Could my 6 month old not be ready for solids yet?

[neverquitesure]

We have just started offering DD food but she does not appear to have lost her tongue thrust reflex and, although she sits quite happily in her unpadded wooden highchair she cannot yet sit unsupported on the floor for more than half a minute or so.

We weaned DS at the same age, straight onto 'adult' food (a bit like BLW but with the odd spoonful of yoghurt, dahl etc) with no problems - we put food in front of him, he picked it up, gummed it and swallowed it. DD is picking the food up and gumming it but not swallowing. MIL force fed spoon fed her some mashed potato off a spoon at the weekend and this was pushed out too.

Is this a normal stage of weaning? I think we had it very easy with DS (there was no 'weaning' per say, he just started eating) so have nothing to compare it against.

I'm guessing we should just keep offering her food and eventually when she's ready she'll take it?

If you're not sure she's ready, there's no issue with leaving it a week or 2 and trying again.

The 6 months thing is a guide. Some will be ready a few weeks earlier, some a few weeks later. And they change so quickly, that it won't be long before she's going for it great guns.

If she's merrily picking stuff up, I'd probably carry on offering food.

I think you were probably quite lucky (? that seems the wrong word, but I hope you know what I mean) with your Son. A lot of BLW'd babies don't swallow for a good couple of months. It took my DD at least 6 weeks before she'd swallow things on purpose.

Try and relax. She'll be hoovering up god knows what before you know it

I guess it's really quite normal then.

I agree DS was probably a bit of an exception. We were cooking pancakes when we realised he'd hit the magic 6 month mark. He gobbled his way through a whole pancake by himself, and that was it really. He was then an Eating Baby. Mind you he was behind on just about every other milestone so perhaps that was his area to shine

I think we'll continue offering it since she seems interested and it's nice to include her in our mealtimes. I suppose she's still benefiting from the tastes & textures etc.

My DD still doesn't really seem reaady... She's a very reluctant eater. She certainly wasn't at all ready at 6m, was still pushing food back out with her tongue. I'm trying not to worry about it!

Yes it's possible that some babies aren't really ready at 6 months. If you feel she's not ready then it won't matter in the slightest if you just leave it for a few more weeks. My son was definitely not ready at 6 months.

Thanks for the advice!

I continued putting food in front of her and she continued to give it a good gum then spit it out. Anyway, on Sunday the penny suddenly dropped and she slowly but steadily devoured almost 1/4 toasted tea cake. Since then she's happily eaten toast, bread sticks, a bit of ham sandwich, chicken, potato wedges and a few other things. She has reluctantly accepted a little dahl off a spoon - but only if I let her hold it and has shunned pretty much all of the fruit and veg we've thrown at her.

Plan is to just continue letting her take the lead and not worry too much about what she's actually eating for quite a while yet.