feeling wobbly about blw

[napluster]

Ds2 is 6 months and so far excl bf. He can sit up unsupported and has excellent head control and I have been putting some of our food on his tray during family mealtimes as wanted to do blw. He is able to pick the food up and put it in his mouth and is very eager to taste things and suck things and he yells for food but he is gagging whenever he tries to swallow anything. It is actually really scary and now I am thinking that I haven't got the nerve to do blw. Should I just wait another week or two or should I start spoon feeding?
Don't know if it is related but he often gags/chokes when bf aswell although not as frequently now as when he was smaller.

Me neither exoticfoods once that little mouth was clamped shut I'd have had to resort to physical violence to put anymore in!

Sorry exoticfruits

But fhdl34 wouldn't he do the same if he self feeded?? If he was soo keen on food maybe he would have just kept piling it in?

If a DC will overfeed they will do the same when they put it in themselves!! Mine were impossible to feed once they decided they had enough.
I believe in giving them a whole range of foods and not having to miss out all the things that require a spoon. It seems madness to all be eating home made soup and say 'sorry baby-we would need to put it in your mouth for you so have something else'! It is a really short period-give them a spoon and they soon get the hang of it.

Funny incident yesterday re: spoons. We visited my baby's grandmother and he had a bit of a munch on some roasted veg and fed himself with a spoon of yoghurt and then Granny tried to spoonfeed him. Immediately he turned his head away and pushed the spoon away with his hand. So funny to see my baby making it very clear what he wants!

They always do- I don't know where people get the idea that babies just sit passively while you spoon whatever you like in, in whatever quantity!

Less likely to over feed themselves by blw as the process is slow so they listen to their stomachs, with spoon feeding lots goes in quickly so they don't get the signals as quickly by the time they clamp shut they may already have had too much.

It makes it sound as if all babies are the same and one method fits them all! Some babies may get the signals too late with a spoon and some babies may over feed themselves. They are people-all different.

Well I feel much better about it all today. Thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

We had a lot of fun with roasted veg yesterday and he seems to be getting the idea wrt chewing and today he attacked some baby sweetcorn and chewed and swallowed a bit (and gagged a couple of times but I didn't feel so panicky!) So I can see that he is learning (and so am I).
I bought the baby led weaning cookbook too and really like it. So the fun (and cleaning) starts here!