If you decided not to do Baby Led Weaning...

[PlaytimePolly]

Looking for advice from anyone who started with purée. My DS is 6.5 months and we have been weaning for 3 weeks as per the NHS guidance. Unlike the recommendation to start with BLW I have gone with puréed veg and then moved onto puréed or mashed fruit and veg, natural yoghurt, scrambled egg... so far. I found that when the moment arrived I couldn't get my head round BLW or finger foods and felt too nervous. (I'm not a nervous mum generally so I surprised myself).

Yesterday I tried him with a small bit of finger food (sliced avocado and soft pear sticks) but he struggled to do anything much other than mush them in his hands and down the chair, and when he did eat a bit he started choking, which was scary. When we use a spoon he eats well and is able to hold the spoon and feed himself.

For anyone who started with purée and not BLW, how on earth do you progress from here? (Ie now that he's confident eating all kinds of purée and mash). He has now tried a vast array of veg and a bit of dairy. What next? I have the River Cottage book and another 'mummy cooks' book but they just have normal recipes in them like frittata, muffins, pancakes, pasta, pizza etc. I know how to cook so I don't really need recipes. I just need advice on what to start introducing now in order to move him into normal food.

This “food before 1 is for fun” is a dangerous myth. It’s not true. From 6 months babies require extra nutrients.

I was totally into the idea of BLW... but my baby had other ideas. He was very upset and frustrated that he couldn't manage to get the food in his mouth, just absolutely furious so all my 'plans' went out of the window.

We ended up giving him purees until he was almost full and then some finger food which he could play with and get the hang of eating without the frustration.

Honestly, I think it is really good not to get swept up in any idea/fad and be aware of them all and just pick and choose what works for your baby and you. Put them and their actual needs at the centre basically.

It is all just eating anyway!

Don't worry about it. Babies at purée and lumpy food for years, and developed normal eating habits. My BLW boy used to eat everything as a baby and was a fat little Buddha, but now he is a skinny, picky little eater who exists on noodles. Other foods of course, but a miserable eater who only recently ate meat (was anaemic), and will only eat carrots and peeled and sliced apple. As a baby he would feed himself oranges. 😳

As others have said,make the purées gradually coarser, start to put in things like peas whole. Progress very finely chopped food on a spoon. Also leave out pieces of cracker, fruit, veg etc. If they are big enough your baby will chew on them but wont becable to get enough on its mouth to choke, they break of small bits at a time. I gave mine all kinds as meal accessories. Dd liked watermelon in big chunks to chew on and sweetcorn as well ham in tiny pieces most. Progress to food cut up very small and increase the size. As long as the pieces are small ish and children don't put too much in their mouth in one go they are fine. It helps to have a drink if water handy in case they get stuck on something too.

@doireallyneedaname

This “food before 1 is for fun” is a dangerous myth. It’s not true. From 6 months babies require extra nutrients.

They really do not!

Should still get all the essential nutrients from breast milk/formula.

BLW is more to for practise to eat themselves. So glad I did it. I started purees earlier than 6 months and then finger foods at 6 months. Hes now an amazing eater at 8.5 months. Eats what we eat and does it so well

Purées and finger foods isn’t a mix of traditional and baby led weaning, it’s just traditional weaning as finger foods are introduced alongside purée at some point.

Baby won’t choke. Gagging is actually a good thing as they are learning to deal with solid food.

If you want a half way position instead of purées go I would mash with a fork and have foods such as spag bol, casserole, scrambled eggs etc for a few weeks.even in the old days of starting with purées by 6 months babies were on to lumpy food.One of the most important parts of weaning is to eat with your baby and let them watch what you do and learn what you like.

I also started all mine on purées before 6 months. By 6 months it was mashed food and some finger foods.

Plus it saves on hours of steaming, pureeing and freezing.

You don't have to spend hours steaming and pureeing. I just used to take some of the veg I boiled for myself anyway and mash them up with a fork on the plate & freeze any leftovers by putting them in an ice-cube tray. Doubt I spent 5 minutes a day on it.

As for non BLW babies being fussy, in that case the whole of my generation should be super-fussy as pretty well all parents started with purees when babies were about 4 months.

Tbh I started with purees when I had my first, and even at 9/10 months he struggled and would choke on anything other than custard textures...even making something slightly lumpy he'd choke repeatedly. This went on until he was about 1.
My daughter is 8mo I tried her with baby cereal when she was abiut 4mo but she wouldn't have any of it....one day... I was sat eating dinner with her on my lap and she reached out and grabbed a whole chicken leg off of my plate and pulled it to her mouth and just started trying to chew on it. After that day she was easily eating sandwiches (picking up and pulling to her mouth) sushi rolls, broccoli, (she's not had a food she doesn't like). It's so very different to my other children. She won't drink from a bottle, sippy cup she will only drink from a actual cup which she holds herself. She actually prefers and always has to feed herself as opposed to having someone spoon feed her.

I think when kids are ready they're ready and it might be earlier or later. My nephew is 10mo and he won't pick up food or try to feed himself he's quite happy to have mum feed him and he's still on soft mushy foods

So mine are just 1 and the older one 5. With both- we never did X or Y of any method religiously. We just went through things as things happened. This means we let them pick up and eat whatever they grabbedwithin reason - if that’s what we were eating - bread veg egg etc. But we also spoon fed mashed up whatever meal we were having usually curries. So we didn’t purée things for them especially just mashed up a bit from our dinner plates and we didn’t stop them picking grabbing eating anything which they also did.

You see I come from a country where all these things don’t have method names and labels attached to them - people just do what they do and that’s what we did. They are marvellously diverse eaters with tastes for things many would consider highly acquired/unusual at 1 and 5. Because of all the curries they also have a high spice tolerance level