When and how to wean?

[user00119922]

This is probably going to make me sound super thick 😂 But is my baby 6 months old at 24 weeks? Or 6 months after birth?

Either way I will soon be starting to wean baby and I have no idea how to start! I am absolutely petrified of baby choking. So what sorts of food did you give your baby as a starting point? How did you make sure they weren't going to choke? Are there any foods to completely avoid?

Any help would be very much appreciated!

I don't think it really matters. For simplicity, I counted 6 months from their 6 month birthday (born 1st of Jan, so start on 1st of June). I couldn't be bothered to be counting weeks and stressing about that.

If you are worried about choking, take a first aid course. But to be honest, I did baby led weaning with both of mine and they started out with normal food from day 1. They're 7 & 2 now and neither of them have ever choked on anything. 1st one, her first meal was Sunday lunch, so colcannon, roasted carrots and parsips in herbs and garlic, and a yorkshire pudding. The 2nd one I actually don't even remember, but I think it probably would have been cucumber sticks, melon, and pasta because I can remember we were on holiday and they ate a lot of that that week.

The only thing they can't have at 6 months is lots of added sugar or salt, whole nuts or honey. Try not to stress too much about the details. It's really not a big deal and offering them little bits of what you are eating is the easiest way.

I counted by months as pp above said as found i lost track of weeks!
I tried started on baby rice and purees to begin with as was also scared of chocking but baby refused to be spoon fed so gave up and just gave him a banana sliced in half lengthways and he happily put that straight in his mouth for a gooey suck. He's 10 months now and has whatever we have quite happily.

Its up to you how you feed baby but maybe look up what to do if baby chokes and familiarise yourself with babys eating by videos on YouTube as my DH used to worry whenever baby would gag on food but it was just his way of reacting when certain foods hit the back of his throat and would spit them out himself if too large.

Baby Led Weaning, read the Gill Rapley books.
Babies very rarely choke if given the right things (eg not whole grapes), they do gag a lot which is entirely normal and not a bad thing, they have to learn to control food in their mouth and to use their tongue and they will frequently gag food back out.

You don’t have to start on 6 months, we started when DD was ready which was a few dats after. The 6 months is the not before date, not a date you must start.

In week 1 DD had broccoli, green beans, toast, Chilli con carne, pasta, fruit etc. basically some of whatever we had. To start with very little gets swallowed but they quickly learn.
It’s brilliant fun