weaning a 6 month old.

[tjacksonpfc]

my ds has been trying solids now for about 2 weeks and he is enjoying them the thing is when do we start giving him the solids more lumpy as at the mo he will only eat them if they are the consistancy of milk any lumps and he just gags on them. also at what age did you dd/ds start to hold a bottle for themselves?

Can't answer the bottle question but we weaned DS straight onto finger foods. He gagged for a couple of weeks (but kept at it) but soon got really good at it. We just kept an eye on him to make sure he was still breathing and left him to sort out the lump himself, which he always did. Worked a treat.

I think we did about a month of very pureed foods then moved on the very well mashed then just mashed with a fork. Ds is 8m and started solids at 5m, he's a great chewer but I still blitz beef for a couple of seconds (before anything else goes in the recipe) as it can be quite hard to digest.

dd2 is holding a bottle now (week off 7mths) and has done for well over 6 wks - I don't like this, much prefer to give her a cuddle and give bottle - dh has taught her this one really but I think more so because she is more interested in picking up toys and chewing them that the muscles are there to hold a bottle.

on the otherhand

dd1 never held her own bottle - my earliest memory of her doing this is around 2yrs and probably taught herself as was with DH for 2weeks whilst I was off in the caribbean. I came home to find her in bed, sucking on her bottle. - She was weaned off them shortly afterwards.