have been giving 16 week old the odd 'taste' of food, have i ruined things?!

[aimingtobeaperfectionist]

I will admit to having been slightly influenced by friends and have been giving my 16 week old a 'taste' of foods. I'm talking the odd lick of things here and there but I'm now quite concerned this is still too much for her and I'm getting paranoid!! Have I done the wrong thing altogether or will it be ok if I just stop it now and wait for the 6 months?

It'll be fine! I'm not sure whether you should stop or carry on though. Someone else can answer that better than I.

Thanks. I know I'm probably worrying over nothing but that's all I seem to do these days! She seems fine but she's not actually that bothered by food yet, it's me giving it to her so I think i'll just hang on a bit longer. was just worried as I know you shouldn't give young babies certain foods and wondered if small licks constituted 'feeding' babies?!

My DD is only 8yo and we were told to start weaning at 16 weeks in those bad old days. Both DD and DS now 10 seem to have grown up OK She'll be fine. BTW my mum told me that they were advised to start weaning at 6 weeks when I was a baby and was on proper food at 6months but that was over 40 years ago

Well it's a wonder you're still here to tell the tale Seeline!! Thing is i'm quite aware i'm being ridiculous most of the time (OH nods vehemently) but sometimes I read things and worry myself stupidly over them. She's quite a sicky baby but by the look of her - rolling around and smiling at her own trumps - she's not in the slightest bit ill! Nice to get reassurance though.

Don't worry. I'd been giving my LO the odd lick of things before I started him on purees a couple of weeks ago. I let him smell/lick all sorts of things.

DD is 18 weeks old today and started baby porridge (made with BM) last Monday. Before that, she's had the following tastes of food off my little finger since she was 6 weeks old:

Juice from homemade Blackberry & Apple Crumble
Pineapple Juice (not so keen)
M&S Lemon & Lime Curd Yogurt (she really liked that - in my defence, I didn't know about not giving dairy to under 6m/o's, but she's been ok)
Gravy (1 dip only as then I remembered about salt)
Juice from stewed summer berries
A crumb of chocolate cake (that was DP!)
Mango Sorbet (was a hot day and she'd had a feed 30 mins earlier)

The response we had to the mango sorbet meant that mango puree has been the first fruit we've added to her porridge!

Licking things is a good way to get more bacteria into your DD (this is a good thing, you need to get the bacteria!) so it's a good thing and it's part of the process of the gut becoming ready for food.