Started weaning, not sure how to progress

[mrsalwaysawake]

We started DS on solids at 4 months (I would have waited, but DH was very keen and DS has been putting everything he touches into his mouth for ages so I thought 'why not?'), so for 3 weeks now he's been having a small amount of baby rice/puree/mixture of the two once a day, around lunchtime. He enjoys it, opens his mouth for more until he's had enough. All good.
My issue is, I don't know how we move on from here. Do we just keep going with one 'meal', introducing new flavours? How do I know when to offer another meal (would the next one be breakfast?) ?
The thing is, he gets sleepy after 1 to 1.5 hours of awake time so has a nap (maybe longer interval later in the afternoon), so after BF, nappy change, preparing and eating food its often almost naptime again, and I don't want to spend the whole day with him just feeding, changing and sleeping!

Does anyone have any advice for me?

Are you sure he wasn't putting everything in his outh because he was teething? I'm not judging you, merely asking.

Weaning is so much easier if you wait to around 6 months as you don't often have to bother with the faff of purees and baby rice and they can then hold pieces and 'chew' and move them around their mouth with much more ease.

If he's not that bothered, I'd consider leaving it off for another month or so until he can hold the food and choose bits he wants to eat - chunks of sweet potato, pieces of brocolli etc - there's a good NHS weaning leaflet.

If you are still keen to carry on as you are, then I'd just stick to either lunch or breakfast. Until a year, they are literally getting used to tastes and solids; even some 8 month old babies are purely breast/bottle fed with no solids; milk is still the most important part of their diet.

I'm not sure the stuff-anything-I-can-get-my-hands-on-in-my-mouth isn't teething, but he does it all the time, on drooly, finger-chewy days and on every other day. I wasn't suggesting it meant hunger, merely that he is quite capable of picking something up and chewing on it - one of the 'I'm ready for solids' markers. If the thing he picked up was food, he'd be eating, but we're sticking with purees/baby rice because he's not yet 6 months.

I'm BF and I weaned my DS at 4mo because he suffered with acid and it was either that or force feed him baby gaviscon - and the only way he would take that was if I added sugar to the mix!!
He's now 7mo and having 3 meals a day and is very happy.
I started with a bit of puree for dinner then once he was happy taking that I introduced breakfast. Having these 2 "meals" a day stopped him being sick all day =)
He also needed a nap after approx 1.5 - 2hrs from waking so our routine was - wake at 7am, bit of booby, nappy change and play. 8am breakfast, 8.30am quickly dress and into the pushchair for our morning dog walk and his nap. That worked quite well for us and now he doesn't go down for his morning nap until 10.30 - 11am so routines do alter so don't worry that it'll always be a feeding/sleeping nightmare!
At lunch time I was giving him something to hold and suck on, e.g toast finger or 1/2 rusk (although they're not recommended as contain a lot of sugar) or cheese triangle (very messy) or wotsits and just recently he's started "chewing" in his toothless way so now have introduced sandwiches and fruit and yogurt for lunch.
As the months have moved on his puree for dinner has now evolved into what we're eating mashed with a fork so he has plenty of practice "chewing" the lumpy bits.
I'm personaly glad to have weaned early as he's now very confident eating and I'm less anxious when he gags up a lumpy bit to re-chew it, it's all part of the learning.

Eewok, it sounds like you are doing well but watch out for cheese triangles and wotsits as they are hugely salty and full of additives... Try chunks of steamed veggies (sweet potato, broccoli, carrot etc)

mrsalways weaning is a total faff where you spend your whole day feeding I didnt have a routine at 6mo and now have one around meal times. DD is teething for the last two days for example and wants more bf (for comfort probably), I can't just let her wait it out.

7am wake up and bf
8am breakfast
10.30 bf (but sometimes dd wants one at 9.30 for a nap)
12 lunch
2.30 bf
4 snack
6 dinner
Then bath and bf and sleep.

Timing ofc move around a bit if DD is asleep. I could never get her to nap on a schedule. At 5mo your LO is probably napping a lot more so fitting in all this will be difficult. But as they get older it's easier.

I have to disagree with eewok about early weaning and confidence in food. I started at 24wk and the last to start in my NCT group. And in my totally rose tinted glasses my DD eats the best out of the lot. She is blw and I dont do jars or rusks. When we go out, I take muffins and fruit for snacks. Main meals are shared off my plate. The others are still getting spoon fed at 8mo and DD is self feeding roast potatoes and falafels. She never gagged on solids from the start, and we started on finger foods.