OK, get your judgey pants ready...

[gaelicsheep]

I never ever thought I'd be asking this. If your DC was showing the following signs, what would you do?

• sitting unsupported

• can get hold of items and put in mouth

• has been grabbing at plates of food for weeks

• making chewing motions with their mouth when we eat

• looking at me with sad eyes (OK, that's just me being soft)

She's almost 20 weeks (I truly can't believe I'm posting this). I started weaning DS onto purees at 5.5 months before I returned to work. I'm sure she doesn't need the nutrition per se, but then solids aren't about that for several months anyway.

So, do I stop moving my plate away from her or not? Or if I happen to be eating steamed carrot and broccoli do I just see what she does? She's EBF, although I shouldn't think that makes a difference.

O M G!!! I was just searching for the thread about Wallace's DS and the banana. I found it, and to my surprise I found myself on it in a former guise. To my horror (!) I discovered that I have been lying to everyone for the past few months and I actually started weaning my DS at 20 weeks (that is 4.5 months, not 5.5months). I now remember that I went back to work at 5.5 months. How quickly we forget!!

I am now wearing a very large pair of judgey pants with my cyber self's name on them.

On the plus side, I am now inclined to take my mother's idealistic version of my babyhood with a very large pinch of salt.

OK, fair points grumpyvamps and tiktok

The point I was trying to get to was that we should trust ourselves more to make the right decisions with the information we are given and our instinct and not feel bad about it or worry about what others think.

That's interesting about the information changes in the 70's and 80's, but it was certainly not what many were told in the 90's (and late 80's)

I should probably point out (more to make myself feel better than anything else) that DS was fully formula fed by then. I seem to remember that played a part in my decision - something along the lines of the less he has of the damned stuff the better, or some such thing. How can 4 years feel so long ago?

Baby led weaning is just that - it's not 'calendar' led weaning, or 'what my neighbour tells me' led weaning, or 'this book I have been reading' led weaning.

A baby who can hold on to a banana enough to eat and gum/chew in order to swallow is almost always some time around the age of six months or so, anyway - most babies of 20 weeks are probably not getting much banana in, but will not be 'damaged' by the little amount they manage to get :)

Cool. That's what I figured. I am in no rush to get her onto 3, or even 1 meal a day. But seeing as DD pretty much forced me into continuing with b/f against my better judgement (at the time ), I see no reason not to let her get on with playing with food as well. She seems to know what she wants! Am I finding a new laid back persona, I wonder?

My son grabbed a roast potato off of my plate at about 20 weeks - we never looked back. He's 7 now and not waiting till 26 weeks (might have been earlier in those days) hasn't done him any harm.

I was in exactly the same position with ds and let him eat bits of fruit at four months. now at 6.5 months he eats well and a really wide range of food. He seems perfectly healthy and compared to other mums I know we are finding meals stress free.

I do still get flashes of guilt about letting him eat early though.