BLW at 21 weeks?

[bouncychair]

Is it too early to start BLW at 21 weeks? DS is sitting up and is showing an intrest in food but I'm worried that it is too early to start.

Well since BLW at the beginning consists, in our experience, of food going everywhere but the mouth for the first month, and then in the mouth and back out again for the second month, I don't see a problem at all.

21 weeks is early but there's nothing stopping you giving access to your plate and seeing what he does with it. It's unlikely anything will be swallowed or possibly even tasted.

I think the clue is in the title! Let him take the lead, if he is ready then he will go for it, if it is in fact too early for him then he won't.

Give it a try and see what happens

I started both mine off at around 21 weeks. Although I've given purees too, they have both had lots of finger foods right from the start. Babies don't really need food at this stage, but it won't do them any harm to practice!

My son started grabbing food off me at around 18 weeks, I held off letting him keep anything until 21 weeks. I was surprised at how able he was to pick up food and get it into his mouth straight away. Within a week he was definitely swallowing some. I actually started adding some fork mashed food on spoons as he would get frustrated with some foods like banana which got more slippery the more he handled them. He likes control of the spoon too and can get it into his mouth every time, albeit via both cheeks and his chin! In contrast, my friend has offered her DD of same age bits of food but she's shown no interest in eating it yet and definitely doesn't put it in her mouth. So you can try offering bits to your LO and see how they fare.