Please help me with food ideas for 6 month old ?

[Lora88]

She’s nearly 7 months and I really want to feed her more variety other than baby jars but I honestly don’t know what to give her or how big the portions should be , I’m terrified of her choking! So far I’ve given her toast cut into fingers

Soft pieces of penne pasta
Avocado
White fish, tuna (the kind in water, not brine), salmon
Butter beans
Scrambled egg
cheese matchsticks
cooked carrot batons, broccoli florets, baby sweetcorn, green beans
boiled potato or butternut chunks
torn up tortilla wrap
chopped up sausage (baked, not grilled as the skin would be too tough)
sliced hard boiled egg
torn up cooked chicken breast

Omelette www.nhs.uk/start4life/weaning/recipes-and-meal-ideas/omelette-fingers/
Porridge fingers www.cgbabyclub.co.uk/baby/feeding/weaning/recipes/7-plus-months/banana-porridge-fingers.html
Falafel www.nhs.uk/start4life/weaning/recipes-and-meal-ideas/falafel/
Veggie balls www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/veggie-balls/
This lentil slice makes great finger food www.healthylittlefoodies.com/curried-lentil-bake/

I went to a baby weaning talk when my 4yo was weaning. They said at 6 months you can go straight to family food which was vastly different to what we were told with Dd1 who is now 9... Dd3 has just hit 6 months and the advice hasn't really changed so we're going to do much the same thing. We'll start with bits she can pick up eg soft carrot sticks and pasta twirls or things we can dip a spoon in and see how she goes. She tries to grab my sandwiches and things at the moment but just plays with the bread.she watches us all like a hawk so I'm sure that will soon change...

Reading up on baby first aid might help with your natural anxiety about choking... there's a big difference between gagging as they learn to chew and swallow and actually choking, as a guide, jump into action if it's silent, coughing and spluttering means the gag reflex is working.
One other thing, Have you been warned about banana Op? It comes out the other end more solid than breast milk obviously but it can have tiny red wiggles in... It's not worms !

Tiny bits of everything you eat (obviously don’t go crazy with the salt while cooking) to see what she likes (avoiding choking hazards).

I know they can technically have anything, but my 8 month old can’t eat half of the list above. He has no teeth. If I gave him a piece of sweet corn he would just spilt it out.

At 6 months if I gave him penne pasta, he just licked it, got annoyed and threw it on the floor. Only now in the last week at 8+ months can he start gumming it a bit.

So from our experience. I purée a bit also so he gets proteins ( he can’t eat meat or beans or lentils while yet, just spits out) and give a bit of purée first so he wasn’t frustrated and gets a more balanced meal, then finger food to try.

Finger food wise, success so far:
Avocado, roasted chunks pumpkin or sweet potato, banana, flaked fish, raspberry, kiwi, satsuma if peeled skin off, toast, grated cheese, potato.

He gets porridge with fruit purée for breakfast and Greek yogurt later in the day, both spooned in my us

Just looking back at photos of DS eating when he was 6 months (he loved his food so was eating in almost every picture!). He was having cooked pasta shells with sauce, mild curry with chunks of cauliflower and potato, baked beans with strips of toast, steamed carrot sticks, baby corn cut into thinner strips, thin sticks of melon, banana, falafels with hummus, potato cakes, slightly smashed butter beans, and Ella’s kitchen melty sticks and sweetcorn rings. He had no teeth but mashed everything with his gums!

Oh and fingers of bread with a scraping of peanut butter.

Give her what you are eating. Well obviously modified or not certain things but at 7 months mine would eat roast dinners, shepherds pie, pasta, mild curry etc I shredded meat with two forks

Ps never own a blender so squashing with a fork was as baby food as it got long before baby led weaning had been dreamt up

A Mumsnetter shared this link with me and I found it really helpful - it is based on the nutrients young children need and covers meal plans inc portion sizes by age including recipes with pictures www.cwt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/CHEW-1stYearLifePracticalGuide.pdf

This is really useful.
Just starting weaning DS 6 months.
He watches us eat like a hawk & goes to grab.
He'll suck food but doesn't seem interested in actually swallowing/eating?
I've tried a couple of jars. He seems to like the flavour but what goes in he just spits back out!

They can break down food with their gums but have to learn to do so. If you concentrate on eating yourself you’ll see that you move the food around in your mouth without thinking about it — they have to learn to make all those little movements. So it isn’t a wasted effort even if they just suck things and spit it out. They get almost all their nutrition from milk still so it doesn’t matter.

I think it isn’t quite correct they get all they need from milk.
At 6 months, ds was breastfeeding more than as a newborn, waking again every hour almost all night to feed still. He was hungry.

Now 8 months, he still wakes 2-3 times overnight, but it’s far better. He now goes 3+ hours daytime in between milk feeds also instead of constantly feeding.

I've just bought the 'What Mummy Makes' cookbook for my 6 month old. Has some great ideas!

Honestly, just what we ate, well cooked, no salt, whole nuts or honey. Ds wouldn't eat anything I made specifically for him so it was just easier to crack on and slightly adapt family meals

@MsMiaWallace

This is really useful. Just starting weaning DS 6 months. He watches us eat like a hawk & goes to grab. He'll suck food but doesn't seem interested in actually swallowing/eating? I've tried a couple of jars. He seems to like the flavour but what goes in he just spits back out!

It might be he's not quite ready if not swallowing- that might be the tongue thrust reflex.

Sucking is part of learning to eat- he doesn't yet know what food is for after all. He's showing an interest, letting him suck/chomp/ taste is part of that.

He'll get it soon enough (and you'll know about it from the dirty nappies)

Nanny Louenna has an app thats got an entire section on recipes and weaning. Ive found it really useful.