Baby Led at five months?

[DialMforMother]

Our five month old dd is grabbing food and we have let her have a taste of banana. I know that 6 months is recommended and we're certainly not feeding her but she seems to really want to taste food we are eating - fruit in particular. The question is - is this OK? We were going to wait to six months and do baby led so it seems a bit perverse to stop her tasting things she clearly wants to.

Anu advice much appreciated.

I had the same thing with my 5 month DS. He can sit unaided and was trying to grab people's food!! We let him try them, but only when he tried to grab it and only if he could do it himself :-)

I did feel guilty because the guidelines say 6 months, but every baby is different and he looked really really sad and confused when I wouldn't let him have things!

He had bananas, rice cakes and slices of apple - all finger foods so that he was in control.

(actually his first food was a lick of icecream, i'm a terrible mum, lol!)

You're not alone- DD is just over 6mths and it would be hard to say when we started BLW as it was so gradual, but we've been doing it "properly" (several times a day and in the high chair) for at least a couple of weeks. Because you want to be guided by the baby it can be hard to wait until that 6 mth birthday if they are sitting up and grabbing food and putting it in their mouth.

Like many people I know, I was also keen to start a little before 6 mths for practical reasons. In my case I go back to work in less than a month and wanted her to be through the worst of the gagging and nothing going down stage before she starts to be looked after by other people who are not familiar with BLW.

Not sure if there's any truth in this, but a friend justified her DC's slightly early start by saying that due date's more important than actual birthday i.e. if they were born overdue their gut is more mature than if born early.

i was going to go by ds's due date for weaning, he was ridiculously late so this would have meant early weaning going by dob. But i posted on here and someone said their gut doesnt start to develop until birth so dob is the relevant date. Havent looked it up to be sure but it made sense cos its only after birth their tummy is really put to real work.

I'm in pretty much the same position, but with a 4.5 month old. I read the WHO report and whilst it says that by 6 months most babies are ready and it is recommended to wait until then, some babies are ready at 4 months and there is no harm in weaning them then. Signs that seem to relate to the necessary physical development are sitting up, losing the tongue thrust reflex and sticking everything in their mouths. However, they do say that if you wean before 6 months they should only have purée, not sure why.

Pain as I wanted to do BLW, but DS was grabbing more and more at our foods and getting cross when he wasn't allowed any. So we now do a mix of purée, which he gobbles down like a mad thing, and putting pieces of very soft foods, like banana or steamed carrot sticks in front of him. Mind you, he spent 20 minutes today sat with me sucking a piece of apple, so we're making it up as we go along too.

They will all be ready at different ages, just like everything else with babies so just follow their lead!

We BLW DS. He self-started at 4.5 months with green beans from my plate. We just went with the flow but steered him quite strongly towards vegetables and fruit until he reached 6 months.

Although he tasted most things, I suppose he didn't really get into eating until he was 7 or 8 months.

It's just keeping up with him now - he's 18 months and can eat for England.

Definitely go with the flow.

Thank-you all :)