How to actually start weaning?

[CheesyGhost]

My DD is 23 weeks, EBF and never had so much as a taste of food. I want to wait until she's 26 weeks because that's what my HV and research says is best; I've no idea how true this is but she's a content and happy baby so I'm not in a rush to do it any earlier. I appreciate it's coming up fast and I don't really know what I'm doing. All the weaning threads I've seen recently seem to be for babies weaned before 6 months so you see a lot of comments like 'if you're weaning before 6 months just offer A, B and C' but as I'll be weaning at 6 months, how is the advice different? What should her first tastes be? What did you offer your baby first? Should I go straight in to 3 meals a day with sugar and salt free versions of whatever we're having? Or should I start with just one spoonful of puree first for a few days then start with something else?
Thank you.

Start with one meal a day. Pick a time that suits you. Start with veg single flavour at a time. I would purée some and boil some so it's soft and can be eaten as a finger food. Have a look at joe wicks weaning it's good.

For the first two weeks, I just offered one type of food a day at a time when I knew DS wouldn't be massively hungry. We did a mix of spoon feeding and BLW. For the first week, it was mainly vegetables (some mashed up sweet potato, broccoli, steamed carrot etc) and from the second week I started to introduce allergens like yoghurt, wheat and nuts but generally one at a time so I knew if there were any reactions. DS moved to two meals a day (breakfast and a late lunch) about 7 1/2 months and three meals a day at about 9 months. They really don't need very much food to begin with, it's just about tastes and exploring new textures and sensations. DS wasn't interested in finger foods for the first couple of months and only wanted to be spoon fed. Now it's the complete reverse. Prepare for lots of mess and wasted food!

I'm just coming into my 2nd week of weaning DS, we started a couple of days shy of him turning 6 months.
The MESS is unreal, how can someone so small make so much mess 😂

Basically we've been offering bits of veg to start so we were doing soft boiled broccoli and carrot sticks about the size he could hold with his fist with a bit sticking out as well as lumpy things like sweet potato mash. He's also had toast fingers with a smidge of soft cheese on as well as breadsticks to suck, banana, cucumber sticks and pitta bread pizza with cheese and tomato puree on.

We picked evening meal time so he can sit with us and watch us eat. I sound ridiculous getting all excited and proclaiming everything is 'yummy' but it works! Good luck, I was petrified at first.

I’ve just started weaning my second and have very much done what @crumpets20 says. I offer food at breakfast and dinner going straight into finger food and offering different bits. I started with purées with my first DC and then worked up to finger foods but I much prefer this way of doing it.

Do you have do puree with finger foods along side or just finger foods (blw)? There is no hard evidence to say one is better than the other.

If there is no history of allergies then make sure you give the top allergens after a couple of weeks and keep giving them regularly to reduce the risk of developing allergies.