Fruit - how do you move on from pureed?

[jess77]

I'm having trouble finding a way to give DD fruit that is not pureed. She is 7 months so needs to be having textured food now. All the info says mashed or grated but this does not seem to be working for us, perhaps my fruit isn't ripe enough? She doesn't like it anyway. I have also tried BLW type fruit feeding but have found she can't hold much - it's all too slippy for her and she gets really annoyed.
Anyone have any success stories they can share? I should also mention she does seem to not want to be spoon fed so am having to increasingly give her things she can do herself and while I like the idea of BLW i struggle with the fact that she isn't really eating anything. This whole weaning thing is really starting to stress me out, but that's another post I guess!

I seem to remember having the same issue a couple of years ago. I used to give sticks of pear leaving the skin on so it was easier to hold and DS would suck the fleshy side. I would also persist with the mashed fruit. I gave DS whole bananas to hold and chomp on quite early - certainly by 7 or 8 months and before long he would eat a whole one. You can get mini bananas from the supermarkets. I never used it but you could try one of those things where you put the food in a mesh and there's a handle to hold and they suck the fruit through the mesh...

Oh, also maybe give watermelon a go. Very cold. DS LOVED this and I think it helped him get going with fruit. Also grapes quartered. And blueberries squished a bit if he has a pincer grip yet.

At around 7 months, DD enjoyed whole strawberries, quarters or halves of peach, nectarine and plum . Banana mashed. This was in September/October so these fruits were all in season therefore very ripe.

You can also get little net holders - I found this useful for fruits like melons which were too slippery.

ds has been eating unmashed banana since 6 months tbh.

My DD enjoyed lots of plum, pear and apple wedges in her early days of weaning (ie around 6-7mo). They are easy to hold, with large bits of it sticking out of the palm. The pears I gave are very soft so can be eaten raw. I put the apples in the microwave for 5-10s to soften them first.

Don't worry about how much they eat. Just keep offering for her to play with. Weaning is about establishing good eating habits later on in life.

Try giving your dd some banana with the bottom bit of the skin still attached, it's much easier to hold that way. Wedges of melon with the skin still on are also easy to hold.