How to start weaning?

[Funghoul]

Dd is just coming up for 4 months so obviously not beginning weaning too soon, but she'll be 6 months in November. I'd like to be prepared for this as its the run up to Xmas and dont want to have to fork out for a load of new kit all at once. I've got a few bits that were gifts: spoons, bowls, beakers, and a few small tubs for freezing. Is it necessary for me to get a blender? Is it something that people found useful?

I also struggle with the approach to weaning. Should I try her with things like baby rice first or jump straight into giving her things to gnaw on? Does a combination of both work? Dp in particular is very keen for her to have some sort of Xmas dinner with us, even if it is all mushed up!

Sorry this is long but we are first time parents and would like some advice, thank you!

There is some very helpful info on the mumsnet weaning page which is a good starting point. Also sometimes Health Visitors run sessions on weaning which might be helpful too.

You can go down the purees and baby rice route, but have you also considered baby led weaning? That's where you simply offer your baby family foods from the beginning - no pureeing or mushing. Your baby learns how to pick up and manipulate ordinary food, and learns how to chew and swallow as time goes on. You do have to make sure that your family food is low in salt (and no honey as it's a botulism risk), and that there are no obvious choking hazards such as whole nuts. Have a look at this book by Gill Rapley which explains more about the ideas behind BLW. There is also this website about BLW.

As you can probably guess by now, I did BLW with my ds and would recommend it - we've had great fun learning about food and eating.

Thanks that's a big help. Others with babies in the family have always started on puréed food and not done blw so I would like to be armed with information when the criticism comes! I much prefer the idea of blw though and definitely want to give it a shot. Our children's centre does a weaning class but we're having to work round dp's shifts so we're trying to think about it early in case he can't make a class closer to the time if that makes sense. Thank you.