Understanding whether a baby is ready for weaning

[Londonmrss]

Hello,

My dd is going to be 6 months old in 3 weeks. She is ebf (hardest thing I've ever done, but that's another story). I have read the nhs guidelines and still can't work out if she's almost ready or not. She is sitting up well and can sit totally unaided for a few minutes. She had good hand eye coordination and can pick things up and shove them in her mouth. I'm not sure about that reflex or pushing things out with her tongue- I don't really know what that is or how to tell if she still has it or not.

Most of all I just feel like surely I would know if she's ready? She does shove things in her mouth and grab things out of my hands- but anything- it doesn't seem to be a food interest particularly. Any ideas? Shall I just assume she'll be ready at 6 months and give it a go? I'm mostly going for blw.

Thanks for reading.

Banana challenge! If she can grab a (peeled) banana, get it to her mouth and eat some of it then she's ready.

I'm not making it up, btw, it's recommended by the start4life campaign

www.nhs.uk/start4life/Documents/PDFs/Start4Life_QA_acc.pdf

On page 7.

Thank you! I guess it doesn't have to be banana, right?

No, I guess banana is just a good size for grabbing!

A HCP said to me, when they can grab food off your plate and eat it, they're ready

DD sniped a piece of melon off my plate at a chinese buffet place (she missed the chocolate fountain plate of marshmellows!), she was just 6 months and 1 week old. We started the next day

fad our dd did a similar thing at 23 weeks.

Have you tried the banana yet OP or are you waiting a bit?

I haven't tried yet. I do want to but I'm not sure really. I suppose I can't really see a reason to start until she's 6 months in 3 weeks (except I'm excited!). She's still thriving on breastmilk so I think if I started now, it would maybe be for selfish reasons.

I'd wait if it was me, think you are doing the right thing