Weaning not so baby led..

[sleepdeprivedmummy1987]

Morning everybody.

I'm after some advise but English is not my first language so be patient with any mistakes please.

My baby is 6 months and this time around I wanted to offer finger foods instead of purées. I did my paediatric first aid course last week and we started slowly. Baby boy already sits up and seems interested to play with food.

I also have a little girl that is 3 and a half and when he sees her eating her porridge for example he starts screaming and looking at her demanding to have some. However as far as finger foods he doesn't want to bring them in his mouth. He will squeeze them and they will slip off. I've tried to make little cuts and leave some skin on, again nothing. Then I tried to hold it for him thinking if he has a taste he might think about bringing it to the mouth and he loved the taste but still won't bring to mouth. When I stop holding the food he screamed for more.

My questions are

1. in BLW are you meant to encourage them to try by holding the food

2.if you are not meant to hold, how can you encourage?

Again I'm very new to this so if I'm saying or doing something wrong please excuse me.

Thanks x

Your son sounds the same as my youngest.

We spoon fed her a bit of our dinner just before we ate then put a few bits on the table/highchair for her to play with whilst we ate beside her.

She enjoyed playing with it and was eating mostly finger foods by 8 months.

It is baby lead if you're following their cues, if he wants you to help him then that's fine :)

My DD was exactly the same, she was drooling watching others eat but then wouldn't put any in her mouth, or would and then spat it out again!! She also wouldn't take a spoon initially. I just let her play with it, kept up lots of milk feeds and around 7.5 months she suddenly got much better and started chewing and swallowing loads. 6 months is still tiny and from my experience with DD1 if they eat too much at the beginning they get badly constipated so I think slow is better!!

It's fine for you to help if they want it. Give some for him to play with and you help when he wants it.

Try putting a blob of porridge and some cut up fruit on his tray and sit him with his sister. She might enjoy demonstrating.

He will probably mush it into his hair but he'll get there.

Honesty I would just give finger food and spoon feed too. If you wanted to go down the truly baby led weaning route then you can give him a preloaded spoon of porridge.

Do a bit of each there is nothing wrong with giving him something in his hand and spoon feeding him BLW is just a style of weaning "traditional" weaning is fine.

How long have you been weaning? It's a new skill so it takes a while to learn.