 1 pouches makes life a bit easier

Totally, I understand about it being about exploration and fun at this stage I just didn't think she'd have such a negative reaction...ftm naivety!

I was using the Ella's Kitchen book which said to start with veg so that's confusing. I'll stick with purees for a bit longer and if we're not getting anywhere it'll have to be finger food even though I'm slightly petrified of her choking hence going down the blended route!

They can still choke on purée (sorry to be honest). I did purée with my first and blw with my second and I much preferred blw, much less of a faff and he just loved food more. Gagging isn’t the same as choking and if you’re worried about choking then it really is worth doing a choking course which the Nct and the Red Cross run (I’m a paeds nurse so totally recommend this).

Look into baby led weaning, no pureeing and I found it so much less stressful. Basically let baby feed themselves cucumber sticks, banana chunks etc. At 6 months they still need milk as the dominant form of nutrients

Haven’t read all the comments but another vote here for baby led weaning or a mixture of the two here.
They do gag quite a lot for the first week or two as they figure out the need to chew rather than just swallow straight away and the gagging can worry you but gagging is a protective reflex and exactly what they should be doing. Gagging is not choking. You just have to cut food so they are in a shape which would not obstruct their airway, make sure you never leave them alone while they eat and watch some Red Cross YouTube videos on choking first aid.
Would thoroughly recommend a first aid for parents course too.
There’s a good book on baby led weaning by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murket which explains it nicely.
Personally I don’t think I would enjoy my food very much if I was being spoon fed with little or no choice about what I eat and at what pace I eat it. Perhaps your little one just wants to be independent?
I started with things like mashed potato, very soft cooked carrot sticks, courgette sticks and broccoli florets straight in front of her on the (clean) high chair table for her to eat with her hands while we ate at the same time.
Good luck. I’m sure you’ll get there.