Can my 6 month old have.....

[NickyEds]

We've just started weaning DS and have a few quick questions that are too stupid to ask anywhere else! Can my 6 month old have;

1.Cows milk-(not as a drink) on cereal or in things like white/cheese sauce
2.Grown up cereal- weetabix and ready brek
3 Water. Stop laughing! Do you have to boil it?

1. Coconut Milk- no idea why this one's puzzled me but pfb and I've no idea!
2. Thing I know to be salty- I'm thinking feta and halloumi

I'm also really worried about choking. If you were to give carrot sticks do you cook them until they're quite mushy (and be harder to hold) or firmer (and risk them breaking a bit off and choking)?
I don't know why I'm getting so stressed. Came downstairs yesterday to find DS gumming a pancake with nutella (aaarrgghh) on that his dad had given him

To make it really easy - the only thing that your 6month old CAN'T have is honey, and you should be careful with whole nuts/grapes/cherry tomatoes that are a choking risk.

1. Cows milk - absolutely, can use in cooking/on cereal. Not as a main drink until 1 year.
2. Definitely can have grown up cereal. Weetabix/ready brek are ideal - both low/no sugar or salt. Much cheaper (and tastier!) than baby cereal!
3. No, you do not need to boil water. Offer water in a beaker with meals.
4. Coconut milk - sure, why not!
5. Salty things - the amount of salt a baby can have is very small, but the amount they eat is also very small. So a small amount of halloumi if that's they only salt intake they are going to have all day is fine. My daughter is an olive fiend, and they are often salty - so if she has olives I am super cautious about all other salt intake - especially "hidden" salt in bread etc.

We did BLW, and my daughter has never choked, despite having lots of things that you see people stress about. It is worth reading up on the difference between gagging and choking - ie if he gags/coughs and brings something up, then that's your babies natural defense mechanism working just fine. If he is silent/not coughing and not breathing- THAT is choking and needs immediately putting across your lap and back slapping. The closest my DD has come to choking was on a piece of super ripe, soft melon (ie hardly a choking risk!) - but one cough and she launched it across the dining table.

I think if you are not doing BLW - ie your baby has some purees/mash/you are putting things in your babies mouth then you need to be more careful about choking risks, but someone who has done conventional weaning will be along to give you the wisdom on this.

www.babyledweaning.com/features/gagging/the-gagging-thing-v-the-choking-thing/

Definitely agree with everything waitingforwombat has said.

I had no incidences of choking nor any near misses when doing BLW with my DS. The amount of gagging quickly reduced as he became more dexterous with food. I found it a lot of fun, and good for my DS.

Re choking / gagging, I had one DC who gagged a lot for several months, he grew out of it in the end, and one who hardly ever did. Luckily neither choked at all. Kids really vary. I was really worried about the gagging to begin with but I sort of got used to it and it didn't really seem to worry my DC, he was enthusiastic about most foods and just got on with it.

Thanks everyone, great link. We're giving BLW a go- mainly because I'm lazy and pureeing everything in sight looked a bit of a pain!