Baby led weaning- to continue or just do purée?

[Cleanqueennot]

My baby turned 6 months old last Thursday. We want to do baby led weaning so have been giving him one new food per day. So far he’s tried broccoli, cauliflower, parsnip, pasta, potato, natural yogurt and today was chicken. We are first time parents and don’t really know what to expect but it seems very slow. I know with BLW you are supposed to just put the food in front of them and let them feed themselves but if we did this the food would just sit there or end up on the floor. So we have tried to help him eat and taste the food.

Mostly he licks it and scrunches up his face and then that’s it! Anyone here done the BLW route? Should we just stick at it? I don’t want it to be so slow that baby eventually loses interest in food and prefers to just stick to breastfeeding. I’ve read that there is a window of opportunity when they are more likely to try new foods. I don’t want to waste the opportunity window by being too slow or is this just normal? If I preserve will we reap the rewards later on?

@Cleanqueennot you sound anxious, and I totally understand that - serving food to a baby at first is scary, especially with all the seemingly conflicting advice. It sounds like you've already got off to a great start with a wide variety of foods. But honestly, you don't need to worry so much about serving single items, and always looking for allergies with every single type of food combination (you've done pasta once, so gluten is done). As long as you've ticked off the obvious (nuts, eggs, diary, fish/shellfish, gluten), which it sounds like you have, and if not, I'd serve those early on to get it over with, then crack on with normal meals you are already cooking. Yes you need to be mindful or salt, but the odd salty meal, like a cheese sauce, won't harm them - just never add it to their food and make sure across the day there isn't too much (so I wouldn't do a cheese sandwich for lunch and then a cheese sauce for dinner when they were under 1, for example). Weaning is a lot more scary in your head then it needs to be in practice, so try and enjoy watching your little one throwing your tasty mac and cheese around the kitchen, because it can be a really fun time!!!

There's really not that much salt in the amount of Mac and cheese most 6 month olds will consume under their own steam.

Allergies can start at anytime, I got one at 21 and another I found when weaning my second when I was 26! I knew what the problem food was instantly because only one of the major allergens was something I hadn't had a lot recently.

In Mac and cheese is not likely to be dairy because they would have shown up already most likely, depending on how you make it maybe a mustard allergy or gluten but if they'd also had toast earlier and been fine maybe it's not that. Also Non IGE allergies are slow and it might be a process to figure out what caused it, not as simple and easy as eat X and get a rash instantly